The Rice Den, St Leonards

The Rice Den was a small casual dining restaurant originally located in Chatswood, it has since moved and is now a full restaurant is open in St Leonards with beautiful interiors and amazing food on offer. The new restaurant is currently extremely busy so make sure you get in early!

Rice wine cured ocean trout, pickled fennel, ginger and soy sauce

The food at The Rice Den is a mixture of traditional Cantonese and South East Ocean but also includes hints of modern cooking techniques and new ingredients. I loved the delicious ocean trout starter.

I’m a huge fan of sui mai and I can easily eat them all day long – these were quite flavoursome.

Some people might call me crazy but for the first time that I can recall I would say that this salad dish was my favourite. The delicious strips of chicken soeaked in rice sheets and vinegar were simply mouthwatering, had a nice texture and left a great lingering taste.

The san choy bau were quite nice with plenty of sauce and tender duck, I love that the lettuce were cut into perfectly round shapes for serving just to be extra convenient.

The hand made cheong fun with sesame and hoisin were a favourite with everyone on the table. It’s rare that you see the dish prepared in this manner for a dinner entree but I’m now sold on the idea.

These two dishes were probably my least favourite. I don’t eat soft shell crab and I’ve never been a fan of fried rice in any situation. It’s almost ironic that I didn’t enjoy the rice at The Rice Den 🙂

The barbecue pork neck were very flavoursome and very tender, they’re quite heavy though so it would be good to balance it out with some rice to avoid overloading your palette with the delicious honey glaze.

The braised beef cheek was very tender and smothered in a delicious gravy sauce, as a fan of kohlrabi I really enjoyed the dish but I was beginning to feel quite full by the time this dish arrived.

I love a good steamed broccolini, especially with garlic so these were a welcome serving of greens.

I’ve been sitting here for about 5-10 minutes trying to decide which of the desserts I liked mine and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a tie between only the pannacotta (the chestnuts weren’t that great) and the delicious french toast. The french toast oozes out a delicious dulce de leche when you slice it in half!

The Rice Den is a licensed venue so definitely check out the drinks, the cocktail made with salted caramel vodka and passionfruit is a must try and definitely my favourite. As you can see the restaurant is a beautiful venue and the food served lives up to the reputation they built back in Chatswood, I’ll be sure to come back to check out the other items next time I’m in the area.

The Food Diary dined as guests of Wasamedia & The Rice Den.
All views and opinions expressed in this post are our own.