Spice Temple Sydney — Restaurant in Sydney

Just because it's 4 stars doesn't mean it wasn't exceptionally good. This place is a very nice introduction to sichuan styles of cooking, in fact, probably the best one I've been to. It eases you into the spices rather than smack in the face.

For those with a Chinese background, do not expect the general intense hit of sichuan as that is usually not suitable for the general public.

The dishes we had were the fried eggplant, salt and pepper tofu, hot and sour pork, Kungpao chicken, and the mud crab with xo sauce.

The fried eggplant and salt and pepper tofu could've been saltier, but then again, some people like it to be saltier, such as myself and others not. The OG parents stated the same as they've had thousands of the same dish and preferred the eggplant to be a little firmer.

Moving on to mudcrab with xo sauce. Killed it, hands down. I know the mudcrab is to be the star of the dish but the egg noodles that were only cooked through to about 80 percent is perfect, I love undercooked noodles with that firm texture that provides a little resistance when your teeth slices through it rather than just pulling out the white flag like most fully cooked noodles.

Kungpao chicken was great, never had it with chicken pieces that big, which is a western style of cooking as in general dishes like this sometimes comes with bones in tact. Western style is more that the bones are already removed. The sichuan spices mellows nicely and lingers.

Hot sweet and sour pork was definitely a favourite. It was basically what mum cooks at home often but with sichuan spices in it. The chef had the perfect adjusts for the sweet and sourness. The best part about this dish is that it had no cartridge or bones that you had to separate yourself. The spice was at a nice introductory level for those who haven't experienced sichuan.

I want to say that sichuan dishes sometimes get so hot that they have to put in a lot of salt and other flavours for you to taste it, and it gets very bold. What spice temple have done is balanced it nicely where the spice in general usually overpowers the flavour, but here it works in harmony without being the bully.

Now the question is why is this one star short away from five. It's more to do with pricing, for Chinese standard of ordering even though it was only for three of us we tend to order on average 6 to 7 dishes, at least one that consist of vegetables.

We felt the entrees were about $4-$5 too high and that the chicken and pork could've been up to $10 cheaper or at least sitting in the $30 - $37 range. This is in comparison to all the Chinese restaurants we've been to with similar dishes.

Of course we do factor in the business has spent a lot of chefs, decorations, rent and also the lovely waiting staff. Having a little cheaper price would allow more dishes to be ordered, one more would've been perfect.

Just a personal opinion, at Chinese restaurants dishes are priced enough to be able to order multiple dishes in general and allows an easy decision for the customers to continually return weekly over the weekend to spend around $300 for a family of three or four for an outing rather than having second thoughts of coming because it had to be a special occasion.

I don't remember the name of our waiter, but he was excellent, definitely tipped.

In this case, there was none, but we wanted to see how a western style of cooking Chinese food compared to places like chatswood, Chinatown, cabramatta, burwood, etc.

All in all, it was excellent, but I would like to revisit more often if the prices were just down a little rather than visiting because of a...

While I have wanted to visit Spice Temple since it opened every time it came to booking I always became hesitant. There is so much great Chinese food in Sydney at such low prices I was worried about being disappointed. Well I am pleased to say that it was completely unfounded. From the time we arrived till our last bite we were constantly impressed by the service, food and serving sizes.

We entered the dark restaurant which everyone had warned us was soooo dark, some had suggested too dark and while they were right I did not think it was too bad. Even thought it was early in the week the place was full and I think the darkness helps you to forget about how busy it is around you and really focus on your dining partners. The lighting about the food was bright enough and I soon forgot there were tables nearby.

We arrived missing half our party, who were running late but staff were kind enough to extend our sitting time as we had told them it was a special occasion dinner to celebrate our daughter engagement.

We started with the Chinese horoscope cocktails which were interesting and delicious. Mine, the tiger, has passionfruit, aperol, limoncello. It was so good I am going to have to try to recreate it at home.

When taking our food order the waiter suggested the number of courses we might want to order and offered suggestions based on our likes. We ignored her advice which seemed too restrained for our liking and ordered a few extra courses because there was so much we wanted to try. In the end we went for 5 entrees, 3 sides and 2 mains. It was the perfect amount for 4 people. Stand out dishes were the eggplant 3 ways, the cabbage and radish served with a truly delicious XO sauce and the Nanjing style braised pork hock with black vinegar tea. The only dish we did not really enjoy were the lamb and fennel dumplings which were just a bit dry.

After dinner, in honour of our daughters engagement, we were served a complimentary dessert cocktail called a Rickshaw, It was made from hibiscus gin, citrus and vanilla and reminded me of those sour warhead lollies from the 90s - pretty unusual and the first mouthful felt a bit like medicine but it grew on me.

Overall everything was outstanding, the customer service was fantastic and the experience one I hope to...

Tough one to review. Went for lunch on a Thursday. Ambience was good. Place looked on point. The waiter that served us seemed like he was a Manager, dressed in a suit. He bordered on irritated arrogance throughout our dinner. Some of the food was great...mainly the starters: Prawn toast, spicy eggplant was great. Tofu was also good (but nothing special). For the mains we ordered: Kungpao Chicken and 2 x Crispy Chow Mein. We explained that we weren't sharing. Crispy Chow Mein tasted pretty close a Bolognese. Tasty, I guess, but not what we were expecting. Kung Pao was very late. We asked the waiter to check on it amd he didn't come back. We asked him for an update and he seemed annoyed we chased him up. Everyone else had finished by the time it came (and those Chow Meins were huge!). I've no issue with the lateness more hiw the waiter handled it. The dish itself, although their signature dish, was quite miserly. I woukd guess there was one chicken thigh in there and it costs $49. The rest is chilli husks (I love chilli but they're dried an you can onlynhave so much at once), a snattering of cashews and fried green onion. I ate this alone and wasn't full from it and you just end up eating a lot of plain rice. I guess not-sharing is not the idea of Spice Temple but it focuses the mind on what they've not-achieved with the dish. I should say you get a side plate of blanched Chinese greens and I was upsold on the bowl of rice (how that is not included for $49?). In short, I've had better, more filling, Kung Pao Chicken from my local Chinese takeaway at half the price - albeit minus the heavenly chillis. I am guessing that I didn't see the best of Spice Temple because the highs were extremely high (that eggplant!) and to be fair the lows weren't all that low but circa 10 years ago when I first went here it blew my mind. This time, I left non-plussed (and work paid!). I think because the menu lacks detail, I made the mistake of assuming that meant each dish would be perfect (I'm not that fussy). If I go back, I'll a lot more inquisitive about the ingredients,...