Ulladulla Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Ulladulla

(3.5 stars)

As you might have already guessed, I have a bit of a soft spot for Aussie-Chinese, meaning I like to try out the local version whenever I go away. On this South Coast NSW trip, that was Ulladulla Chinese Restaurant. What sets this restaurant apart from other regional exemplars—beyond the extraordinary number of fonts used in their colourful signage—is a large dining room with district views of Ulladulla, local craft beers on the booze list, and what looks to be a more compact menu than most. It turns out they have opted to save menu space by listing all the ways you can have a particular protein on one line.

While the restaurant taking a liberal interpretation of the COVIDSafe guidelines to mean they should stop allowing BYO has angered some locals, as an outsider, I was happy enough to drink Cupitt’s Estate beers. The Mollymook pale ale ($9) is lightly golden and gently malty, while the paler Milton Pilsner ($9) is hoppier and easy to quaff. Both suit the cuisine.

Prices are on the highish side for regional Aussie-Chinese, but the Sichuan fillet steak ($29) gives a good amount of tender beef interspersed with a balanced selection of lightly cooked vegetables (onion, bok choy, broccoli, carrot, capsicum). We asked for, and received, extra chilli in this dish, and it ate all the better for it. Similarly, there were lots of crustaceans in our garlic and chilli king prawn ($31) dish, and they had good bite against a selection of onions and greens that also retained a lot of texture.

The only trap here is the special fried rice ($10/small). It’s a buck less than the large, and really too small for a meal for two, offering up just four small bowls of average fried rice, notable only for the char siu (barbequed pork) that’s made in-house. While pricy perhaps for where and what it is, Ulladulla Chinese Restaurant delivers a slightly above average Aussie...

Just a typical suburban Chinese restaurant but trying to be pretentious and is far too expensive for what they deliver both in quality and quantity of food. We had dinner for 4 adults and 3 young kids and ordered 5 meals (no entrees) a large boiled rice and a large fried rice so 7 plates of food, and 5 soft drinks, 1 beer and a bottle of wine. Our meals (garlic prawns, chicken chow mein, honey chicken, steak & mushrooms, fish with garlic & shallots plus the 2 large servings of rice), were ok nothing to rave or complain about - except for the cost; the large fried rice $14 was barely big enough for 2 people and another large serving was ordered making 8 plates of food. The bill was $288! Commonly in other Chinese restaurants we have enough leftovers to take home for dinner the next day for 2 or 3 people and for a much smaller bill, but the size of these servings didn’t allow for leftovers. IMO the other Chinese restaurants in Ulladulla offer much better value for money and their food is as good if not better. I don’t mind paying more if the food and experience feels worth it, but here I felt ripped off....

I have been a loyal customer for 30 years to this restaurant. Last night I ordered sizzling garlic prawns. Chicken wings for entree. The wings were tasteless no fivespice at all.just plain fried chicken wings. They use to be so delicious. Then the sizzling prawn plate came, On a bed of.... Cabbage! With a small amount of prawns. For $33 it was sad. When I told the owner he said if you don't want cabbage you must tell the waitress. Since when does anyone serve sizzle plates with cabbage and not onion. The salt and pepper squid was small for a main, tiny bits of squid and huge batter jackets. Sad, but we now have to search for a new restaurant. Prices are huge now, food quality poor. $10 for a bourbon coke... Sorry, you have lost a...