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.
Unfortunately my dinner at A Bowl of Noodles did not live up to the expectations set by following their social media over the past year or so.
The Yellow Croaker Noodles ($23.80), one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, did not amaze me. It had unfortunately and probably unavoidably quite a fishy smell to it, though to its credit it did not actually taste fishy. The flavour of the soup was quite light, umami, and pleasant, though pleasant not to the degree that we wanted to finish it.
The Pan Fried Pork Buns (sheng jian bao 生煎包 – $11.80) were fine on the outside with good dough and crispiness, but oddly gooey on the inside. I won’t go so far as to say uncooked, because I don’t know for a fact and I didn’t get sick after my meal, but these buns were generally unpleasant for me.
The chive and pork dumplings (10 for $13.90) were actually very good. They stood alone as a dish that met expectations and were the highlight of the meal.
I kind of felt that the xiao long bao ($9.80) would be a dish that I could trust that a Shanghainese specialty restaurant would do well, but I was of course mistaken. These XLBs were quite dry and devoid of soup, without even any holes in the skin that could explain it. I’ve had much better steamed from a box from the frozen section of my local Asian supermarket.
COMMENTS. I didn’t find what I was looking for.
A Bowl Of Noodles 一碗面 735 George St, Haymarket NSW 2000 0415 483 140
I almost didn’t go to Hong Kong Street Food after watching a negative review video from some online influencer. The Tiktok/Instagram people are notorious for singing the praises of literally any place in the hopes of getting a free meal, so I had erroneously assumed that any kind negative review would mean that the place would be truly very bad. Of course I didn’t take into account what kind of a review a place would garner if they refused to pay up.
I am indebted to my partner’s mother for making us give this Rhodes Central (to contrast to the similarly named restaurant around the corner) cha chaan teng a shot.
This is a milk tea ($4.50), strained probably over multiple runs through a silk stocking and mixed with evaporated milk from the Dutch. Ah, colonisation. Had by my partner’s mum and hence not me. Part of a set with food, so a bit cheaper than the listed price, but about $2-3 more than just the food dish by itself. Poured out onto the saucer, quickly replaced with an apology. Apparently it was not bad, but not memorable.
This ice bear lemon tea commands a $2 premium on top of the set meal, or $6.50 if purchased separately. It was fine. It was more than I would want to pay for it individually, but was more palatable as part of the meal deal. The novelty of a melting bear didn’t do anything in particular for me.
Alright here we go. The meat of the review. The stewed beef brisket with radish ($9.80) is a side dish that comes as a topping on some of the cart noodles, but not the right ones. They were pretty good, with a mixture of fatty and tendinous pieces as well as lean pieces. A good variety that allowed each diner to have what we wanted. I’m a lean beef brisket fan.
The four treasures Hong Kong cart noodles ($21.90 in a set with a drink and not available separately) was pretty good. It was a choice between this, with its chicken wings, salt and pepper pork chops (the best part), curry fish balls, and beef stomach, or the alternative Supreme Hong Kong cart noodles, with radish, beef brisket, red sausages and luncheon meat. I chose the four treasures, mainly because I was keen on some of that beef stomach, and because we could get the radish and brisket as a side. I’m also not such a fan of luncheon meat. Despite enjoying this dish, it did pale in comparison to the cart noodles at Hong Kong Bing Sutt in Burwood, which were seriously special.
The baked rice with black pepper chicken steak and cod fillets in creamy corn sauce ($21.90 in a set but also not available individually, even though a bunch of other baked rices are) was really good. I think anything with this amount of cream and cheese and meat and sodium and carb is going to taste good, but damn, delicious. Both the chicken and cod were good, and the fact that it was like a half half pizza was great for the decision-impaired. So creamy. So good.
RE-VISIT, JUNE 2025.
On a revisit I had the chicken and cod baked rice again, for the second time. It is not my usual practice to visit the same restaurant twice, let alone have the same dish at the same restaurant twice, but there were forces at play (PMR) outside of my control. This baked rice (now $23.90), this time without any capsicum, remained delicious – in particular the cod component with the crispy fish covered in sauce.
The French toast ($8.80) did nothing for me, but my white friend PMR whose claim to HK culture is having a HK based girlfriend tells me that it was close to the platonic ideal of a French toast, served with a squeezy bottle honey rather than condensed milk, and with a large layer of peanut butter in between.
The photo certainly looks good, but I found the peanut butter so thick that it actually detracted from the dish overall due to its dry pastiness.
The Tornado Omurice with Beef in TomatoSauce ($23.90 with a milk tea) was like some bizarro version of the classic tomato and egg with rice dish that Chinese children grow up eating. The swirl of egg was, unlike a classical omurice, merely a thin single layered swirl without a wet inside, covering a relatively large mound of rice. The tomato was peeled and stir fried in the way that you would expect of the Cantonese tradition of tomato-egg, with the sauce well portioned to the rice but of a sweeter flavour than I would make myself. The beef seemed only present to aid the presentation and distract us from the fact that you can get a serving of tomato-egg and rice for like $7 at an economy rice restaurant. The taste was not bad overall, but it didn’t feel special for $23.90, whereas the baked rice definitely did.
Curry Fish Balls ($10.80) seem pricey for what they are, and it is difficult to eat with a colleague to obtain the appropriate curry to fish ball ratio without double dipping.
We asked for two cold mild teas and were given one hot and one cold. It was not a battle either of us felt was important to fight.
OTHER THOUGHTS The decor, with neon lights and sections representing hawker carts and the HK MTR was a nice touch. I thought it was a bit weird that there were ads posted up for real estate in Hong Kong, but guess it makes sense that if Australian real estate is being advertised in China, that Chinese real estate is being advertised in Australia too. Don’t @ me.
There’s this super odd row of restaurants on Liverpool Road in Ashfield where separate establishments named “New Shanghai Night”, “New Shanghai”, and “Shanghai Night” are lined up one after another. The subject of our review today is Shanghai Night, the Westernmost of the three.
The Shanghai Spicy Noodle Soup ($12.80) was good. It was quite a large serving for the price, and with plenty of meat and flavourful soup. Not too spicy. Not much else to say apart from a recommend.
The Si-Chuan Dry Wonton with Cucumber and Chilli Oil ($10.80) looked vastly different to the menu photo, but tasted pretty good. The wontons were plenty meaty, however my partner raised some concerns about the state of the peanut butter, which I did chose not to try.
The Steam Shanghai Style Mini Pork Bun ($8.80) were not the best. The most disappointing thing about them was the fact that they were mostly broken. In fact, only 2 out of the 8 were received intact, a feat that I can easily manage with a box of frozen xiao long bao at home.
THOUGHTS: With so many competitors in the Shanghai food space within a one metre radius, I don’t think I will be going back to this particular restaurant any time soon.
Shanghai Night 275 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131 (02) 9798 8437
As Western Sydney locals but relative strangers to the South West, it took a couple of laps around the block for us to realise that the neon-lit Chololo made famous across social media was actually situated within the somewhat dingy and run down food court of the Fairfield Chase shopping centre. The initial surprise that someone chose to open a new diner in such a place faded quickly however, as we ordered and settled in for our special Taco Tuesday meal.
Our main order was the Birria Ramen Pack with 3 beef tacos ($21). This pack is differentiated from their regular birria pack through the addition of instant noodles and pulled beef into the dipping soup.
The standard taco itself wasn’t bad, but also wasn’t a standout. The beef inside was reasonably moist, the filling to tortilla ratio was good, and the finely diced green vegetables inside were most welcome. Despite this I just didn’t get the vibe that they were very special, that is until I had them with the excellent chilli sauce, which was so fresh and fruity with just the right amount of spice. Dipping the tacos into the provided consommé, in this case an instant noodle soup, didn’t really enhance the experience as much as I had expected. It simply made the taco a bit more salty and a bit more soggy.
I don’t profess to be an instant noodle guru, though I have had many in my day. I found the noodles and the overall “ramen” experience of the birria ramen to be a bit lacking, and contrary to other online reviewers who enjoyed layering the noodles into the tacos I didn’t feel like this added anything. The noodles simply didn’t have enough of a non-salt flavour to add to the tacos, and if I were to go back I’d be choosing the standard birria pack rather than pay the premium for noodles that I did not enjoy.
Despite my lukewarm response to everything so far, the keto tacos ($4 each) were surprisingly good. We visited, by providence, on a Taco Tuesday as well, which meant that additional tacos were $2 each with any purchase of a birria or ramen pack. These keto tacos had the same general fillings as Chololo’s standard tacos, except that the carb-laden tortilla was replaced by a fat-laden crisp of grilled cheese. The cheese “tortilla” on these tacos were extremely crispy, crunchy, and tasty, while the fresh vegetables within and supplied limes to squeeze helped to balance out the oiliness. We had both the chicken and beef keto tacos, and both were quite delicious to the mouth, if repulsive when you actually start to think about how bad they are for you.
COMMENTS If I were a man in a state of extreme unintentional calorie deficit and catabolism I would come back on a Tuesday and gobble up those delicious $2 keto tacos with their excellent chilli sauce. As I am hoping not to have a CABG in the next decade however I think I will probably not come back.
Chololo Fairfield Fairfield Chase Shopping Centre, 34 Council Ln, Fairfield NSW 2165 0413 675 536
Taste of Xi’an (西安风味) is a nice and clean Chinese restaurant serving up Xi’an favourites in the middle of the Wollongong CBD. I arrived in scrubs on a Saturday morning (borrowed from my girlfriend, having forgotten to bring clothes from Sydney) and was greeted in friendly Chinese. I responded in kind, but to the disappointment of everyone (including, I imagine, my parents) had to order in English.
The Five Spicy Egg ($1.30) is a low cost boiled egg, with a slightly cracked shell that promotes the absorbance of tea, soy sauce and spices. This particular egg had absorbed a good amount of tea scent, but its absorbance of soy sauce flavour or saltiness could’ve been greater. It was fully hard boiled.
The Xi’an Style PorkBurger ($6 – roujiamo) is a sandwich of long-stewed pork in bread. Legend has it that this particular dish is one of humanity’s original hamburgers. I enjoyed the fragrant flavours of the meat, as well as the generous meat to bread ratio. The addition of some fatty meat within the mixture of mostly lean pork added a nice juiciness to some bites. My last roujiamo was at least three years ago in Hurstville, and thus I cannot compare this directly with any others that I have had.
The Pork Minced Noodles with Soup ($11) was nice, umami, and warming. The noodles had a pleasant “Q”like texture, and I suspect though have not confirmed that they are handmade on site, The soup was nice and moist, and synergised well with the roujiamo. I have read online commentors complain about the quantity of meat (though to too little) and soy sauce (thought to be too much) in this noodle dish, though I think both are quite appropriate, as someone who enjoys meat and dislikes too heavily flavoured foods. This noodle bowl straddles the line well. In terms of greenery, this bowl offers some undisclosed leaves, as well as a quantity of peas, and diced carrot and potato, in a manner reminiscent of a supermarket frozen diced vegetable mix, though surprisingly not to its detriment. Not bad.
COMMENTS I will return for the dumplings at a later date.
Taste of Xi’an (西安风味) 230 Crown St, Wollongong NSW 2500
