It first came to me via a text on my phone. My friend Buxom Wench asked if I had tried Yummy Yummy restaurant in Riverwood. She accompanied her question with a photo from her dinner there and the tempting offer of live mud crab for $37.60 a kilo. I knew that her parents, with whom she had eaten, were the harshest of critics of Chinese food so given that they had loved it, it was surely worth a visit?
So there we were, with my own two harshest critics of Chinese food, my parents Rose and Ronald. Mr NQN was driving my father’s car and we were discussing crab. My father, hard of hearing, loves to talk about the price of crab (a real Chinese father past time) and the idea of a bargain such as this animated him.
“So how much are mud crabs normally?” I ask him.
“How much are nightclubs?” he asks.
“He’s getting his hearing aid tomorrow. Finally” my mum answers, relieved.
A quick 30 minutes later, we’ve arrived at Riverwood, hungry with all of this mud crab talk. Our booking it seems has gone astray but no matter, the owner finds us a table, right near the door that swings open all night. Even though eating crab is a messy task, the freezing cold weather means that coats stay on all night and crab is negotiated around sleeves. We take his recommendations for other dishes and my father orders two small crabs. They bring them out for us and there is a male and female crab. My father is immensely pleased and tells us that female mud crabs are more expensive.
Mud crab 1.4 kilo $64.60 (noodles $12 extra) and I don’t know why there are noodles on the table already! 
It’s not long before all of the food hits our table and we watch table after table of people walk in. Those without bookings are turned away out into the cold weather outside and I feel sorry for them. The crab arrives and it is enormous.
Unearthing the crab
Interestingly, they pile the vermicelli noodles on top whereas most places put the crab on top. The crab in XO sauce is plentiful with soft and silky meat inside. The noodles have pieces of crab interspersed throughout them and the whole dish silences everyone and there is just the contented nodding of people immensely happy with a much anticipated dish.
Crispy skin chicken $16.80
The crispy skin chicken is a dish that they recommended repeatedly. It was an enormous serve of the crispiest skin and tender meat underneath it. There is also an aromatic salt and pepper accompaniment to dip the chicken into.
Combination bean curd hot pot $18.80
The bean curd hot pot, ordered because the weather called for something warm and soothing, is full of char siu, beef, chicken, prawns, squid and soft, spongy blocks of tofu. The thick sauce is made for spooning on rice and this too satisfies, particularly tofu loving Mr NQN.
Yummy yummy special fried rice $15.80
There are several types of fried rice on the menu and we went with their recommendation. It has a generous amount of prawns and chopped up scallops and does the job well of soaking up the sauces.
Steamed barramundi $28.80
The steamed barramundi is fresh and served with spring onion, sesame soy and ginger. It is good but I’m completely full from the other dishes and this came out quite a bit later. I’m still busy fishing out pieces of crab from the large black pot.
With two choices for dessert we decided to bypass the dessert and they bring us a plate of complimentary mandarins and they are sweet and juicy. We ask how long the price of the mud crab will last and it will be for another 3.5- 4 weeks. And with that time limit, we are already planning our return
So tell me Dear Reader, are your parents hard to please with food or restaurants? And do you ever order dessert at Chinese restaurants and if so, what do you choose?
Yummy Yummy Chinese Seafood Restaurant
258 Belmore Road, Riverwood, NSW 2210
Tel: +61 (02) 9584 8536
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48 Comments | Add your own
I’m still into the sour cream apple pie.
This is one of my favourite dishes of all time, and I usually don’t order it because it’s well over $100 at most Chinese restaurants! What a lot of food you ordered. Hope your parents were happy, mine are notoriously hard to please…
Wow!! It’s making me super duper hungry. We have a local Chinese raetaurant – the food is ah!!meh!zing!!
I’ll try post about it one of these days. As soon as I learn to click when starving to death.
You have done it again.. and with the help of google maps Im just 11 minutes from there by car when I stay at my parents place in Sydney..
Yummy Yummy.
I can’t tell you how many times I have driven past this place! My parents-in-law live a few suburbs over. I will have to take them there instead of their usual place.
They are pretty hard to please I’ve got to say, especially the father-in-law. He has so many preconceived food dislikes that make no sense. It’s so frustrating to go to a lot of trouble cooking something for them only to be told, “I don’t eat that”. Every week I’m discovering a new thing he doesn’t eat.
They are rather actually. If a place has really good service they’ll give it a second go even if the food isn’t good.
Need you ask… deep fried icecream. It’s really not all that nice but I quite often order it anyway.
Wow,That claw. That claw!! I want to pick it off the top and eat it like an icecream!
I am now a sagely grandparent but I can still recall the very first time I visited chinatown Sydney as a child. Full of wonder I asked how it was possible to”Deep fry icecream”?
The chinese chef smiled and said “Chinaman, very wise, can even put FIRE inside paper bag!”
While I sat in wide eyed amazment he pointed to the small candle inside the paper lanten hanging over our table.
Deep fried icecream remains my all time favourite dessert
Yum! I love Chinese desserts and anything with red bean usually seals the deal for me! Love them!
Amazing looking crab and noodles, one of my fave Chinese dishes. LOL at the mandarins!
As much as I adore crabs, I must say that the crispy skin chicken looked really good.
My mother was easy to please with restaurants and very adventurous, but my father liked basic, hearty food without a lot of fuss.
Unfortunately, my parents are not hard to please, it seems that my daughters and I are the “picky” ones. I love good food and will pay more, if it is reasonable to have a great meal, as opposed to a good deal for a fair meal. As for my family they say I cook better than they can eat out anyway.
What a feast!
LOL i think Asian parents are always hard to please
my parents only really eat Chinese food and when I say Chinese I really mean cantonese food ~
It seems like Mudcrab prices are quite cheap everywhere cuz they’re quite cheap in Melbourne too and this place reminds me of the Pacific BBQ restaurant we have in Richmond which i hihgly recommend your parents going if they come to Melbourne
I don’t usually get dessert in Chinese resaturants but if i was to get it’ll usually be ‘Banana fritters LOL
I rarely order dessert at a Chinese restaurant because I’m usually so full there is no room. I always order too much.
I didn’t know it was legal to sell female mud crabs. It’s certainly not legal for us to trap them in the back yard. We pull up the traps and if they’re female they’ve gotta go back.
I have definitely resided outside an urban area for too long as these prices do not seem at all cheap to me compared to the cost at which I can bring the same on the table
! Also, as oft with Chinese restaurants, the lighting seems far too strong for my liking. OK, ‘whinge’ over, actually love the look of the chicken and the combination bean curd more than the crab, however much I do love the Qld muddie! No desserts for me at Chinese restaurants, perhaps lychees or longans on occasion. Sadly had little chance ever to eat in a restaurant with my parents during my growing years: during the War we were lucky enough to have a crust of bread in hand or bones to make a watery soup . . . So grateful now that circumstances so very different, but darling parents have long reached the other side of the river . . .
Wow, thanks for the info on this great crabby deal. My uncle lives in Riverwood and loves a seafood bargain (what older Chinese man doesn’t?). I’ll have to tell him about it.
Amazing! We are definitely going to hot foot down there. Poor Buxom Wench will be sorry she told you when she can’t get a booking anymore – the word is OUT!
What a generous price and serving! I would go every week at that price
The tofu dish looks gorgeous as well, perfect for tht weather. I’m not a big fan of barramundi, but it’s BigJ’s favourite.
My parents are tricky to eat out with, they want value, nothing too rich or fatty, no pork or shellfish, no wierd mixtures… It’s just easier to cook for them myself! THey used to be much easier to please, perhaps it’s to do with them getting older? My dad gets his hearing aid next week too, good luck to both of them
My father hates taking my mother anywhere to eat because she is the harshest of critics and even if the food’s great, she’ll be seated at the table next to the swinging door. The portions at this restaurant are very generous. And who knew females are worth more than males! xx
That all looks lovely but I am particularly taken by the tofu hot pot. I can see ma po tofu may feature on our menu tonight!
WOW I now have another craving for Chinese food and mud crabs too!
I normally don’t order dessert at a Chinese restaurant (fried ice cream is a treat for me), TRUE!
But recently, I DID do! (even taking a photograph too!)
I ordered a Chinese pancake with a lotus root (family recipe) paste, with cream (the whitest have ever seen), which included small chocolate, and two other flavored small hearts…was GREAT! WHOO HOO!
You should try ‘My Chinese Kitchen’ in Burwood. Recommended dishes: Pork belly in foil wrap; Prawn mince roll, Yangzhou meat balls.
Oh, my parents are typical Chinese – hard to please! But I think they have mellowed out through the years, heehee! I may be wrong, but to me, those crab are expensive! I checked out the CAD to AUS dollar conversion and it’s almost one-to-one, but I can’t imagine paying $65 for crabs! Are mud crabs different from regular crabs? Maybe we just get the crappy crabs here in Canada…
I can never go passed a good banana fritter for dessert
I have tried every other chinese restaurant in my hood but havent been here yet. I’d also recommend Kings View. No crab but awesome san choy bau 
WOW! The crab looks fantastic! It looks like a trip to Riverwood is on the cards.
My parents aren’t picky fortunately, (probably because the went through a hunger war in Europe), but that also means that we were told we had to eat EVERYTHING on our plates! And we still do! So much for dieting 
Oh dear, yes, yes, yes, it is sooo hard to please my parents (or my husband for that matter) with a restaurants. Sometimes I’d like to skip cooking (about once a month or so) but when the “army” of two hungry men give me a sad look, I go in the kitchen and make them something simple, like potatoes
I never order dessert at chinese restaurants, it’s alllll about the savoury. mud crab! steamed fish. yum.
Heidi xo
Thanks for reminding us how good Cantonese food can be, it’s so often overshadowed by whatever “it” flavour of the month is! As for chinese desserts, my first love was toffeed apple slices that you had to dip in iced water to solidify!
My parents are actually not too hard to please when it comes to the dish’s taste, but will whinge if they reckon the food is too ‘expensive.’
I LOVE mud crabs and noodles. Never had vermicelli with crabs before – we usually stick to egg noodles – but perhaps I should ask them if they can give us vermicelli instead next time!
MY MOM IS HARD TO PLEASE.
I am sure you know about that.
What a seafood dream my friend, a wonderful review
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
When you have a recommendation from authentic Chinese food critics…that makes for a wonderful find. I am always asking people here where in Houston to go for the best Chinese. That crispy chicken skin dish looks so perfectly prepared. YUM>
Hi Lorraine, my chinese parents are very hard to please. If we bring them anywhere too upmarket they will tell us it’s too expensive as they don’t want us wasting our money, the food will be good but they will say they didn’t enjoy it to deter us from bringing them again. The most difficult is when they start comparing the cost/value of a western style 3 course meal to a Chinese banquet style menu…
This would be my dream come true! I LOVE seafood. Thanks for sharing all these gorgeous pictures.
I’ve said it before. We don’t have good Chinese food in Nashville. You have great and are so lucky.
My father is horrible and so embarrassing! He picks at everything and then demands to know who cooked the crappy food! He’s not rude, he just has a knack of making them feel very incompetent. Looks like you guys had a great meal!
I just cannot get over how expensive restaurant food is in Australia, Lorraine. I have the same reservations about Chinese restaurants, few and far between are any good. I’m glad you found a good one near you. The crab dish looks incredible. One thing that is consistent is the over powering lighting. Definitely not a date night place!
Amazing! Mud crabs at those prices… unheard of! So pleased you took advantage and had a mud crab feast!
Those are ginormous crabs! Never seem them hidden under a mountain of noodles like that. But wow, would I ever love to dig into THAT.
mm crab with noodles.. my fave! i dont know why people prefer lobsters more!
The mud crab & crispy chicken look delicious. Yum!
Yum, sounds like you had a fabulous dinner. I love Chinese desserts at yum cha. Lots of little balls. .. Sago, tapioca yum
i love crabs.. crabs are very cheap at kingsford too!
I love crabs but realized that I’m allergic after eating lots of delicious crabs in Hokkaido. I couldn’t believe it. Now I’m hungry looking at your delicious photos.
Dear Lorraine,
I wonder if this is the same people who opened Yummy Yummy in Crows Nest which has since closed for business. Their mud crab with vermicelli was one of their signature dishes which they did particularly well.
I booked a table as soon as I saw your post last week. I ended up having the cheapest asian meal involving 2 crabs on Saturday night. Quality was excellant as well – many thanks!
Hi elaine-I’m so glad that you enjoyed it and yes it’s so reasonably priced but good!
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