渝人码头 川菜店 Chungking Szechuan Cuisine — Restaurant in Sydney

Chungking, or Chongqing without the anglicised spelling, is a major city in southwestern China. Part of the Sichuan province, in culinary terms Chongqing is known as the birthplace of the hot pot; though the local cuisine includes more than forty different cooking methods, running from pickling to drying to steaming. You’ll find many of them illustrated on the well-photographed menu that lured us into choosing this Burwood Road restaurant over its countless Asian counterparts.

The long galley-like restaurant has a stylish, modern interior ending in a black and red box bar that sits in front of the kitchen. Down one side of the space there’s a long wooden banquette and tables with punishing wooden stools. We opted for one of the tables surrounded by brown bucket chairs on the other side, but be warned, they’re lower than expected. Blonde wood detailing on the walls and ceiling, plus an array of rusting woks, make up the only decorations in the dimly lit space, which is saved from being too dark by hanging spot lights beaming onto each individual table.

We kick off with Chungking Pickles ($3.80) which are light, bright and surprisingly salty. There’s a good crunch to the cabbage and carrot mix that reminds me of what KFC coleslaw could be, without all the creamy sweetness. They’re the perfect counterpoint to one of the chef’s recommendations – Steamed Duck with Glutinous Rice ($22.80). It arrives with a (frankly odd) arrangement of flowers in foil and plastic wrap, looking like a fried then baked dish that has been cut into chopstick-appropriate fingers. The steamed duck has been placed on the bottom of the slice, with glutinous rice pressed over the top of it.

They’re tasty but dry, and really need a double dip in soy then sesame chilli sauce to really sing. Luckily the kitchen was happy and fast to oblige. I will say they made me powerfully thirst, so there may be the hidden hand of MSG in their crisp coating. Luckily there was both my old faithful – Calpis Water ($3.50) and Tsingtao Beer ($5) on hand to quench it.

With many dishes here on the inexpensive side, you can afford to take some risks. We tried Steamed Chicken with Mushroom in Lotus Leaf ($7.80) which presented morsels of chicken coated in a nutty, creamy egg mixture then steamed with tender but toothsome shiitake mushroom pieces. Beyond the mushrooms, this one was a bit bland for me, but I don’t usually order steamed dishes.

While I didn’t stumble upon a winning dish, there’s plenty more to see on this extensive, well photographed menu supported by an easy-to-understand order form that doesn’t require much cross-cultural...

An overall disappointing experience with staff service and food quality. Three dishes were ordered. A tofu dish, squash and a fried fish in sweet and sour pork. The tofu dish was okay, the squash dish subpar and the fried fish dish an abomination.

Cutlery provided on the table setup had to be exchanged for a fresh set as it was not clean and had food specks from the previous customer.

Once seated, we ordered the food and then were asked to move tables. After 20 odd minutes of waiting, we were asked to reorder as they (forgot?) the original order.

Fried fish in sweet and sour sauce arrived on the table cold. Multiple requests were then made to heat the dish up. 1st request - staff said they would ask the kitchen and never returned. 2nd request - staff reassured us the dish was cooked TODAY and swifty left before I could reply. (You would hope its cooked today!?) 3rd request - food was taken back to the kitchen.

This was MICROWAVED. The FRIED fish was microwaved, replated and reserved. From my seated position, I could see the fish being sent to the kitchen, returned to front of house on a white plate and staff transferring it back onto the...

This is my favourite restaurant for spicy food. I dine in or takeaway sometimes. Takeaway also big serve. I went there last Saturday and it was a long wait over an hour. It doesnt normally take that long.

Food still good and came reasonbly quick as usual. We had 5 people but the table just enough for us. The plates are too big and always running out of spaces. We never paid over 180 for 5 people. This time it's $215.

but just want to comment about the BBQ fish on a stove is a rip off. This dish can either choose live or frozen Barra, ie about $ 45 or 65 a dish. Plus min 3 sides required to order. So the dish cost around 65 for a dead fish. We ordered the frozen one. The bbq stove are huge when only got a tiny table with few dishes on the table already. And the container was too high and hard when trying to dismantle an overcooked battered fish and splashed some of the hot soup off the container even though with extra care. Lucky not on any person.

The fish was small I think about 600 to 700g. When overcooked with heavy battered, very little...