Nine Dragons Restaurant 14/09/08 - 79%

39-45 Dixon Street, HAYMARKET

Lunch Sunday 14 September 2008

Well, today was a first for us. We decided to try Nine Dragon's Restaurant. This is part of a bid to take this blog to new heights, with the aim to review every yum cha in Sydney at least once. I am also going to include the price of a dish of Har Gow (prawn dumpling) at each place - as a easy point of price comparison.

Nine Dragons is on the main strip of Dixon St in Chinatown. It is one of the ones where they shake menu's at you, and the sign says the offer yum cha but I always dread you will get upstairs to find it empty, or really dingy.

Off the street we headed up the stairs to find one comparatively small room - worryingly it was half empty and most of the guests were western. It was 1230 on Sunday afternoon (during moon festival) and half the tables were empty! *Alarm bells*

I was very lucky to have Kate (the true yum cha sage) with me as guest reviewer today.

First up BBQ pork rice rolls. Almost all the plates were carried around on trays - not on steamer trolley's. This is a worry as we thought things may not be fresh. But thanks to the quiet day and our fortunate position near the kitchen door - everything was piping hot and fresh. The rice rolls were excellent.

Above and below are duck meat dumplings. They were a little bit oily (by my standard) but outstanding flavour. Very impressed.
The prawn and spinach dumplings were also very fresh and delicious. Unlike some places, these had complete king prawns inside - and were steamed perfectly. I have to say, every one of the dumplings and rice rolls was hot, fresh, and the rice paper was firm, soft, thin and delicious. 

Har gow. This is the true test in my mind... and they passed with flying colours! This was really nice. And there was some different flavouring - I couldn't pick it but Kate thinks it was special cooking wine. These were $4.70 for four - (but they accidentally forgot to charge us). Great value. (Compared to $6.80 at Palace)


Above and below - scallop dumpling. Well prawn and scallop really. Whilst it had a complete small scallop in each dumpling - the flavour was not quite as good. These were $4.70 for 3. 

The prawn rice rolls were also excellent. This and the BBQ pork ones were $6.50 per plate - again good value.

A first for us - almond prawn balls. The combination didn't strike me as overtly complimentary, but it was very nice. They were deep fried, but not greasy.
Lotus sweets in sago shells. The lotus centre was very rich - I liked it but a little oily.

How cute are these? Pumpkin dumplings with red bean filling. Sweet, light and great. Although very sticky so quite hard to eat.

The bill came to $50.50 for two people. Now that is not super cheap - but in honesty we had enough food easily for 3 people. We were so impressed we wanted to try as much as possible, and we had both skipped breakfast! And we brought most of the deserts home.

The atmosphere of yum cha at Nine Dragons was very different to your average cha lau. It was not a noisy, frenetic bustle of activity. The waitresses weren't pushy, rude or in a rush. The service wasn't brisk. In fact most of the wait staff were kids under 20, and all very sweet and friendly. No one was in a rush, and when we ordered special things they came very quickly and we never had to ask twice. Our tea was even filled up within 15 seconds of upending the teapot lid - the first staff to notice it signalled the floor manager who filled it immediately.

Kate's ratings:

Food: 16.5 out of 20 - good flavour, fresh and lots to choose from
Service & Setting : 3.5 out of 5 - very friendly
Value: 3.5 out of 5.
TOTAL: 23.5 from 30 

Matt's ratings:

Food: 16 out of 20
Service & Setting : 3.75 out of 5 (see comments above)
Value: 4 out of 5. 
TOTAL: 23.75 from 30 

Based on today's performance - this might just be my new favourite in Sydney.