Wow. Little Cha. Bubble tea that’s not so little.
Got the eponymous Little Cha and the Lychee Luscious. Both with 25% sugar, and both were still too sweet. I enjoyed the toppings (strawberry and passionfruit popping pearls in the Little Cha and lychee jelly in the Lychee Luscious) but not the drinks themselves.
I probably wouldn’t order from Little Cha again.
A Little Cha
152 Bunnerong Rd, Eastgardens NSW 2036
0450 636 940
King of Skewers is a small basketball themed Chinese BBQ skewer restaurant in Kingsford. It is co-located with Beautea, which is my favourite bubble tea place in Kingsford.
The walls are adorned with basketballs, NBA memorabilia, and posters. There is a hoop over the window that peers into the kitchen at the back of the restaurant, but I dared not to shoot as 1) the balls were too high up for me and 2) there was no telling the cost of repairing the excellent fitout by Keeyuen.
Ordering was via the nondescriptive tick a box next to the food on the piece of white paper method. We had basically no idea how our foods would look until they came.
After a reasonably long wait we indulged in these beef, lamb, and pork skewers. They were delicious.
The scallops were too salty and we felt they were overpriced. Often oversauced seafood, especially in Asian cuisine, is a mask for low quality or less fresh ingredients.
We really thought this expensive chicken wing would consist of more than one chicken wing. It was yum but a poor spend of money.
I literally can’t imagine someone painstakingly threading each corn kernel onto a stick, let alone 10 sticks. A+ for effort.
Overall: King of Skewers in Kingsford is the place to be if you’re looking for a basketball themed Chinese BBQ skewer restaurant. I’m still unclear on the relationship between basketball and skewering, but the staple foods were delicious, while the less staple foods (scallops, chicken wing) were less delicious and more overpriced. Make sure you grab a drink from Beautea on the way in.
King of Skewers
2/524 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW
I am glad to tell you that I think Brother Restaurant is actively bad.
We had the pork dumplings ($16.80), the small braised chicken – not pictured ($30), and the beef fried noodle XO Sauce ($16.80).
The pork dumplings were small and had strong frozen supermarket dumpling energy. I don’t want to slander them but if you set me up with a bowl of dumplings that were from the frozen section of your ocal Asian grocery tsore and these dumplings I would not be able to tell you which one was $16.80 from a restaurant and which one was $4 from the supermarket.
The beef fried noodle in XO sauce was very salty with minimal meat.
The braised chicken had a reasonable flavour with chicken and potato, however was a very small quantity (a takeaway box) for $30 – did they just make this number up? – and the chicken was very bony.
I cannot recommend Brother Restaurant at all. Skip the graded escalation and just tell me to STOP if I try to order from them again.
Brother Restaurant
411 Gardeners Rd, Rosebery NSW 2018
One time when I was 14, back when the restaurant was named some permutation of Eastwood garden peking seafood restaurant, my parents were attending an open house in Eastwood and left me here to have lunch here by myself.
I went back a few weeks ago (June 2020) with my partner for dinner, just as the COVID-19 restrictions in NSW were relaxed to allow 50 patrons in a restaurant. I think there must have been 100 of us inside by the time we were done with dinner, which gave me a sense of unease.
The Shandong chicken was a standout.
The deep fried salt and pepper tofu was in surprisingly big pieces but yummy.
The tofu and salted fish hot pot was not what I expected (you can see from the photo it was white).
This chicken mushroom soup was also very good and wholesome.
Overall the food was good but the disregard for public health regulations lost this restaurant points, and perhaps should lose this restaurant its license to operate. Keeping people safe is more important than making money.
I had a bit of an odd experience ordering from Canton BBQ Restaurant in Maroubra. For starters no one I spoke to was able to actually speak Chinese. They didn’t have a good understanding of their menu which is posted online, so much so that when I asked for a specific dish they told me they didn’t have it – only to have it when I arrived at the store.
Mixed vegetables with tofu in hotpot – I called to order this dish and they told me it wasn’t on the menu. Upon arrival they told me that they looked at the menu again and found it. Was only fine.
Singaporean noodles – a disappointment
Lamb and cumin pancakes – very oily but actually tasted quite good.
Roast duck – This must have been the most lean and athletic duck ever! Supermarathonist duck, with minimal fat or muscle. Very bony.
Spring rolls – hard to mess up. Just fine.
I wouldn’t recommend going to Canton BBQ Restaurant in Maroubra. It ended up being very expensive and not very good. There are better alternatives out there. 3/10.
Canton BBQ Restaurant
17 Maroubra Rd, Maroubra NSW 2035
(02) 8021 1402