Don’t you hate it when you go to foodblog about a place that has always provided you with great service and food only to find that the owner is away and chaos and confusion runs amok?
Needless to say, this is what happened to us with Crystal Garden. Its our most well loved Chinese restaurant, a hidden gem and we’ve always had flawless service and food there. Tonight, the owner is absent and sadly it really shows with the service we receive.
If you order their regular suburban Chinese offerings, you’ll wonder what I am talking about. Its only when you scratch the surface of this suburban Chinese restaurant and order the seafood from the tank that this gem really shines.
He looks mad-as well he should be!
Tonight its a celebration so its Lobster from the tank ($75 a kilo for a 2.3 kilo lobster). We needed to pre order it as they usually only have crab and fish ready in the tank. We also order Pay pah tofu (tofu balls sauteed with prawn meat with broccoli), fried rice and a steamed fish with ginger, coriander and shallots.
We’re waiting a good 25 minutes before any food arrives with nary a prawn cracker passing by our table. Its relatively empty but we’re receiving service as if the restaurant was full and there was only one waitress on. There’s also no sign of the complimentary house soup that one gets when making a big seafood order.
XO Chili lobster 2.3kg with double lot of e-fu noodles $182.50
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| January 29th, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella
Mascot, Sydney. Home of the airport and errrmmm…let me think what else. Oh yes, Vietnamese rolls! On the same stretch of street, a few doors down from each other are two Vietnamese roll bakeries, Hong Ha and Vee Vee. Hong Ha is the one whose queues are stretching out onto the street, VeeVee by comparison does a more modest trade but has been there for years so it can’t be doing too badly.
The selection at Hong Ha
The selection at VeeVee
We decide to do a blindfold taste testing challenge to see who does the best a) pork roll and B) meatball roll. There are also chicken and salad and cheese rolls but pork is the traditional one and meatball is the preferred one from the tasters. We dutifully wait in line for 5 minutes at Hong Ha where the rolls are $4.50 each while there isn’t a wait at VeeVee where the rolls are $3.50.
Hong Ha rolls
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| January 9th, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella
Yes, I’m one of those people who have always wished for a restaurant that serves Yum Cha at night. Mainly for greed related reasons: I can’t eat as much for lunch as dinner so it allows me maximum opportunity for dumpling consumption. So when my father casually mentioned that Rockdale R.S.L. Club serves Yum Cha for dinner on Wednesday nights, I picked up the phone and booked for the coming Wednesday. There are no trolleys unfortunately but you can order off the menu.
The restaurant is fairly modern with new furnishings and at 7pm there are only 3 other tables so we needn’t have booked (Bingo Night in the next room seems to be where the club patrons are at). We have a look at the Yum Cha picture menu and there is a fairly wide selection of dishes with steamed and fried dumpling lovers well catered for.
Service is never a strongpoint at Chinese restaurants and brusque is usually the word I’d use to describe it. Tonight is no exception, it appears that we need to order from the curt older gentleman and not the courteous younger waiter. There are no prices on the menu so we enquire about what the prices are and he doesn’t seem too impressed. After he consults with the cashier, it seems that items range from $4.40 to over $10 for the BBQ/larger items which is fairly standard for Sydney. There are some dishes that we tried to order but they have run out of: the fried taro pastry, deep fried mince pork dumplings and the steamed prawn rice roll.
The Gai Larn in Oyster sauce ($10.80) is the first to arrive and it is succulent and tender without a trace of stringyness or toughness. The sauce is delicious and I am very glad we’ve had our serve of veggies.
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| October 8th, 2007 by Not Quite Nigella
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