The executive chef at the soon-to-open Queen Chow Manly isn't kidding when he says the menu will have hints of nostalgia.
There's a double layer of it with a dish of Mongolian lamb crossed with lettuce-cupped sang choy bao. Then there are honey king prawns and special fried rice making an appearance on the pictorial menu.
"In Enmore [the original Queen Chow] we tend to take a lot of the dishes straight from Hong Kong. Many of them will come across, but we wanted to add a bit of the Aussie nostalgia for old-school Chinese restaurants here," says executive chef Patrick Friesen.
Friesen and his team are finally ready to roll, taking bookings from Monday, July 9. Good Food revealed in March that Merivale would replace Papi Chulo, subbing in the crowd-pleasing Queen Chow.
Some of the bones of Papi Chulo remain, but the redesign has seen the size of the bar shrink and a room of deep green timbers, dark woods and marble emerge. "It's a bit similar to upstairs at Enmore," Friesen says.
As you would hope from a restaurant on Manly Wharf, it has gone big on live seafood, with mud crab and lobster on offer. There are also classics, including pipis with XO, salt and pepper pork spare ribs and Queen Chow's signature dumplings.
"I used to live in Manly; it's what a lot of people around here want to eat."
Open lunch and dinner daily.
22-23 Manly Wharf, East Esplanade, Manly, merivale.com/venues/queenchowmanly
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