Chef's Gallery

Shop 12, Ground Floor Regent Place,

501 George Street, Sydney

Tel: 02 9267 8877

Open 7 days 11am-3pm and 5pm- late

Chef's Gallery, opened in Sydney in August/Sept 2010, and i read a few reviews and heard positive comments about the place, but never remembered to come by whenever i was in the city (and i am rarely in the city).

For my dearest friend Annie's birthday in Mid January of this year she organized a little group of us for lunch at Chef's Gallery, and i was quite impressed!

prawn and pork wontons with handmade noodles

in a Shanghainese style spicy sauce $12.90

This dish was a hit as we ordered two of them! The sauce with these noodles is really addictive, being not too salty & just being so nice that even without the wontons it still would've been yummy!

lightly pan fried prawn dumplings 6 pieces $11.90

These were also good enough for a second round, panfried and glistening golden i think i had more then my fair share of these, and i really enjoyed the long shaped style instead of the traditional round dumplings, more crunch :)

Sliced pork belly with salted fish, dried chilli & dark soya sauce

served with steamed shallot pancakes $21.90

There was a bit of pork left over, the girls said it was too salty, so they struggled to finish it off, i didn't try the pancakes but i imagine it might be nicer with white rice?

prawn and pork wonton in a spicy red soup $9.90

The spice in this soup hit most of us pretty hard - but still yummy and addictive, leaving a hot sensation on our tongues for a lil while after sipping on it.

prawn dumplings steamed in a fine clear pastry 4 pieces $5.90

Unfortunately i found these dumplings not worth the price we paid.

chef's own golden snowflake chicken - lightly crumbed chicken fillet,

very crispy, tender and moist served with noodles in a pumkin soup $13.90

I personally really enjoyed the pumpkin soup noodles, and teamed them with the pan fried prawn dumplings, i finished off most the soup in the end :) The chicken i heard was crispier then it actually looked!

Steamed sesame ‘piggy face’ bun, as sumptuous to the eyes as it is

to the taste buds - a must-try for adults and children (2 pc) $5.90

We were completely stuffed (all this between 5 gals) so we take awayed the piggy buns for dessert later on at Karaoke. They are soo adorable!! I was really looking forward to trying these as i had seen pictures of them floating around the internets, but because they weren't freshly out of the steamer anymore they were a bit rubbery? but the sesame filling was nice - not overly sweet. Must try them on the spot the next time i go :)

I really enjoyed lunch at Chef's Gallery, i'd love to go back and have my favourites again, and possibly try some of the other noodle dishes and desserts!

Golden King 2000

Shop 13 172 Greenvalley Rd

Green Valley

New South Wales, 2168

Phone: (02) 9826 7500

After a whole day in the Blue Mountains, (and a not so filling lunch at Bygone Beautys), on the drive home we were thinking what to have for dinner. I really had trouble thinking of something local, took us ages to finally decide to eat here. I've been here once a long time ago, and have had take away as well.

The shopfront is shared by a newsagency, and i think a hairdresser as well. And behind, you can find an indian mart and a few other small shops that i can't remember.

Being seated straight away we were waitered by a bubbly middle aged Chinese woman, assuming that we spoke fluent Chinese, but then seeing our confused faces (Richard is Chinese, but doesn't speak it very well) she changed to the English language.

She was very chirpy and cheery, making jokes about things, and happily taking our order, and accommodating to my request for some nuts (they didn't charge for a small plate of cashew nuts yippee)

Sliced chinese mushroom with egg noodles $11

Shanghai Noodles with XO Sauce $10.50

I found both dishes were lacking flavour, i've had better noodles in Cabramatta before, and at this point, regret not going to Cabramatta for dinner. Richard, however, enjoyed both noodles (he isn't very hard to please hehe).

The big chunks of shallots were a bit overwhelming on the palate, but Richard enjoyed eating my bits :)

Dinner was cheap, but probably could've been cheaper in Cabramatta :P

I think this restaurant caters more for the non asian community, as there were a lot of different nationalities of people dining at the time we were there. They did a great job on service i was really happy with that, next time perhaps, i might ask for a side order of soy sauce to add some more flavour.

Lao Fu Qing

243 Liverpool road
Ashfield NSW 2131
Ph: 9716 6838
BYO

After a refreshing 7km run around Iron Cove, we came to Ashfield in search for an asian style brunch. Jeremy, had been telling us about some 'awesome dumpling place', since he was with us this day, we got him to show us the way.

After walking past about 4 restaurant that he claimed was 'the awesome dumpling place i went to', and half way down the main strip in Ashfield, he finally found it.

Chinese food is way way at the bottom of my to-eat list. I don't know why. My mom doesn't cook chinese all that often, we eat more Vietnamese food at home, and i do eat out at vegetarian restaurants every so often.. but today, i was craving some chinky goodness.

The restaurant looked quite newly furbished, fresh paint & new signage (compared to the other places we had walked past). We were the first customers, & were completely starved for food so we quickly called over the waitress to take our order as soon as we had decided.

There were quite a few vegetarian options, & i was quite impressed by this!

milk tea hong-kong style $3.50

minced pork & preserved egg congee $6.80

The boys ordered this congee, which came out pretty hot & steamy (like, burn your tongue hot), and was garnished with spring onions & yu tiao. It was apprently very watery, & lacked flavouring.

steamed vegetarian dumplings $7.20

These were a MUST order for me, i have NOT had dumplings for AGES, i think ever since i completely stopped eating meat & seafood. The outside thin layer of dough was containing small diced vegies like cabbage, bamboo, onion & bean curd. It came in a serving of eight, i think i ate 5 of them hehe..

chive, eggs & sweet potato threads pockets $6.20

I ordered this as well, the name looked interesting, i've never had this combo in anything before. There was yummy golden crunchy pastry on the outside, each pocket was cut into two already, filling had everything in the name, with extra clear thin noodle bits! This gave it an extra bite. This was probably my favourite dish, probably cos im a sucker for fried foods..

egg pancake with yu tiao $5.20

'Yu Tiao' is a long golden brown deep fried strip of dough, & is normally eaten with congee.

This dish, is quite similar to a dish that i've had at a few yumcha's before. But instead of the yu tiao being wrapped in rice noodle sheets, this was using egg pancakes. I personally prefer the rice noodle sheets, but the egg was pretty nice as well. I found the yu tiao was dry, & overly chewy (if it were frsh, it would be crunch&crisp!)

shang hai minced pork mini buns $6.80

This is what Jeremy remembers this place for, their 'dumplings', which was actually, mini buns hehe. I didn't taste any, but there is actually some sort of soup (must be pork or chicken soup) which is inside the bun. SO when you bite into the bun, you also get some juices. HOT juices, mind you. But Jeremy made Richard well aware of this before digging in.


The boys demolished this, & really liked it actually. I think its a genius idea to have soup in a mini bun like this.

I really enjoyed the food here, although the english of the waitress was horrid..

JC: What's that thing with the buns with meat inside it, arranged in a circle?
Waitress: um.. vegetarian?
JC: No, the one with meat in it
Waitress: the vegetarian bun?
JC: MEAT. It's got MEAT and soup in it
Waitress: Ah, the pork buns, got it

Far out .. lols.