China Lane, Sydney

I was very excited to visit China Lane, a modern Chinese restaurant in Sydney, the sister restaurant of China Doll, a restaurant in Wooloomooloo I had visited years ago.  While China Doll wasn't particularly memorable, China Lane gets fantastic reviews, and the menu really called out.

So when I needed to organize dinner for a group of 8, it was right near the top of my list.

A highly underwhelming meal.

I don't have much positive to say about this meal.  The pacing was odd, the service worse than standard Sydney service (non attentive, empty water glasses all the time, needed to wave them over o get refills, etc), and the food highly mediocre.  The restaurant was not busy.

I have no desire to return.

Setting

China Lane, is, actually, located down a lane, Angel Place right in the CBD.  A convenient location at least.

Birdcages.

As every post reviewing China Lane will note, you reach it by walking under an art installation of assorted bird cages, complete with bird sounds.

You can tell who is a tourist/new to the area and who is not by just watching them walk through here, looking either where they are going, or ... not so much.

Outdoor Seating.

As with many Sydney establishments, much of the seating spills out onto the laneway, with heaters if required.

Indoors.

Our group of 8 was seated inside however, at a long table along one wall.  A private room is also available, but we opted for main dining room seating given the fairly high minimum spend requirement for the room.

The restaurant was *very* empty that night, with only a handful of small tables occupied.  I was fairly surprised.  This did mean it was peaceful and quiet, and a private room was certainly not needed.

 Cocktails

The cocktail menu had a series of drinks that were all almost appealing, but with one ingredient I wasn't excited about.  I still found a drink I was excited enough for, but alas, I didn't care for it.

Big Trouble in Little China.

"Los Altos Blanco Tequila, Rose, Raspberry & Soda."

The first, this wasn't bad.  It was pretty, and the garnish lovely.  I tasted the tequila, and I liked it.  It was fruity though, and I found myself wanting salt.

But by the second sip, it seemed ... more sweet.  By the third ... just too sweet.

I could taste the tequila at least, but, it was just too sweet for me.  After a few more sips, I gave my cocktail away to a dining companion.

Not trusting the bar to make a balanced drink, I moved on to wine.

Cuisine

We skipped everything from the "生 san - raw & nibbles" section, but ordered a few dishes from every other section of the menu.

We had one vegetarian in the group, but since everything is share plates, I created a menu that had a dish from each category, with one vegetarian and 1-2 not, paired together, e.g. a veggie dumpling and a seafood dumpling, veggie san choy bao and pork san choy bao, veggie fried rice and pork fried rice, a tofu main to go along with the beef and pork belly mains, etc.  I thought I had a great plan.

But the meal pacing was odd, with major delays between courses, and, in all cases, the vegetarian versions of dishes coming out long before the non-vegetarian, which defeated my purposes of ordering in the way I did.  I was hoping to have everyone eating ... together.

The pacing, and order of the dishes, was frustrating.

蒸 zheng - steamed 

The steamed section of the menu offered several types of dumplings, sui mai, bao, and duck pancakes.  I selected one pork & seafood and one vegetarian dumpling for the group, doubling up on the non-vegetarian.

I didn't get a photo, but the vegetarian dumplings were the first item to arrive, finally 45 minutes after we were seated.  The non-veggie ones however took another 15 minutes!  We instructed the vegetarian and those who wanted the veggie ones to eat before they got cold, but people clearly felt polite.  And the rest of us, having been there for a full hour (!) before our dumplings arrived, tried hard not to take the limited number of veggie dumplings.

 Pork, prawn & scallop sui mai w sichuan chilli oil. $20.

When they finally came, in steamer baskets, both orders were placed on one end of the table, rather than one for each side of the table.  Sigh, Sydney service.

The sui mai were .. ok.  The wrapper was good, had a nice chew.  Inside was a too chewy chunk of shrimp, a firm pork ball with good flavor, and a thin scallop perched on top, with a bit of roe.  I liked the mushroom bits inside as well. The chili oil on the side was nice, spicy.

Overall, this was fine, but not great, yet sadly my second favorite item.  I wouldn't really want it again.  I forgot that I had ordered these, and felt the same way, at China Doll.

炒 & 炸 chao & zha - wok & fried

Moving on to the "Wok and Fried" section, we went for an assortment of items, although honestly I would have been happy ordering exclusively from this section.  So many tempting things.

And again, pacing was way off, the vegetarian dish arriving long before the pork.

 Vegetarian san choy bao. $14.

I haven't ever had san choy bao before, but I know reviews favored it, and China Lane offered up three varieties: pork, shrimp, and vegetarian. 

I didn't try the vegetarian version, but it went unfinished.  Those who had it said, "eh, it was fine".

 Pork san choy bao. $18.

I skipped the pork version too, since it ran out before it reached me, and I didn't really care to try these.  No one said much about them.

 Tempura whiting with sichuan pepper, wasabi mayo and sesame salt. $32

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Now we were getting to the dishes I wanted.  Fried fish! Wasabi mayo!  We had also been there a full hour at this point, and I was hangry!

The fish was clearly freshly fried, so I'll give a point for that.  But it was extremely oily.  At least it had good crunch?  The fish inside was ... boring, mild, uninteresting.

The wasabi mayo was good, creamy, but, it didn't really deliver much in the way of the wasabi.  I liked the sesame salt though, as I really do like to amp up the salt level in my dishes.

Overall, this had promise, fresh, and I liked the idea that it came with lemon to drizzle for acidity, creamy mayo, and the sesame salt to dunk in, but ... it wasn't actually anything special.  My third pick, I wouldn't want it again.

 Togarashi cuttlefish with garlic & chilli vinegar. $18

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If I was excited for the tempura whiting, I was even more excited for the togarashi cuttlefish.  I like cuttlefish, and love that its a regular menu item around Sydney.  And yay to togarashi!  Not only was it visibly seasoned with it, more came on the side.

The texture of the cuttlefish was good, not rubbery nor chewy, and the flavor from the togarashi was nice, the salt level to my liking.

Again though, not really special. 4th pick.

配菜 pui choi – sides

To round out the meal, just like China Doll, we could select from a very limited number of sides, just steamed jasmine rice or fried rice, and a couple asian greens.    Not being a rice eater, I didn't really care about this section, but I ordered fried rice (both versions, including the vegetarian one), to fill the others up.

The rice came 20 minutes after the fried items, 10  minutes before the mains.  And yes the veggie one was 5 minutes before the other, and yes we actually wanted these *with* the mains.

Fried rice with char sui pork & prawn. $24.

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The pork and prawn version didn't even look appealing to me, so I didn't bother try it.  The rice didn't look particularly seasoned, sauced, nor fried really, the shrimp were visibly not cleaned, the pork looked tough and dry, and there was way too much green onion just dumped on top.

辣 酸 lah & sup - spicy & wet 

Moving into the main attractions, the larger "spicy & wet" dishes.  Here I selected two for the group, a beef option per the request of one diner, and the pork belly, because it is one of their most known dishes.  This section had plenty of seafood options too, but since everything else I had picked was seafood, I went more for meat in this category.

These dishes did not arrive until the 1.5 hour mark.  Yes, really.  And yes, the vegetarian main came 8 minutes before the others.

 Soy braised crispy pork belly with chilli caramel. $34.

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Pork belly.  Its ... everywhere in Sydney.  On my of my visits to Sydney, I'd say I eat pork belly 6 out of 7 days, at least once per day.  Seriously, everywhere.  So, although I love pork belly, I wasn't particularly craving it, but this is China Lane's most known dish, everyone raves about it, so, I had to get it, right?

Note that I had the same dish at China Doll, and found it underwhelming then, although I liked the caramel sauce.  

I liked it even less here.  It was crispy, yes, but, my chunk tasted burnt.  It was kinda chewy, and had no nicely rendered fat. I liked the fried shallots on top more than the pork belly.

My least favorite dish, although others thought this was ok.  Maybe I just got the worst pieces?

Wagyu beef massaman with sweet potato & thai cardamon. $36

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We had a request for a beef dish, and the options were a filet or the wagyu massaman curry, which won the vote.  Not really my thing, but the sauce was flavorful, and this dish had really a substantial portion of beef.

斋 jai – vegetarian

So, for the vegetarian, we had the aforementioned veggie dumplings that I failed to get a photo of, the lackluster vegetarian san choy bao, veggie fried rice, and a tofu main dish.  Other vegetarian main dishes included soba noodles, a hummus based dish, and one featuring mushrooms that actually sounded good to me, but, I had the vegetarian pick the main, and he opted for tofu.

Vegetable fried rice with green bean, indonesian soy and crispy eshallot. $15

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Out of boredom, and the fact that it was going uneaten, and it at least had tons of crispy shallots on top, I tried the veggie fried rice.
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It ... was just rice with some mild soy sauce flavor.  Although I did like the crispy shallots, just like on the pork belly.  That doesn't mean the fried shallots were actually anything special though.

 Wok fried tofu with bamboo shoot, zucchini & confit garlic. $24

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And finally, the fried tofu, a dish I would have never ordered, as I don't care for tofu, or zucchini.

But, it also turned out to be the most delicious dish of the night.  As in, it was genuinely good, at least, the parts I had were.

I tried this too, out of boredom.  We were sitting there soooo long, and, besides the vegetarian, on one was going near this dish, as it looked like a fairly banal dish of tofu and veggies.  So, bored, feeling bad for the uneaten food, I took an onion.  I do like onions!  The onion was good, cooked just right, slightly crisp still, full of flavor from the sauce.

Feeling more bold, I took a chunk of bamboo shoot.  It was juicy, nourishing.  Not really my thing, but, not bad.

Still, I pressed on, skipping the tofu and zucchini, but going for the confit garlic.  Now ... now THAT was good.  Really good.  Soft, amazing mild flavor, again, it soaked up all the sauce.

After nearly 2 hours of lackluster, I finally had something that I liked.  The confit garlic in the veggie tofu dish.  Go figure.

I gleefully told the others how good it was, and slowly, others decided to try it.  They were worried about garlic breath, but I tried to explain that it was slow cooked, confit, and mellow, and eventually someone else tried it and agreed.  Those who had the garlic, onions, etc, agreed they were among the better bites.

So, thank you to the vegetarian for ordering this.  Not that I'd get it again, but it was my favorite dish, I guess.

甜品 tian pin - something sweet

After such an uninspiring meal, it was time for dessert, well, once we tracked someone down to get a menu.  I considered skipping dessert there, because, really, how long would *that* take, and since nothing else was very good, why would I expect dessert to be good?  But you know me, I *need* my dessert, and I had seen the menu in advance and wanted sooo many things.

So, dessert time it was.

I surveyed the group to find out their dessert desires. Many didn't want dessert.  And those who did all wanted different things, except for 2 people, who wanted the same, but didn't want to share (or, so they thought).  I asked the server for guidance on portions, asking if the desserts were large.  She told me they were small. 

Somehow, we ended up ordering 7 desserts for 8 people, even though 3 had declined dessert entirely, 2 were getting their own items, and even though there were only 5 desserts total anyway.

It turns out, our server's guidance that they were small and not for sharing was just crazytalk.  They were huge.  We had way too much.

And ... it was all just as lackluster as the rest of the menu, no matter how good the dishes sounded.  Sigh.

 Penfold’s grandfather rare tawny port. $20.

I paired my dessert with the port recommended on the menu.  I haven't had much port in my life, but recently discovered that I adore the port they serve on Air New Zealand flights, so I was excited to try another one.

It was ... fine?  Not nearly as smooth and caramely as the one on Air New Zealand.  I mostly drank it because I felt bad wasting, when I had given away my cocktail earlier too.

Mah-jong Chocolates. $16.

One person didn't really want dessert, but said he'd have a chocolate.

The menu did not tell us anything about these chocolates, but, they came in a group of 4, all shaped like mah-jong tiles.  They might have all been different? A few people, not myself, had them.  No one said much about them.

Hokey pokey parfait with charred nashi pear. $16.

Next, we have the dessert that the two people who didn't want to share wanted.  They are both from New Zealand, and were excited to see a hokey pokey dish.

I wasn't particularly excited for this one since honey isn't my thing, so I was planning to skip it entirely, but, um, when the two "individual" portions arrived, it was clear that these weren't really individual, and that there was plenty to share.  This ... was not a little parfait.

It also wasn't really much of a parfait, as it was in a large wide dish, and didn't really have any layers.  Is my understanding of what a parfait is just wrong?  Anyway, it was rich, thick, and sweet, with plenty of honey flavor.  The toppings were arranged nicely, some bits of pear, little pearls (honey?), a drizzle of honey, and some random herbs.

The folks who ordered this commented that it was far too big and rich to finish.  They both managed about half, but it was clear they were forcing it, taking frequent breaks.  I think it was just way too heavy to enjoy more than a few spoonfuls of.  It needed ... whipped cream, texture, and, well, layers?  Like a ... parfait perhaps?

Apple yuzu granita with roasted white chocolate ice cream & passionfruit curd. $16.

Next came another one that I didn't want, as granita is not my thing, nor are citrus flavors (yuzu), nor is passionfruit curd (I love fresh passionfruit, just, not curd, usually ...).

But again, since only one person wanted this, and he had already said he didn't want a full dessert, this had plenty left over, so I tried it.

The granita was refreshing, but, it was granita, bo-ring.  The white chocolate ice cream was ... fine.  But nothing special, just sweet ice cream, reasonably creamy.  The almond crumble was nice for a bit of texture, but I wanted more.  And no, basil leaves don't count as texture.

If you wanted a lighter style dessert, this might be nice, but for me, it was just incomplete.  It needed more texture, or some fruit, or ... something.  That said, I did avoid the passionfruit curd.

Vietnamese banoffee with 5 spice, sesame praline & Bailey's cream. $16.

Ok, now we were getting to interesting deserts, this was my third pick before trying the desserts, and since one other person said they'd try this, we ordered it.

This excited me for several reasons.  First, I do love banoffee.  It has a special place in my heart, since discovering it on my first trip to Sydney.  I was interested to see this Vietnamese spin on it.  And ... I love praline, sesame, and, Bailey's and cream ... so everything else certainly called out.

While I knew it wouldn't be traditional banoffee, I didn't quite expect ... this?  It looked like a dessert version of a trendy, artisinal toast.  The only "banoffee" element seemed to be bananas, sliced and cubed.

The base was not a caramelized biscuit crust, and there was no toffee.  Nope, instead, the base was ... cake.  Just ... cake.  Fairly dry cake.  I think the 5 spice was in here.  Boo, hiss to cake as a primary component.  I certainly wouldn't have been interested had I known that.

On top though was a thick, rich Bailey's cream.  I didn't necessarily taste Bailey's, nor understand what that had to do with banoffee nor Vietnamese flavors, but, the cream was good.  The sesame praline I also enjoyed.  And this one also had random herbs perched on top.  The pastry team really seems to like adding herbs.

But overall, since I disliked the cake, this isn't something I'd get again . My second pick of desserts though, just for the toppings.

Oh, and also, ridiculously large.  Easily shared by at least 3 people.  Our waitress was ... so wrong.

Black sticky rice with seasonal fruit / Coconut sago with seasonal fruit. $12 each.

And finally, the two I was looking forward to, the sticky rice and sago, both of which, it turns out, I had at China Doll too.  Both served warm, with coconut milk.  And yes, both in big bowls, and both portions that would be too much for a single person, really.

The black sticky rice scores points for being warm, and for the fine texture of the rice, but there was something about the flavor that I really did not enjoy.  I don't know what it was, but, I didn't care for it at all.  Ginger maybe?  It was strong, and took over the flavor profile.  The coconut on top was candied, and also tasted a bit odd.  The mango was uninteresting, and there wasn't much of it.  This went largely untouched, with myself and 1-2 others trying it, and not wanting any more. 

And finally, the one I had liked at China Doll, the sago (although there it came with different toppings).  It came topped with coconut, strawberry, coulis, and ... yup, herbs.

The sago was fine.  Again points for warm, points for texture.  Decently creamy, good coconut milk/cream flavor.  The shredded coconut on top here was fine, although there was too much for my taste.  The fruit made me sad, as it wasn't fresh strawberry, it really seemed like frozen berries, mushy.  Stewed fruit, compotes, those make sense, but this really seemed just like frozen soggy, not intentional soggy.  Really a shame.

My favorite of the desserts, but not something I'd get again either.  I did take the leftovers home (minus the berries and coconut), since we had so much untouched, and added passionfruit, kiwi, mango, and lychee, and ate it the next day, chilled.  It was better, but, this wasn't really good to begin with.