Beijing Inspired: Grape Garden Dumplings, Potts Point

TBC by Grape Garden in Potts Point serves up crispy pan fried dumplings, juicy pork and prawn San Xian dumplings, garlicky smashed cucumber and hand pulled noodles. All with the Sichuan chilli oil in an al fresco setting.

TBC by Grape Garden is located on Bayswater Road in Potts Point (although the sign reads "Dumplings" and not Grape Garden). Its owner Ecca Zhang seems to know everyone here as people wave to him and he waves back during our meal, something my friend Carla notices with an eagle eye. Ecca grew up with parents that owned a Chinese restaurant and now he has his own where his parents work in the kitchen. And for a casual dumpling restaurant Ecca services it seriously calling to confirm a booking, asking for all dietaries and explaining in brisk but fine detail about the BYO option.

Mr NQN and I are eating with Carla and Jay and are sitting outside with Teddy and Milo. After ordering they bring us out bowls of Sichuan chilli oil with the unmistakable hint of Sichuan peppercorns. The food follows shortly, quickly filling our table.

Laura first told me about Grape Garden - she was particularly taken by the vegetable appetisers. Take the celery and yuba or tofu skin, two ingredients I am not really partial to and often avoid or eat around. Here it is a crisp snack with celery, tofu skin and peanuts in a sesame oil and roasted peanuts. It's perfectly crunchy, moreish and makes a lover out of a hater.

The smashed cucumber is one of the specials today. It's cucumber cut into bite sized pieces with plenty of garlic. The vegetables are a little pricey for the size but then again it is Potts Point.

The kombu is finely sliced kombu seaweed with a sesame garlic dressing. The strands of seaweed have a nice bite to them.

A lot of the vegetables have a similar flavour profile with garlic and sesame oil but the textures are different so it's nice having some variety. Think of this as a Chinese coleslaw with finely shredded wombok or Napa cabbage dressed with garlic and sesame oil.

Dumplings come in serves of 6 or 12 and are either poached, pan fried or in soup. The first one to arrive are the boiled San Xian dumplings filled with pork, prawns and chives. These are smaller than similar ones but tasty especially when drizzled with some of that chilli oil.

My favourite dumplings are the beef and celery pan fried dumplings with a crispy skirt. The beef filling is flavoursome and I love getting some crunch in every bite (and the crunchy skirt remains crisp until the last dumpling).

We also try two noodle dishes. My favourite out of the two is the gong bao chicken which is tender pieces of chicken in a spicy, rich, thick sauce on noodles. The star of the show are the hand pulled noodles. These are thick, ropey noodles that have a wonderful chewy consistency.

We also try the vegan version as Jay can't eat pork or shellfish. The noodles are topped with a generous amount of fried eggplant. It's quite flavoursome but I add some of the chilli oil just to give it an added boost of flavour.

There's no dessert on the menu but we go for a little stroll for some gelato afterwards.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you prefer your dumplings crispy and pan fried or boiled? Have you tried hand pulled noodles before?

This meal was independently paid for.

Grape Garden

Shop 3, 2/14 Bayswater Rd, Potts Point NSW 2011

Phone: 0416 767 933

Tuesday & Wednesday 5–10 pm

Thursday & Sunday 12–3 pm, 5–10 pm

Friday & Saturday 12–3 pm, 5–10:30 pm