After 32 years open and 3 and a half years closed, Golden Century restaurant reopened at Crown, Sydney at the beginning of this year. On the menu are their famous XO pippies, scallop siu mai and Peking duck. Get a peek at the dishes featured in Crown's Yes Chef! dinner with signature dishes from Nobu, Amare, Woodcut, Icebergs and Golden Century.
It's a gorgeous breezy and sunny Sunday when we all make our way to Crown Towers in Barangaroo to try Golden Century. The restaurant is located on the third floor just past the Tea House. The restaurant is quite busy this afternoon with many diners coming in around 2pm for lunch while others enjoy yum cha.
We are trying some of the dishes at an upcoming dinner. In a few days time on the 24th and 25th of October, Crown's buffet restaurant Epicurean is holding a "Yes Chef!" dinner. Diners will get to try the signature dishes from 5 of Crown's restaurants: Nobu (including their miso black cod), Woodcut, Amare (and their lasagna), Icebergs and Golden Century. Today we are trying the Golden Century offering.
I had read mixed reviews about the service and the time taken to receive dishes but the food comes out in a timely manner for all of the tables.
The yum cha items come out first. The scallop, shrimp and pork siu mai come three to a serve and are enormously plump with a whole scallop on top. The filling is made a shrimp and pork filling and the top is garnished with flying fish roe. These are fantastic, I definitely recommend these for both size and flavour and even go for seconds.
The mixed mushroom dumplings are nice vegetarian crystal dumplings with well seasoned exotic mushrooms like enoki and shiitake.
I am always on the look out for yum cha dishes that are a bit different from the usual and the prawn baos are light deep fried buns (with a texture similar to youtiao donuts) split in the centre and then filled with prawn meat and a dab of spicy XO sauce on top. These are delicious and they're freshly made so that they really sink satisfyingly with every bite.
I don't usually order spring rolls but tried these as they are at the Yes Chef dinner. These vegetarian spring rolls are freshly fried and crispy golden, served with sweet and sour sauce on the side.
I absolutely love char siu and adding a honey glaze to char siu adds that a nice extra complexity of flavour from the honey. The char siu is a good mix of fatty and lean pork and all you need is a bowl of steamed rice for this.
The next course to come out is the half Peking duck and rather than being carved at the table, this comes out as 4 pancakes filled with an enormous slice of Peking duck skin and meat with cucumber and spring onions. I usually like putting these together myself because I like a bit more hoi sin sauce and these do need a bit more sauce, cucumber and spring onion. The pancake and duck are also a bit on the colder side.
The second course is either noodles or san choi bau and we always love the latter for its crisp freshness. This isn't cold like the pancakes. The lettuce cups are crisp and the filling is freshly fried and hot and with a nice smokiness from the wok hei.
Golden Century's signature dish is XO sauce pippies (so much so that they opened up XOPP several years ago). And this does not disappoint. It's every bit as delicious as it always is. The crispy vermicelli is soaked in that gloriously shiny, spicy XO sauce, some corners peeking out and unadorned with sauce. The fat and plump pippies are sitting inside shells bathing in the sauce. This is as much a textural dish as it is a flavourful dish.
Honestly when we go to Chinese restaurants we tend to order the same things because there are some dishes that we absolutely love but I am glad that we got to try this God Mother Chilli Diced Chicken. The chicken has a wonderfully succulent texture to it and it has a light numbing chilli hit to it along with crunchy cashews and perfectly cooked okra.
The Golden Century fried rice is nice although it could use a bit more seasoning to it. However it's fine as an accompaniment to saucier dishes.
My mother rarely made desserts while we were growing up but when she did it was this steamed Cantonese sponge cake made with brown sugar that she called Malay Cake. It's light and fluffy and served hot out of a steamer basket.
As for us we can't resist some other familiar desserts like mango sago with plenty of chunks of mango and a creamy, sweet soup. This is Mr NQN's favourite and he happily devours his serve with 6 enthusiastic spoonfuls.
I love anything mochi especially when filled with black sesame. These black sesame tangyuan balls come either topped with crushed peanuts or in a ginger syrup and we opt for the latter. The four balls are filled with sweet black sesame inside them and sit bobbing in a strong but deliciously warming ginger syrup.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you been to Golden Century either the original or the new one? Do you have a Chinese dessert that you like to order?
Golden Century
Crown Sydney: Level 3, 1 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo NSW 2000
Open 11am-3pm, 5pm-11pm
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