Chinese Noodle Restaurant, Haymarket Chinatown

Shredded pork in Beijing sauce with mini pancakes $12.80

"I am so sure I could do that."

Today's noodle maker at the Chinese Noodle Restaurant is female. I watch, mesmerised, as she effortlessly transforms lumps of dough into a cats cradle of noodle string.

Thwack! Thwack! moans the dough as it's pounded relentlessly into the counter.

The noodle maker looks bored. She glances around the cramped little dining room, loops the noodles around her arms and then, with concerted resignation, thwacks again, pulling the strands outwards until they become narrower and narrower.

The kitchen window that gives a view of the noodle maker is my favourite part about dining here. The show isn't always on, but when it is, it always make the noodles before you taste infinitely better.


Pork and chives light pan-fried dumplings $7.50
(12 per serve)

And yet, funnily enough, today we haven't even chosen noodles.

CucinaRebecca and I share a plate of pork and chives pan-fried dumplings instead, which magically appear within 90 seconds of being ordered. A dozen of these juicy morsels are served in a haphazard jumble. The bottoms are only lightly browned, a spoonful of pork mince swaddled in a steamed flour blanket.

We also share a plate of shredded pork in Beijing sauce, a dish which had caught my eye as we perused the menu. Well, the mini pancakes caught my eye, really.

The shredded pork has an uncanny resemblance to a plate of worms. It's coated in a thick, sweet and salty bean sauce and we wrap the lot into wedges of savoury pancake along with a smattering of raw shredded cabbage. It's meaty and hearty and reminds me a little of eating a doner kebab.

I notice the bright new tapestries hanging on the walls. The old scenes with the faded maroons have been replaced with new gallopiong landscapes featuring vivid blues and greens and vibrant splashes of yellow. But the plastic grapes still hang overhead and there's always queue every lunchtime.

And the noodle maker. I'm still enamoured. And I'm still secretly wishing I could have a go too.



Chinese Noodle Restaurant
(Chinatown Noodle Restaurant)
TG7, Prince Centre
8 Quay Street, Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9281 9051

Open 7 days 11am-9pm

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