Golden Tree Bistro review Guizhou Chinese Restaurant in Ultimo

Golden Tree Bistro is a Chinese restaurant in Ultimo serving up hard to find but delicious Guizhou cuisine. The restaurant is hidden away above a convenience store. With well priced but bold and tasty regional Chinese dishes, find out why it is so popular.

The last time we had Guizhou cuisine was in June when we visited Pretty Chef in Petersham. Back then it was one of two Guizhou restaurants in Sydney. Golden Tree Bistro opened in August 2026, adding to the list. Like its neighbour Sichuan to the North, Guizhou is known for its spicy cuisine but unlike Sichuan's 'ma-la' numbing peppercorn spice, Guizhou has more a sour spiciness with abundant use of pickling to create a light fermented sour flavour.

When Mr NQN and I arrive at Golden Tree Bistro's location it's nothing that we expected. For starters you enter through a convenience store that has a really interesting range of items for sale from snacks to cakes to healthy slushies made with olive and green plum. It's enough to distract you, but the smell coming from Golden Tree Bistro upstairs propels me upwards.

Golden Tree Bistro takes up a large, leafy circular space that covers several rooms. It's a Thursday night and around 80% of the tables are taken. If you're visiting on a Saturday or Friday night I would suggest booking ahead just in case, especially if you want to go during peak eating hour.

There is a physical menu, but they point us towards a QR code and bring glasses of fruit and cucumber water which is a refreshing blend of orange lemon and cucumber. You order via the QR code but then pay at the end and the menu is large with everything from Moo Shu pork, stinky tofu, Kung pao chicken to Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou specialties. Dishes are marked as hot or mild.

The restaurant's specialty or signature dish is the sweet and sour pork or Guo Bao Rou that is crispy and thin and quite different from Cantonese sweet and sour pork. Here, a thin pork fillet is covered in a charcoal batter so it looks inky black, craggy textured and glossy from the syrup. The pork is thin and crisp and the sweet and sour sauce is more sweet than sour but absolutely delicious. This is the first thing that we order and it's a large size, especially for the price.

One of my favourite items is the pork belly buns that are filled with pork belly mince and spicy chopped chilli inside. These have so much flavour to them and even Mr NQN who doesn't really like fluffy buns devours three of them and would have eaten more if he didn't have to share them.

We also decide to order the mystery box which is four mystery buns. Two of these are the pork belly and chilli, but the other one is a soy braised pork and another one is the spicy beef mince bun. They're all absolutely delicious and distinct in their own way. The soy braised pork is a good option for those that don't want things too spicy. It is also a good way of trying different bao flavours and I like the element of surprise.

Next up is the restaurant's other signature dish, the lamb rice noodles in massive bowls. We see many going past us (this dish is particularly popular with the student crowd). The lamb comes with rice noodles and dried chillies on the side as well as plenty of vegetables. The friendly owner Yolanda explains that the thinly sliced lamb is cooked for hours including lots of bones for depth of flavour and goodness. She has had many smaller past restaurants in Eastwood but is now concentrating on this one. She wants to bring her hometown food to Sydney in an authentic way.

I don't know how you feel about offal. I like it if I can't really smell it so I approach it with cautious optimism when ordering it. I need not have worried as the crispy tripe and aorta are fantastic. The tripe is well cleaned so there is no smell and the aorta has a chewy calamari texture. All of this is bathed in divine spicy, fermented chilli sauce. There's also black wood ear mushrooms in this and it's a huge serve. There is an abundance of chillies and while this is spicy, it isn't overwhelmingly so.

Last but not least is another serve of dumplings (I promised Mr NQN that we would get lots of dumplings). These are the pork and chive dumplings that are served either steamed or pan fried for $1 extra. Pan frying gets you a crispy skirt and the dumplings are good with plenty of chive flavour so they really pop. Be careful when biting into them as these are juicy too!

We leave with some delicious leftovers and go shopping in the convenience store for snacks afterwards.

So tell me Dear Reader, what level of spice do you like? And have you ever tried Guizhou cuisine?

This meal was independently paid for.