Lotus, CBD

Lotus Restaurant at The Galeries is a beautiful new Chinese restaurant boasting delicious food and stunning interiors. Just before I even get into the food, please do yourself a favour and scroll down to check out the photos of the venue, I know I sound a bit like a preacher but I love DS17 and the work they do.

The first group of entrees to arrive were the mixed dumpling dishes, my favourite of the lot were definitely the green and white steamed jade prawn dumplings. The pastry is so delicate and the fillings are so full of flavour, the next time I visit Lotus will definitely be just for the dumplings.

I always love a crispy pan fried pork bun, the combination of a fluffy bun on top filled with tasty pork is just too good. These particular pork buns were extra juicy which is definitely how I would prefer them to be.

If I were to pick a favourite dish out of the whole meal this would probably be it, I love the twist added to a traditional peking duck by serving crispy duck and miso paste. Each bite was absolutely amazing.

Crystal ice plant is a coastal plant found growing generally close to sand dunes. I would liken the taste and texture to iceberg lettuce. This was definitely a delicious and healthy salad, very light on the palette.

At one point I assumed that it was impossible to screw up a fried calamari dish, after a few bad experiences I now savour every delicious plate of this I can get my eager hands on. The tangy lemon dressing was a nice deviation from the usual typical serving of aioli.

A close tie for best dish would definitely be the crispy eggplant, I’ve had a few of these dishes recently and I’ve found a new liking for eggplant. The crispy outer layer conceals a deliciously creamy inside.

Always great to have some nice Chimese greens to go with the mains which arrived shortly after.

I grew up with Chinese styled steamed fish with ginger, soy and shallots and I could never get sick of it. The fish is prepared perfectly and served on a bed of vegetables and fragrant soy sauce.

This was my first foray into wallaby as a food, I’d tried Kangaroo before and it was pretty much the same. A very lean and gamey meat, it was a good thing they served it with sweet bean paste so that it wasn’t too dry.

The wok fried prawns looked delicious, unfortunately I was quite full and really wanted to save my stomach for the next round of desserts so I didn’t actually try any!

The sago dessert wasn’t anything too exceptional for me, however the Jasmine tea creme caramel was heavenly. Each bite was absolutely delicious and the dish as a whole was very fragrant.

Lotus also offers their own take on high/afternoon tea which they’ve dubbed Lo Tea. The chocolates above were an intriguing mix of tea infused chocolate, this included chocolates prepared on site each with distinct hints of earl grey, jasmine, green and peppermint tea.

As you can see I definitely went overboard with the venue photos, I honestly just couldn’t stop myself. I actually had far more than this and spent a good 1-2 hours cutting down and trying to decide which ones would do the venue justice, none of them really do unfortunately.

Aside from the beautiful venue and interior design I really enjoyed the food, it’s all quite well prepared and the service is great with plenty of staff appropriate for a restaurant of it’s size. Did I mention the venue can fit an amazing 270 guests in a single sitting?

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