Hungry Paulie 愛呷囝仔 — Restaurant in Sydney

The rudest staff EVER or maybe he's the boss! The worst customer service and attitude! At the time we went, the restaurant was not full and had plenty of empty tables available. There was a sign saying pls wait to be seated, which we did exactly what it said. After a few minutes, we realised the waiting line spot CAN'T be seen from the inside so they wont know we're waiting. So i went inside so they can acknowledge there are waiting customers BUT only to be hollered at by a guy and sent back outside to wait and rudely told us to scan in and he'll give us a table. That was fine so we continued waiting outside. During this time, plenty of customers were going in and out without signing in. After 15 mins, i sent my partner inside to see if we can seated and so they can again acknowledge there are ppl waiting BUT AGAIN he was rudely told to get out and wait. The staff escorted my partner out the door and he had the audacity of telling me 'he barged in'. What sort of customers service is that saying your customer barged in! We only wanted to see if we can be seated! This was when our argument started. He said he had covid protocols to follow which is totally fine BUT I'm 100% sure he forgot we were waiting outside. I told him you cant see us from inside so we went in so you know we're still here. If he didnt walk my partner out, then he wouldn't have known we were there! After this, we left to eat somewhere else and the 2 customers who arrived in line just when our argument started, were seated straight away! This totally meant there were tables available BUT he forgot about us and yet he said we 'barged in' to our faces! BTW, customers ordering takeaway can walk straight in without sanitising their hands or sigining in and can wait inside for over 20 mins without getting screamed at! Does that make any sense??

Definately NOT coming here again!

There are better Taiwanese restaurants in Sydney where you will be greeted with fantastic customer service. Everyone should try 'The Secret Alley' in Haymarket. It's MUCH better than this...

Eastwood is a treasure-trove of scents and flavours, with restaurants interspersed with produce stores along a vibrant multi-block shopping strip. Fast moving queues tell you where locals think the best eats are, and Hungry Paulie 愛呷囝仔 has one of the longest. The popular Taiwanese eatery also has well-honed systems in place that see us seated reasonably quickly.

Starting off as a market stall in the nearby permanent, outdoor, night food market, the menu keeps Taiwanese street food at its core. From aromatic and peppery, bun-like pork pies ($6.50) to rolls of shallot pancake wrapped around lettuce and braised beef ($11.50) there are plenty of snacks to choose from.

In the front window you will see staff deep frying golden breadsticks (often called Chinese doughnuts). They’re used across a number of snacks, but the one that’s a fast track into the Taiwanese vibe is savoury soy bean milk with dried shrimp and salted pickles ($5). Here the breadstick functions as a floating crouton on a creamy warm bowl of savoury soy pudding. It’s listed as a drink, but eats like a salty porridge, so you’ll probably want other beverages. Taiwan beer ($8) is an easy-to-like quaffer across both the regular variety and the pineapple-infused, which is particularly good at soothing chilli burn if you ask for hot sauce.

Cold side dishes like braised soy egg ($4.50), braised seaweed ($4.50) and chilli cucumber salad ($4.50) are inexpensive ways to turn your street food snacks into a more balanced meal. My favourite was a bowl of Paulie’s preserved cabbage with chilli ($4.50) that made the most of the vegetable’s natural sweetness. Taiwanese deep frying is however the stuff of legends. There’s a whole menu page devoted to these crisp golden offerings. We dipped our toe in with a generous bowl of enoki mushrooms ($6). The crunchy clusters of thin mushroom threads worked wonderfully with the aforementioned chilli sauce as a drinking snack. Prices here are low enough that you can afford to have a few missteps if Taiwanese street foods are...

2023 update: I would love this place more if the waiter changed her gloves regularly. I can’t stand it when she wore gloves, touched dirty dishes as she clean the table and then proceeded to deliver food. If she didn’t wear gloves, she would know her hands are dirty and would go wash her hands. It is actually more dirty when she wore gloves all day and not changing it. My appetite reduced significantly after I noticed our waiter wore the same gloves. Not all waiter in the restaurant wore gloves so I don’t know why this one did.

I really want to give this place 5 stars but I can’t based on the balance between the positive and negative views below:

Positive- so glad it is a shop now rather than a night market stand. The following items are delicious: egg pancake, congee, shallot pancake, beef wrapped in pancake and radish cake.

Negative- the special noodle soup that’s only available on the weekend is always lukewarm rather than hot. One time I had a big chunk of undissolved soup stock block in my soup.

They still haven’t got the restaurant process efficiently organised and still have the night market mentality/operating process. During busy peak hours, the waitress looked stressed running back and forth delivering food. They also don’t have the capacity to change or modify the food orders once it is in the system when the restaurant is super busy. The waitress that wore glasses gave me a death stare when I told her my drink was incorrect. If you are visiting during peak hours, I suggest you ask for calm looking waiter (ones that don’t run around like it is the end of the world) for sauce and any extra items.

I still think it is a great place to visit, but please go during non peak hours to have a...