Fresh User Reviews for Yum Cha in Sydney

3.8 Below Average

Quality  5      Food  4      Ambience  4      Service  3      Value  3     

Went for yum cha lunch on a Saturday two weeks ago. It's just like your typical "yum cha" experience, although this restaurant looks a bit more "upmarket". Service could have been better. They should offer extra free parking for the customers who eat there and also do some shopping, as after 3 hours, it is not free to park in Parramatta Westfield. And yum cha is not a "quick and go" kinda experience.

May 31, 2012

6.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  5      Service  6      Value  7     

I go to this yum cha alot due to location. I always take a chinese friend with me as they find it hard to understand me (aussie). I find the prices are average. The service is a little rushed as its always busy. I love the food, variety and taste and will continue to dine here.

May 30, 2012

6.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  6     

Pretty average yum cha, no better or worse than others in the city. Dumplings are good, the usual roast pork and duck and chickens feet, all the usual fare done in the usual way. Best for those who favour seafood. The restaurant is a reasonable size for al a carte, but maybe not for yum cha in the city. The wait for a table at lunchtime mid-week can be longer than most. Try arriving a bit before the hour for best chance of reduced waiting times.

May 29, 2012

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7     

The food was so delicious and plenty enough to go around. Staff were friendly and explained us for many details. Your staff were just brilliant. So friendly yet very professional.

May 29, 2012

5.3 Average

Food  7      Ambience  5      Service  4      Value  5     

Must agree with most of the commentary below, this is a good place for a quick bite but do not expect warm service or a blow your mind meal. Given it is always super busy, you are treated quickly and without much attention, enough to get by.

The yum cha is pretty good and if you know what you want and like a bit of variety, it is worth it. Had the rice noodles with prawns, wontons, beans in some sauce (black bean maybe), calamari and steamed dumplings. Enjoyed all of them for what they are, nice clean flavours but minus any wonderful fireworks. Dishes were warm but not overly hot, understandable I guess given the amount they churn out.

The mango pancakes are Fabulous, worth alone a visit! Finish on these and the other sins are completely forgotten. Room is a bit bland, lots of grey and has a frenzied atmosphere but it goes with the yum cha territory.

May 28, 2012

2.5 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  4      Service  1      Value  2     

Experience at this restaurant was beyond terrible.

Dined this restaurant with about 6 people, sat down at a fairly large round table near the back of the restaurant. At first, things were ok. Menus handed out tea served etc.

Ordering the food was fine but when it came for the food to come out, it took about 30 minutes. We were originally going to dine at the restaurant opposite this one, a new Beijing Duck place. But the wait was too long but little did we know, with the time it took for the food to get out of the kitchen we could have dined at the other restaurant.

I should also mention that we were having a vegetarian meal. The waiters didn't seem to take us seriously. By that I mean that our food was so slow to come out, that we wanted to cancel an order as we had already eaten all the other dishes we order, the waiter claimed that "it was already in the steamer". Sounded like some BS.

There were also multiple mix ups with our table that frustrated us further. Giving us fried ice cream Thatr we didn't orde when clearly we were only in the middle of our meal. They also managed to give us the wrong bill, claiming the person was "new" and that was why it was wrong. The waiters also had attitude, not even a smile!

May 27, 2012

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7     

Dined here in the early evening Friday 18th May with family members. The staff were friendly and quite attentive. We were seated at a window table overlooking the fast ferry pier. The view is definitely a plus and was an enhancement to our dining experience.

We shared our meals which lived up to expectations of such a venue. After reading reviews on this site about rude waiters and bad service I am happy to report it was not the case for us. We had a very enjoyable birthday celebration for my elderly mum.

May 27, 2012

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

One of the better Yum Cha places in Sydney. Although not as big as the Chinatown venues, it has a nice selection of dishes especially with seafood choices. Service is better than average and waitresses will go out of their way to get you the dish you are after. Also a good place to take someone not familiar with yum cha as it's less intimidating than the chinatown restaurants. Could do with a few more vegetarian options. But overall recommended!

May 25, 2012

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  8     

Good Seafood restaurant! I tried the lobster set dinner for 4 people, it's worth! The lobster was our favourite dish of the day, creamy and tasty!

May 25, 2012

1.3 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

Horrid, horrid experience tonight.

Went with a friend using a voucher for their nine course peking duck offer. The ambience is a typical westernised Chinese restaurant. The service is non-existent, they leave you a list of what is coming out and leave the rest up to for figuring out. Lots of meals appeared to have had been made in advance and left in the fridge then simply brought out. I was mostly appalled and haven't seen this low quality of food in a long time.

The real kicker, however, was half way through, a man who worked there approached us and told us our voucher had already been used (it hadn't). We asked for him to show us proof of it being used prior and he didn't do anything, he simply walked away. Another person came and was no help as we asked also, our below average experience now dismal and ruined as we were worried.

We didn't bother with dessert as we asked the front desk to record in front of us the coupon. They didn't do it, they simply showed us some list with our number highlighted which really means nothing. The man said that instead of paying the full price of $188 we'd only be charged $78. Very suspicious as we asked again for them to show us on the computer that it wasn't accepted and they still didn't.

I ended up forking out the $78 extra. We left annoyed. My friend will be contacting the coupon website also tomorrow. Do not come here, You have been warned. This place overall disappointing!

May 25, 2012

5.8 Average

Food  7      Ambience  5      Service  5      Value  6     

Went there twice. The first was a Sunday evening lured by the fact that yum cha was on offer at 6pm. Whilst the food was good, the menu is yum cha food, ordered a la carte. We asked for the dishes (about 10 of them between the 4 of us) to be spaced. They came virtually all at once, resulting in cold food.

There was only one other table occupied and it seemed rather empty (I guess it was). The architecture is nice, but when you are sitting almost alone in the expanse, ambience suffers.

The food was very good, spoiled only by the fact that half the dishes were cold by the time we got to eat them because of the delivery.

We also tried it during the week for lunch-time yum cha. This time the place was full, and trolley service available. It is fine, but doesn't stand out from any other yum cha, and is probably less atmospheric.

Lastly, I thought the a la carte menu had some interesting dishes on it. (and for those like it, it is one of the few restaurants where you can get shark fin, I'm not going to editorialise, merely stating a fact).

May 23, 2012

6 Average

Food  6      Ambience  7      Service  5      Value  6     

Since it re-opened it seems to have become the trendy dim sum location (Could be basking in the limelight of its neighbours such as Becasse in the Westfield centre). As it is newer, the ambience is somewhat better than many other yum cha restaurants.

On the several occasions I have been there, the service was slow and the staff a bit pushy trying to unload the trolleys. A number of the dishes were lukewarm and in the case of the roast duck, totally cold. It's Ok. but there are better for service and quality of food. I hope the restaurant continues to be popular. It might reduce the wait at the others nearby.

May 21, 2012

2 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  3      Service  1      Value  1     

Worst yum cha experience I have ever had. Not only did they often miss our table due to port layout, the food was often cold or not available. We were given a time limit to eat our lunch of 1 hour. When asked if we wanted anything else and we were told that what we would like wasn't currently available in the carts and that they would now be collecting our bill. We were charged $40 before we even ate a thing. The staff were rude and unhelpful. And often avoided being attentive at all. I will not be going back.

May 21, 2012

3.8 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  5      Service  2      Value  3     

Too loud, not a real restaurant, more of a bar. Will not go there again,

May 20, 2012

7.2 Recommended

Quality  7      Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  7     

I tried yum cha a few months ago when new, and can agree that it was nothing special. The plate of Chinese vegetables in oyster sauce was very unfresh, even after the manager brought us another plate. Even though I am not likely to return for yum cha, we have since tried dinner there twice, and have been pleased to find the food (seafood and vegetables) very fresh and the service attentive.

May 20, 2012

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  9     

Great yum cha destination. The food comes thick and fast, variety is good and the quality is high.

Also quite good as a evening destination. The menu is long, and there's a good mix of chinese staples and a few left field options. Again the quality is good.

Admittedly the place is a bit run down and scruffy, but hey, you're in Marrickville. And the service is great.

May 20, 2012

6.3 Average

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  6     

Bodhi has been operating for years now. It serves very good vegetarian (Thai) food imo.

May 20, 2012

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  7     

Yes a yum cha place where the service was above a 2, in fact in this place they were an 8, actually really interested in giving a good experience. Shame one has to travel so far out of the CBD to escape the attitude.

Food was totally perfect, the decor of course was Chinese suburban 80s but you'd expect that. The elevated view of the leafy suburbs across to Chatswood was surprisingly lovely too. Of course you're in an RSL but even that made the experience, being a good one, more surprisingly enjoyable.

May 19, 2012

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  5     

This a beautiful restaurant in the former RSL building. Beautiful views of Botany Bay and the city. At lunch we had a choice from the Special Menu or the standard one which is more elaborate and of course more costly, very expensive.
But the food was superb having ordered duck with Chinese mushrooms and pepper honey steak.

The excellent service was friendly and helpful. If you don't mind the cost- just under $60 for two dishes, rice, a beer and two glasses of wine, then go for it. The food is worth it.

May 19, 2012

3 Below Average

Food  3      Ambience  5      Service  2      Value  2     

What a difference to the other eating houses at Faifield RSL. Had yum cha here the other Saturday and were very disappointed. Service was ordinary as we had to keep asking for the waitress to bring the trolley around (of which there were only 2). Soft drinks that were served were very small glasses filled with way too much ice and hardly any soft drink. We asked for a side serving of fresh chilli with soy sauce which we never got.

The scallop dumpling was the only thing that was good, we couldn't eat the pork as it tasted funny and full of bones and the siu mai was overcooked and tasted only of pork.

Lastly we had spring rolls and when the waitress brought them out she stood there talking to another waitress holding the plate of spring rolls only 10-15cm from her face for about 5 minutes, well we didn't really feel like eating after watching that.

Ambience would have been ok but the lights kept going out and we were left in darkness to eat, top it of over $40 for 6 very average dishes. Never again!

May 17, 2012