East Ocean, Haymarket

East Ocean restaurant in Chinatown is a long standing establishment and one of the most popular venues for a classic Cantonese meal in Sydney. The restaurant offers a variety of traditional multi course banquet menus, we decided to go with one of these banquets to celebrate a birthday.

Mud Crab: Soy Ginger Shallot

One of the mains that came out for sharing was the mud crab with soy and ginger shallot sauce. I’ve never been a big fan of crab out of the shell because it’s so difficult to eat but most seemed to enjoy it.

As expected from a Chinese banquet the obligatory peking duck was one of the first dishes to arrive. The waiter prepares this on the side of the table and serves it directly from the trolley, peking duck and san choy bau is always a good starter and I could never fault this dish.

No comment for this dish as I don’t generally do shellfish (aside from scallops).

Always loved a good salt and pepper calamari. I can’t recall a single occasion where I’ve been disappointed by this dish, it’s always a classic and the Chinese variation always has a nice hint of chilli to it.

The Chinese vegetables with mushroom and the fried rice were quite average and clearly the fillers towards the end of the meal. I normally don’t enjoy fried rice regardless but it was even more disappointing to see a very odd combination of pineapple and seafood which I didn’t think was a good idea.

The final two dishes were probably my favourite of the lot. The crispy chicken was tasty and fragrant, despite being a little dry for some parts. The fish steamed in soy, ginger and shallots was fresh and flavoursome.

Overall I think East Ocean did a great job with most of the dishes on the banquet menu, though personally I think some minor tweaks to the dishes would have made it perfect for me.