Lovin’ Lamb was closed, and this stall in Burwood Chinatown was the nearest alternative.
We had these spicy but less spicy secret recipe lamb skewers ($12.60), which presented a good mixture of fatty and lean lamb coated in an enjoyable chilli-cumin seasoning.
Absolutely comparable to Lovin’ Lamb. No notes.
Skewer House 串家
Burwood Chinatown
127-133 Burwood Road Burwood NSW 2134
To take my mind off some disastrous performance in a practice examination, my friend and I had lunch at this Uyghur Chinese restaurant on Burwood Road towards the top of the street where a number of Uyghur restaurants are. It was a no-fuss, very straightforward ordeal where we chose a number of the most popular options from the menu.
The XinJiang Style Stir fried noodles ($24.80) were quite good with tender beef, noodles that were ‘jin doa’, and a slick of oil coating every single mouthful (but in a delicious manner.) The flavours were good and there was a nice variety of vegetables and a balance of flavours, textures, and components.
The stewed beef with vegetable ($24.80) was delicious and tasty. It came loaded with glass noodles, however it probably would have been good with extra rice, given the sheer quantity of gravy. Despite the fact that some extra rice probably would’ve been optimal, it was however just fine without it, not too salty, and not neccessarily needing a second carb to dilute the flavour. The beef was fatty and flavourful, without too much gameiness or agriculural scent, and the vegetables a mind-trick into pretending we were eating something slightly healthy.
The lamb skewers (4 for $16) were pretty good when they were fresh out of the grill, not too spicy and in fact probably could have actually used a bit more spice. Sadly my friend is a white man and we wonder if that may have affected the amount of spice that was laid onto these skewers, but we wouldn’t want to assume for sure. It’s sad that these skewers did get a bit less appealing towards the end of the meal, once the heat had been radiated away to the environment. It is not physically impossible to avoid degradation of lamb skewer quality throughout the course of a meal, by the application of a heated plate or using a heating element, for example, a candle under a plate, however this was not in practice in this restaurant, or to be fair any other Chinese restaurant I’ve been at. The Koreans have this down though.
Overall
I felt the meal at Xin Jiang Hui Min Hand Made Noodle Restaurant was quite good and quite a reasonable price for the amount of food that we got. We left quite filled and with leftovers that continued to taste good after a trip to the microwave.
I would recommend this restaurant to a friend or colleague.
Xin Jiang Hui Min Hand Made Noodle Restaurant (新疆回民手工拉面)
193 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
(02) 8971 5876
I’m almost certain I had written something about Babylon Bakery already, but I couldn’t find anything in the drafts or in the scheduled posts, and I couldn’t even find any notes taken from the meal, so I guess I’ll just do it again from memory.
We visited Babylon Bakery after seeing it recommended on social media by someone who I hope wasn’t a paid influencer. We ordered a relatively large amount of food to eat in, and unfortunately had to wait a relatively large amount of time (21 minutes) for our food to arrive.
We had a one kilogram mixed skewer pack ($40) which consisted of chicken tawouk, lamb kofta, as well as lamb meat skewers for a total of eight skewers worth. This also came with some coleslaw consisting of lettuce and tomato, as well as some seasoned onion, garlic and hummus dips, and chilli coated bread.
This was a large dish and extremely good value for only $40 with an overall huge amount of food. The chicken was my favourite, being quite juicy and tender, followed by the lamb kofta. The the chunks of lamb meat were less to my liking with a bit of gaminess to them, and overall a bit less tenderness than the other two options.
We also had a fattoush salad (regular size – $8) although, and I didn’t know this at the time, we probably could have had fattoush instead of coleslaw on our kilogram of mixed skewers. This was fine, it was what fattoush iss.
Unbelievably, we also had a chicken shawarma roll ($10), originally intended to be for the following day, but then I wanted to try some. This was excellent with a large helping of garlic sauce, and quite juicy with the pickles – not dry at all like some that I’ve had, for example, from Shawarma Albeik.
Overall
We ultimately packaged up the remainder of our kilogram of meat and took it home to eat the following day. Overall, the value proposition offered by Babylon Bakery was quite good, however I guess they’re not particularly well set up for dine-in eaters with only two small tables on premises. The majority of their orders were for takeaway, and perhaps if one is intending to dine there, it would be better to just order as takeaway, arrive 20 minutes later and then eat there, because sitting there waiting for twenty minutes was no fun. The food is all served in disposable stuff anyway.
Babylon Bakery & Grill
187 The Boulevarde, Fairfield Heights NSW 2165
One of the first meals we had in our new place was from Yum Burger, a convenient 0 minute walk around the corner from the Five Dock Coles, and a relatively price-conscious choice for two new mortgagees.
The Classic Aussie Burger ($12) does what it says on the tin. It features a single beef patty, a slice of American cheese, red onions, lettuce, tomato, and some barbeque sauce all sandwiched between a bun. It was of adequate size and flavour for the price – definitely a solid budget pick, but did not do anything to astound.
The hot chicken burger ($14.50) was a bit tastier, owing to the inclusion of jalapenos, chilli mayo, and hot sauce, which all matched well with its healthfully grilled chicken breast fillet. I would not mind having another right now (he says, as he has chicken in the air fryer going in the next room).
The hot chips ($4.50 – small) were thick cut and crispy but ultimately difficult to judge as I didn’t have them immediately after they were cooked (I finished my shop first).
Thoughts
The fit out is sleek, clean, and modern, clearly updated in the last few years comparing its current appearance to old photos from Google Maps, though a bit of the pictorial information has been lost from the backlit menu board.
Unfortunately there’s no double patty option on the menu – even the even the “man burger” option announces its manliness through a lack of vegetables and the addition of bacon, but no extra beef patty. Though the portions of meat in the burgers were adequate, a bit of extra meat often goes a long way, and something I feel many wouldn’t mind paying for.
The people working there seem to be the owners however so I suspect they have a bit of latitude when it comes to off-menu additions.
I’ll probably be back.
Update October 2025
I was walking buy and saw an ad out for fried skewers. I had 5 lamb skewers for $7, not really knowing what they would be like. They ended up being less Chinese than I expected them to be (to be fair, there was nothing really indicating Chineseness apart from the guy who runs the store being Chinese), though not completely non-chinese.
The meat was juicy and mostly lean, with one fatty bit but overall less fatty than most Chinese skewers. The flavour was umami with a slight hint of sweetness and saltiness – difficult for me to put my finger on, but definitely not the chilli and cumin that I had hoped (with no good reason to). Not the best, but definitely inoffensive and good value.
Yum Burger
Shop 5/133 Great N Rd, Five Dock NSW 2046
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.
Xi’an Eatery 西安诱惑
183D Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
(02) 8056 4600