Vinh Phat Chinese Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

Worth going if u want comparatively good value yumcha that's not the most flavourful but pretty decent & not salty. Here's a comprehensive review for a weekday earlyish lunchtime.

PARKING We parked near Arthur street free 2hr council car park. Waited abt 2 mins & got a spot.

INITIAL (V SHORT) WAIT Clean modern spacious place. Super fast service on a Thursday lunch. I can't speak for others who come on weekends might be busier then. There was a queue at 11:15am but with the organised male guy organising who goes to what tables according to party size, we only had to wait 5 mins. It was enough to see their ample warnings on A4 haha:

LUNCH CONDITIONS, PRICING & SERVICE SPEED & QUALITY Must spend $15 min pp. 0.92% EFTPOS fees. 45 minute time limit. We didn't have a problem with this as the trolleys came thick & fast & they v frequently came to clear your empty plates. No one was rude to us. A nice touch is that they always cut the dumplings etc with scissors for you without u needing to ask. The gave us 4 big sauce saucers of chilli sauce but no soy sauxe or vinegar. But we used the ample soy sauce-like fluid that came with the eggplant & pork mince plate (until they cleared it away near the end of our meal haha).

$2.50 cover charge (includes mandatory tea which tasted good quality). Was scared they charge for water so brought tea cups into the toilet to fill them haha. See photos of the nice modern clean toilet.

We were 3 adults, 1 tween & one 11 yr old. The bill came to just under $112 after the $12.50 cover charge. We ordered 9 large size plates at $8 each & 5 medium sized ones at $7 each. We felt full enough after 25-30 mins & had a few leftover items we tookaway in our own containers we brought. I think nowadays yumcha at other places prob costs more even without this cover charge. But other places may have more flavour infused into the dishes. The food here is pleasant tasting enough, but could have slightly more complexity in the taste. A prime example was the egg tart & mango pancake roll, OK but nit the best we've had. Textures were fine for baked, fried & steamed items. Amt of filling not super generous but decent.

Yumcha isn't cheap nowadays but if you want one of the best value yumchas in Sydney this is not a bad option & there is a reason ppl queue to get into this place. But it all seemed to move along relaxed yet efficient & still speedy.

A suggestion is before & after the meal, bring your own water to drink or buy the many sugar cane etc juice or vietnamese coffee from the street stalls outside which are the cheapest in Sydney from $4-6 for most large sized...

We came here with the family for lunch and ordered the prawn rice noodle roll as our first dish. After taking one bite, we realised the prawns inside were still cold. We called the waitress over to let her know, and she apologised, saying she would have it cooked.

However, another woman came over quite aggressively and insisted that the food couldn’t be raw because it was pre-cooked and frozen, but it might not have been fully defrosted. I asked if any of the food was freshly made, and she claimed that the Australian government no longer allowed them to use fresh seafood, so everything was cooked, frozen, and then defrosted on-site. I found this odd, as I had never heard of such a restriction.

She then suggested we order noodles instead, but I explained that I was pregnant and could only eat fresh food, so we would just go elsewhere. Her response was, "Well, how are we supposed to know?" She then brought the plate back and slammed it on our table before storming off. Moments later, she found the first waitress who had served us and began yelling at her, saying, "Never take the plate from the table because that means we admit something is wrong. Never ever take the plate! Call me, and I'll deal with the people."

At that point, we decided to leave. When we went to pay, we noticed that the prawn dish was still on the bill. As we were settling it, another worker began shouting at an elderly couple in another language. The man yelled so loudly that the entire restaurant fell silent. The woman serving us walked away to see what was happening and then returned, dismissing the situation by saying the elderly couple were "crazy!"

I mentioned what had happened with our food, and she admitted that the lady who spoke to us earlier had lied—none of the food came frozen.

Overall, this was a terrible experience, and I will never return. Fortunately, we found an amazing Japanese restaurant around the corner, where the food was fresh...

Very disappointed with the services that me, my husband and our two children experienced this morning.

We came 45 minutes before yumcha closes, so as soon as we sat down at table 41, we got a lot of the dishes that we love with the ladies pushing the trolley around. My two kids were so thirsty and wanted water. So I and my husband told those ladies (about 5 that we have spoken to) that we needed a jug of water. Many of them just left and nothing was happenned. The last lady told us to ask the waiters/waitresss in the kitchen.

I went to the kitchen and politely asked for water as we have been waiting for about 20 minutes, and our kids had stopped eating as they were so thirsty. The staff was annoyed and told me to go back to my table and order it at the table!

About 4 more staff coming to our table holding the menus and asked for our last orders as the kitchen was closing soon. We told them that we had been waiting for water for so long and they just left without doing anything again.

My husband became frustrated and went to ask for water with a lady at the check out as we were ignored by all the staff that we had talked to. Again, we was told to "order at the table." He was so disappointed that he asked us to leave straight away (while a lot of food left untouched).

I asked him to stay and desperately jell out another the staff that we would like water for the kids. A male staff brought us a jug of water after that and brought some empty undried glass cups.

My husband was so upset that he did not want the food anymore and insisted us to leave. Before I left, I asked a staff if I can speak to a manager. "There's no manager over here," she replied.

At the check out, I asked this question again and was asked to speak to the male staff that finally brought us the jug of water. I explained to him our experience and was told that it (the water) was brought to us straight away...