Pâtisserie display at Yauatcha

Having afternoon tea at a Chinese restaurant might seem like a strange concept, but when that restaurant is Yauatcha, a one-star Michelin Restaurant, it seemed like something worth trying. Yauatcha’s creator is the famous restaurateur, Alan Yau who propelled Hakkasan to international fame. Alan sold his majority shareholding in both these restaurants in 2007, although he still maintains a management interest. Alan Yau aside, part of my desire to try the afternoon tea at Yauatcha was also due to the spectacular and mouth-watering pâtisserie display in the restaurant front. If you have ever walked past it, you might know what I mean.

Preparing for a spot of afternoon tea at Yauatcha, or any other decadent high tea location, requires a strategy similar to the kind that you might adopt for a major sporting event. Truth be told, I’ve never participated in a major sporting event, nor even a little one, so this is pure speculation on my part. But I imagine that you have to be disciplined in terms of what you eat, otherwise you might not last the distance or perform to your optimum. In this instance, a lack of preparation could have jeopardised my ability to gorge on all the delectable sandwiches and scrumptious cakes, and that was simply not on.

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Note: This write-up was based on a dinner I had before the fire earlier in 2009 which closed the restaurant for a number of months. The restaurant has since re-opened.

The mouth-watering chicken at Bar Shu

Walking down Frith Street to my destination of Bar Shu, a Sichuan (Szechuan) restaurant, I happened to notice Barrafina. But then Barrafina is rather hard to miss. With big glass windows, shiny white walls, plenty of elegantly dressed people perched high up on bar stools, it generally seems to sport an all round hip n’ happening crowd. It’s won many plaudits, but after the success the Hart brothers (Sam and Eddie) had with Fino, this was bound to be a sure thing. I would rather like to eat there, but one key factor has always held me back – their no bookings policy. Despite having shown my face at Barrafina on a couple of previous occasions, I was unable to secure a table without a very protracted wait and have invariably ended up leaving.

No doubt I would have enjoyed eating there tonight. So mark a no reservations policy as a major dislike in my world of dining out. But for those restaurants that do take reservations, just as irritating can be time restrictions, when you’re told after making a booking that they need the table back after two hours. It’s irritating because who would want the indignity of being rushed through a meal that you’re going to pay for?

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Sydney Opera House by night

After three and a half years away, I finally arrived in Sydney for my first long, overdue trip home. It’s always wonderful to come back, to the place of your childhood. Sydney has changed a little since I was last here, but it still has that same old familiar feel, that feeling of ‘home’. Coming back has been a moment that I’ve been looking forward to for sometime, and I’ve been counting down the days ever since my trip began in Indonesia, gradually feeling my sense of excitement growing and growing. There’s something quite extraordinarily wonderful when you’ve not seen your family for a while and you are due to meet up for the very first time after a long absence.

That first meal together is of course always particularly exciting for there is no better way to bond than to eat – to catch up over a pleasurable pastime. We’d chosen Mr Chow’s Peking Restaurant, a Chinese restaurant offering three different styles of Chinese cooking from three different regions: Peking, Canton and Sichuan (Szechuan). Its specialty is a derivation of the ever-popular Peking duck: a (jasmine) tea-smoked duck ($58). It is cooked with a special secret technique that causes the fat to dissipate, thus leaving it with no fat, but allegedly with no alteration to the flavour.

I have to admit that I am someone who is always seduced by the signature dish of a restaurant. Hopelessly drawn to the idea that it’s the best dish that the house has to offer, I would never want to lament passing up the chance to try the best. Unlike typical Peking duck, where you are served only the skin first and the meat second, the tea-smoked duck at Mr Chow’s was served with all the meat at once, and accompanied by steamed buns rather than thin pancakes. However it still came with the mandatory hoisin sauce and vegetable slivers of cucumber and spring onions. A delicate smoky-tea flavour permeated the meat, and as promised, the duck came with (virtually) no fat. However, unlike the typical variation, the meat although tender proved a little dry, no doubt as a consequence of the lack of fat. An experimentation point was thus proved – that fat helps improve taste. No wonder the French cook with glorious duck fat.

Tea-smoked duck

We stayed with the Pekinese theme for the rest of the evening, choosing another house specialty, the crab meat in egg white ($19.80), and also the Peking-style spare ribs ($25.80). The crab meat was wonderfully fresh and juicy, and the delicacy of the egg white in a gentle white sauce combined superbly with the subtlety of the crab. The boneless ribs were meltingly tender, although ironically quite fatty. Deep fried and submerged in a sweet sauce, it was delicious, although the flavour lacked the punch packed by some of the dim sum versions that you can get in Sydney’s Chinatown restaurants. Those have a thicker and crispier batter around the meat, giving them a crunchier outer coating, and they come with a sauce which is usually thicker and more caramelised, producing a stickier, more intense flavour.

Peking-style spare ribs

Mr Chow’s Peking Restaurant has that standard look and feel of a typical Chinese restaurant with standard Chinese touches and the ever mandatory fish tank on display that is common in Chinese restaurants in Sydney. However, Mr Chow’s, being situated in a more upper-end of town, in the Rocks area of Sydney and not Chinatown, it is furnished slightly more comfortably. It has a slicker, more polished look, with wider set tables and more spacing in between.

Its mood was relaxed and the quieter noise levels easily allowed for those catch-up conversations with family. The service was also friendly and came with a smile, something occasionally difficult to find in Chinatown! I enjoyed my first night back in Sydney at Mr Chow’s, especially for the million miles an hour conversation between my chatterbox sister and I. The food was of quality sourcing and tasty. There was also plenty of variety on the menu to keep any discerning palate occupied. But despite all this, at its pricing levels, no doubt in part to reflect its locale, Mr Chow’s just didn’t quite wow.

Mr Chow’s Peking Restaurant at:
33-35 Kent St
The Rocks,
Sydney, NSW
Australia, 2000
Phone: +61 (0)2 9252 3010
Web: http://www.mrchowspeking.com.au

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