Little Red Dumpling boasts a bevy of locations across Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, but it was only in 2021 that the brand opened an eatery in Brisbane City. Little Red Dumpling sits on Charlotte Street, in a secretive subterranean location in the basement level of the St Luke’s Church of England building underneath Pancake Manor. The building’s existing 120-year-old heritage elements have been worked into the venue’s design, which boasts a throwback 70s and 80s aesthetic and red-and-green colour scheme spread across the venue’s central dining floor, cushy booths and elevated 24-person private-dining space. Little Red Dumpling’s established menu remains a core pillar of its offering. Dumplings are, of course, central to the range, with chicken-and-cabbage, pork-and-chive, xiao long bao, pan-fried and vege dumplings in hot-and-sour soup remaining as mainstays alongside non-dumpling dishes like braised-beef noodle soup, braised lamb on rice and wontons in red-chilli sauce. Newer items such as the delightfully spicy dumplings in Szechuan sauce, prawn xiao long bao, fried-chicken baos and crispy sesame prawn toast offer plenty for long-time fans to come back and enjoy, but it’s over at the bar where Little Red Dumpling Charlotte Street separates itself from its siblings. In addition to existing sips such as beer (TsingTao, Asahi and Balter XPA feature, among others), wines, spirits, Chinese baijiu, milk teas and iced beverages, the bar will soon offer its own range of Asian-style signature cocktails as well as a potential after-hours snack menu for those lingering late into the night.