Let’s Chon — Restaurant in Sydney

31/8/24 - 3 stars

Found this place incidentally on maps and was quite impressed. But, when my friend said they saw it on IG, I was a little worried as truly good places don't need social media advertising. Unfortunately, this turned out to be partially true.

Service here is pretty subpar. Whilst I understand there was a large group already, we waited about 15 minutes until we were given cutlery and crockery after our first dish had arrived such that it had gotten cold already. No water or napkins either.

Decor and furnishing also leaves a bit to be desired. It is a hole-in-the-wall kind of establishment but looks almost dilapidated inside. Usually doesn't bother me if food is amazing though.

Food is overall good in terms of flavour, but, value is quite poor. The pricing might need to be reviewed as it's at least 10% higher than other Filipino places I've been to in Sydney. I do also wonder why most of the dishes did not come out hot and quickly became cold as we were sitting outside.

Milkfish Bangus Flavour: SS+, 9.5/10. This was genuinely amazing and, despite being a little cold, still had a great charred flavour with nice spices and veg. Texture: SS+, 9.5/10. Again very impressed with how meaty and tender the fish was. Complimented by the vegetables Value: A, 7/10. $30 is acceptable for this dish

Whole Lechon Flavour: S, 8/10. Good but not outstanding. Also was served room temperature? Texture: S, 8/10. The meat was actually quite nice and tender but crackling was not crispy Value: B, 6/10. $50 for that little plate is something else...

Crispy pork Kare-kare Sauce: B, 6/10. Peanutty but otherwise bland. Also served room temperature?? Pork: S, 8/10. Good but again not amazing Value: B, 6/10. $26 and quite small

Garlic rice: A, 7/10. Decent but still...

A very fragrant and savoury smell that attracted me to this small place near the station 7 months ago. It wasn’t busy at all for a Sunday lunch peak hour as we were the only ones dining in at that time. Firstly let’s talk about the extensive menu with various items to choose from which took us a while to decide which ones to order. We got the single serve of lechon belly and Bicol express with a cup of plain rice. The items came out quickly after approximately 10 minutes and we could see and smell the delicious fragrant coming right from the open kitchen. The lechon belly has a crispy skin while the meat itself was juicy and well cooked but didn’t dry out a compared to other crispy pork belly that I’ve tasted somewhere else. The vinegary sauce and pickled vegetables came as complimentary condiments really helped bringing out the lechon taste and making every bite so deliciously. The bicol express was creamy with coconut milk and a hint of shrimp paste which makes it quite savoury and went well with plain rice. Staff is friendly and overall I was very satisfied with my first experience today. Will definitely come back to try more dishes next time. P.s: 2nd time coming to the place - ordered garlic fried rice, whole lechon single serve, pork bbq and vegetable pinakbet. A good overall experience as well however I’m missing their homemade sauces from the first time. Now they just use bottled sauce which didn’t really have any uniqueness. All food was good value for money and I actually preferred the lechon belly that I ordered last time than the...

Mixed experience - overall quite poor service. Good food.

Service: -I called in advance to avoid coming when there’s long wait times. I booked a table for 7 people at 6:30pm. I arrived on time and the restaurant was full. Staff ignored our big party of 7 until I approached the counter and said hello. We were sat at 7pm (half an hour than my booking). -The staff told us to order already while waiting to be seated which we did. The first of our orders did not come out until 7:40pm. -While eating, there were a few people that came in the restaurant. The staff, as they go out of the kitchen and serve to the tables, were ignoring the people coming in. I understand the restaurant was full and no tables to sit them, but I think staff should at least acknowledge and inform customers of wait times. -I think this is a management issue. There was 1 woman doing front of house service, cleaning up and you can see her also doing the cooking at the back of the kitchen. Management clearly needs to look at their staffing.

Food: -good food: tinapa rice, lechon rice, karekare, fried chicken skin, pansit, spicy vinegar, chilli garlic oil -average: lechon, longganisa -not good: sisig - not sizzling and soggy

I think overall this restaurant needs better management and improve their staffing. The wait staff apologised in the end for the long wait times. She said a co-worker called in sick that day. Hats off to the single woman staff who...