Chefs Gallery
501 George St, Sydney
After another long day of exploring Sydney, we stopped by Chefs Gallery for some dinner. Chefs Gallery features a semi open kitchen so that patrons can see the noodle makers roll and stretch a blob of dough into stringy thin noodle pieces. It's a pretty neat experience if you've never seen it before. Unfortunately for us, we were seated on the other side of the shop so I couldn't see much of anything. We made our order and I tried my best attempt at creeper camming the action. Clearly didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.
The first to arrive was the plain grilled hand pulled noodles. Though simple, this dish presented the hand pulled noodles in it's purity. Garnished with fried shallots and served with soya sauce, the noodles was the star of the show. Rolled, folded and stretched when you order, the noodles had the perfect firmness, not too soggy, not too hard. The flavour was clean and refreshing. This was probably one of my favorite dishes of the night.
The next dish to arrive was the zha jiang hand pulled noodles. Served with minced pork and tofu in a zha jiang sauce and topped with carrots and celery, the flavour was much stronger than the first dish. I thought it was a bit too salty and was not a big fan of it.
Things began arriving quickly and I was having difficulties taking pictures between stuffing my face with the two bowls of noodles. The shredded pork and lettuce fried rice was the next to be brought out. For over $10+, the portions were looking awfully small, especially when compared to portion back in Calgary. It was decent but nothing about it stood out as spectacular.
The last non dessert item to arrive was the pan fried shrimp guotie (potstickers). I know y'all are thinking 'That doesn't look like a potstickers David...' But apparently it is. Sooo... Yeah. I was like 'WTF?' when the waitress dropped it off. I was fully expecting a dumpling looking thing. I did not expect it to look like some pan fried rice crepe. The shape totally threw me off. It was messed up I tell ya! Taste wise, it was decent so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.
So the main reason I decided to check out Chefs Gallery was because I saw a picture of their steamed sesame 'piggy face' bun. A favourable review on urbanspoon also helped. But look at it! It looks so cute! And tasty! I couldn't resist.
The spongy steamed bun is stuffed with a gooey sesame paste and decorated to look like a little pig. Awwww... Taking a bite unleashes the tasty savory goop on your taste buds. It felt like a party in my mouth. So good.
This is what I thought of it in these categories.
Atmosphere: 8 out of 10. There were a lot of antiquey looking decor sitting around the restaurant. If the tables weren't around, I would have thought it was a museum or something. It had a nice inviting atmosphere. Which may explain the line up outside.
Food: 7.5 out of 10. It had it's ups and downs. Pretty good over all.
Presentation: 8.5 out of 10. Above average presentation. Points mostly coming from the sesame buns.
Price: 8 out of 10. One of the cheapest meals we had in Sydney. Not including the late night McDonald's run obviously.
Service: 6 out of 10. Average service. We had to ask for everything. But it's generally in line with most Chinese restaurants so I wasn't expecting much.
Overall: 7.5 out of 10. Above average. It's definitely got more ups than downs so I'd recommend it.
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