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Bao wow: Sydney's best yum cha restaurants

Callan Boys
Callan Boys

Dynasty Chinese Restaurant's prawn dumplings.
Dynasty Chinese Restaurant's prawn dumplings.Edwina Pickles

From $12 lobster dumplings to Chinese cheesecake, in celebration of Chinse New Year, here's our guide to the lucky number 8 of Sydney's best yum cha. And while we're spreading the Kung Hei Fat Choy love, we pay homage to one of the greatest gifts China has given the world; BBQ duck. Pour a tea, pop a Tsingtao beer, and get stuck in.

The Dynasty Chinese Restaurant

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Do you like waterfalls? Of course you do. Everyone likes waterfalls. Well, Canterbury League Club has three of them. The foyer looks like a Malaysian airport lounge, or maybe the visitor centre in Jurassic Park. It's really quite wonderful. Over an indoor footbridge is The Dynasty, home of the best yum cha in Sydney (Mr Wong has better dumplings but Dynasty is a better all-rounder. And there's waterfalls).

Everything is prepared in-house, there's attention to detail from the precision pleating in swollen prawn dumplings (har gau) to fresh chilli in the dipping sauce – all the better for dunking billowy steamed pork buns (char siu bao).

The pork ribs and chicken feet are glutinous and goopy and delicious. If you're still sitting on the fence about chicken feet then Dynasty is the place to make you choose the right side.

Seafood dumplings at Mr Wong.
Seafood dumplings at Mr Wong.Fiona Morris

Tip: Members of the club get a 10 per cent discount on the bill. It's $5 to join the club there and then, so by my maths, joining the club is a very good idea. You can probably get cut price tickets to the Elton John tribute show, Elton Jack, as well.

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26 Bridge Road, Belmore, (02) 9704 7704, (02) 9740 6633

Mr Wong

Dough in rice noodle at Golden Unicorn in Maroubra.
Dough in rice noodle at Golden Unicorn in Maroubra.Steven Siewert

There's no trolleys at Wong's because the dumplings are made to order. There's daylight between the quality of a fresh barbecue pork bun and one that's been doing laps of the room for three hours.

Wong's scallop and prawn shumai is the emperor of all Sydney dumplings. The freshness of the produce and the skill that's gone into folding it are exemplary. The foie gras prawn toast is more ball than toast, packed with all the flavour that makes prawn toast everyone's favourite suburban Chinese entree and bolted down with a lick of foie gras richness.

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There's also a beef siu mai with burdock root that a tastes like a gravy-drowned British rissole (in a good way) and jade seafood dumplings are some of the lightest and freshest around. The deep-fried pork and asparagus wontons with a Sichuan sauce are the kind of thing I want to snack on all day, every day.

XO chilli seafood gow gee at Palace Chinese Restaurant.
XO chilli seafood gow gee at Palace Chinese Restaurant. Marco Del Grande

Mr Wong's dumpling master, Eric Koh, is moving onto the Michelin-starred Tim Ho Wan when it opens in Chatswood in March, but I expect Koh has trained his pleating-proteges well and dumpling quality should remain consistent (at the time of print Koh's replacement hasn't been announced).

Tip: The deep-fried ice-cream is as good as you remember from childhood RSL missions and should be ordered.

3 Bridge Lane, Sydney, (02) 9240 3000

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Mr Wong's Peking duck with pancakes.
Mr Wong's Peking duck with pancakes.Edwina Pickles

Kam Fook

Phantom of the Opera-sized chandeliers sparkle above gold-rimmed, red-backed chairs and dragons guard a stage that's hosted a good many bridal parties in its time. The trolley ladies at Kam Fook are some of the friendliest in town, and there's no shortage or braised tripe, beef tendon, and deep fried bean curd rolls clanging around the room.

Translucent combination dumplings full of prawn, pork, carrot, and spinach are a savoury sensation even if the wrapper does split apart at the mere threat of a chopstick. If a trolley lady asks if you want some mid-sized, pan-fried cheong fun, you say yes. They're tightly rolled, firm to the tooth, and a popular choice among Chinese gents reading Chinese newspapers dotted around the room.

Tip: Fook Yuen from the same team is a couple of blocks away and also does a mean yum cha if you don't feel like eating in a Westfield.

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Westfield Chatswood, 28 Victor Street, Chatswood, (02) 9413 9388

Marigold

Oasis talent Noel Gallagher once blogged that Marigold had "top food. Maybe some of the best I've ever had, and I've had a lot." Gallagher has been wrong on a few things, but on this, he is spot on.

The har gau are fat and juicy and the parcels of sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves are way more filling than their size suggests – chock-full with Chinese sausage, mushroom, and titbits of chicken.

Marigold's appeal lies not in the food but in the tuxedoed waiters, the tunics of the trolley ladies, and that you might see celebrities like Noel Gallagher wolfing down excellent rice noodle rolls in the corner.

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Tip: The elevator has a mind of its own. Best to just push a few buttons, let it do its thing and know that you'll be let off at Level 5 eventually.

Level 4 and 5, 683-689 George Street, Sydney, 9281 3388

Golden Unicorn Chinese Restaurant

This is favourite haunt of 'Bra surfers is ideal for breakfast, lunch or dinner (it opens at 11am - 10pm). Fried dough wrapped in rice noodles (zha leung cheung fun) is a fun breakfast dish and very good to dip in congee, creating a texture-trio of crisp dough, slippery noodle, and glutinous rice porridge.

Sticky, shiny, baked barbecue pork buns go down way too easily with a bottle of Tsingtao, and prawn and chive dumplings taste almost as sweet.

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Tip: The queue at peak times might look vicious but the trolleys at Golden Unicorn move at speed and you won't be waiting in the stairwell for too long.

2/193 Maroubra Road, Maroubra, (02) 9344 9278

Palace Chinese Restaurant

This is one of Dan Hong's favourite yum cha joints in Sydney. The ingredients are usually a touch fresher than its contemporaries and you don't feel quite as queasy after hitting a thousand spring rolls in one sitting.

Steamed snowpea and prawn dumplings are a light way to kick things off, followed by some barbecue pork triangles; the sweeter your tooth, the more you'll get enjoy them. Scallop-topped siu mai are some of the best you'll find outside of Mr Wong and there are deep-fried breads ideal for mopping up cheong fun sauce. The Japanese gyoza that do the rounds are touch out of their comfort zone but who's complaining?

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The dessert trolley is also pretty swish with fruit flan tarts and a cheesecake decorated with things that are either melon balls or glazed Cheetos.

Tip: Spend over $50 on yum cha and receive an $8 voucher for the basement car park. Hurrah!

Imperial Arcade, 133/143-145 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, (02)9283 6288

Spice Temple

In the same way that weekday yum cha at Palace is the haunt of Reuben-F-Scarfed business men doing their best Sir Les Patterson impersonations, Spice Temple is the office of Hugo-Bossed bankers attempting to woo clients at the bar and PAs in dark corners.

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Rockpool Group's sexy underground restaurant is not open for yum cha on the weekends. This is maddening as head chef Andy Evans knows how to take bao to a different level. There's big steamed buns with prawns, pickles, and XO sauce, chicken and black fungi potstickers, and rice noodle rolls with spanner crab and black bean. Lobster siu mai will set you back $12 a pop but worth it for top-notch-lob that's a world away from the imported stuff filling rolls at pubs everywhere.

Northern-style lamb and fennel dumplings are a rich and fragrant highlight and for salty, snacky, "I'll-have-10-please" brilliance, the deep-fried tripe with heaven-facing chilli is a must.

Tip: There's a cut-above Chinese tea list that's well worth a gander.

10 Bligh Street, Sydney, (02) 8078 1888

Golden Times Chinese Restaurant

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"The best thing about yum cha," says my eating partner "is sparkling wine at leagues club prices."

The best thing about yum cha at this Wests Ashfield Leagues restaurant is probably the piping hot steamed pork buns, actually, but my mate has a point about cheap sparkling with dim sum. Just like Tsingtao, it's quaffable stuff and perfect for deep-fried good times. And at Golden Times they'll even fasten a strawberry to the flute.

Beef balls (Chinese rissoles, really) may be one of the most unattractive yum cha dishes going, they are are good ones though, with the right amount of fat content. Dip the little guys into chilli sauce and it won't just be for Chinese New Year you'll be coming here.

Taro dumplings, chicken feet and fried squid are also worth ordering.

Tip: If you can jag a seat by the window you'll be treated to some finest views of Inner West and South Line Ashfield has to offer. Taro-loving trainspotters, rejoice.

115 Liverpool Road, Ashfield, (02) 8752 2000

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Callan BoysCallan Boys is editor of SMH Good Food Guide, restaurant critic for Good Weekend and Good Food writer.

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