I’m terrible at remembering dates.  In fact I need a website to remind me when people’s birthdays are so that I don’t seem like a terrible friend. Stores remind me, sometimes months in advance that Valentines Day and Easter are coming up . Then there are my parents who remind me every year when Chinese New Year is going to be. In my weak defence the date does change every year (I know, not a great excuse there). And since tomorrow is Chinese New Year and it seemed appropriate to celebrate with a Chinese restaurant post.

We’re at Chef’s Gallery, where dumplings and noodles feature on the menu alongside other slightly different offerings than your usual Chinese restaurant. Mr NQN and I are dining with with Queen Viv and Miss America, both complete dumpling addicts (and survivors of our dumpling race around Sydney). You’ve got to love friends that can face dumplings after a repetitive onslaught of the little buggers. This post is made up of a few visits there.

There’s a single voice that yells out “Welcome!” when we walk in and then the rest of the staff join in with a collective “Ni Hao” in the Chinese version of the Japanese “Irasshaimase!” welcome greeting. This repeats itself every time someone enters. We sit down at the banquette which is very low and I feel as though I need a cushion-in fact the woman next to us asks to move because she feels too low compared to her dining companion sitting opposite her! We order based on dumpling lust and the little chef’s hat which designates an item as the specialty. The people cooking the food wear what appear to be upside down plastic sun visors over their mouths. “It’s all very Darth Vader” Queen Viv says and we nod in agreement.

Pork belly Roll $8.90

BYO is $10 per bottle here (wine only) and Queen Viv and Miss America start pouring. The food comes out furiously fast and we start with the pork belly roll which is a cold dish. There are thin, tender slices of roasted pork belly wrapped around batons of cucumber and carrot and topped with a finely diced garlic Asian vinaigrette (like one of those oil free Japanese dressings). We all enjoy this dish as it’s refreshing and crunchy.

Steamed prawn Dumplings $7.90

We happily devour the steamed prawn dumplings which are filled with fresh prawns and bursting with flavour. In fact I make motions to order another few lots of these but digress as I realise that with all of the changes as some items are unavailable, we have unwittingly ordered a mountain of food.

Cabbage and pork pan fried dumplings $9.90

These came out looking just like the spring rolls my late grandma used to make me so I get all happy inside. They’re crispy on the outside being pan fried mainly on one side and filled with a flavoursome and slightly crunchy cabbage and pork filling.

Chicken pan fried bun $9.90

I had expected these to be more…well pan fried but they appear as entirely steamed buns filled with chicken mince, much like steamed bao buns.

Chef’s Own Golden Snowflake chicken noodle $14.90

Now a name always suckers me in (call me a marketer’s dream) and the idea of a golden snowflake chicken excites me. It comes out on a separate plate and it is a very thin fillet made up mostly of panko breadcrumbs. The taste is oily and we remain nonplussed. The soup is like a very watery light pumpkin soup and we remain nonplussed by this too. It’s hungry Mr NQN that finishes it but Queen Viv, Miss America and I leave our share in our bowls uneaten.

Chilli chicken noodle $13.90

The noodles are all handmade and they are springy and very good indeed although they are also very slippery and transporting these from the bowl to our individual bowls proves a task. The chilli chicken isn’t too bad but it’s a little bit one note. I prefer dipping the noodles in the sauce from the sweet dark pork ribs below.

Chef’s own handmade egg tofu , lightly pan fried topped with preserved vegetables $16.90

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One morning I was talking to Jill Jones-Evans, owner of the Victoria Room about scones-as you do when you’re a little bit obsessed with food. Mid conversation she casually mentioned how they had a 10 scone long scone menu at their new tea salon in the Westfields. Conversation screeched to a halt, I think I even heard the tyres screeching in the background and people may have looked around in alarm. I spluttered ”A menu with ten scones to choose from??? And you have a new tea room? Why have I not heard of this?” thinking that perhaps my sources at the afternoon tea association would have told me (ok there is no association but I thought I might have heard about it somewhere!) .

The tea salon sits nestled like a porcelain cup amongst tissue paper on the fourth floor “designer’s gallery” in the new Westfields complex. Unlike the dark, exotic and sensuous vibe of the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst, this one is bright and pink like the much younger sister. There are curved white picket fences around the outside, pink velvet covered seats, grass green velvet banquettes and exquisitely pretty china. It’s a candy pop girly dream which is a good thing because my friend Christie has brought along her appropriately attired baby girl Poppy and she loves pink.

Service is very helpful and friendly and when Christie needs a high chair for Poppy the resourceful waitress gets one from another store. The menu features a range of afternoon tea goodies with the three tier stands in standard, sparkling or couture, the latter features a glass of Moet. The noise level is higher than that of a closed off establishment but it isn’t as loud as the food court above it (which truthfully drives me a bit crazy with the noise level).

Poppy thinks everything is an iPad

There are snacks as well as  more substantial meals like terrine, ribbon sandwiches, salads, larger cakes by the slice, ice cream sundaes and the all important list of ten scones baked fresh daily. The scone list is as follows: classic (also comes gluten free); date & orange; spiced cinnamon & raisin; lemon; pistachio & currant; white chocolate & cranberry; dark chocolate chip; lavender; rose; cheddar & thyme and pumpkin & ginger. Scones can also be bought individually and served with butter and conserves or chive butter for the savoury ones. You can also choose the scone that you want to go with your high tea.

Our champagne (part of the couture high tea) comes out first and it’s a generously poured glass of Moet and Chandon. Just the thing to take the edge off a frantic day’s shopping. Or in my case, rushing to and from work meetings! And because I was doing so much running around using taxis and public transport, I brought my new camera-the Pentax Q to test out. It’s a tiny camera that I carry in my bag at all times in case of dining emergency or when I can’t be bothered taking my massive DSLR with me like today and it was a Christmas gift from my amazing Sigma distributor sponsor-thank you! It is the smallest, lightest camera with interchangeable lenses, image sensor, high ISO (6400max), flash, video and is small weighing in at a tiny 334grams with the case. And I absolutely love it! I cannot wait to take it travelling with me.

Couture high tea for one $58

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One night on twitter I wrote the following sentence “I need a tshirt that reads: ‘I survived an Elliott family dinner’”

It was a simple enough request. Find a restaurant for Mr NQN and his brother for their joint birthday. Make it vegetarian/vegan friendly. “Oh and I don’t want to pay over $15 a person” the Assman said. Hmmm even fast food restaurants are about that much nowadays so having to ignore the last request I found Vina, a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant in Newtown that specialised in vegetarian dishes. We have about 8-10 of these family birthdays a year and they usually start and end in drama, confusion, endless repeated questions, more drama and hysteria. And that’s mostly from Mr NQN’s parents!

We arrive at Vina and it’s a very casual looking restaurant. There’s a display of food just past the door and some painted bamboo and butterflies on the wall. There are two waitstaff and we’ve taken up the large table in the centre. Some of the Elliotts are late but then the food starts coming out. Then others that had RSVPd only that morning and who had turned up half an hour late needed to order. Mr NQN leaned over and whispered to me “You can see how we never ate out right?”

Steamed mock BBQ buns (2) $4.50

The steamed mock BBQ pork buns actually do a very good job of simulating real meat with a sweet Chinese barbecue sauce in the small, fluffy buns.

Steamed curry bun (2) $4.50

The curry buns are stuffed with a sweet vegetable curry with a sesame seed studded pastry and although nice enough, I prefer the bbq pork buns.

Fried Spring rolls $6.00

After everyone saw Sam’s order for the crunchy spring rolls, several more orders were put in for them. They were long, crunchy and packed with a flavoursome filling. They were served with the cabbage, pickles and fresh mint salad although I enjoyed these on their own with the nuoc cham dipping sauce.

Crispy mock fish nuggets (10) $6

We were curious to see what these were like. They came out as 10 pieces of crumbed squares and I take one and dip it into the viscous sauce. It’s actually not too bad at all, quite good really and with somewhat of a fish type of texture as distinct from the other mock meats. And well you know how they say that nuggets aren’t made from real meat here there is no doubt about that!

Savoury Vina Pancake $14

We always adore the Vietnamese pancakes which apart from having prawns and pork are filled with mung beans and fresh salad. It’s crunchy although not quite as crunchy as I’ve had it at other places. However the fresh, crunchy salad redolent with mint hits the spot.

Fresh rolls (3) $6.00

I didn’t try these as there was a bit of a kerfuffle down the other end of the table with people saying that they hadn’t had enough food and there was a small but explosive hissy fit from a couple of people at the other end (one was in fact a parent). Let’s move on shall we?

Mock beef noodle soup $12

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