Bao Dao Taiwanese Kitchen, Chatswood

Bao Dao's fairly new to Chatswood, having been around for a little less than a year. Since it first opened, I've heard many good things about it. Indeed, it's one of the more affordable sit-down restaurants around the area, the service is fast, and the food is tasty - even according to my dinner buddy that night and one of my fussier friends when it comes to Shanghainese and Taiwanese cuisines.

Said friend duly noted that the lanterns as depicted in the photo below are pretty accurate replicas of the ones that those in mainland China use during lantern festivals. During these festivals, people write riddles on the lanterns for others to solve throughout the night in return for small prizes.

Service is semi-self-serve. You are led to your table and provided your food, but ordering and immediate payment occurs at the counter. The food didn't all come at once, so the order in which the dishes arrived was at random.

First was the fried basil chicken, which was surprisingly not too dry and bore a pleasant crunch from the light batter.

Fried chicken ($7.20)

 We ordered soup as a winter-warmer. Chicken and mushroom soup is usually standard chicken broth, but the herbs here gave it an extra punch of flavour.

Shiitake mushroom & chicken in master stock ($6.60)

The highlight for me were the pork wontons, the skin of which could have been fairly dry, if they had not been served in their 'house spicy sauce'. The sauce was more peppery than spicy, which is great for those who can't eat anything too hot.

Pork wonton x 8 pieces ($7.70)

We each had one braised pork belly bun. Garnished with chopped peanut and coriander, this was mouthwateringly good - though I think they're sold for less at their stall during the Chatswood markets.

Pork belly bun ($4.50)

I'm not a pork knuckle fan - biting into the fat was too overwhelming for me, but the sauce went well with it. Probably for the more traditional Chinese palate.

Pork knuckle ($7.70)

Bao Dao is definitely a welcome addition to the food scene in Chatswood. Next time, I'll be back to try their noodles and more of their wontons!

Origin Dining, Willoughby

We paid a visit to Origin Dining a few weeks ago because I was tugging at the bit for a change of scenery. I'd figured that parking in Willoughby would be simple enough due to the substantial size of its residential district, but it was actually pretty difficult to find a spot. Nevertheless, we managed to find a place and made our way down to the restaurant.

Upon arrival, I was struck by how little floor space they had - if you imagine a rectangular prism and dissect it length-wise, one half consisted of an open kitchen, while the other half was made up of 5 or 6 tables that sat 4 people each. This also meant that throughout our whole visit, the smells wafting from the stove were very tantalising.

Origin seems like a good place for groups - every dish is accompanied by an option to go a size larger in order to share it with your dinner partner.

We decided to share the entree - a salad of chickpeas, quinoa, capsicum, feta cheese, coriander and pine nuts. I was expecting the quinoa to be sprinkled around the dish like cous cous or rice, but it was formed into starchy cubes.  It took some getting used to, and the dressing was a bit sour, but the creaminess of the feta helped to balance everything out. It really grew on me - though it was a bit of a pity that there wasn't more dressing, as the overall dish was dry.

Quinoa salad ($14.00)

We waited for about an hour after our entrees were collected for the mains to arrive, during which I became well-acquainted with their "Life is Short, Eat Dessert First" sign.
 
The scotch fillet came with bordelaise sauce, watercress, caramelised onions and a bowl of fries. It was average - not unpleasant to eat, but not particularly memorable.

Scotch fillet ($28.00)

My dish was lamb rib eye with chickpeas, borlotti beans, and olives. Tasting slightly curried, as well as being moist and tender, I have to say that this was more flavoursome than the beef and my favourite for the night.

Lamb ($24.00)

In summary, Origin Dining is a slightly pricey neighbourhood restaurant that's worth checking out - just don't plan to visit when you're in a rush or if you know you'll be experiencing hunger pangs at 9pm!

Fujiyama, Chatswood

"I can understand what they're saying!" I realised, while paying at the counter. Yep. That's right. Fujiyama Japanese Teppanyaki is operated by bona fide Cantonese-speaking Chinese people. Their food is just as Chinese, but I surprisingly enjoyed it - with the caveat that I ordered and was expecting Chinese food*.


Teppanyaki generally draws a certain type of crowd, and said type of crowd was gathered around the centre of the room. It was greatly entertaining observing their faces brighten in delight as food was being thrown around the room. Despite this, we sat on the outskirts (let's just call ourselves 'The Outsiders').

The Outsiders, as outsiders generally are, displayed more introverted qualities, huddled in small groups around their tables. They usually had a nice view of the wall, though there was one part of the restaurant that gave them window seats - we were privileged to have one window peering out to the stunning Victoria Plaza.

*See Mongolian chicken and fried rice.


Service was fast and we had no problems being seated, probably because it was a weeknight. Food came fairly soon after we placed our order.


The Mongolian chicken arrived, sizzling on a hot plate with carrots, celery and capsicum. The accompanying sauce was sweet - having never had Mongolian anything, I have nothing to compare it against, but apparently it's meant to be sweet.

Mongolian chicken (~$13.00)

Next were the lamb ribs, complete with a dish of some sort of salty spiced-up powder. It didn't really need the saltiness of the powder, as the lamb was salty enough, but the powder did provide an extra layer of flavour. I loved the crunch of the outer segments of meat, and there was plenty of fat to add juiciness to the interior.

Lamb ribs ($15 - $25 range)

The fried rice was pretty standard fried rice. We ate it with the Mongolian chicken.

Fried rice (~$10)

Don't come here expecting a quiet evening - the Outsiders are seated fairly close to the teppanyaki grills, so every few minutes you'll probably hear the roar of the crowd.

Conclusion? I just don't know what to make of the place.

Rice Den, Chatswood

If you're a traditionalist looking for authentic Chinese food, I suggest you ignore this part of Archer Street and take a stroll along Victoria Avenue - there are plenty of other Chinese eateries around Chatswood. It is evident that Rice Den targets the more adventurous, with its bare, hanging lightbulbs, wooden stools, and newspaper wallpaper. It does Asian fusion-style, tweaking Aussie favourites (such as Peking duck pancakes and salt and pepper squid), as well as introducing obscure menu items like crocodile meat. Although unconventional, the flavours are mouthwatering and they actually don't stuff up the rice!

Interior

The menu is presented in two ways - a wooden clipboard with pretty font, and an iPad displaying their specials for the day. The appetisers looked so mouthwatering that we decided to order a bunch of them tapas style.

Having had a heavy breakfast beforehand, my friend decided not to have rice, which left me with the whole ceramic pot to myself. That small pot was deceptive and managed to store a fair bit of rice - it was a good thing I was pretty hungry and managed to eat it all! The rice was fluffy, soft and cooked perfectly - neither undercooked nor allowed to become gluggy.

Jasmine rice ($2.50)

I'm no stranger to quail eggs (my mum adds them to a certain type of tong sui - Chinese dessert soup) and am familiar with the higher egg yoke to albumen ratio. Many people consider it strange that I have a slight aversion to the yoke, which I attribute to being discouraged from eating them when I was younger. Despite this quirk, I kept an open mind and proceeded to bite into the quail eggs. They were quite enjoyable, encased in a light crisp batter and accompanied by sweet teriyaki sauce drizzled over the top (it was so tasty that we wished that they had given us more sauce). Definitely a must try for people who love their egg yokes!

Tempura quail egg skewers ($8.00)

The chicken satay was moist and had just enough fat to make it tasty but not so much that I was spitting out the majority of the skewers' contents. The satay sauce was sweet and had fairly large chunks of peanut in it. I can't complain.

Satay chicken skewers ($8.00)

I didn't know what to expect from the school prawn stack - I ignorantly imagined large king prawns stacked on top of each other! Alas, school prawns are tiny prawns. They were very tasty. Imagine soft shell crabs, except in the form of prawns. The lime and sweet aioli were refreshing and provided moisture while preserving the crunch of the prawns.

School prawn stack ($12.00)

Having polished off all of the above, we decided that we still had room in our stomachs for dessert! My friend ordered glutinous rice balls with black sesame sauce inside, served in ginger syrup with star anise (and a spoonful of peanuts). I stole one off of her plate. As with a lot of the items I had on this particular lunch outing, I am not a fan of glutinous rice balls. Normally, the skin is too thick and starchy for my liking. Here, the glutinous rice layer was thinner. I'm also a sucker for good black sesame paste, so I was pleasantly surprised by this dessert. The ginger added a hot twist and helped to balance off the starchiness of the rice balls. It is possible that if you were to visit at a future date, it won't be on the menu, as it was listed as one of the specials.

Black sesame glutinous rice balls in ginger syrup ($6.00)

My dessert was deep fried green tea ice cream with raspberry and chocolate syrup. This was my least favourite dish. The outer layer was sugary sponge cake, which my friend really liked but which I wasn't a huge fan of. That in itself wasn't so bad, but I felt that the syrup clashed with the green tea. I love green tea ice cream, though, so it was still a fairly positive end to the meal.

Green tea fried ice-cream ($6.00)

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.