The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
Looking at these photos from our meal at Ladies & Gentleman Cafe six months ago I wasn’t particularly excited, but then looking back at the notes that I took from our visit it looks like the taste and quality of the food was more impressive than its visual appeal alone. Allow me to try and represent faithfully what I was thinking of when I ate there.
This Porky Belly ($18) sandwich, in particular, did not look exciting from the photos. The visual side of things is decidedly boring, but my notes from our meal reflect that it was actually very good. I’ve made reference to the fatty and soft soy caramelised pork belly, the crisp and tart apple, and soft and sweet Japanese milk bread with the crust cut off – just like my mum used to never do, because who can afford to waste a crust?
The Ladies and Gentleman Rice Bowl ($22) with teriyaki salmon was also very good, with a runny onsen egg perfectly coating the sushi rice, delicious miso eggplant, and softly cooked salmon all adding up to a variety of different tastes and textures in one bowl.
All I have written down for the Taiwanese deep-fried pork chop ($8) is “Pork chop is just my gf secretly took me to hot star”.
Thoughts Past-me thought it was very good. Reliving those previous photos and notes, I guess Asian-fusion brunch is right up my alley. Future-me might even go back.
Feng You Dim Sim 逢友点心 is pretty good. It is a small dim sum restaurant in Hurstville with both indoors and outdoors seating, where you order at the table by drawing ticks or circles on a paper menu. The obvious benefit of this system is that you don’t have to worry about having to catch the eye of roaming aunties with trolleys and hoping that you’re in a good table position to get the prime items before they run out. There is also a full colour menu with prices and item names in English, taking away another part of the mystery of ordering, making it all very accessible to non-Chinese reading or speaking folks.
This is the Meat Roll ($8.30), a name which doesn’t really express that it is wrapped in a sheet of bean curd. The bean curd sheet was a bit harder than expected, which gave it better structural integrity at the cost of more pleasant mouthfeel. This was prawnless, which seems to be a deviation from the standard, but my partner thought that this made it friendlier to a broader audience.
The steam pork ribs with black bean sauce ($8.30) were not bad, though it was odd tos ee it come with taro (is it usually like that?) as well as green chilli, which was not what was pictured on the photo menu. I can only assume it’s a seasonal thing?
The chicken feet with black bean sauce ($8.30) were solid, though again with green chilli. Please note that while this photo only depicts three feet, it came with four. My dining partner could not wait to sink her teeth in.
The chicken feet came with peanuts? How odd.
I’m not usually a lover of radish cakes, but the combination fried cakes ($8.30) with a selection of radish, taro (too starchy), and water chestnut (too sweet with a weird gelatinous texture) made me appreciate the radish one, which was honestly not too bad and quite umami.
The mushroom & chinese broccoli rice noodle wrap ($10.80) I could’ve lived without, especially as the prawn ones are the same price.
The chives and prawn dumpling ($8.30) were wow. The best I’ve had in a long time. Extremely fragrant, fresh and tasty chives and a good filling of prawn also. It would be worth going back just for this.
The chew chow style dumpling ($8.30) were fine. They kind of came 15 minutes after the previous dish, by which point we were pretty full. I suspect they were forgotten, and will note that they did forget some of the dishes for some of the other customers.
OVERALL
A solid yum cha experience, super accessible to non-Chinese readers and speakers, with killer jiu cai jiao. Worth coming back just for those alone.
Feng You Dim Sim 逢友点心 7/11 The Avenue, Hurstville NSW 2220 (02) 9580 2251
A quit review of some Chinese breads from Diamond Bakery, a Taiwanese bread shop next to its sister Taiwanese cafe.
I normally love a puff pastry egg tart ($2.50), but you just can’t beat a fresh one from yum cha (or the freezer aisle of an Asian grocery store with a quick trip in the toaster oven) with a cold store-bought alternative. It looked highly promising with a layer of wetness on top, and a 50c premium over the shortcrust variety ($2), but ultimately didn’t do it for me. I don’t know if you can time it so that you get them fresh out of the oven. Not too sweet.
This taro (yam) pineapple bun ($3.50) was actually huge and quite good. Not too sweet, with the yam filling adding an additional dimension to the standard bun. Very filling at only $3.50. Can recommend.
This lychee rose pastry ($5.80) was a bit expensive for its diminutive size, but at the end of the day is the product of multiple layers of skillful eggy baking, the likes of which would also attract a price premium at a Western bakery. The filling of rosewater with some lychee flesh embedded within was on the sweeter side of the Asian dessert spectrum, but still quite pleasant. I don’t know that I’d have it again, but overall it wasn’t a bad dense ball.
As unfair as it is to eat a single item and use that one experience to formulate your entire opinion about a restaurant, I must say that BBQ Prince’s half soy chicken ($11.60) did not scratch the itch that I had. I’ve had a lot of soy chicken in my time, but unfortunately this particular soy chicken was lacking in both flavour and texture, with a slightly tougher meat than usual, and with too mild a taste, even for pieces basted in sauce. At least the ginger scallion sauce was good.
I’ll update this post for roast pork if I ever go back.
I almost didn’t go to Hong Kong Street Food after watching a negative review video from some online influencer. The Tiktok/Instagram people are notorious for singing the praises of literally any place in the hopes of getting a free meal, so I had erroneously assumed that any kind negative review would mean that the place would be truly very bad. Of course I didn’t take into account what kind of a review a place would garner if they refused to pay up.
I am indebted to my partner’s mother for making us give this Rhodes Central (to contrast to the similarly named restaurant around the corner) cha chaan teng a shot.
This is a milk tea ($4.50), strained probably over multiple runs through a silk stocking and mixed with evaporated milk from the Dutch. Ah, colonisation. Had by my partner’s mum and hence not me. Part of a set with food, so a bit cheaper than the listed price, but about $2-3 more than just the food dish by itself. Poured out onto the saucer, quickly replaced with an apology. Apparently it was not bad, but not memorable.
This ice bear lemon tea commands a $2 premium on top of the set meal, or $6.50 if purchased separately. It was fine. It was more than I would want to pay for it individually, but was more palatable as part of the meal deal. The novelty of a melting bear didn’t do anything in particular for me.
Alright here we go. The meat of the review. The stewed beef brisket with radish ($9.80) is a side dish that comes as a topping on some of the cart noodles, but not the right ones. They were pretty good, with a mixture of fatty and tendinous pieces as well as lean pieces. A good variety that allowed each diner to have what we wanted. I’m a lean beef brisket fan.
The four treasures Hong Kong cart noodles ($21.90 in a set with a drink and not available separately) was pretty good. It was a choice between this, with its chicken wings, salt and pepper pork chops (the best part), curry fish balls, and beef stomach, or the alternative Supreme Hong Kong cart noodles, with radish, beef brisket, red sausages and luncheon meat. I chose the four treasures, mainly because I was keen on some of that beef stomach, and because we could get the radish and brisket as a side. I’m also not such a fan of luncheon meat. Despite enjoying this dish, it did pale in comparison to the cart noodles at Hong Kong Bing Sutt in Burwood, which were seriously special.
The baked rice with black pepper chicken steak and cod fillets in creamy corn sauce ($21.90 in a set but also not available individually, even though a bunch of other baked rices are) was really good. I think anything with this amount of cream and cheese and meat and sodium and carb is going to taste good, but damn, delicious. Both the chicken and cod were good, and the fact that it was like a half half pizza was great for the decision-impaired. So creamy. So good.
RE-VISIT, JUNE 2025.
On a revisit I had the chicken and cod baked rice again, for the second time. It is not my usual practice to visit the same restaurant twice, let alone have the same dish at the same restaurant twice, but there were forces at play (PMR) outside of my control. This baked rice (now $23.90), this time without any capsicum, remained delicious – in particular the cod component with the crispy fish covered in sauce.
The French toast ($8.80) did nothing for me, but my white friend PMR whose claim to HK culture is having a HK based girlfriend tells me that it was close to the platonic ideal of a French toast, served with a squeezy bottle honey rather than condensed milk, and with a large layer of peanut butter in between.
The photo certainly looks good, but I found the peanut butter so thick that it actually detracted from the dish overall due to its dry pastiness.
The Tornado Omurice with Beef in TomatoSauce ($23.90 with a milk tea) was like some bizarro version of the classic tomato and egg with rice dish that Chinese children grow up eating. The swirl of egg was, unlike a classical omurice, merely a thin single layered swirl without a wet inside, covering a relatively large mound of rice. The tomato was peeled and stir fried in the way that you would expect of the Cantonese tradition of tomato-egg, with the sauce well portioned to the rice but of a sweeter flavour than I would make myself. The beef seemed only present to aid the presentation and distract us from the fact that you can get a serving of tomato-egg and rice for like $7 at an economy rice restaurant. The taste was not bad overall, but it didn’t feel special for $23.90, whereas the baked rice definitely did.
Curry Fish Balls ($10.80) seem pricey for what they are, and it is difficult to eat with a colleague to obtain the appropriate curry to fish ball ratio without double dipping.
We asked for two cold mild teas and were given one hot and one cold. It was not a battle either of us felt was important to fight.
OTHER THOUGHTS The decor, with neon lights and sections representing hawker carts and the HK MTR was a nice touch. I thought it was a bit weird that there were ads posted up for real estate in Hong Kong, but guess it makes sense that if Australian real estate is being advertised in China, that Chinese real estate is being advertised in Australia too. Don’t @ me.
