249. Sydney - Emperor's Garden Restaurant

Chinatown is located right opposite Paddy's Market. Identified by the Chinese-textiled roof entrance. Emperor's Garden Restaurant is the first Chinese restaurant at the entrance. It doesn't look like it's in Sydney ya?


Egg tarts with crispy crust. They have the non-crispy crust too but I will go for the crispy ones. Asked for 2 times before I got my tarts. I thought the Cantonese makes nice egg tarts but not always so. It was just a pop-sized mediocre tasting egg tart. The custard wasn't sweet enough. Nor was the wow factor there. Crispy crust was a tad dry.

The rice rolls filled with prawns. The rolls was tangy but I felt they were made thicker than what we usually have. I didn't like thick rice rolls because the soy sauce didn't soak well into the rolls and made them taste bland.

Char siew buns, the all-time favourite at dim sum tables. We can find 2 types of char siew buns on the market if you have noticed. I meant the way of the buns were kneaded. What we see in the pic here was like a flower face bun, with holes to see through the innards. The other type being the conservative type, all wrapped up and you see nothing but a red dot to signify its identity. I personally preferred the former. The skin for flower face type was more fluffy but if the bun maker isn't skilled enough, you find yourself having the bun's skin stuck to your teeth. The one I had at Emperor's Garden was pretty good. The skin was fluffy and it didn't stick to my teeth. Char siew filling wasn't too dense or overly sweet.

Siew mai. The texture would have been better if it was made smaller, smoother if some prawn paste was added.

Prawn dumplings (In Cantonese, har gou). Very fulfilling innards. Prawns whole and some pork and celery were added. Prawns were tangy. It tasted better than our mini har gou.

You can see the dim sum wasn't really exquisitely made like we had at Royal China, Wah Lok and etc. The dim sum were maybe placed slightly higher than those Hong Kong Cha Can Ting. Only 2-3 trolleys were on the move. Not many choices of dim sum to choose from. Though food was decent, taste was mediocre, the price was rather steep. Bill worked out to be approximately >AUD30+. It was a treat from a friend so not so exactly clear of the total amount. A few steps away, there is East Ocean restaurant.

Emperor's Garden Restaurant

96-100 Hay St

Haymarket

Sydney NSW 2000