From the same people that brought you Moodle and Asian Puzzle Canteen, now bring you James Buns. I’ve seen businesses perform a re-branding, but rarely have I seen it done twice within a short space of time. I admire their persistence and think it’s a clever way to get me to visit their establishment on multiple occasions.
As on previous occasions, they’ve changed the signage, the furnishings and the menu. The staff look vaguely familiar but I wasn’t paying too close attention on my previous visits. This iteration of the menu offers a selection of steamed and fried buns, dumplings and wontons, rice and noodle dishes, cold dishes and desserts.
There are aspects of the place that still remain the same such as the counter area and the bench along one of the main walls. I recall some of the ornaments that they had when this place was Moodle and a quick check of the business registration on the wall confirms that the place is still run by the original owners.
For lunch, I ordered the Pan Fried Minced Beef and Onion Dumplings. The dish came out 15 minutes after ordering and was average in presentation. My initial reaction was they didn’t look pan fried because when I pan fry dumplings at home, they’re light browned on all sides.
When I started eating, I did confirm they were pan fried, but only on one side. Some dumplings had a base that was golden brown, while others were a charred black. The top parts of the dumplings were well cooked as the dumpling skin was firm and slightly chewy.
The filling was a combination of minced beef and onions. The meat was well marinated and the filling was nice and juicy. The quality of the mince used could have been better as I found bits of gristle. I also realised after eating the dumplings that my table was missing the vinegar bottle.
The staff were friendly and the service was good. The atmosphere was relaxed, even with a full house. The cost of the dumplings, which came in a serving of 12, was $9.50. For around the same price, a nearby competitor will give you 15 dumplings. Pricewise, their menu is fairly reasonable with the average cost of dish being around the $10 mark. There is one dish that is $28, but that serves 2-3 people.
Verdict: They’re slowly getting better. Maybe they’ll hit the jackpot with their next re-branding!
WHERE: 158 Gouger St, Adelaide
ADELAIDE FOOD CENTRAL 
Last night Sat 18/10/14 my freinds and i visited James Buns armed with a Scoopon deal. We are all great lovers of Dumplings and had never ventured to the end of Gouger Street we thought it was a chance to try.
The night was a real disaster and it would seem that there may be many reasons for rebranding and trying again. Perhaps the Scoopon deal was an attempt to rekindle interest?
Our table of 4 presented at the counter with a voucher for dumplings and a strong desire to have a few beers and make a night of it!.
Firstly let me explain that we arrived at 510PM so the restaurant was very quiet (just one other table occupied). The voucher clearly indicated that bookings were not required. We had tried several times to contact the restaurant but each time the telephone rang out. Upon arrival we were informed that without a booking we not allowed to be served. “Explicit instructions from the manager”
We explained that the voucher contradicted this position and asked if the restaurant was fully booked, we were told that it was. Given that we had limited opportunities to use this voucher in the future and that the restaurant clearly was very quiet we persisted. It soon became clear that the Scoopon deal had sold better than expected and the manager had changed his mind on how many discounted meals he wanted to give away.
We were told that there was no manager and that all were equally responsible for retaurant service. They did not have the managers phone number?
It was now 5.30 and we asked when the tables booked for 5PM would show? and how long they held the tables for? We were told that bookings 15mins late would miss out on their tables.
At 6PM were shown to a table that had not shown up. At this time the restaurant was still almost empty. We were explained which meals on the menu we could try and ordered drinks and our selection.
As illustrated in the above article James Buns is a small venue and at 6PM more than 5 tables were still empty. 6PM A young couple who had a Scoopon voucher entered, apologised for being late and were told that they could not be served as they were more than 15 mins late. They were clearly on a date and it was disheartening to see paying customers turned away.
Drink service was quick, although the wait staff’s grasp of english made explaining that we were going to pay for items on top of our voucher difficult.
A family entered and also had a Scoopon voucher without a booking. They too explained that a booking was not needed and that the restaurant was very quiet. Alas they too were turned away.
A single mother and 2 kids despite the tears it caused were also turned away.
Our meals arrived and our food was as described in the review. The fried dumplings were mearly heated from the bottom. the steamed pork dumplings were mediocre. The highlght was the spicy dumplings with wild mushroom and these were excellent.
After two glasses of the house Chardonnay the restaurant ran out of approved white wine? We were still owed two from the voucher payment. The men at the table had consumed many beers at full price by this time..We were told that the manager had only allowed so many bottles for this evening and that all was left was a Moscato? I asked them to open another bottle of soemthing else but not moscato
Then shock! despite telling us that they could not contact the manager they preceded to call and ask if it was OK to open a bottle. They had lied to us previously. Given the persistence we had shown earlier we were allowed another glass of wine (this was paid in advance of course)
During our meal 3 tables of cutomers were seated, 2 of which had Scoopon vouchers and all seemed to be familar and regular clientle where langauge was not a barrier. At the time of our departure. The restaurant that was fully booked never seemed to fill up.
The staff are freindly and doing there best. They were happy to express their frustration that the manager did not support them. They had had to turn away many voucher customers on previous nights and it seems that management would not face the customers themselves…
Perhaps the voucher deal was too good, or over subscriber, or even the terms had not been represented by the web site?
Many customer who could have purchaed addtional foods and perhaps returned for future visits will instead rember their mistake.
Perhaps Scoopon made a mistake, but failing to capitalise on the opporunity to winn new customers left a bad taste in our mouths and many other we spoke to that night…
James Bun was a huge disappointment!
I went in on a Saturday evening and despite making a booking for it a few days back, the staff insisted that i did not make a booking and turned us away. however, we were quite determined to have some asian food that night and decided to wait in the queue for a table.
While in the queue, the staffs, who seemed to be bad tempered at us for not making a booking before this did not seem happy to serve us. they seem to be biased against other races and sat people who came after us first before sitting us. By this time, we were quite annoyed.
In addition, when they took our orders, they were rude and even rolled their eyes. what atrocities!!!!
food took forever to come and were disappointing.
In conclusion, this place is a no-no for me after all this unhappiness.
unless you want to dine in an unpleasant place, save your money and your tummy!