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.
Whilst we’ve parked frequently outside Yang’s Dumpling on our way to other restaurants we’d not, until now, ventured inside. We ordered a surprising amount of food for two humans trying to save for a deposit for residential property in Sydney, and much to our detriment, it wasn’t all good.
We had a combination of pan-fried pork buns (3) and pan-fried pork & prawn buns (3) for $13.80, but sadly only received two pork and prawn buns and four usual pork buns, the sesame colour-scheme system clearly failing them and us. Whilst the pork and prawn ones were nice and fresh and tasty, the lack of a third bun meant that I didn’t get a good interior shot of them.
The pan-fried pork buns were sadly not as good as the pork and prawn buns because they simply weren’t hot and fresh. These buns are not quite sheng jiang bao as they were not filled with soup, though they did have (or were meant to have) a crispy base.
The pan-fried vegetable and pork buns (4 for $9.80) were pretty good though. It’s really heat dependent.
The xiao long bao (6 for $9.80) had a strange taste and we did not finish them.
The pan-fried vegetable and pork dumplings ($11.80) were also not warm!
Love a good tea/soy egg though.
GENERAL THOUGHTS It was a real shame that a lot of what we ordered just wasn’t fresh and warm. The things that were fresh were pretty good, but the enjoyment of pan fried dumplings is really dependent on their warmth and crispiness. I guess they must not be cooked to order, which I think is below the bar set by most establishments that sell food.
It was the last day before the NSW Dine and Discover vouchers were to expire, and we, along with what seemed like half of the inner-West were lined up on Burwood Rd outside a handful of restaurants still enrolled in the program and willing to accept the vouchers.
We decided on Xi’an Eatery, a place recommended to us by a colleague for its good and cheap food with a reasonable line and an incredibly exhausted workforce who looked like they were perhaps having the busiest and worst day of their lives. Our meal was preceded by an inexplicable half hour wait outside the restaurant as no less than half the tables were vacated and cleaned, before we and the next batch of patrons were admitted. Either fortunately or unfortunately for the staff this was a process marked by significant attrition, as some of our previously unknown compatriots left towards the end of the wait to spend their stimulus-bux further down the street.
Though the outside process was unimpressive, the actual process of dining, from ordering to eating, was incredibly rapid and smooth once we set foot into the restaurant. The staff were flustered but absolutely lovely, probably glad that none of our wave felt the need to engage them into what I can only imagine was an in-depth discussion regarding the origins of the ingredients like members of the previous batch. Food arrived rapidly at our table within just minutes of ordering, and consumed with similar rapidity, hunger being the best sauce.
The Signature Xi’an Pulled Pork Burger (roujiamo – $8.30 including optional coriander) was a specialty of the house, and believed by some specialists to be a marker of a Xi’an restaurant’s quality. I’m by no means a roujiamo expert, but I did find this one to be reasonably satisfying. The filling – mixture of fatty and lean pork – had excellent flavour, moistness, and mouthfeel, contrasting to my other most recent roujiamo at Taste of Xi’an in Wollongong, which I felt did not have as adequate and well distributed fatness. I’m surprised that coriander was a 50c addition, as I feel that the flavour it added was too beneficial to be left out. This must be an option because of the minority of inferior humans who find coriander unpleasant, and perhaps in a thousand years this will no longer be the case. Green capsicum is also a 50c addition, and I regret not getting it. Great filling aside, I did not love the bread, which I found to be oddly crumbly in the mouth.
I really enjoyed how lean these Xi’an Lamb Skewers ($10.80) were, but found them a bit underflavoured for my liking. It was not very spicy, even though the menu threatened it. While some online photos suggest that a bit of chilli powder is served on the side, ours didn’t come with any extra to add on, leaving us with a perfectly tender and lean lamb skewer without much flavour. If I could go back in time I would ask for some.
Another Shaanxi specialty, the Signature Biang Biang Noodle with Pork ($14.30) was one of the best I’ve ever had. The thick gravy was nice and tangy, with a good portion of meat and eggs, while the noodles had a nice Q texture. No complaints here.
The Signature Pork Pan Fried Dumplings ($12.80) were another success in a long string of successes, with a very juicy and meaty filling with good umami flavour, clearly housemade. The cooking style of these pan fried dumplings did however unfortunately lead to some jagged and dry wrapper edges, but not enough to ruin the overall good experience.
THOUGHTS I had a good and inexpensive meal, and I think so will you. Everything we had was pretty good, and the very nice staff rallied hard in the face of adversity. Recommend.
While I guess some of the grocery posts on this blog have worldwide appeal, much of what I eat from the local Asian grocery store is made here in Sydney, and only available at a few places. This makes me writing this essentially useless, as the likelihood of even a single person reading this and then deciding to buy or not buy these wontons is exceedingly low.
Despite this, I thought the Prestons Foods Pork & Garlic Chive Wontons to be quite solid. The filling was generous and had a good meaty texture and good chivey flavour. I’d eat them again.
As someone with limited calories in a day I suffer immensely from food-related indecision. One of my partner’s worst daily bugbears is my inability to decide where we’re going to eat, as I have both extremely high standards and a lack of willingness to cede control. Though Tianjin Shi Tang has been on my radar for a couple of years as a Tianjin-food devotee, multiple trips to the restaurant have been abandoned close to the mark after seeing negative reviews about them on Google. There have been several times where we have parked down the road, and I have made a last minute decision to go somewhere else.
Tian Jin Shi Tang is testament to the fact that Google reviewers don’t always know good food, and that sometimes risking it all on a 3.1 star restaurant with more 1-star reviews than 5-star reviews is worth it. Common complaints about food safety and worker ethic were not issues that we experienced, and in fact we had a very positive overall experience.
The thing I was most keen for was this jianbing guozi (chinese egg pancake) with smoked pork ($12.80). I think that jianbing is one of the key regional dishes of Tianjin that you have to try at any restaurant that offers it, and while I don’t remember the specific taste of any specific jianbing guozi that I had in China, what I can say is that every single one I’ve had in Sydney has been quite enjoyable, this one included. The base jianbing guozi at Tian Jin Shi Tang is $8.80, and though I’d never had it with a meaty filling before, the smoked meat filling (a $4 supplement) as recommended by one guy on Google who will be remembered as being on the right side of history was tasty, umami, and well worth it to put a spin on this classic dish. The lady serving us asked if I wanted chilli on it, and I must have said yes with just little enough conviction that she gave us only a little bit (stated as “less spicy” on our tax invoice). Overall this was not the traditional 煎饼馃子 that I’m used to, with the addition of smoked pork and with chilli sauce rather than sweet bean sauce (甜面酱), but still a delicious play on the concept.
The Tian Jin Wonton Soup ($8.80), pictured above in two almost identical photos chosen to put on show both wonton and soup facets of the dish, was a cheap and hearty breakfast bowl. Presented as a claypot filled with peppery soup, a crackled and slightly scrambled egg, seaweed, coriander, and small-type wontons, this is a dish that could easily form the staple of some late teen to early twenties Burwood high-rise dwelling international student. The meat filling, though relatively small compared to that of a dumpling, made up for its small size with its high density of meat and flavour, and numbered sufficiently to avoid sadness at the end of the meal (Danny Katz of the Sydney Morning Herald makes reference to the appropriate number of wontons in a bowl of wonton soup in the linked article, though this is not the Confucian wonton parable that I remember from my childhood). My only comment would be that this soup was far more peppery than I had anticipated – not overpoweringly so, it’s just that I didn’t expect white pepper to be the main flavour of the soup.
The pork and chive potstickers (12 for $14.80) were again very good. The dumplings and buns at Tian Jin Shi Tang are made fresh to order, and so we had no problems with the short 20 minute wait which we were pre-warned of whilst ordering, during which time we were eating the rest of our meal anyway. Though other online reviewers have complained about twenty minute waits for their food, we understand that fresh handmade food is something that takes time to get right, and I was actually quite impressed by the precision of the dumpling making process, watching the chef weigh out the filling for each individual dumpling, adding and subtracting as necessary as she made them in order to achieve the target ratios and weights. Though I would’ve preferred boiled dumplings (also available on the menu – a sign of self-confidence in a dumpling restaurant’s art) and any sort of order of pan-fried dumplings is usually the doing of my partner, I really did enjoy the freshly fried crispiness of the wrapper, as well as the juiciness of the filling within. These pork and chive dumplings had a bit more of a soy flavour and a stronger taste than I’m used to, but good all the same.
RETURN VISIT, JUNE 2024
The pork and chive steamed buns (8 for $13.80) were large and well priced, though we asked for pan fried ones and they must have misheard us. Very filling.
The zha jiang mien ($13.80) was a large portion, again well priced. The gravy of mince and stir fried bean paste was suitably tasty when mixed through the noodles, but of course too salty when eaten alone. This bowl came with some scramble-fried egg, which was soft and pillowy, and unexpected as I am not used to egg in my zha jiang mien. A recommend though.
COMMENTS Online reviews of Tian Jin Shi Tang are pretty well divided into lovers and haters of the place. Our experience was overwhelmingly positive, and I suspect that some of the difference in experience might be due to the fact that we went in the morning at 9:30AM but they’re open up until 1-2AM, which is a long time to keep up quality. We would not hesitate to go back.
Big respect also to a venue that gives a tax invoice for a cash purchase without being asked. It’s sad that operating a company that doesn’t steal from the rest of society is something to be praised, but where so many in the hospitality industry don’t do the right thing, it’s important to pay homage to the ones who do.
Basic vibe review only, my friend and colleague SCKW paid and didn’t let me see the receipt so I don’t really know what anything is or how much it cost. I transferred him a completely random amount of money.
These beef in black pepper sauce was pretty good. Probably the thing that I ate the most of during the meal. Good flavour, tender beef. Would’ve been good with rice, not that I had any.
The steamed and fried mantou with condensed milk, not really my go to dish, but I did have a couple. I don’t really know what to say. They’re quite standard, there’s not a lot of room for success or failure.
This is some kind of fish fillets in tomato soup, with bok choy and I think possibly basa? The fish fillets had a soft consistency and intrinsic flavour which is why I think basa. Not bad.
It turns out that SCKW is a big vegetable fan, and will order vegetables at every meal. This cabbage was cooked well, no complaints. Not what I would’ve ordered, but that’s why this guy is so much more healthful than me.
Dumplings, possibly pork and chive. I have very high standards for dumplings, coming from a Northern Chinese family, and these were not the best. I don’t think they were really better than frozen dumplings from the local Asian grocer. I won’t go so far as to imply that they are one and the same. I’m done with being threatened with legal action.
OTHER THOUGHTS I would’ve liked to have the Ma La Xiang Guo that Ma La Xiang Guo is named after. Maybe next time.
Ma La Xiang Guo 麻辣香锅 152 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134 0478 827 868
