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."

Iron Chef Cabramatta 23/09/07 - 42%

Iron Chef Restaurant

Lunch - Sunday 23 September 2007

84 Broomfield Street Cabramatta

Being a huge fan of the TV show Iron Chef, I was excited to head out to Iron Chef restaurant today for yum cha. A friend went recently for dinner and said it was great, and looking over the website got me very excited! Also, seeing the best meal I ever ate so far was served at the restaurant of Iron Chef Sakai in Tokyo - the name IS important.

Before we get into the food, let me welcome this weeks guest reviewer, Cherie Lau. Cherie is a huge foodie, and is in fact the friend who recommended Iron Chef after visiting for dinner.

The exterior of the place, quite impressive.On another view though - you realise it is within a local hotel... alarm bells ring.
One of the few Yum Cha places were you can see poker machines and TAB betting screens from the waiting area.
First up, Sui Mai - pork dumplings with prawn. These had a slice of shitake mushroom in the bottom too. Not too bad, but considering all the MSG the flavour was not amazing.
Chicken feet - disappointing. The black bean sauce was very weak, with a lot of garlic though. Sadly the garlic was the rubbish granulated kind, not fresh.
Large prawn and spinach dumplings. These were not bad, out of today's offerings I would say second best.

We waited a long time for Di Gee Gow - scallop dumplings, and thankfully they were quite ok. I have to say of all the seafood it was the freshest (but still only average). They were not bursting with flavour, but at least tasted like it came from the ocean, unlike many of the prawn dumplings.
Prawn rice roll - very standard.

A nice surprise, they had freshly prepared Peking duck available one piece at a time - for the price of a small plate each ($3.20). I am not experienced in eating this, but the others said she was cutting it poorly - too much meat and fat. Apparently it should be just skin of the duck.


An egg custard desert dumpling. The only desert taken by the group. Apparently this is quite rare in Australia, so points for variety there.
Beef tripe. We also had beef stomach (below this one), which was the better of the two.

Cherie and Kate struggled with the table design which had a large metal bar in the leg space of two of the four diners... uncomfortable.
You'd notice I did not picture the prawn dumpling - it was very disappointing so I didn't bother. Actually, I will post one picture to demonstrate the runt of a dumpling we got...

I always held the motto that even bad yum cha is good yum cha. I am not sure. This was the least satisfying or tasty I have had as far as I recall. It may have suffered from my high expectations - but we were SO hungry after waiting 50 minutes (!) for a table, that we would have wolfed anything down. That long wait was evened out by attentive and helpful service inside, and I realise they cannot help it if they are so busy. Even still, don't believe the hype.

As I said above, the name IS important. The website hypes up the innovative techniques and flavours of the chef, and they are clearly trading of the camp-cult reputation of the Japanese TV show. So let the be judged against it.

The bill for 4 people (1 desert, lots of dumplings, no vegie) came to $76.80

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

Matt
Food: 8 out of 20
Service & Setting: 2 out of 5
Value: 2.5 out of 5.
TOTAL: 12.5 from 30
"Iron Chef? I don't think so. You are hereby downgraded to Zinc Saucier."

Kate
Food: 9 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3 out of 5
Value: 2.5 out of 5.
TOTAL: 14.5 from 30
"No surprises here at all"

Cherie
Food: 10 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5.
TOTAL: 16 from 30
"Very very standard..."

Regal Chinese Restaurant 16/09/07 - 62%

Regal Chinese Restaurant
Lunch - Sunday 16 September 2007

Cnr Liverpool and Sussex St.

For the first entry to the blog, I revisited the place I went just two days ago. I was still very impressed with it. Kate is also scoring this one, as she is far more experienced than me. I guess I will ask others I dine with on occasion to score to be included.

It took about 20 minutes to get a table of four at 12.30 on a Sunday, so that is not bad at all. The variety of dishes was very good, and they had a few dishes that I haven’t seen around Sydney. One down side was that some staples, such as prawn dumplings and BBQ pork buns, only passed our table once during our visit.

Price wise, I think it was reasonable, a little above average price, but the quality of the food justified it.

The prawn dumplings were good – fresh and plump, but not a stand out. The scallop dumplings were great overall – very generous size, nice flavours, just the wrapper was either a little too thick, or under cooked, as it was a bit floury tasting. The tea I always order – Po Lay (in case its not clear, all the Cantonese words I write are written roughly as they are spoken) was extremely strong. Seems it was the bottom of the bag as all the tea particles were tiny and went straight into the cups.

Above are prawn and vege dumplings with a nice and unusual presentation.

The Choi Sum veggies were very good, and the accompanying boiled dumplings were quite good – not bursting with flavour, but a nice calm bite between other flavours. Only catch was the combo came as two separate plates, which meant we paid for two serves of vegetable. (I never got why veggies are so costly at Yum Cha – like $9 or more a plate, whilst 4 chunky dumplings are only $4-$6…)

Overall I am still very impressed. And they had a mini dragon dance come through midway!

Price wise - it wasn't the cheapest. In fact probably the highest price per head I recall - but we did eat A LOT. Kate and I were joined by two 6 foot+ gents with huge appetites, and we rose to their standard. We paid $26 per person - you can see the dish prices below if zoom.



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

Matt
Food: 12.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5.
TOTAL: 18.5 from 30

Kate

Food: 12 out of 20
Service & Setting: 2.8 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5.
TOTAL: 17.8 from 30

Welcome

I can't believe it took me so long to create this blog. I love Yum Cha - to an unnatural degree. I will happily go to Yum Cha 5 times in a week, to the same restaurant if necessary. I sometimes go to Yum Cha alone, I am not ashamed.

Yesterday a group of my former co-workers went to the inaugural lunch meeting of their new Yum Cha Club. I am gutted that I didn't think of it myself. Luckily the YC gods stepped in and I bumped into one of the group on Thursday and scored an invite. Yesterday’s was a real surprise - I had never been there or heard much about it. But it was a revelation - the food was great, maybe a contender to my favourite in Sydney...

I am now making it my mission to seek out and and eat at every Yum Cha restaurant in Sydney. It may take a few years, but I think it is worth it. To ensure continuity, I will have to revisit all of those I have tried already, so I can score them on my new standardised scale!

Food: X out of 20
Service & Setting: X out of 5
Value: X out of 5.

Service and setting are weighted a lot lower, because in my opion that is not what Yum Cha is about. It is about the food....mmmm. That said, if the service, the restaurant, decore etc was outstanding, then that should be recognised - or if we wait half an hour with no food coming, that should be noted too.

The 20 points for food will be broken down into 10 for overall flavour and enjoyment - this will be compared across restaurants using common dishes that we usually order like Ha Gow (prawn dumpling), Sui Mai (pork dim sim), Ha Chun Fun (prawn rice roll), Fung Jaau (chicken feet), egg tarts and the tea. - and we cannot forget the tea!

Another five food points are open for freshness and variety. So if they are all piping hot and lots of choice - top marks. If they are getting cool, gluggy or old - not much.

Finally for food, you always have to save an extra five points for the unexpected. If they have something delicious that is hard to find, or the presentation is outstanding, or things are especially plump and delicious, these extra 5 are up for grabs.

Finally five points for value. If it runs $30 a head and we are still hungry, that's too pricey. $14 and we are stuffed - bargain.

So, at the end we will have a score out of thirty. I will also try to post pictures when possible, and give a run down on how many people shared, how much we ate and the cost per person. If possible I will include in the value section an outline from the bill of the prices of each size of dish ordered.

Let the fun begin! First entry tomorrow!