Haoke Chinese Restaurant

Good Friday YAY...and we were off to try a new dim sum restaurant at Sunnybank Hills. We have passed this restaurant more than a dozen times (to Just Soy Cafe) and have seen how very busy it is every weekend. Therefore, it is of no surprise to have to wait for about 25 mins for our table today. Haoke has a large interior with a grand setting, on a scale similar to Landmark's.

Suunybank Oriental

Suunybank Oriental is where we go to when we hanker for some crusty bottom claypot rice. In Brisbane, we only know of 2 places that offer claypot rice on their menu, the other being Laksa Hut in Toowong. Service here is swift and you need not wait long for the claypot dishes to arrive.

Little Hong Kong

It has been a while since we last visited Little Hong Kong and the reason being, we weren't fans of their roast meats as they were too salty. We see a revival in their menu, introducing even more options of rice and stir-fried noodle dishes and we quickly settled for our orders of a Stewed ginger Duck with E-fu noodles and a Preserved vege & Fish fillet vermicelli soup, except that the vermicelli was swopped for thin egg noodles.

Stir-fried duck noodle is not something we normally like to order because you can lose the flavour of the duck when you stir fry with all the addtional sauces. Thankfully this man size portion manages to keep the sweetness and fragrance of the duck.  The E-fu noodles were quite thick and soft, perfect for the sauce to cling onto as you lift them to your mouth.  We would think a couple more vegetables would help balance the flavours of an otherwise perfect dish.

The preserved mustard vegetables were aplenty in the fish noodle soup which supplied a good pickled flavour in the milky broth. In Singapore, a milky like fish broth is achieved by boiling fish bones for long hours, similar to that of the creamy pork bone soup of a tonkotsu ramen, but short-cuts like using evaporated milk are also used and this is likely the case here. There were numerous chunks of fish fillets, a couple of them were suspiciously fishy in taste though. The egg noodle which is also an important component in Hong Kong BBQ houses, had good elasticity and bite. Overall, it satisfied but won't be returning anytime soon for it.

Little Hong Kong

Shop 23a Market Square Corner

Mains road and McCullough street

Sunnybank

Opens daily till late

www.littlesingapore.com.au

Parkland Chinese Restaurant

This yum cha place is actually the sister restaurant to Landmark located across the road in Sunnypark shoppping centre. So no surprise to find that the menu is similar to Landmark's. There are a few items though which aren't listed on the menu so keep a keen eye for them when the food trolleys come around.

To start we ordered the scallop and prawn dumplings, prawn rolls with wanton wrappers, chicken feet with black bean sauce and chinese vegetables also known as chinese kale. The prawn meat in the dumplings and rolls were a touch overcooked but generous in their quantity. A real sticking point for us when we have yum cha is the quality of the dumpling wrappers. They must be thin yet resilient and delicate. This time around they were rather thick and firm. The kale retained its crispness. As it isnt cooked to order, you may get a cold plate of vegetables which is sad considering you pay $9 a plate.

Prawn rolls with wanton wrappers.

Chicken feet with black bean sauce

When it comes to chicken feet you either hate it or love it.  Those that can get pass the thought of eating feet can apprecitate what this dish has to offer.  The softness and flavour of the braised skins and tendons are infused by the black bean sauce and are just simply delicious as you suck and chew on the bones to get all the goodness out.  Yum!

Stuffed eggplant with prawn

The sauce at first tasted a bit salty but when eaten with the mushy eggplant it eases and you taste the dark soy flavour which lifts this dish.

Lotus leaf glutinous rice with chicken

The rice had absorbed the fragrance from the lotus leaf but was not as robust in flavours despite the dark appearance.  We would have appreciated more than half a shitake mushroom, a small piece of chicken and some mince enclosed within the rice ball of this size.

As far as the overall quality goes, our preferences for Yum Cha restaurants lie between The Manor and Shangri-la.

Parkland Chinese Restaurant
SunnyPark Shopping Centre
Mains Road
Sunnybank