Mother Chu's Vegetarian Kitchen, Sydney CBD

Mother Chu's is one of the many places I tried out while working in the city. It is also one of the few places that I will not be visiting again. This entry will only cover one dish. And though normally I would say that one dish is not enough to form a strong opinion about a place, my dislike of this restaurant does not stem from the food, but from my atrocious experience of Mother Chu's as a whole. The food merely supports my view that a repeat visit is not justifiable.

When I visited around lunch time, it was around three quarters full. It took around 10 minutes for a waitress to serve us, during which our gestures for attention were dismissed. It didn't help that, upon the entry of a woman with a massive pram, they decided to seat her deep inside the restaurant (manoeuvring her through the tiny gaps between tables) rather than at an area where it would be easier for her to situate herself.

When we finally placed our orders, we waited for at least another half hour for our fairly standard meals to arrive. I ordered a wonton noodle soup, which, at any other Chinese take-away shop, would have arrived within ten minutes.

The food itself tasted alright - not bad, but not fantastic either. They did the soup and noodles pretty well (especially considering they would not have been able to use meat-based stock). The vegetarian wontons were slightly sweet - there might have been pumpkin inside. There were also carrots, sliced raw mushrooms, chopped bits of cabbage, and what might have been kai lan scattered throughout.

Wonton noodle soup ($8.80)

Thus ends my rant. Based on the slow kitchen, poor service and mediocre food, I will not be recommending this place to anyone on their lunch break.