Categories
Chinese

Harvest Foodie 聚丰源 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

Panned by both the NSW Food Authority (1) (2) and Google Maps reviewers alike, Harvest Foodie sits adjacent to the Burwood Chinatown arcade and somehow became our choice of a second breakfast meal one morning, after a salty visit to Cha Dim House.

While the majority of negative Google Reviews seem to be about the attitude and communication skills of the aunties working here, my partner and I found no problem with this. I actually thought they were pretty chill, even taking my beef noodle order through me showing them a photo of what I wanted from the placard outside. Sadly the food was not as good as I had hoped.

This is a soy milk ($3). How can I really describe essentially the same soy milk made by a couple of similar machines across Burwood? Why does my partner always order them? Should I buy a soy grinding machine for home?

This is a soy egg ($2), not the same as a soy milk. It was fine. Totally adequate.

These pan fried dumplings 鲜肉锅贴 (8 for $10) were very cheap, but not particularly good. I felt that the wrappers were far too thick, with a leavened texture to them, which is the opposite of what I like. Dumplings, I feel, should be filling forward.

This homemade beef noodle soup 红烧牛肉面 ($15) was deeply disappointing. It was very salty, but had none of the spiciness that the menu picture implied. We didn’t finish it.

Other thoughts
Commenters on Google Maps seem to feel that the restaurant offers a dynamic pricing model, based on how much cash the aunties think you have in your pocket. Whilst this would be hilarious if true, and would be supported by the lack of prices on the placard outside, I just feel like it would be too much work to put into practice.

Harvest Foodie 聚丰源 Burwood
135 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Chinese

Po Po 面婆婆 – Hurstville NSW Chinese Restaurant Review

Po Po is a small and authentic Northern Chinese diner in Hurstville. It’s been on my hitlist for some time now, and we finally were in the area and able to hit it up for some dumplings and noodles.

I really enjoyed the friendly, homely service, as well as the delicious dumplings and beef brisket noodle soup. We got all of our dumplings boiled as that is my favourite way to have them, and I feel that boiled dumplings are really the best test of the chef’s skill and expertise.

The pork and chive dumplings were good!

Pork and chive and prawn dumplings – also good

Unfortunately the xiao long bao were not very good. I wouldn’t recommend them.

The beef brisket noodle soup we found to be quite flavourful and delicious. There were big chunks of beef, and the flavour of the soup was neither too strong or too weak. I can recommend this dish.

I wish you could see how happy my girlfriend is in this photo, guys. This is why I do it.

Eating at Po Po really felt like eating in an authentic Chinese diner. There were plenty of other groups, mostly older Chinese couples, eating at the same time as us, and this is a group which seems an excellent barometer for cheap and filling food. One funny thing we saw was a Caucasian gentleman come into this obviously Chinese store and ask for pork rolls (which they did not have), and then ask for pho (which they also did not have). He ultimately, after much patience from the owner, settled on some pork buns. I hope he enjoyed them, although I guess he may be disappointed if he was looking forward to some Vietnamese food.

I can recommend this place.

PO PO Hurstville 面婆婆
238 Forest Rd, Hurstville NSW 2220
(02) 9580 6218