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. All meals are independently paid for - the author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
The Dolar Shop is, to date, the most luxurious and expensive hot pot restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. We paid around $70 per person for a full hot pot meal with 7 attendees. The restaurant was operated in the personal hot pot format, and so each person needed to fork out for individual soup bases.
The quality of the wagyu was truly extreme, and each briefly-boiled mouthful was a great experience. The sauce station provided ample choices, and there were lower-yield complimentary options including fresh fruit and matcha and vanilla soft serve.
UPDATE DECEMBER 2022
I went back to The Dolar Shop with my friends HWJ XWO and CJP, and we managed to spend even more ($85 pp) this time. Key differences from this visit were that we, by choice, had a lot more vegetable and tofu. Wagyu was the only beef available with no cheaper options on the menu – I’m not sure if this was the case the first time around. I had the Exquisite Silver Soup on the recommendation of HWJ and XWO, which was a peppery soup containing some pork tripe and chicken broth, quite good, but quite expensive – I’m not sure that a plain soup would’ve been that much worse.
They also mixed some initial sauces for us tableside, with the option to also create our own at the sauce bar, which I don’t remember happening the first time, and the dessert changed to quite a good strawberry and yoghurt flavoured soft serve.
VERDICT The Dolar Shop, being extremely expensive, is really only a high end option for a special occasion. There are much plenty of cheaper hot pot places across Sydney that are almost as good.
The Dolar Shop Sydney Shop 5-7 1909 Dining Precinct, Level 3 Market City, 13 Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000 0487 886 677
NBS Big Bowl (牛百歲) is not the most non-Chinese friendly noodle restaurant in Burwood, but perhaps one of the best. Tucked in an alleyway in the general Burwood Chinatown precinct (though isn’t all of Burwood a Chinatown?) across from the plaza, this tiny eatery with limited daily serves of food has perfected the art of beef noodles, though not the art of accommodating non-Chinese reading customers. Their main noodle menu is written behind the counter in Chinese with no English language menu or photos available, making their food extremely difficult to order. The only foods accessible to your regular Aussie battler (or Chinese immigrant who never learned to read or write) is what’s pictured on the front door and subtitled with English language – some lamb ribs and some pork hock.
The fourth item on the menu, 精品牛雜粉丝汤 – premium beef offal vermicelli soup ($14.99), was recommended on social media and I’m glad it was. Even though I had to order by showing them a photo of what I wanted, the lady serving me didn’t look too fazed – this has probably happened a bit in recent days. Service was extremely fast, and in the time it took for me to get cash out at the nearby ATM my giant bowl of noodles was ready to eat.
The soup was rich, beefy, and complex, having absorbed not only the beef flavours but also the organ flavours and the fresh vegetable flavours from the bok choy. Along with the several types of tripe there is also a large piece of stewed beef, which was extremely tender and tasty. The vermicelli, which I don’t normally go for, was delicious and a good vehicle for the flavours of the soup. Coriander and chilli oil was available for self serve, and I made sure to fill mine up with as much coriander as I could. Even my mother, upon seeing this photo, remarked that it looked tasty. Haters of organs will not enjoy this dish, but those who are willing to try will be duly rewarded.
I ordered the cumin lamb ribs ($15), one of the only things with a photo and some English words, so that I wouldn’t have to keep confirming to the waitress that I was a failed Asian. Even though I would’ve liked to explore the rest of their Chinese menu, I was quite satisfied with these cumin lamb ribs, which were again very tender and flavourful. It was a bit weird that they served them to us in a plastic takeaway container, but the taste and the price, and the addition of some chilli oil made it all worth it.
COMMENTS There’s probably a huge untapped business idea in making an electronic menu for these Chinese restaurants with no English menu and no pictures. I just can’t even speak enough Chinese to even convey this idea to them. Anyway NBS is good. Either bring a Chinese-reading friend (just being Chinese isn’t enough) or bring this blog post to show them what you want.
Sun Ming’s been around in Parramatta for as long as I can remember, with my parents frequently buying shāo kǎo (烧烤) from this and nearby barbecue restaurants throughout my childhood. Though frequenting the BBQ counter, I had never been further inside the restaurant until now.
Complimentary soup was served with our meal. It was light and a bit sweet with a bit of pork bone, similar to many entree soups at larger Cantonese restaurants. I certainly wasn’t expecting this from a neighbourhood BBQ restaurant at 3PM in the afternoon, but it was a nice surprise.
This chicken congee was warm and delicious, with light flavours of chicken and ginger, and crispy fried wonton bits on top. I feel like I could drink one of Sung Ming’s congees every day – they just feel so wholesome.
While it’s not strictly against the law to have congee without Fried dough sticks – Yóu tiáo (油条 – $3.70), it’s definitely unwise to forego them if available. Sun Ming’s dough sticks are freshly fried, warm throughout, and crunchy on the outside with a softer inside, perfect for dipping into congee. Whilst nothing out of the ordinary, these sticks are special just for being ordinary – a perfect rendition of what they are meant to be.
I had my first taste of Fujian (Hokkein) Fried Rice as a child in the early 2000s, in a small Chinese diner in Burwood called Canton Noodle House. Since then, I have travelled the world trying Fujian Fried Rices from all over Sydney and Melbourne. Some have been better, many have been worse, and out of all of these Sun Ming’s ranks within the top tier. The fried rice component of the Fried Rice Fukkien Style ($17.80), as it is known at Sun Ming, is less fried than its counterparts across Sydney, more resembling a normal rice that has been tossed in oil. The size of the toppings is greater than what I’ve experienced elsewhere, with both vegetables and seafood coming in larger chunks rather than minestrone-sized pieces – a point of differentiation rather than a point of advantage or disadvantage. The toppings themselves were warm and full of umami flavours – not too heavily salted but salted just right to add flavour to the rice, and of adequate quantity that no grain of rice was left untopped and boring.
The beef brisket in hot pot ($18.80) was exactly as stated on the label. It is a more strongly flavoured dish, with a huge amount of nice, fatty beef brisket and wombok cabbage in a hot pot. It’s a bit too salty to eat on its own, but just perfect with rice, which is how it is designed to be eaten. I liked this very much – I only wish that there could’ve been an option to mix beef brisket and tofu within the same hot pot.
I’ve recently discovered that most BBQ meats from Chinese BBQ shops aren’t actually made on site, due to the significant difficulties in small spaces and therefore the significant advantages of economies of scale when it comes to roasting entire ducks and huge slabs of pigs. Whilst I can’t confirm where Sun Ming Parramatta gets their roast duck from, (or perhaps they actually do do it in house), I can confirm that it is very delicious, plump, juicy, and not too salty.
Char siu is char siu. There is generally a good mix of fatty and lean pieces.
I’ve always wondered what these sausages were, and it took the help of my girlfriend speaking in Cantonese to actually order a little bit to try. Though I still don’t know what they’re called (the English-speaking internet is divided on this topic – perhaps siu cheong), I can describe them for you in reasonably good detail. They are a thick sausage with a soft internal structure and a sweetness similar to that of cha siu or your standard dried lap cheong. The thickness and softness however give it much more presence in your mouth than just chewing a twiggy-stick-esque lap cheong, and while I enjoyed it by itself I think it would also be great with rice.
UPDATE MARCH 2023 We went back. Of course we did.
The combination and bean curd in hot pot ($22) hit every single mark it was meant to, with a generous serving size, jam packed with fried soft tofu, beef, chicken, some prawns, vegetables, and roast pork belly. This is a universal classic dish that the restaurant pulled off with no problem.
I have been searching for a good Sang Tung Chicken (Shandong Chicken – $20) for what feels like many years now, and none has come as close to what I remember and enjoy as Sun Ming Parramatta’s. This chicken was crispy skinned on the outside whilst remaining moist on the inside, with a deliciously sour, sweet, and savoury sauce and topping of chillis, garlic and shallots. This was exactly what I was looking for.
The BBQ Pork and Roast Pork with Rice ($16) was sadly not as good at the end of the day as when we usually get takeaway from them, with only a limited portion of roast pork still available by around 8PM. I also didn’t love the char siu this time around, which I found to be more fatty but also with a bit of a porky aftertaste – not as good as what they usually have on offer.
UPDATE MAY 2023
Between stroke calls at the end of the day when essentially all other nearby restaurants had closed their kitchens I inhaled this Roast Pork and Soy Chicken with Noodles ($16), which wasn’t particularly spectacular (especially the noodle soup, I think rice might be a better option), but came with this excellent complimentary soup of the day.
This soup of the day, free, was unlike any other I’d ever had. Though the day was generally bad for me (7 stroke calls in a 24-hour period), the soup of the day was good, with a nice tomatoey and slightly spicy flavour. I liked it much more than the noodle soup that I actually paid for.
UPDATE, in retrospect, May 2021
I just found this photo from a delivery order 3 years ago on my computer. (writing now in October 2024). It’s a photo of Baked New Zealand Rice ($20), although that pricing is probably historical and might not be accurate any more due to rampant inflation since peak COVID-19 times. The rice, as I remember was delicious. Super cheesy and creamy, lots of umami flavour from the seafood and ham, and overall a terribly unhealthy delight. Maximal HK-Portuguese fusion.
VERDICT Sun Ming BBQ in Parramatta is a centre of excellence for authentic, well-priced Chinese food in the heart of Parramatta. They are my pick for Cantonese/Hong Kong BBQ meats over the nearby Mr Ping’s, which in my opinion is not as nice and also a bit more pricey. Recommend.
Sun Ming BBQParramatta 145-149 Church St, Parramatta NSW 2150 (02) 9689 2178
We’ve walked past Taste Gallery on Church St several times now, each time with the intention of going in but each time discouraged by the very limited menu printed on their window outside. We finally took the plunge tonight, guided by a previously quite successful delivery order which showcased Taste Gallery’s actually diverse menu, and made the decision to follow through and actually go inside.
The Special Vegetarian Spring Rolls (6 for $7.80) were actually quite special, and served very quickly. My partner was attracted to their netted exterior, and whilst I was not so keen on having vegetarian spring rolls their internal texture was actually quite meaty and had good flavour and mouthfeel.
My partner has spent years searching for the perfect Zhengjiang Vinegar Pork Spare Ribs ($18.80), and Taste Gallery finally delivered the goods. They had the perfect dark and tangy flavour, which is something that she tells me has been hard to find. The pork meat was tender, though due to the dark colouration from the marinade it was difficult to tell visually what parts were meat and what parts were bone. Be sure to order this with white rice ($2.50) or some other more bland carbohydrate, as the flavours are quite strong on its own.
The Thin sliced rib eye with tasty pickles served in hot pot ($17.80) was not what I expected, but ended up still being pretty good. It’s the third time in a week where I’ve ordered something meaty and ended up with thinly sliced hot pot style meat. Recent other offenders in this category include Costas Arepa Bar and Cafe Elation, though this time I admit I just didn’t read the name of the dish properly. The other difference between my expectation and reality is that I thought this would be a hotpot dish in the sense that combination bean curd hotpot is a hotpot dish, rather than a hotpot dish in the sense that shuan yang rou is hotpot. After getting over this letdown of my own doing I did find the dish quite enjoyable. The soup was a little oily but otherwise wholesome, flavoured with suān cài. The beef was unfortunately quite fatty and chewy, however there were those odd morsels that just melted in my mouth and were perfect. The mixture of vegetables and enoki made the dish feel like it could potentially be good for me. Overall I can recommend this dish.
VERDICT We had an overall good time at Taste Gallery, despite the slightly shabbier appearance when compared to neighbouring Chef’s Gallery, and can’t wait to go back. Their food is well priced and delicious.
