Eat
GoldenHorse Seafood and BBQ.
Roast duck in the window. Trolleys inside. Not Chinatown.
Location
What people get wrong
Shops 184-188 at 81 Hopkins, Leeds corner, roast window, not a Chinatown basement. Mc Dumpling at 106 is potstickers. Cash still common for smaller bills. Call (03) 9689 6389. We last walked this on 2026-09-20. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Golden Horse Seafood and BBQ known for?
Golden Horse is known for daily yum cha in a no-frills Cantonese dining room at the market edge: trolleys you point at, roast hanging in the window, and a night kitchen that still cooks ginger-shallot fish after the carts pack up.
You walk Hopkins from Footscray station and you look for duck. The corner is Leeds. The numbering is shops 184-188 inside 81 Hopkins, market complex, street glass. The ducks hang. The pork hangs. The skin is doing the advertising. You push the door. The floor is not carpet. Conversations bounce. Staff call tickets in Vietnamese, in Cantonese, sometimes both in the same breath. You take a table. Tea lands. A trolley is already moving. You point. Someone stamps a card. Steamers keep crossing between other tables. You sit inside that noise. Lee called it a cultural icon for the west. The job is the sitting: silk rolls, a pot, a room that never asked to photograph well.
The Footscray Market trader page still names Tu Hong and her family. Forty-three years in the trade. Yum cha, pork, lobster, quail. Hong Kong BBQ across the road had already shrunk to a roast counter. This is the trolley house that stayed a restaurant. West Melbourne and Beyond sat here and preferred the serving size to a CBD banquet: larger plates, the same dumplings, quality measured in food not wallpaper. Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and English all get used. You hear it from the chair. Mc Dumpling at 106 Hopkins is potstickers in a bag. Nhu Lan at 116 is banh mi. The Irving hall locks Sunday and Monday. You can still sit here when the hall is shut.
Night is a second sitting in the same chairs. The trolleys have packed up. The window still holds duck. Lee comes back for steamed ginger-shallot fish with rice, or ginger scallion crab if the table was celebrating. West Melbourne and Beyond come back for roast pork, BBQ pork, soy chicken, roast duck with rice or noodles. You are not killing time in a brunch-only dim sum hall. The kitchen stays Cantonese after the carts die. Phone (03) 9689 6389 if the group is larger than a two-top.
What should you order at Golden Horse Seafood and BBQ?
You should order from the trolley first if you came for yum cha: har gow, siu mai, cheung fun, a BBQ pork bun, then one plate you cannot name so the table actually learns something.
You sit. The cart is already doing laps. Har gow is the shrimp dumpling. Siu mai is pork and shrimp in the open cup. Cheung fun is the silk rice roll, shrimp inside, sauce on top. Lee told you to point and nod. There is no crime in taking multiple plates. Prices follow size, not a tasting-menu speech. If pointing felt like a test, they have a printed menu. Phoenix claws if you wanted chicken feet. Century-egg congee if you wanted a bowl that was breakfast and not a croissant. West Melbourne and Beyond still runs the longer list: scallop and prawn, chicken glutinous rice, beancurd skin roll, chicken feet with black bean, ginger-shallot tripe. Spoonfuls of Wanderlust, visiting on a Sunday in April 2014 and publishing 15 May 2014, added turnip cake, sticky rice in lotus leaf, egg tarts. Do not recite their $51.20 for eight dishes as if it were a live till. Ask what the steamer is doing today.
Then decide whether this sitting was dumplings or a roast. Duck, crispy pork, BBQ pork, soy chicken, rice or noodles. The window is the menu. Mappaus still quotes lunch roast plates around $15 on an old directory card. Confirm on the day. Night is a different plate in the same room. You stay. The trolleys have packed up. You sit for steamed ginger-shallot fish and rice, or ginger scallion crab if the table was celebrating. The market page still pushes lobster and quail. Live tanks get mentioned on directory cards as expensive. Ask. Do not perform a banquet you did not book.
They serve alcohol. They are BYO too, per The Westsider. Confirm which rule is live before you bag a bottle. Phone (03) 9689 6389 if you wanted a booked table rather than a rumour at the door.
Hours, payment and queues at Golden Horse Seafood and BBQ
Quoted hours we keep: daily yum cha from about 10:30am or 11am. Confirm close. Cash is common for smaller bills. Call (03) 9689 6389. Last checked 2026-09-20.
Weekend yum cha queues are the point. Weekday lunch is calmer trolley access. Directory cards mention reservations. Walk-in is the default. Cards exist. Do not assume a $12 steamer went through EFTPOS. There is no reliable house site in this directory. goldenhorsefootscray.com.au 502s.
If you are pairing Golden Horse with a market stall, the hall is closed Sunday and Monday. The restaurant is not the hall. Check both. Public holidays shuffle Chinese rooms whether Google says so or not.
How do you get to Golden Horse Seafood and BBQ in Footscray?
You get to Golden Horse by walking Hopkins from Footscray station to Leeds and finding the roast window, shops 184-188 in the 81 Hopkins complex, market edge.
The 223 and 406 stop at Leeds and Hopkins, a few metres from the door, which is why Mappaus still prints that tram stop. Irving deck if you drove for the market. Street bays on Hopkins are short. Do not test a 2P bay through a long yum cha. After dark stay on Hopkins. Nicholson Mall is not the night shortcut.
Mc Dumpling at 106 is the dumpling counter on the same walk. Nhu Lan at 116 is the roll. Heavenly Queen Temple is 20 Joseph Road on the river, a different job entirely. Do not stack the temple, the market and the trolley as one heroic loop unless you like being late to all three.
What do people mix up about Golden Horse Seafood and BBQ?
They hunt a Chinatown basement, or they treat Mc Dumpling as dim sum, and they miss a Leeds-corner trolley room with roast in the glass.
- Shop 184-188, 81 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011. Leeds corner, market complex. Phone (03) 9689 6389.
- Trolleys here. Potstickers at Mc Dumpling, 106 Hopkins. Not the same room.
- Not Box Hill, not Little Bourke, not a paifang street. The roast window is the landmark.
- Daily yum cha. Confirm the glass. The Irving hall locking Sunday and Monday does not close this kitchen.
- Nhu Lan at 116 is banh mi. Heavenly Queen Temple is 20 Joseph Road. Neither is this sitting.
Questions people ask next
- Where is Golden Horse Seafood and BBQ?
- Shop 184-188, 81 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011, on the Leeds corner of the market complex. Footscray station is the nearest train. Look for roast duck in the window.
- What are Golden Horse hours?
- Daily yum cha from about 10:30am or 11am. Directories still fight that open minute and the close. West Melbourne and Beyond records a 2023 close and reopen. Call (03) 9689 6389 and glance at the roast window. Last checked 2026-09-20.
- How do I get to Golden Horse from the station?
- Walk Hopkins to Leeds. The roast window is the landmark. The 223 and 406 stop at Leeds and Hopkins. Irving deck if you drove. Stay on Hopkins after dark.
- Does Golden Horse serve dinner, or only yum cha?
- Both. Yum cha is the daytime trolley crawl. At night Gary Lee still comes for ginger scallion crab and steamed ginger-shallot fish with rice. They serve alcohol and they are BYO too. Confirm which rule is live.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Mc Dumpling
Pork-and-chive potstickers, still hissing. Not yum cha.
106 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Nhu Lan Bakery
The banh mi this suburb names first. The queue is the oven timer.
116 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Footscray Market
Irving produce hall. Closed Sunday Monday. Park Irving.
18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011