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.

House of Peking - Jesmond - 18%

What could I have reasonably expected? A yum cha on the outskirts of Newcastle, housed in a local pub. One of two places I could find that serve yum cha in Newcastle. "I can't stay here 6 months and not try the local yum cha at least once!..." Bad idea.


Sticky rice - fatty, but little flavour.
An interesting menu system - combination of trolleys and an order sheet.

Prawn rice rolls - with loads of oil! They looked like carpet pythons that swallowed some small rodent - with just two little prawns per roll... They were small and flavourless - white and (maybe) freezer burnt.


Har gow - prawn dumplings. Don't want to be such a whinger, but they were terrible. They really could be frozen packet dumplings.
Scallop dumplings - the rice paper was like rubbery glue.
Sui Mai - about the same...

Over all it maybe the most westernised yum cha in existence. Beyond being in outer suburbs of a city with a only very small Chinese community, and in a pub - this yum cha (which translates as 'drink tea') restaurant doesn't really serve tea! When we ordered some it was marked in the special dishes section of the order ticket... and no one else around us had any.

At least it was cheap - $21.40 for 2 people. Neither of us were full though, and I felt sick afterwards.

This is by far the worst yum cha I have ever had.

Matt
Food: 2.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 1.5 out of 5 (service ok, cleanliness and setting no good)
Value: 1.5 out of 5. (it was cheap per person, but only because we didn't eat/want much).
TOTAL: 5.5 from 30

"Don't go. Save your money, or go to the Hungry Jacks across the road."

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?