Weekend Yum Cha at Miss Yue, Epping

Looking for yum cha in Sydney? Miss Yue at Epping Club is a popular Chinese restaurant serving yum cha with dumplings, crispy prawn wontons, taro puffs, har gow and flaky egg tarts in a gorgeous dining room. Diners order from a menu instead of trolleys. Find out what the standout dishes were at Miss Yue.

It's a Sunday afternoon when Laura and I arrive at Miss Yue for yum cha; one of those occasions that both of us have looked forward to all week. And we aren't the only ones. Even arriving at a later time of 1pm means a 20 minute wait for a table.

Miss Yue is located at Epping Club so we sign in and take a number and a seat. The club has a polished cruise ship vibe (no shade) and after 20 minutes the lovely lady at the front calls our number. She's not the owner but she's the owner's sister and pretty much runs the whole restaurant.

"Welcome! Have you been here before? Can you speak Chinese?" asks our super friendly waiter. It's his last day and we have to break the news to him that neither of us do although I look like I should be able to. The interior of the restaurant is one of the nicest yum cha rooms in Sydney along with The Panda in Macquarie Park. There are also private rooms that are busy this afternoon.

Yum Cha at Miss Yue isn't served via trolleys, instead it's through a menu where you specify the serving amount of each item in the first column. The second column is for the second round. Laura and I pick our favourites plus anything else that sounds interesting. Small dishes are $8.80, Medium $10.80, Large $12.80, XL $14.80, SP $16.80 and ESP $19.80. Chinese tea is $3 per person.

The deep fried items arrive first and they seem to be freshly fried which is one of the advantages to a menu rather than the trolley. We weren't quite sure what to expect but the crispy prawn dumplings are deep fried wontons with mayonnaise. This is both of our favourite dumpling of the day and we enjoy these hot and generously dipped in the mayo.

We both love a shallot pancake and this one is actually stuffed with a shallot filling with a super short pastry that tastes like it might be lard based at a guess. I like this dipped into the chilli sauce just for some extra flavour but this is also delicious on its own.

We also enjoy the taro puff which has feather weight pastry wisps on the outside with a taro puree filled with chicken and prawns inside.

We should have perhaps ordered the desserts in round 2 because they arrived at the beginning. The black sesame balls are large sticky textured balls rolled in sesame seeds and filled to the brim with a sweet black sesame filling.

Next comes the steamed items. I really enjoy the spinach and prawn dumplings that has bouncy textured prawns surrounded by a spinach puree in a green crystal dumpling wrapper.

Har gows are my favourite dumpling and these ones are huge and filled with plenty of king prawns inside.

Part of the reason why we wanted to visit here is because we love the red rice noodles stuffed with prawn filling and not every yum cha restaurant does this dish. The prawn filling is actual prawns wrapped in a fritter batter rather than prawn mince. I think I prefer the seasoned prawn mince and if it was a bit more full although this does still have a nice crispness to it.

The only one that we didn't really go for was the sticky rice as it needed a bit more seasoning and filling to it. Inside are lup cheong (Chinese sausage), chicken mince, egg yolk and vegetables.

We love the fact that they call these dumplings footys which leans into the fact that so many people call them the "footballs" because of the shape. We love the sticky crisp shell on the outside and the luscious chicken and shrimp filling on the inside.

One of the last items to come out is the chicken dim sim as they had missed it on our menu. Although it says chicken, Laura finds it a bit porky (she knows that pork ends up in a lot of dumplings and is fine with it if it isn't very strong). I really enjoy these dim sims - they're different from other dim sims with a really robust flavour to them.

While neither of us really would choose tofu pudding, we order it because Mr NQN loves it and I can take it home to him. It's also one of the dishes that is only available on weekends. The tofu comes out in a wooden bucket and is soft and wobbly. The ginger syrup is nice although I think I might have liked more syrup because there's quite a bit of tofu.

We also order the baked egg tarts as Laura loves them. I try a bit and it's actually a very good egg tart with many, many layers of flaky pastry although I am happier eating the savoury items or the black sesame balls.

And the lovely woman who runs the restaurant tells us that she is going to treat us to a complimentary dessert. These are mushroom shaped buns with a generous amounht of delicious salted egg custard inside.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you prefer menu or trolley yum cha or does it not make a difference to you?

This meal was independently paid for.

Miss Yue

The Epping Club, 45 Rawson St, Epping NSW 2121

Phone: (02) 9815 0920

Wednesday to Monday 11 am–3 pm, 5:30–10 pm

Closed Tuesdays