A POPULAR Melbourne Chinese restaurant and tea house chain has repaid one of its cooks almost $30,000 after it paid her just $10 an hour to make dumplings.

Have you been underpaid working in a Melbourne restaurant? Email clucas@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Workers arriving for their shift at a kitchen in Coburg that supplies the Oriental Tea House. Credit:Ken Irwin

It is one of many Chinese and Japanese restaurants across Melbourne found to be paying its waiters and kitchen hands poorly, with a Fair Work Ombudsman investigator confirming rates as low as $8 to $10 an hour.

The Oriental Tea House is a restaurant and tea house group specialising in dumplings. It has one flagship restaurant in Little Collins Street and three smaller cafes in Melbourne Central, Chadstone and South Yarra. Run by Shanghai-born entrepreneur David Zhou, the restaurant group makes much of its food at a factory in Coburg.