Sydney's Best Chinese Food
We tell you the best places for Chinese cuisine, whether you want Yum cha, noodles or Uighur!
Best for... Yum cha
Marigold
Did you know that dumplings are double the size in Sydney that they are in Melbourne? Scout's honour - the ones in Sydney you pretty much need to bite in half whereas Melbourne's versions generally go straight in the cake hole. You also get more variation here and the trolleys make the rounds more regularly. Best bets at Marigold are the pork knuckles, beef tendon, fried radish cakes and prawn dumplings.
683-689 George St, 2000. (02 9281 3388)
Outta 'Town? Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant 9-11 Crofts Ave, Hurstville 2220. (02 9585 1633)
Best for... Sichuan food
Red Chilli
The real magic is in the stuff on the menu on the first floor. It's all in the texture - smooth, creamy preserved eggs blobbing away in a concoction of oil and chilli and squishy cubes of silken tofu, say, with a generous handful of green onion. Or crisp little chunks of fried chicken bits covered in cold burning Sichuan pepper nesting in a forest of dried chilli. Cool it all off with a Tsing Tao beer.
Shop 3, 51-53 Dixon St, Haymarket 2000. (02 9211 8122)
Outta 'Town? Spicy Sichuan 1-9 Glebe Point Road, Glebe NSW 2037. (02 9660 8200)
Best for... Barbecue & roast
Emperor's Garden
The best place for roast in Chinatown is this unassuming little restaurant two doors down from the butcher. The duck, with its sweet, crisp, fatty skin and musky flesh, is great, as is sweet roast pork served with steamed greens and rice. If time is short, there's a stall outside the main restaurant that serves all the meats (including squid and offal), The best bit? They start service at the stall from around 9am so you can eat it for brekky!
213-215 Thomas St,? Haymarket 2000. (02 9281 9899)
Outta 'Town? Excellent BBQ Shop 2, 1 Lakeside Rd, Eastwood 2122. (02 9874 8066)
Best for... Late night nibbles
Golden Century
It's. Open. Until. 4am. Sweet mercy and praise the snack lords, what a restaurant! Long a destination for Sydney soaks, night owls and hospitality workers, it's all about the congee (rice porridge) with pork and preserved egg for under $11. If you do grace the Golden Centurions with your presence at 3am with your drink on, they'll welcome you in and do you an excellently light salt and pepper squid and tiny, sweet baby bok choy with garlic.
399 Sussex St, 2000. (02 9212 3901)
Outta 'Town? Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ 77 Archer St, Chatswood 2067. (02 9411 1147)
Best for... Cheap eats
Dixon Food Court
Plenty of choices here but don't miss the fresh sugarcane juice pressed from weapons of sugarcane that go through a machine strong enough to crush the fingers of Hulk Hogan and come out the other side sweeter than Shirley Temple in liquid form. Best to leave the Vietno stalls alone (you can get better in the City) but for a hotpot on a budget or a simple stir fry, you'll get your fill for less than a tenner. There's also another stall that does Asian desserts: tapioca pearls, creamy fluoro jelly, basil seeds and strange milk drinks.
Cnr Dixon & Little Hay St, Haymarket 2000
Outta 'Town? Star City 80 Pyrmont St, Pyrmont, 2009. (1800 700 700)
Best for... Sweets
Emperor Cream Puff
Oh, if only this magazine had litero-sound. The squelching noise the custard makes as it hits its little casing is most satisfying. But given we're still living in the age of mute print, you'll just have to use your imagination. The pastry hits the searing hot black pastry mould (they look a lot like the things used to make takoyaki - those Japanese octopus balls). When the cake has been turned over and is ready, scorching hot custard is then injected into each cake. And they're cheap, too. Five for a dollar? More please!
100 Hay St, Haymarket 2000. (02 9281 5989)
Outta 'Town? Lerdy Chinese Dim Sim Cake Shop 178 Burwood Rd, Burwood, 2134. (02 9745 4888)
Best for... Groceries
Thai Kee
Talk to any chef that's into their Asian produce and they'll tell you the same thing. From Tetsuya Wakuda to Kylie Kwong, they all recommend this store. And it's easy to see why - with aisles and aisles devoted purely to Asian produce, you'll find everything you need from mustard greens and lotus root to frozen soy beans, moon cakes, bamboo steamers, woks, tea and soy sauce. And if you've got a very large order, they'll deliver.
399 Sussex St, 2000. (02 9281 2202)
Outta 'Town? Randwick Oriental Supermarket 500 Anzac Pde, Kingsford, NSW 2032. (02 9313 7127)
Best for... Noodles
Chinese Noodle Restaurant
This place is so popular, the lines snake out the doors every lunchtime which means you either need to get there super early or take along a good book while you wait. While the room only seats around 30 people, once you're seated, you're in for some treats of noodly proportions like hand-pulled noodles with pork mince and light-as-a-feather dumplings. The northwestern handmade noodles are offset by the giant (and slightly weird) hunting tapestries all over the walls that make it look like a mix between a discount rug shop and fetish house. But boy, are the noodles good.
Shop 7, 8 Quay St,?Haymarket 2000. (02 9281 9051)
Outta 'Town? Dong Dong 428 Anzac Pde, Kingsford 2032. (02 9662 1877)
Best for... Meat
Emperor's Garden Meat Market
The variety is mind-blowing but you need to be tough - the Chinese nannas who frequent this shop will elbow you aside faster than you can say gweilo! (white person). It's good value and a great place to purchase whole chooks (beaks and all), pork belly and short ribs.
Thomas St 2000. (02 9281 2206)
Outta 'Town? Kum Kee 9 Hercules St Ashfield, 2131. (02 9798 4878)
Best for... Uighur food
Uighur Cuisine
One of the more fascinating and different Chinese cuisines found in Chinatown, Uighur is a mix of Turkish and Chinese food resulting in more bread than you'd usually see plus pide and short cut noodle dishes. Try the ‘meat bread' - sort of like a gozlome, only thinner and flatter.
2 Dixon St 2000. (02 9267 8555)
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