“We need one of those signs that tell them that we don’t want any more food!” Rita, Flo and I agree as we are converged on by eager trolley ladies and waiters.
“Would you like this?” “Or this?” “Or this?” “How may drinks?” “No Chinese tea? Are you sure?” “Mineral water, coke and lemonade?” “How about some dumplings? Or spring rolls. Or duck?” The atmosphere in The Eight in that of frantic feeding and I feel like an adventurer that has been lost at sea and people are throwing food at us in an effort to quickly feed us. We almost feel like we have to scoff the food down instead of eating at a leisurely pace.
I recently told you about my very first parking fine as a newly minted driver. Well on my first visit to The Eight (from the same people that own Zilver), the new Chinese restaurant in Market City was marked with another auspicious occasion, my first car prang. There I was, waiting at the traffic light when another car backed into me from the side. When I finally make it to The Eight I am mid mini meltdown. And as they’ve just sat down they are already the subject of much attention and fussing. Service in yum cha restaurants is never brilliant let’s face it. Here they’re certainly friendly but sometimes a girl needs calm, especially if you’ve got a table burgeoning with food!
Pan fried rice noodles with peanut sauce
I’m the first to admit that whilst I adore peanut butter I’m not a huge fan of it with dumplings or with savoury items. These are lightly crispy on the outside and are served with a thick molassasey sauce paired with a runny peanut sauce. Not bad but not what I feel like.
Shrimp won ton dumplings
Now this is my kind of people. Plump flavoursome dumplings filled with large, tender but not mushy prawns. It is served with a soy, sesame and chilli sauce and I ate at least 4 or 5 of these. Comfort food, you do see…
Prawn dumplings
The Eight bills itself as a Modern Chinese restaurant so with that in mind we were going for the more unusual items. This is a large prawn with tail wrapped around with minced prawn. It wasn’t bad but firmer and tougher when compared with the other dumplings. And a word of warning, don’t pick these up with the prawn tail and swing them about because I did and they fell down onto my bag. But it was that kind of a day…
Crab with salt and pepper
The servings of crab is very generous and the meat is very plentiful although the crab is a tad on the over salted side.
Rice paper rolls
The prawn flavoured rice paper rolls are slippery with 2-3 prawns per piece. The sweet soy sauce always pairs well with this and I always like the pieces at the bottom as they tend to soak up more of the sauce.
Chive dumplings
The chive dumplings, always a favourite are perhaps in need of more garlic in them but are still good with a nice amount of filling and a delicate outer.
Greens with oyster sauce
The greens are absolutely perfectly steamed with that thick oyster sauce to dip it into. And these are always great for the dietary offset program where you negotiate making amends with your diet due to the excessive ingestion of dumplings. I think I have a future in politics… 
Har gow
Har gow, the plump prawn dumplings with ginger and a pretty translucent skin are my favourite dumplings and because I love them do much, I always measure a yum cha establishment on the quality of their har gows. These are fat specimens and therefore quite full of prawns although the prawns are a little on the mushy side. Not the best and not the worst ones and I’m glad that they are generous with the prawns.
Custard tarts
Instead of two tarts here they have three smaller tarts per serve. They’re rich and eggy although the pastry lets them down a bit. I always like the tarts where you marvel and go cross eyed trying to count the number of pastry layers.
Mango pudding with sago
I’m really too full to contemplate much more. We finish with a bowl of mango soup with sago and mango balls inside. It is cool and refreshing although I usually like more sago in my sago pudding.
So it’s not really that different as far as the food goes and the offerings as far as yum cha are concerned are quite similar to other establishments. As we leave, calmed and refreshed and fed, I notice the sign that tells me that if I had eaten between 11am-2pm the parking fee would be a mere $5 instead of the $17 that I’ve just paid. Sometimes, you just aren’t meant to drive…
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever had a car prang?
The Eight
Level 3, Market City Shopping Centre, 9-13 Hay St, Haymarket, NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9282 9988
If you dine between 11am-2pm parking is $5 or if you dine at night, parking is $3 (check the night parking times)
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56 Comments | Add your own
Sorry to hear you weren’t having a great day. The shrimp won ton dumplings and crab with salt and pepper do look enticing though. Hope your next car outing goes better and you’re able to park less expensively!
Hope the delicious food calmed your nerves after that car prang.
I’ve been involved in a few car accidents in my time. Most were no fault of my own; never got caught on the others.
In any event, I enjoyed living vicariously through your wonderful dining experience.
The dumplings look divine, and I liked your helpful hint about not flinging them about by the tails mentioned as though it was something we well all likely too do. Very cute.
I love yum cha! But you are right – it is not the “calmest” meal you will ever have
Hmm… guess there were quite a bit of hits and misses
Not a good day all round huh? We’ve all had those.
So the consensus seems to be The Eight is nothing out of the ordinary as far as yum cha or dinner is concerned, which is disappointing. I wanted to laugh at your prawn dumpling breaking off at the tail and falling onto your bag but not after your day of mishaps. I hope your car is okay!
Ok, the squishy chairs look appealing, but that’s about it.
I’m sorry about the prang!!! Chinatown is a treacherous place to drive…
I always order the greens at dim sum for the very same ‘off set’ reason.
Sorry to hear about the prang.
Can I just say from experience, that you do get a bit calmer with subsequent ones?
Have a great weekend.
SSG xxx
Oh Lorraine, those pics evoke a memory of many of our family yum cha in Chinatown,when my kids were little, they loved finding what was inside those little steaming pots. We have to go back and do it again when everyone has a day off!
Oh Lorraine, sounds like a bit of a crap day. If it’s any consolation, the way I see it, it wasn’t really your first prang as the other car ran into you. I only count the ones when I hit something
I haven’t had a real prang yet (touch wood!) but my alloy wheels will show I still have issues judging how far away the gutter is
My best/worst one; backing into the side of my stepsister’s car, at the very beginning of Christmas eve. We toasted that no one was hurt and ate plenty that night. It’s the best thing to do to curb that awful gnawing feeling inside. Thank goodness you weren’t at fault and nobody was injured. NB, love the look of the won ton dumplings…
Yeah, looks a lot like any other yum cha.
Though wonton out of soup… they look like fish out of water…!
It looks like a marvellous feed, even if it wasn’t the best. I love the egg custard tarts – always a highlight for me.
The thing with most traditional Chinese places is that it’s hard to get any sort of variety -once you’ve been to one, you can order at all the others. I do love Yum Char though and the wonton dumplings look divine
I know all about bad days – In fact I’m having one today that has just been saved by my colleague arriving with a giant buttery apple strudel fresh from the oven!
Sad when the food isn’t spectacular enough to pull you out of the funk!
So sorry your car got hit. Looks like the food would have been enough to ease the pain though.
Oh noo…. It was one of those moments where if only you had known. I had plenty of those!! It can only go uphill from here.
Oh poor you! What a day. I find if I have yum cha with my Cantonese friends it’s much more relaxing as you somehow manage to ignore all the going ons around you.
Once again, Lorraine, you make me want to move!
i adore DUMPLINGS. Especially if they are PLUMP.
But the little tarts look ‘out of this world!’ & small enough to not feel guilty about devouring.
Oh, I’m glad you’re Okay, Sweet Lorraine!
Those dumplings look really yummy, Lorraine.
I’ve been involved in a couple of “fender benders” in all my years of driving, but it has been a long time! It’s no fun. Take care.
I just love the ‘dietary offset program’! I’ll definitely vote for you
I also love yum cha and this all looks much better than any in Canberra. I’m sorry that someone backed into you, not a fun experience.
Well, Lorraine – I don’t know how they tasted but, to an old and regular yum cha fiend they look just beautiful! Fresh, moist, light and varied!!
Prangs:
Day 1 -getlicence and car
Day 2 – get run into from the left by a rude monster of a guy
Day 3 – get run into from the back by a nice, apologetic guy
Day 4 to now – keep away from male drivers – no prangs! Good luck!!
Oh dear, prangs are nasty – hope you and your car are okay (and it wasn’t your fault, which is good).
The last time I visited The Eight, the waiting time was enormous, so we gave up and went to East Ocean instead. I still want to try it, though it’s interesting that a lot of the dishes you had were served on plates rather than in bamboo steamers?
Looks like it wasn’t the best of days for you
I’m surprised to see most dishes on plates! Haha quite modern indeed.. I feel like a yumcha brunch now 
Like you I only recently became a fully fledged confident driver with my own divine little Mini Cabrio.
Within a few weeks I had scraped the wing mirror on my driveway wall, heartbreaking and waste of the $200 it cost to fix. The first prang though is the one we have to have. Now I am so bloody careful when reversing out and so what a valuable lesson it was.
On a foodie note, Eight is on my list to get to. Love Zilver so want to try this one.
Hi Lorraine,
…another one to add to the evergrowing list…how can I ever get to a shortlist of Lorraine’s fav. restaurants?
Have you composed a list of your ‘bestest’ restaurants as yet….?
My fav of all time has to be Movida (Melbs)
Susie Q
Eek on the car mishap. Ahh, welcome to the world of driving. Glad you got soothed by some fine dumplings, though. Man, those prawn dumplings look hugely wonderful. Hope they made you forget the dent in the car.
I once backed over a car in a work carpark in th work 4WD…it was a sportscar and it was a total write-off (but they were parked in a no parking area, so I totally blame them for the mishap)! The sound of the car crumpling under the 4WD kinda reminded of when you scrunch up the innards of a tim tam packet to chuck out. Ooopsie!
I really want to check out this place for Yum Cha…maybe even tomorrow as it’s kind of yum cha weather.
I haven’t been to a dim sum place in years and years and years… the things I really miss are the greens with oyster sauce and the dan tarts
Or a T-shirt that says: “Stop feeding me” when you go yum cha. I run into similar problems when I go to any dim sum places…don’t mess with Cantonese ladies! ;-p
I was in a prang when I was six and didn’t recall it until almost 20 years later! I was going to make a statement about lack of use of bamboo steamer baskets until I scrolled down and came along to the har gow! Glad to see it’s not all high class serving plates, hehe!
Sorry to hear you had a wrotten day Lorraine.
Yes I’ve had a prang and a couple of other scary incidents that could have turned into prangs. That’s not counting the people who have reversed into me or rammed into the back of me (that’s scary)!
You will toughen up in time.
I don’t often drive in inner Sydney – it is fraught with danger. You are very brave for driving there considering you only just got your licence.
You’ll be a pro in no time.
just thought u would be interested, a standard egg tart has 108 layers, have fun counting to confirm this fact!
I agree with you Ju….I’ve had my licence since August 2010, and recently hit the back of another car (very, very minor, couple of tiny stone chip type marks). But it took the sheen off the “newness” of my gorgeous black Rav 4. I was really cranky with myself! I now am even more cautious. Definitely a lesson learned. Hope your car is ok, and it didn’t shake you up too much! I did have a chuckle (sorry!) at the ….”but it was that kind of day” comment. I think we’ve all had those!
However bad it was, your driving experience would have been worse here in Italy.
Touch wood…. I haven’t had a prang… but after a massive flight back from London including unexpected layovers to arrive in Sydney & still had to wait around for a flight to Canberra my Mom picked me up (tears, excitement, joy, fun & a cozy bed to look forward to) another driver side swiped us…. and we had to wait around for a tow & police etc etc (yep.. we did). I think I was delirious from lack of sleep, so whats a few more hours huh.
No wonder you felt like a little calm after such a thing.., car accidents are not good stuff girl.
This feast does look amazing though.., I could so tuck into this right about now.
Never heard the term “prang” before. Sounds like a prawn weilding a menacing fork.
Bad luck about the accident – but that is why we have insurance and if they backed into your car then you should not have to pay the excess
As to my prangs, I perhaps should not confess I had one when I went for my driving test in 1982 – and still passed! There was a tree across the parking line in the carpark at the test centre and I hit it at the end of the test. Had a few since then – only one was my fault and that was with a gold Mercedes and they were insured by the same company as I was and I left the car to be repaired whilst I went to Port Douglas for a week on holiday – which was as pain free as you could get.
The Har gow is my favourite too! It’s funny how every table at yum cha seems to have the obligatory lone green veges sitting on the table as ‘fat offset’.
I applaud anyone who drives in Sydney traffic as I have chosen not to. I prefer to arrive without the stress! Those prawn dumplings and the greens look great but I agree with the others, there’s not enough here to make me travel halfway across the city to go there. Pity as I had high hopes for this place!
Oh no your first prang! Don’t let it hurt your confidence – it happens to everyone at the start when you are still not so good behind the wheel (well that’s what I tell myself anyway). I miss Aussie dim sum!
I’m not into that type of food, but it sounds lovely!
You know I never eat seafood unless it’s presented in a asian style dish. Those prawns actually look so appetizing!
The shrimp dumplings with the tails really caught my attention. Great Idea!
Hope your fender-bender wasn’t too gruesome. Driving is stressful… I really remembered what being a new driver was like when I drove in Britain… so much is sense memory and habit… new drivers (or drivers new to driving on the left side)don’t have that practice behind them… it was really hard!!
Oh i would never want to put up that sign , i would want a sign that said , bring it on
And more… so delicious a spread , i could never say no , but i know now , if i ever go to The Eight , i need to fast and go
Oh i did jump to the desserts quickly too , cute mini custard tarts and mango sago pudding….hah , im all there!
holy cow Lorraine! That looks toooo goood!!! You have to give us tips on how you know about so many places and such
Oh you poor thing! At least your first prang was NOT your fault, that would have been even worse. The last prang I had was when a young p plater rear ended me full on when I was in a line of fully stopped cars. He said he didn’t see me- I have a BRIGHT purple big car. What I did notice, was I thought he was alone in the car,his pants were unzipped when he got out the car, his girlfriend suddenly appeared in the front passenger seat, and he didn’t stop CRYING for the 20 mins of us sorting things out. I don’t think it was from emotional trauma either.
Yum cha is never relaxing, but I have a question… you really want them to STOP bringing you food??? My littlej always devours an entire plate of greens on her own and won’t share with anyone.
Shrimp won ton dumplings – yes please! The chive ones also look great. & im a sucker for those slippery rice noodles, mmm
Poor thing re the car! I’ve been in a little prang, they happen, what can you do.
Heidi xo
i love the look of The Eight! Sometimes crappy chinese restaurants, though they serve good dimsum, is just frustrating because it’s crowded and the staff are rude. This place looks like it has the right balance of good food and service… I’m SO there when I get back to Sydney!
Mmm dumplings – what a feast!
Sorry to hear about your prang! I don’t have my license (not even my L’s and I don’t actually know the theory of how to drive) so no prangs here!
Looks extremely tasty!
No car prang just yet and I hope I don’t run into any soon either!
Those shrimp wontons look amazing. I love a good yum cha. It’s the worst when you have a car accident. I haven’t had one for ages, touch wood, although I am surprised with the amount of aggressive drivers in canberra!
Wait, this place has trolleys?! Wow – it looks like quite a lovely restaurant!
Decor looks lovely and the salt and pepper crab delicious.
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