King Chef Chinese Restaurant 14/10/07 - 38%

74 Railway Parade Kogarah

Lunch Sunday 14 October 2007

Where to start? Well, it is a small place near the train station at Kogarah - that should give you an idea of the place. And it wasn't overly busy at 1.20pm on a Sunday. The food was very disappointing - the prawn dumplings were ok, the scallops so-so, enjoyable - but so far below the competition.

Clockwise from top left, these are Shanghai style pork dumplings - and they were terrible. No soup, the pork was bland and terrible texture.

Honestly, I have microwaved frozen dumplings from Woolworths that tasted better and fresher than these.

The sui mai were also really boring. The prawn dumplings were ok, but had obviously been on the steamer trolley for a long time as the rice wrapper was falling apart.Scallop and vegetarian. The scallop was average - Kate thought it was the best of what we had today. The vege for me was well below standard (compared to Regal for eg), but our vegetarian diner gave her approval.
Chicken feet... crap. The sauce was ok but the feet were poor quality. That may sound crazy if you find the idea of eating chicken feet disgusting anyway, but there is of course varying standards. These were poor in my opinion.
The saam sik goh was fine - but a bit oily.
Guest reviewers Kir and Joe.

It came to $51.10 for 4 people (less that $13pp). But that's because we only took 9 dishes.

And now, the verdict (will the cuisine reign supreme?):

Kir
Food: 11 out of 20
Service & Setting: 1.5 out of 5
Value: 2.5 out of 5.
TOTAL: 15 from 30
"I was liked the vegetarian dumplings and the stir fried rice rolls - but it wasn't very good value."

Joe
Food: 9 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3.5 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5
TOTAL: 15.5 from 30
"It was ok, but I like it when the trolleys are coming around with loads of choices - not just people carrying one or two dishes on a tray.."

Kate
Food: 8.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 2.5 out of 5
Value: 2.25 out of 5
TOTAL: 13.25 from 30
"Ng... nothing special laaaa."

Matt
Food: 7.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 2 out of 5 (service ok, crap ambiance)
Value: 2 out of 5. (it was cheap per person, but only because we didn't eat/want much).
TOTAL: 11.5 from 30
"Maybe we came too late - there wasn't much choice, it wasn't fresh and there was nothing even close to average in any respect."

Palace Chinese Restaurant - 12/10/07 - 77%

Piccadilly Tower, Level 1, 133-145 Castlereagh St

Lunch Friday 12 October 2007.

Palace was rated as Sydney's top Yum Cha in the 2008 SMH good food guide, knocking Marigold out of their long held position. I had been once a while ago, but actually worried the SMH rating may be a bad sign as I never much cared for Marigold.

Palace is very western friendly, the staff are friendly and helpful (still pushy but not overly) and they even put the dish prices on the stamp card so you can keep track.

I think the food is also quite western friendly - a modern and dynamic style as opposed to traditional. They had all the staples, variations on modern dishes (salt and pepper lobster!) and the presentation and extra touches were all very nice. See below.

Combination seafood - nice and plump.

On the left is snow pea sprout and prawn dumplings (also see pic below) and on the right are scallop dumplings. Both were outstanding.The vegie was so fresh and brightly coloured.

We had BBQ pork as well as beef rice rolls. The vegies for presentation was a nice touch - and they were actually fresh and yummy too. One roll I tried was a little gluggy - more rice than filling, but this was the except overall for the day.

Prawn dumplings. These were, for my taste, as good as I have had in Australia. Fantastically fresh and plump.
Left is sesame prawn rolls - or was it? There was speculation from the crew that the texture was more like crab or lobster than just prawn. On the right is another seafood stick thing - I cannot comment on this one.
We also had stir fried rice rolls, a mixture of dumplings and chicken feet. They were all good - but not too sure what style the feet were - not much flavour. It may not have been black bean...
In the middle is duck and mushroom dumplings. I was really impressed with these.
The girls had two deserts. The mango pancakes came with a mango puree sauce (nice touch) and the egg tarts were very fresh and warm.

Reviewers Angela and Helen

Elizabeth was saying how distinct all the flavours were, whereas the seafood dumplings often taste similar (rice and seafood) - the ones today at Palace were bold and distinct. I couldn't agree more. I was so impressed with how fresh it all was. The variety was good - some outstanding unusual items, but a few things (like Shanghai dumplings and saam sik goh) were not available.

Tania (managed to avoid the photos...)
Food: 14 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5.
TOTAL: 20 from 30
"Delicious steamed duck and mushroom dumplings. I liked the mango sauce over the mango pancakes although the pancake itself was a teeny bit too chewy. The tea was a little too strong and needed watering down. Nicely attentive staff."

Angela
Food: 15 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3 out of 5
Value: 2 out of 5.
TOTAL: 20 from 30
"Comparatively expensive, but I enjoyed it. A good mix of food and the deserts were great."

Elizabeth
Food: 13 out of 20
Service & Setting: 2.5 out of 5
Value: 2 out of 5.
TOTAL: 20 from 30
"The dumplings had great and distinct flavours, but the chicken feet were tasteless."

Helen
Food: 16 out of 20
Service & Setting: 4 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5.
TOTAL: 23 from 30
"What I had was nice and tasty, and the great company counts for something."

Matt
Food: 15.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 4 out of 5 (The ambiance was good and the service was attentive without being pushy. The room is quite nice too.)
Value: 3.5 out of 5. (It wasn't cheap at $21 a head, but there was a lot of desert - about 5 plates in total. And I think the quality justified the price.)
TOTAL: 23 from 30
"Shocking. I'd have to agree with SMH for once. For premium, modern-styled Yum Cha, Palace is really outstanding. I will be back again soon."

I award Palace a one Har Gow award.
I also give it two special awards:

GOLDEN GOW AWARD - for outstanding fresh dumplings
PLATINUM AQUARIUM - fantastically fresh and flavoursome seafood

Sea Treasure - 07/10/07 - 70%

Sea Treasure Restaurant

46 Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest

Lunch Sunday 7 October

What a pleasant mix of contradictions. This restaurant is in Crows Nest, a suburb that isn't heavily populated by Chinese people. In fact the customers on Sunday were mostly western, some Japanese and some Chinese. The service staff were also a mix of Australian born Chinese, Cantonese and Mandarin.

This place has won a lot of awards, including one hat from SMH several times. Not surprisingly the food was a bit more expensive - they didn't even have the 'small' category on the billing card. Like popcorn at the cinema, it went from medium, large, XL, and crazy big. :-)

The food out on tables reflected this - more sweet and sour pork and prawn chips than you would see at most Yum Cha places. Amazingly, the yum cha staples were actually very traditional Chinese style.


The saam sick goh - three coloured squares were apparently very traditional - different to what I have tried before. The chestnut one was particularly good.


An unusual mix of sauces out on offer - chili soy sauce, chili and sweet sticky soy (like ketchap manis).


The pork dumplings (below left) were also very traditional style. No fancy prawn or mushroom additions, and the meat is a darker colour than other places. The flavour was good, reminded me of a more home-style.

The chicken feet were quite good. Not the best in my opinion, but one of the best I have had.
Guest reviewers are Kevin and my mum Jane.

It came to $90.50 for 5 people including vegies - quite full at the end.

And now, the verdict (will the cuisine reign supreme?):

Kevin
Food: 14 out of 20
Service & Setting: 4 out of 5
Value: 4.5 out of 5.
TOTAL: 22.5 from 30
"The service was friendly, I am stuffed and the price was great!"

Jane
Food: 15 out of 20
Service & Setting: 4 out of 5
Value: 4 out of 5.
TOTAL: 23 from 30
"My first time to try chicken feet and I was pleasantly surprised."

Kate
Food: 14.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3.5 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5.
TOTAL: 21 from 30
"Sui mai is yummy and traditional - I want to come back for dinner."

Matt
Food: 14.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3.5 out of 5 (good service, just ok setting - not as much energy as some)
Value: 3 out of 5. (lost some here - $10.80 for vegies, and lots of dumplings were only 3 to a serving).
TOTAL: 21 from 30
"I was amazed to find such great traditional food. Two thumbs up."

Marigold Restaurant 04/10/2007- 48%

Marigold Restaurant

Levels 4 & 5, 683-689 George Street, Sydney.

Lunch Thursday 4 October

Marigold was the SMH good food guide winner of Best Yum Cha for several years - but lost the title in the latest book to Palace. And I just realised today that Marigold and Regal are owned by the same company. Interesting.

This was my fourth time to Marigold - and I have kept going back as some friends (who have excellent taste) swear by it. But it never impressed me much. Sadly, today was the same.

A couple of the dishes were very very nice - the prawn dumplings were fresh and yummy (despite not coming around for the first half an hour), and the prawn and spinach was good. The scallops were nice, but over-steamed and falling apart.

The prawn rice rolls were disappointing

- light on the prawns and quite gluggy. The tea was very strong comparatively - too strong for my taste.

The stir-fried rice rolls were good. Nice and light, not overly oily. The saam sik go (three stir fried square cakes) were hit and miss. The chestnut and the lighter one (on left) were very nice - the heavier one was not good at all.

Chicken feet - so so.

Not outstanding in any regard.

And they also took a good 30 minutes to come around. It was a total bbq pork bun fiesta today, they came by 5 times before anything interesting made it to the table.

Today I was assisted in reviewing by Maja - a big foodie and keen Yum Cha enthusiast.

Maja recalled the glory days when Marigold was the business - but I think they are foreclosing based on today's performance. It came to $39.20 for two people - and I was still hungry.

And now, the verdict (will the cuisine reign supreme?):

Maja
Food: 11 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3.5 out of 5
Value: 2 out of 5.
TOTAL: 16.5 from 30
"If this was my first time to come here I wouldn't come back based on today's performance. But I will try it again, hopefully it will return to its former glory!"

Matt
Food: 9.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3 out of 5
Value: 2 out of 5.
TOTAL: 14.5 from 30
"Still fails to impress - strange that the sister store Regal is so much tastier..."

Is it obvious that I just worked out how to use break out quotes?

East Ocean 30/09/07 - 68%

East Ocean Restaurant

421-429 Sussex St & 86-88 Dixon St, Haymarket.

Lunch Sunday 30 September

Before getting into this review I have to admit my prejudice - East Ocean has long been my favourite place in Sydney. We were actually planning to go to Golden Century today (my first time), but it turns out they don't offer Yum Cha... oh well, a few doors down is East Ocean.

I actually have 20 photos from today - I will spare you from seeing them all though.

My main challenge today was being objective in my ratings - and trying to judge it on today's performance rather than wanting to give it a good rating based on former visits.

First up we took fried yam and pork dumplings - apparently they were fresh and not overly oily.The must have chicken feet. I have to be honest, they weren't the best. The feet themselves were nice, plump and tender, but I didn't think the sauce was up to scratch.
Prawn dumplings, as always, are a central part of the meal. I thought they were very good. Not the best I've tried, but the best of any reviewed on this blog to date - delicious. To the left you can see the pork dumpling which were also quite good.
The vegies were good - very tasty and fresh, and a good portion. It only took a couple of minutes to arrive at the table also.
Below is shark fin combination dumplings. I liked them - a tiny tad dry, but that is kind of the style. And it was good that they were on offer.

Other dishes we had included shanghai soup dumplings, prawn and snow pea shoots, prawn and spinach, scallop, another sweet fried appetiser, combination seafood (not the best) two types of rice rolls - prawn and bbq pork, and mango pancakes. The prawn and spinach dumpling was fantastic - SO steaming fresh that Kate actually burnt her mouth greedily tucking in!

I love the atmosphere at East Ocean - below is the a shot of the main room. Beyond the doors at the far end is another small room, and there is one more room off to the right that is about half the size of the main room.

I thought the service was good once we got a table, other than one staff person who didn't know what the different dumplings really were... I asked for scallop dumplings (having seen them), and she didn't know what they were. Anyway. The other main gripe was that they would not let us take a table until ALL of our group were present and sighted... so loads of other tables filled up in the 5 minutes whilst our last guests arrived, then we had a long wait as it was full up.

In the end it cost $99.10 for 5 people.

Today we have 3 guest reviewers! Below is the harsh critic Vincent (think Anton Ego from Ratatouille!)

The bright and bubbly Erny
And the insightful Kate!

And now, the verdict (will the cuisine reign supreme?):

Kate
Food: 12 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3 out of 5
Value: 3.5 out of 5.
TOTAL: 18.5 from 30
"Worth the pain of burning my mouth on hot dumplings."

Erny
Food: 11 out of 20
Service & Setting: 4 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5.
TOTAL: 18 from 30
"The mango pancakes left a nice sweet taste in my mouth, mm."

Vincent
Food: 10 out of 20
Service & Setting: 2.5 out of 5
Value: 2.5 out of 5.
TOTAL: 15 from 30
"Didn't really do it for me."

Matt
Food: 13 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3.5 out of 5
Value: 3.75 out of 5.
TOTAL: 20.25 from 30
"Just nudges past the 20 point mark. This was not the best time I have been, but as an overall package it is still hard to beat."

I am also awarding East Ocean a 1 Ha Gow rating (a la one hat in Good food guide).

Suggestions please

Hi Guys

I know there are loads of Yum Cha places in Sydney. I probably have more than a dozen to re-visit for rating that I have tried before. That said, I would love to get any suggestions of your favourite places, or ones that aren't as well known. If you know of any out of the way places that are more traditional, or interesting for any reason, I would really love to hear.

Please leave any suggestions as a comment to this post (best), or send to my new email address yumchasydney@gmail.com

Golden Unicorn - 66%

Golden Unicorn Restaurant

Level 2, 193 Maroubra Rd, Maroubra.

I like this place a lot. It never takes too long to get a table, the food is consistently quite good and it is well priced. Another nice touch is the service - all of the staff make an effort to be friendly, and can speak enough English to describe the dishes. Today I asked for two things that I had not seen and they got them out to me a few minutes later.

The prawn rice roll is not the best one to start the review with, as it was not fantastic. The rice paper was a bit doughy.
Scallop dumplings above and below (special order) were fantastic. Really plump and fresh. It counted as a Special dish, so $6.50 for four, but they were worth it. The egg tarts - I cannot give feedback on these as I brought them home for Kate and she hasn't tried them yet. When I got them they were still warm and did smell good.

Prawn dumplings - not outstanding but good.
Chicken, mushroom and prawn dumplings - Siu Mai style. Very nice.
The chicken feet (unlike 'Iron' Chef) were flavoursome, plump and really tender. Excellent.
Price wise, it came in at $31.10 for two people (not a huge meal but satisfying). I think it was good value.

And now, the verdict (will the cuisine reign supreme?):

Matt
Food: 12.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3.5 out of 5 (Service was great, the room is tacky though)
Value: 3.75 out of 5.
TOTAL: 19.75 from 30
"A reliable performer - disarmingly friendly and attentive staff, good food and value. Worth the trip."