Wokking Inn - 282 North Road, Eastwood

Gung Hei Fat Choy!  Happy Chinese New Year!  It's the first day of the year of the snake and so I think it is only apt to write about another new Chinese restaurant my family and I dined at.  Despite it also being Mercedes Benz Fashion week in New York.  I would love to share some pics of that but it's fair to say that my food posts outweigh the fashion and also get more reads. . . .  So here is a review of this awesome little restaurant in Eastwood.

We wanted to go here at the end of last year but it was closed for renovation so we went here for my sister's and auntie's birthday a few weeks ago.  My mum knows the owner Helen and knew that they had some pretty awesome entrees and dishes that we had to pre-order.  We didn't want to miss out on the night!

 

Mango and Prawn Spring Rolls, $60. This was the pre-ordered house special entree. It was special indeed! The pastry was really light and crispy kind of like roti bread but the deep fried version and a little sweet but had some salt sprinkled lightly on top. The dipping sauce was mango puree. They were very generous in size, one per person, although I could've eaten 2!

 

You had to see the inside, nice big juicy prawns and fresh mango slithers with a subtle white sauce which was a Chinese style mornay sauce? Kind of.  The mango inside was sweet enough you didn't really need the sauce. 9/10.

 

 

Dried Scallop Poached Chicken, $38.  This was another pre-ordered dish.  It is a course that is served cold.  The display of the whole head always causes a stir amongst us young ones, so my brother covers it with the coriander but to our amusement our Grandad unknowingly eats the coriander and the head is revealed again!!!  Aargh!  Anyway I like this dish cold, it makes it more of a summer dish.  The chicken and soy sauce is flavoured with other spices and is a different take on the Shaoxing wine drunken chicken dish we always have.  7/10.

 

 

Pippies in XO sauce served with crispy vermicelli noodle pancake.  I love this dish although pippes are not the meatiest of sea foods, this dish makes up for it in flavour.  The sauce is thick and salty and the vermicelli noodles are used to mop up this. The best bits are the cripsy edges which always get eaten quickly. 9/10.

 

8 Treasure Whole Duck, $78.  This was the piéce de resistancé!  The dish was massive.  It was so different to anything I have ever eaten in a Chinese restaurant before.  The waitress had cut into the duck before I could snap it unscathed.  The body of the duck was so soft and I was like c'mon what is this? It had no bones and was so so soft to cut up!  The skin was soft and the treasures inside were all so soft as well.  It must have been slowly cooking for ages.  The meat was so tender and flavoursome.  The stuffing comprised of water chestnut, shitake mushrooms, Chinese sausage, lotus root and some other ingredients which I don't know.  The duck was surrounded by baby buk choy which made it a more visually pleasing dish.  8/10.

 

Sweet and Sour Pork.  Always a favourite.  The sourness builds the appetite.  The sweet cuts into the fatty bits of pork, which weren't too fatty at all.  The batter was light and crispy.  The addition of pinenuts was new.  Delicious.  8/10.

 

Chilli Soft Shell Crab.  This was my choice.  The little crabs were yummy and the batter which I was expecting to be really hot as it had three chilies next to the dish on the menu wasn't as hot as I wanted it to be despite the dish being covered with a variety of chillies.  It was a generous sized dish though.  7/10.

 

 

Re-hydrated scallops with enoki mushrooms and snow pea sprouts.  The vegetable dish of the night served in a broth which was unusual. The scallops were subtle tasting but added a nice saltiness to the veges.  7/10.

 

All these dishes were eaten with white rice and we were so full by the end as there was so much food, the servings were big.   We all got a take-away container for our lunches the next day!  Yay!

 

Wokking Inn is a hidden jem.  It is quite expensive compared to the other local Chinese restaurants I go to in the suburbs, but it's also a great change of the style of Chinese we are used to.  All up it was $360 for 10 people which is very reasonable by Sydney standards but twice the amount for a regular Chinese suburban meal.

 

Taste of Shanghai - 200 Rowe Street, Eastwood

Another family dinner and yes we are on a roll, trying out another new restaurant!  The occasion was to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.  My whole life I have been celebrating this with a family dinner but hey do I know what exactly this festival is about?  No.  I ashamedly Googled this.  In summary,  it means to celebrate the moon as it is at it's biggest and fullest. This is on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month which is usually in October.  There is a love story behind it but you can look this up yourself it's a bit too long winded for me to tell here.

Ok, so we are back on the dumpling eating track.  Hand-made dumplings skillfully created in-house by these Chinese ladies.  Hundreds of them!  We got three types this time. . . 

Xiao Long Bao $8.80 - My favourite ones.  These came out in an industrial steel steamer and were seriously good.  Lots of soup which when I ate mine accidentally sprayed over the table as I didn't close my mouth fully enough.  Well, that was because it was so bloody hot!  The pork filling had just the right amount of saltiness as did the broth.   This time I didn't have any chilli with these ones only a dash of the dark vinegar.  8/10.

Pan Fried Pork Buns with Sesame $8.80 - These are a  bit more unusual and are much more doughier.  It is as the description says,  like a mini pork bun you get at yum-cha but pinched into a little dome rather than the open puffy cloud the Char Siu Bao's are.  Again these have the same filling and soup combo.  I added chilli to this one as there was more dough to it.  It's amazing how the soup just sits inside and doesn't get soaked up.  7.5/10

Pan Seared Pork Dumpling $9.80 - The Chinese name for these are War Tip.  I know,  funny phonetic translation but it's for real.  These are also a goody that you always get at yum-cha.  But these ones here are much bigger and have heaps more pork/chive mixture inside.  No soup in these, just the crispy thin dough and meat.  Love these coated in lots of chilli and vinegar.  8/10 

Braised Pork Belly with Fresh Steamed Buns - This dish is one of my all time favourite Chinese pork dishes.  I don't eat it often so this was a treat and boy was it tasty.   It's full of thin slices of pork belly in a rich kind of salty, vinegary sauce.  I didn't copy down the price or exact dish name but it's got bits of preserved cabbage underneath as well.  You have to mop up all the salty sauce with the sweet super soft bun, it's so good!  This one of my Dad's favourites also but my Mum hates it as it's so fatty.  9/10.  

Kung Po Chilli Chicken $15.80 - Bits of tender chicken stir-fried with red hot chillies, shallots and peanuts. Not sure how they get that hot stickiness of powerful sauce but this is a simple but great flavoured dish. 6.5/10.

Eggplant and pork mince in sweet chilli vinaigrette sauce $14.80 - This dish was my least favourite as it was too vinegary.  My Mum makes this way better.  Eggplant was nice and soft but yeah we were all a bit disappointed with this version.  4/10.

Live Barramundi in Sweet and Sour sauce $32.80 - This is one of the house specials and it did not disappoint.  They brought this little barra out to show us flapping away in a plastic bag to get our approval before being deep fried and coated in this lovely thick sauce and plonked on our table.  It really is a taste sensation.  The flesh is still juicy not dry and the sweetness and sourness of the sauce does not overpower at all.  Sweet and sour sauce is a flavour that enhances your appetite, this is what my Mum says and it's true.  I could just eat plain rice with some of this sauce as a complete meal if I had to, it's that good.  8.5/10.

Stir-fried Snow Pea Sprouts with Mushrooms $15.80 - As usual we have to order a vegetable dish.  You need a cleaner dish in amongst all these strong flavours.  I love these sprouts cooked this way.  6/10.

Braised Beef Fillet in Chilli Broth - This was my pick as I wanted to try something different.  Again not sure of the actual dish ingredients or name but it was packed with chilli seeds yet wasn't that hot.  If 10 was the mother of all hotness then this would only be a 3 I reckon.  In amongst this soupiness was the tender beef bits and to our surprise it also had vermicelli noodles underneath to help soak up some of that yummy sauce.  It was wierd though as they only gave you a slotted spoon and not a ladle as well as I would've drank more of it this for sure! . . Well mixed in with my rice and I could've made a chilli sauce congee!  Haha.  8/10.

This place was packed and lots of people waiting, so I suggest booking in advance, but make sure you check over the details with the person on the phone as they thought our booking was for the night before!  So we had to wait!

I would recommend Taste Of Shanghai if you want different Chinese food.   The prices are very reasonable.  If you aren't close to Eastwood there are other branches in the City World Square, Chatswood and Ashfield.

Mr Han Traditional Restaurant - 261 Rowe Street, Eastwood

Usually when I meet up with my parents for dinner we usually almost always go to the same 3 Chinese restaurants that have been in rotation for at least 3 years.  One of them we have been going to regularly for at least 10 years!  So I was looking forward to this night out.  New restaurant means new menu!  Yay!

Mr Han is in Eastwood which is a suburban China and Korea town.  There are a lot of little specialised cuisine restaurants on Rowe Street alone, like a Chilli Hotpot place and a Korean BBQ restaurant, and all looked busy.  Must make the time and go to Eastwood more often.

The first thing you notice about Mr Han is that it is LOUD!  It was packed even on a Wednesday night, and a nothing inside that absorbs the sound of the 70 or so people jam packed in there.  It was also hot and particularly hot after eating the first dish of the night.  Fish soup! 

The fish soup served 6 and in it was a whole fish, not sure what type but it was swimming in a delicious clouded broth that was fishy yet not too fishy, gingery, garlicky and fresh from the generous amount of fresh coriander and shallots sprinkled on top.  In amongst the soup was soft silken tofu and clear sheets of rice noodles.  So unusual.   Everyone loved it!  There was enough for a second bowl too.  10/10 but beware of bones!

We ordered a standard stir fry of greens which I neglected to take a pic of as I was too busy eating.

The stir fried prawns with chilli were awesome!  Fresh and full of flavour with chunks of onion to give the dish some crunch with a medium level of chilli hotness.   All the dishes were quite generous in size too.  I also forgot to take note of the prices, but they were all standard suburban restaurant prices, about $18 for a stir fry I think??  Maybe cheaper.  Anyway I rate this 8.5/10.

The pork spare ribs with green peppers and black bean sauce was my pick and it was great!  The bits of pork on the bone were perfectly battered, not the stodgy batter of standard food court sweet and sour pork.  The sauce had the perfect amount of saltiness from the black beans and also nice and garlicky.  The green peppers were pretty hot and left a bit of a lingering burn on my lips for the rest of the night.  No-one else ate them except me.  9/10.

The beef and tofu hotpot was also nice.  I must say if you don't like the chinese style sauce, which is of a slightly thick, gravy like consistency then you might not like this.  I also forgot to take a pic of this dish until it was almost gone.  It was tasty but not as much flavour as the other dishes.  I might be saying this as my mouth had maybe lost some of it's tasting abilities due to the chillies eaten previously.  The bamboo shoots were unusual and not like the standard yellow rectangles you get but hollow and exactly how you would think a piece of cut up bamboo would look like.  The tofu was yummy, the fried type but softened because of the sauce.  6.5/10.

We were given the bill before we even finished which meant hurry up and leave so we can get the next seating in.  This was fine by us as it was stinking hot,  plus the noise of a screaming baby and loudness in general was getting too much.  

Overall the food was great authentic Chinese - Shanghai and Szechuan style food, I give it a 7.5/10.  What let it down was the lack of air-con and loudness but it was cheap only $110 for 6 people.  There were heaps of other dishes that looked good.  If you are into the offal, then this is a good place too.  Lots of tripe and tongue etc!