You want a faceful of steaming xiaolongbao followed closely by a gobful of premium suds. Who doesn’t? Now, thanks to owner Tianxiang Zhao, you can have both – at the same time. The shopfront setting is a bit swank, with gold-rimmed, faux-marble tables ringed by comfy armchairs.

A long wall of fridges is stacked with local and imported craft beer, the condiment station has a basket of free, help-yourself prawn crackers, and there’s sport on the TV; praise be. A glassed kitchen makes it easy to see that everything is made from scratch, and it’s all winners among the 15 types of steamed, fried and boiled dumplings.

The xiaolongbao in particular are an exquisite example of the genre: the liquid element rich but clean, the meat filling pert and perfectly seasoned. Hoppy Dumpling was designed to solve a particular problem: Zhao loved pubs for craft beer, he visited restaurants for dumplings, but it was hard to combine his two passions under one roof. Not anymore.

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