Mr Jin, Chatswood

Mr Jin is a shrine to Chinese professional tennis player Li Na, and it is the first tennis restaurant that I've ever come across. According to the Boy, who's been here a couple of times, it seems that Mr Jin Fu Sheng's restaurant originates in the city of Wuhan, Li Na's place of birth. As the food is traditionally Chinese, the theme seems limited to the decor. One wall is covered with photos and articles of Li Na, some of which describe a visit that she paid to the original Mr Jin restaurant during an Australian Tennis Open tour in China. Another wall bears paintings of Li Na and various other (unidentifiable) tennis players. Of some amusement were the tennis balls dangling from the ceiling.

Dishes here are mostly banquet-style, meaning that they are best for sharing in groups of people. Most of them fall within the $20 - $30 range, though of course seafood dishes bear market prices. Service is friendly, a plate of prawn crackers is available upon arrival, and there's actually chilli oil that's more chilli paste than oil :)

Chilli oil!

We had 2 meat dishes and a plate of noodles, the exact names of which I completely forgot. I'm sure this lapse in memory is completely excusable, as the menu was vast and the Boy ordered everything in Mandarin so things were a mystery to me anyway. We ended up eating less than anticipated because the portions were so generous - but that just meant half of it was put into a take away box.

Our chicken dish was simple but tasty, and stir-fried in a light amount of soy sauce. It went pretty well with the wheat noodles, which were creamy and a little oily. We'd also ordered a lamb dish, which they brought out along with a portable stove. The lamb wasn't as enjoyable because the cuts of meat that they included were quite fatty, nervy and tough.

Stir fried chicken

Noodles

Stewed lamb

At the end of our meal, we were given little lime and orange jelly cubes - similar to the ones some yum cha restaurants sell in their dessert carts.

Xin Jiang Handmade Noodle, Chatswood

Xin Jiang Hand Made Noodle is located above Hu's Inn and La Latina. This is also the shop lot that Hinode, the Japanese restaurant, used to occupy. The last time I was in the area, I spotted a steady stream of Chinese people heading up the stairs, so I figured it might be authentic.

It's not too different from the Chinese coffee shops around the area, such as Winsure BBQ Restaurant, except with even less emphasis on aesthetics...

I wanted to go for the noodles, but the Boy preferred the sound of fried rice, which he came to regret ordering. I quite enjoyed it, as bits of the rice were hard and chewy (see 2nd photo), like the crunchy bottom layer that's left over after you cook rice (in a rice cooker or a stone pot). However, it was these favoured bits that made the Boy wrinkle his nose in distaste - apparently he hates bibimbap too. No wonder he never orders any at Dukbaegi :/

Fried rice (chicken) ($10.80)

Crunchy bits

The deep fried pork had lots of batter. Overall liked this dish, but the pork had chunks of chewy sinew and nerve. I picked the batter off of these and left the inedible parts on my plate in the reject pile.

The Boy had requested that this come with chilli, and I guess they forgot, because it came with none. While some chilli might have been nice, I was relieved it was left out after tasting the skewers.

Deep fried pork with pepper ($13.80)

 The BBQ lamb skewers were a little tough and spicy as. The Boy was fine with them, but I could only have a couple of bites before my lips felt like they were on fire. Also, despite our best efforts, we couldn't dislodge the meat with our chopsticks. In any case, once I surrendered all the skewers to the Boy, he adopted the "manly" method and ate them right off the skewers.

BBQ lamb skewers ($11.80)

I'd come back to try the hand made noodles, and the menu is really extensive. The food is pretty cheap and the portions would be great for groups, but I haven't had the greatest luck with their meat.

Sea Bay, Sydney CBD

As mentioned in my Saap Thai post, I really wanted to check out Sea Bay, as it was recommended by a friend who said they sell cheap dumplings. Sea Bay is a slightly dingy Chinese eatery, but if you're familiar with the ones in Kingsford, you'll be too used to this kind of diner to care too much about the decor, ambience or apparent cleanliness. In this second attempt at entering the premises, we managed to score the last table and were squeezed into a corner.

One thing I was pleased about was the generous portion of chilli oil & flakes, as it's not something generally done in Sydney. The dishes were prepared quickly and came out piping hot.

The first thing I launched myself at was the plate of pan fried meat dumplings. I liked the crunch of the dumpling skin, but when I reached the meat inside, it was evident that the cook had gone wild with the salt.

Pan fried dumplings (meat) ($10.80)

 Secondly, I tried the bean noodle soup - not making the connection that bean noodles are mung bean noodles (which I adore). It was surprising to find tomatoes in the soup, but the mushrooms were standard. I can't say too much about it - tasty but not particularly memorable (and at least it wasn't as salty as the dumplings).

Mushroom and vegetable soup with bean noodles ($10.80)

  Just as with the pan fried dumplings, the boiled dumpling filling was too salty. The effect was perhaps not as bad because the skin hadn't had as much contact with salt as the pan fried skin. The meat they used was the same as the meat in the pan fried dumplings (we didn't get to choose the meat for the boiled dumpling, so the filling was a surprise).

Boiled dumplings ($10.80)

  In conclusion, my dislike of Sea Bay isn't the ear-drum-bursting lunch crowd, or the fact that they've crammed as many chairs and tables as possible into each square metre (making it virtually impossible to get in or out where you're sitting back to back), or that despite these things it's still an immense challenge to get a table. My aversion towards Sea Bay is much more basic than that.

They just need to hold off on the sodium chloride.

Shanghai Stories 1938, Chatswood

I'd been meaning to check out Shanghai Stories for a while ever since The Concourse was completed, as I was curious as to how it stood up against its New Shanghai competitors. However, I never quite got around to it until recently.

So I made a booking and attempted to navigate myself to the restaurant, which was a slightly awkward ordeal. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Shanghai Stories takes up both the top and bottom storeys (Get it? Storeys??) - despite the bottom resembling a Chinese fast food diner - and I had made my way directly towards the stairs, not realising that the podium that they very inconspicuously placed on the side of the entrance was intended to be the first point of contact for patrons. I was eventually ushered to my table, which was squashed into a corner.

The style of the restaurant is in between your typical dumpling house and a 'proper', more expensive, Chinese restaurant like Kam Fook or Fook Yuen. I think the picture below of the plastic fans and the unattended collection of dirty crockery amidst the neat decor summarises this fairly accurately.

Upper storey

Anyway, on to the food:

The meat dishes are largely proportioned (think Chinese restaurant banquet sizes) so we decided to order 3 items off the menu and refrained from having rice.

First up was the salt and pepper calamari, which was garnished with dried chilli and deep fried onions. The texture of the calamari was a bit hit and miss - there were some very tough pieces but there were some also fairly tender bits, too.The fried onions gave the calamari batter an extra crunchiness which was greatly appreciated. Though salty, the calamari was not too salty - though we would probably have been better off eating it with rice to balance out the flavours.

Salt and pepper calamari ($22.80)

The next to arrive was the Taiwanese three cup chicken. It was presented in a steaming clay pot and served with plenty of chopped onions. The sauce was tasty and the chicken was tender - though I recall there was also a lot of fat, but some people prefer that. Overall it was not bad.

Taiwanese three cup chicken ($18)

The last to arrive was a chilli oil dumpling dish. I would have liked more sauce - and perhaps for the chilli oil to contain actual chilli flakes rather than just... oil. It wasn't bad, but you have to eat the dumplings really quickly, or else they get cold, dry and a little tough.

Poached pork and vegetable dumpling in chilli oil x 10 ($8.80)

Conclusion: Hit and miss

Chinese Dumpling and Noodle House, Kingsford

I'd heard from a few people that there are a couple of fabulous dumpling eateries in Kingsford, and that the Chinese Dumpling and Noodle House ('CDNH') was one of them - that, in fact, Kylie Kwong recommended eating there. Just like the other Asian eateries around the area, CDNH is extremely casual and pretty much like your local Chinese takeaway shop. The portions are generous, the prices very low, and the flavours a bit hit and miss. CDNH's facade itself is pretty inconspicuous, blending in amongst its competitors, so look out for the big red sign.

Facade

The waitresses' grasp of English is limited (I've experienced a mix-up of our order), but their service is polite and attentive. If you go there at lunch time on a quiet day, you'll probably see the staff (cooks included) laying out a banquet for themselves and chatting amicably.

Interior

The dumpling prices range from $4.50 to $11, depending on the type of dumpling and the portion. If you're looking for big portions, the boiled and steamed dumplings are the way to go - with plates of 14 - 16 dumplings for $8 - $10. Personally, I'm not a big fan of their dumplings. There's something lacking in taste - the fillings seem to consist of the same meat (despite ordering dumplings with different fillings) and they lack salt, consequently making them taste quite bland. On the plus side, they seem to add very little or no MSG, since I don't feel thirsty after each visit.

Menu - dumpling section

 I'll commence my dish-by-dish break down with the pan-fried three fresh delicacies dumplings. The filling is firm, quite patty-like, and somewhat dry - unlike other Shanghainese dumplings that I've had, there is no hot soup stock inside to tantalise the tongue. The dumpling skin is thin, soft and resembles boiled wonton skin. I would have preferred a more caramelised bottom - as you can see, they aren't very golden brown. As mentioned before, it lacks flavour, but it tastes and feels homemade.

Pan fried three fresh delicacies dumplings [pork, prawn, egg] x 12 ($9.50)

We tried one of their steamed dumpling dishes with a chicken filling, and apart from the limp texture of the dumpling skin, it was pretty much identical to the pan fried dumplings above. We suspected they got our order wrong, but we didn't know for sure.

Steamed dumplings [Northern style/ chicken] x 7 ($4.80)

Surprisingly, the pan fried bun tasted significantly better than the other dumplings. - probably because they contained more salt than the previous two. There was no soup inside (again), but the bottoms were a bit more toasted.

Pan fried bun x 6 ($8.00)

 I've also tried a few of their noodles. Their black pepper noodles with capsicum and onion are outstanding, particularly if you choose to have them with udon noodles (as opposed to rice noodles). There's a choice between beef and chicken, and both meats are cooked well - tender and succulent.

Stir fried udon noodle with beef in black pepper ($8.80)

Stir fried udon noodle with chicken in black pepper ($8.80)

I've also tried their Hokkien noodles with beef, which tastes similar to the black pepper noodles. Though tasty, the black pepper noodles are still the best.

Stir fried Hokkien noodles with beef ($8.80)

In summary:
- Cheap
- If you must have dumplings, eat the pan fried buns
- The black pepper noodles are recommended