Din Dins — Restaurant in New South Wales

Came here for the first time for my partner's 25th birthday and I wasn't disappointed by the array of choices on the menu. The decor is funky and very tasteful. We pretty much had the whole menu as we're big eaters. We had the lotus lychee cocktail and the apple cinnamon margarita 10/10 1st course we had Korean fried chicken prawn dumplings sweet and sour lamb ribs with chilli and honey sesame prawn bao buns. The Korean fried chicken was amazing it could have been cooked a little bit less as some parts were a little bit dry inside the sauce for the lamb ribs was out of this world. The bao buns were really nice prawns however didn't really have a lot of flavour. The dumplings were spot on very tasteful. 2nd course we had Tom Yum fried rice and duck spring rolls the duck spring rolls I was really disappointed with they lacked a lot of flavour the fried rice was so different to anything I've ever had so much flavour so fresh. The 3rd course we tried the snickers tart We had to wait a little while which didn't bother me being a chef I understand being busy and wait times going up. But the one thing that disappointed me was when it arrived it was not what the menu explains it consisted of a snickers tart the butterscotch sauce on the plate but a chocolate ice cream and what tasted like a vanilla bean mousse and dark chocolate garnish w a biscuit crumble. The staff were very lovely but I did notice that pretty much once we had eaten we were sort of forgotten about. We will definitely be coming back such a cool place to...

I ordered pork and prawn siu mai dumplings for an entree which looked nice and were actually really tasty except it was the tiniest bit spicy (I was expecting more heat considering it says fireball chilli oil). I also ordered the pork bao buns with my entree, it looked amazing... but the pork was cut so thick and was male so very over powering and almost unpleasant, but everything else on it was nice and the bao itself was very good. I ordered mi goreng for my main, I’ll start off by saying it had a short hair on the side of the bowl (which I just took off the plate) it had no chilli heat at all and the fresh chilli was barely spicy which was more then disappointing as I was really expecting some heat this time a lot of the noodle was stuck together in big chunks and barely tasted like mi goreng... I lived in Sydney for years, worked as a chef in some of Sydney’s most popular and highly rated restaurants, and have now been a food critic for almost 4 years so I know a good mi goreng when I taste one as it’s one of my favourites when done properly. Last but not least I ordered the snicker tart for dessert, altogether in the one mouthful it tasted nice, almost like a snickers, although the tart itself tasted as if it had been sitting in the fridge/freezer uncovered. Also one staff member was quite rude to us and I have no idea why as I always be polite and smile. Overall the service was great, the food was presented nicely but the flavour of the food was average. I was really excited to try this one as it has...

Golden afternoon light sets the exterior walls of the former Farmers and Graziers Wool Store ablaze. With floor space of almost 3 hectares by 1962, this spot, which could display 12,000 bales of wool, shows how central the wool trade was in the development of Australia. Now, after a stint as the tax office, it’s occupied by the Quest Hotel. Slightly below ground, Din Dins is one of two on-site restaurants, the other being Level One Wine Bar. Both are now owned by Deb and Mark Davis, with their kitchens overseen by executive chef Mat King.

Din Dins delivers contemporary Asian fusion in a blacked-out warehouse style setting with exposed fixtures. Edamame ($16), pan-fried in ginger, sesame oil and Sichuan salt, were a bit too wet and messy for my liking, but ate okay against a cold Stone & Wood Pacific Ale. Pork and prawn dumplings ($23/8 pieces) had good neat wrapping but arrived luke-warm under a dusting of chives and crumbled lap cheong (Cantonese cured pork sausage). Cumin was the biggest note in the Chinese lamb ribs ($33/6 pieces), which felt dry and overcooked, rescued slightly by fresh coriander and golden loops of pickled onion. Over-hyped vegetarian crispy fried rice ($29) felt expensive for what it was: ordinary fried rice topped with roasted peanuts, bean sprouts and shallots. If it was meant to be a version of the Laotian crispy rice (nam khao) that connection has...