Eight buns 笼笼香 — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

This is just a quick review of this place as I only popped in very late to get some quick take away and I only ordered one small noodle dish, the Dan Dan noodles with mince pork.

To be honest, I had high hopes for this place as the venue looks amazing and the menu looks wonderful plus, I'm a huge fan of more traditional Chinese food. Unfortunately the mince was all stuck together and burnt. The noodles were overcooked. I must say though the two stars are because the flavour was great. This is an easy dish to make as I often make it myself. I feel that the chef may have already been cleaning up and did not pay attention to my dish.

Despite my awful noodles I'm willing to give this place another try as the food on other people's tables looked fantastic.

I hope next time they take more care for every dish they cook, even if its late and I only order a snack.

Update - Sept 2024

I have eaten here a few more times over the years and the food has been pretty good for the most part however the service was not good at all.

Last weekend I went in to Eight Buns and ordered fried rice with no vegies and some steamed pork buns.. Just two things!! The gentlemen behind the counter told me 20 mins.. The order took 50 mins and the rice came with veggies in it. Also, the buns were ready after 15 mins and they sat there for another 35 mins while the rice was growing in the kitchen it seems..

So unfortunately I wont be returning again. I hope the service improves for those that...

Was in the Newcastle and saw on google that this is probably the best chinese restaurant in the area. Technically, it might be in Newcastle but the standard of food is way below any Chinese restaurant in Sydney CBD and not even close to anything in Shanghai. Every single dish i ordered was sub par.

1. Xiao long bao skin was too thick. There wasnt enough soup in the xiao long baos and the marinate for the pork is just off. If you had any xiao long bao in China before, you will immediately know the taste of the pork is just wrong.

2. In my bowl of xiao wonton, there are brocolli and slices of carrot. Are you serious...totally wrong. Soup taste of wonton soup powder you can get in Asian supermarket. This shop dont even bother making its own chicken stock.

3. Tang bao was served without a straw. Red flag that is not authentic.

4. Shanghai noodle is literally the worst I have ever had. It felt like the noodles were cooked in water and had sauce poured over it. Proper Shanghai noodles should be stir fried in a lot of oil and you taste burnt soy and sugar. It lacked the "wok hey".

This place uses a ton of MSG. I started getting very thirsty on my drive back to Sydney. It was just a...

I walked in tonight for dinner and was told there would be a 15 minute wait for a table which was fine. I put my name and number down, and whilst trying to be covid safe, decided to wait outside. As I was waiting, some other familes and couples wandered in looking for a table (some with bookings and some without). Because the families without a booking chose to wait inside by the counter, they were given tables before me until I stepped inside to wait again. At this point I wanted to leave out of principle but it was getting late and I had an impatient infant with me.

Finally sat down and ordered some food hoping the dining experience would redeem itself. It did not.

Each dish came at least 15 mins apart from each other which meant every individual had finished eating before the next person started. When we asked for an update on the food, we were met with frustrated mumbles which were hard to understand. When the food came, it was basically thrown on the table from the waiter that clearly thought we were being overly precious.

The food was incredibly salty and simply not nice at all. When I got home I suffered bad stomach issues as well

Atrocious service and food. Zero...