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.

new percentage index

A friend suggested putting a quick score on the index to show how the places stack up. So I have gone through and worked out my scores out of 30 as a percentage. Hope that helps.

Palace Yum Cha 07/09/08 - 42%

Piccadilly Tower, Level 1, 133-145 Castlereagh St

Lunch Sunday 7 September 2008.

This visit confirms my feeling that Palace is just too unreliable to justify. Their price is significantly above other places - which is fine when the food is at its best. When fresh from the steamer, I think the food is the equal of any place in Sydney - but it isn't consistent at all. You could get some dumplings that have been out too long and are gluggy, then a piping hot one, then ones that have been on the steamer too long and are falling to pieces.

Our guest reviewer Christophe

The mixed vege/dumpling dish. As these are boiled to order - they were very fresh... but it was $12.80

The tripe was not good. Sounds funny to write, but I think it was poor quality offal - bad texture. (or I may just still be gun-shy from my stupid attempt to cook tripe)

Pork buns were quite nice - came from a fresh batch.

The prawn dumplings were not fresh or hot when we got them - disapointing.

The prawn and snowpea sprout dumplings were the best of the day - we had two serves and both were fresh. Luck of the draw it seems. (above and below)

The chickens feet were good, no complaints at all.

Over steamed and not fresh - the dumplings above were falling apart and had lost their moisture.

Overall - I think Palace is let down by its design and popularity. Recalling the best Cha Lau's I have visited in Sydney and overseas, they tend to be a large square room with tables organised in rows so trolleys can easily navigated between tables - off-loading their bounty before it cools or over steams. Palace is full of corners and nooks and crannys that mean by the time you get a trolley the food may be no good. Whilst yum cha isn't known for courteous service - the service here really sucks. A lot of places will assume westerners will take what is suggested, but at least they wait for a response! One waitress here just dumped a plate on our table saying it is nice, stamped the ticket and walked away - and the dish looked crap!

Christophe's ratings:
Food: 15 out of 20 (food was good, especially the snowpeas dumplings, the chicken feet, the vegies and the sui mai. However the last dumplings seemed much fresher than the first ones.
Service & Setting: 2.5 out of 5 (first waitress charged us some dumplings we did not want, thanks Kate for the arguing with the manager, and I don’t know if it's because we were in a corner at the end of the restaurant or what, but I felt that half-way through the meal that was nobody going around with food for a while)
Value: 1 out of 5. (nearly $100 for 3 people, that's pretty expensive for yum-cha).
TOTAL: 18.5 from 30 

Matt's ratings:

Food: 10 out of 20 - unreliable
Service & Setting : 1.5 out of 5 (see comments above)
Value: 1 out of 5. ($93 for 3 people - the most I have paid in a group ever).
TOTAL: 12.5 from 30 - at this price, palace needs to be consistently better than the competition in terms of variety, freshness and service. And they are not by a long shot.