Restaurant: Chinta Ria
Temple of Love
Location: Roof Terrace of Cockle Bay Wharf | 201 Sussex Street Sydney 2000.
Cuisine: Malaysian
“Complimentary fresh prawn chips for you?”
greeted the Buddha statue as we walked into Chinta Ria.
No... The statue didn’t really say that,
but the voice in my head did. “YES please!” my mum said as she went straight
for the prawn chips.
Chinta Ria doesn’t take reservations after
6:30pm and because my mum is one of the most impatient women that you’ll ever
meet, I booked at 6:30pm to save my ears from her complaints. We were on time,
but our table was not ready yet. We waited for a good 10 minutes to be seated,
luckily my mum didn’t complain, partly because she was in a good birthday mood
and there were crispy prawn chips for her to kill time.
Our table was small and we had to sit on
stools, which meant that mum cannot lean back. I asked the waiters to change mum’s
seat and they kindly did so, but they cannot change ours because they don’t
have enough chairs. Luckily they have a cloak room because we had no where to
put our jackets.
 |
| Lohbak; Aromatic Wrap |
The appetizers came out really fast, we had
Lohbak
($9.4)which was minced chicken blended with a subtle 5 spice seasoning and
wrapped in a bean curd skin and then fried or steamed (2 rolls per serve). Of
course we chose the fried one (unfortunately most food is tastier when it’s
fried), the minced chicken was perfectly cooked but the 5 spice seasoning couldn’t
be tasted.
Our other appetizer was the Aromatic
Wrap ($7), which was Snap fried Mackerel Fillet mince mixed with lime leaves,
curry powder, Turmeric and chilli wrapped in banana leaves (2 per serve). The dish
lived up to its name, it was truly aromatic and sauce complimented the spices
really well. We loved the turmeric in the fish.
 |
| Spicy Spicy Calamari; Ikan Melody; Sassy's Duck |
Soon after we finished our appetizers, the
mains were brought to us. My mum loves eating duck so we ordered the Sassy’s
Duck $31.3 (Braised duck flavoured with a fermented red rice marinade
then wok-tossed with spinach in traditional chinese wine and spices). The duck was succulent and the sauce which was
REALLY addictive, which brought out the sweetness of the spinach.
The flavours in the Ikan Melody $31.3 (Lightly
spiced fresh fish of the day pan-tossed with onions, curry leaves, lemongrass
then simmered in a coconut broth of eggplant, greenbeans & tomatoes)
literally created a melody in my mouth – I’m still mesmerizing the taste of
lemongrass.
We also ordered Spicy Spicy Calamari $31.3
on their special menu (Crisp Calamari wok tossed with spicy chilli mix of
onion, garlic, curry leaves & a drizzle of fish sauce). Again, the name of the
dish suggested what it would taste like – IT WAS SPICY!! But it is that
spiciness with the nicely cooked calamari that kept on seducing us to eat more
and not long after, we finished the dish.
We also ordered 3 Small Rice $3 to share
amongst 4 people.
On the whole, our dining experience in
Chinta-Ria was good, their services were attentive and the food came fast (we
were in the restaurant for less than 1.5 hours). However, when trying to get
our jackets back from the cloakroom (after we paid), it was unusually hard to
get attention from the waiters.
So... Has anyone experienced inattentive services AFTER they
paid for their bill ?
Xx
Feli
No comments:
Post a Comment