Chongqing Street Foods板凳小面 — Restaurant in Sydney

Ive been here many times in the past few months, and the quality of the food has always been fairly consistent. I always use the Groupon deal they have, where its about $25 for two noodle dishes and two drinks, which is a perfect amount for a meal for two.

Unfortunately though, the food here is only a mere shadow of what is widely considered to serve the best chongqing noodles, Dainty Sichuan. Unfortunately, it is not closed down, so this place has been my replacement ever since. Regardless, this place still serves good food, and its the closest alternative. The staff here are quiet patient and friendly, and to place an order they provide us with an iPad showcasing their menu, which was pretty handy. The food arrived fairly quickly, though it is a bit difficult to tell who’s meal is who’s since they all look the same sometimes, especially if you’ve made changes.

I always get the chongqing beef noodles since they unfortunately do not have chilli chicken noodles, and its a pretty tasty and decent meal. I’m not particularly fond of beef, so I usually like it when its not too tough to chew, but the consistency of the meat here is, well, inconsistent. There’s been many times where the beef is good, where its undercooked, where its overcooked, but most of the time its tolerable. They also have this really nice crispy pork side which has also been a bit inconsistent with its flavour and texture too. The first time we had it, it was really good, but every other time has been pretty lacking unfortunately. The drinks selection is not bad though, since they have some asian speciality drinks like calpis or chamomile drink/tea.

It’s still a restaurant that I enjoy eating at, though I really wish the food remained consistent so I will not have to keep second...

Nice interior and smells really good but the positives end here. Wait staff was quite heavy handed. Dishes bang loudly on the table when served. Finger touching the inside of the bowl. Noodle took very long to make and come out one at a time. Cold dish was tiny. Could finish in two bites.

Now. The main complaint is the dishes may seem alright if you haven’t been to Chongqing and Sichuan, but the 3 noodles I ordered were nowhere close to being authentic. Yibin fire noodle was chocking me with oil (best tasting out of the three). The oil was not fragrant. Hot and sour wonton noodle is only hot and sour if you add chilli and vinegar yourself or it just tastes like water with red oil on top. The wonton filling was tough and bland. The worst dish was the mince and bean dry noodle. Who the heck adds sesame paste to these noodles from southwest China? Here apparently! The noodle tasted more like sesame paste dry noodle from northern China. I give them credit for using good quality noodles that was authentic to the region they advertise. Please show some respect to the culture and do it right or just call it Northern China Noodle… This chain has been shrinking since 2019 and it is just not the same...

The waitress was rude and the ordering website was slow. I ordered a dish & refreshed the page to make sure that the order went through but it didn’t show so I ordered again and refreshed the page again. It then showed that I ordered 1 dish. However, when the waitress came, she gave me 2 of the same dish so I told her that I only ordered 1 and that she can take another one back since I haven’t touched it. She insisted that I ordered 2 and told me to “deal with it” which in my opinion, she could have handled the situation in a more professional and nicer way. Overall, the food was average and the experience was bad so I wouldn’t go back again even if the food was good because of the...