Chinese Noodle House
Prince Centre
Thomas st
China Town, Sydney
While travelling for the last year the most common statement from Sydney-ites was ‘I miss the dumplings from that little place with the plastic vines on the ceiling!’. As soon as I returned to home base I booked the girls for a food-coma educing dumpling extravaganza. We were met with a devastating sign announcing the Chinese Noodle RESTAURANT was closed for kitchen renovations. Turning to leave, we discovered that opposite it the Chinese Noodle HOUSE was open, and almost a mirror image (complete with plastic vines/grapes on the ceiling). This raised the question, what was the difference between restaurant and house? Not the staff (the trick for dealing with these surly waitresses - order CLEARLY and early, give them the evil eye while waiting and they will bring out the plastic cups so you can crack open the [cheap] wine, and most importantly once inside ALWAYS keep your chopsticks in-hand while hovering over a piece of food or they will bill and exit you faster than you can say linger), not the interior (tiny, noisy, crowded, loved), but the food? The hand-cut noodles were excellent, the dumplings were brothy inside (as they should be), but for me the dry fried garlic beans lacked punch, and the special style eggplant was definitely not up to scratch. Verdict? Although the ‘house’ is acceptable, we would rather eat out at the restaurant.
