What we have here is Sydney becoming more like Melbourne. We're loving our little themed bars with simple food menus, drinks and music from the past blasting into the room. Preferably a live band but we understand that it can't be an every night thing....
Despite the heavily influenced Asian theme running through this place.. it's not that tacky... nor was anyone working there Asian... well maybe the chefs.
The decore is really cool and just a nice relaxing place to hang and chat..well maybe scream a bit over the loud music.
From the time we came in the service here was impeccable. The friendly bouncer at the front was polite and treated everyone with respect. Despite many people at the bar the service is quick and polite. Lots of people were just standing around because there's not enough seats to cater. When we arrived, they noticed we wanted to sit down and one of the waitresses did almost everything she could to build us a little seating section in the corner. Now that's service.
This place specialises in two things... Asian beer and dumplings. They have a decent range of Asian beers but their dumpling selection is quite poor. With such a small selection you would hope the taste compensated. They tasted like they steamed some frozen dumplings that was store bought and charged me $7.50 for 5 pieces. What a profit margin...
The food came out in the typical yum cha style steamers with large writing on the side of what meat it contained. The food was at least warm/hot and to be honest.. we were starving and just devoured it willy-nilly and washed it down with our China exported beer. I actually wanted the Laos beer but it's not always available.
The highlight of my night was definitely their Chef Special Teapots. Basically a fancy yet simple way of serving a cocktail. Makes it easy to share and ends up working out cheaper than buying separate drinks all night. At $39 a pot.. we settled for the Bruce Lee “Uncle Ming’s secret recipe” : A mix of sloe gin, vodka, peach & ginger beer. I enjoyed it.. it was easy and light to drink and the novelty aspect was a nice touch.
I'm happy to start embracing these types of environments.. especially on Friday nights.. a nice change to my rather dull routine....
