Kou Kee Peking Restaurant

By Franz Scheurer

Rowe Street really is a Northern Chinese eat street; you’ll run out of fingers trying to count them all. Kou Kee Peking Restaurant is the second last restaurant in this eat street. It’s a very Spartan, brightly lit, small space, with laminex tables and paper serviettes. It’s cramped and quite uncomfortable, not designed to encourage diners to linger.

The menu is a mish-mash of dishes from all regions of China, but don’t be distracted - the Northern dishes are the ones worth ordering. I’m not sure why they offer Szechuan dishes when they appear to have no idea what the flavour profile of such dishes should be. For these I’d much prefer to go to an authentic Szechuan restaurant, here I feel they’ve just added chilli and cornstarch to their regular dishes and labelled it ‘Szechuan’. The ‘Special Assorted Cold Cuts’ were bland and a total non-event and the ‘King Prawns Szechuan Style’ were gluggy with cornflour and had only the faintest hint of chilli. The ‘Ma Po Tofu’ was a tasteless presentation of excellent quality tofu.

Having said that, some of their northern dishes were very good. A plate of ‘Bitter Melon with Black Bean Sauce’ shone like a beacon in a dark night and the ‘Steamed Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables’ was truly superb. Dark, lingering flavours, soft, gelatinous meat with lots of unctuous fat, this was a dish worth returning for. A daily special of ‘Salt and Pepper Soft-shell Crab’ was a terrific preparation of frozen Thai crabs. I find the Thai product a bit too large, without the concentration of flavour and texture of the Vietnamese imports. The Australian product, whenever I’ve tasted it, always seems to be quite watery.

Mud crabs are available cooked in a variety of ways but you need to pre-order them two days in advance.

Chinese restaurants rarely shine with their desserts but a ‘soufflé’ (a sweet, whipped eggwhite omelette) with red bean paste was interesting and worth trying.

Service was friendly and attentive. They are licensed and allow BYO wine…which is a good thing given their wine list. Strangely enough they don't stock a single Chinese beer.

Value for money is not good.

Score: 5/10

For more information or bookings:

Kou Kee Peking Restaurant

259 Rowe Street

Eastwood NSW 2122

Tel.: 02 9874 9159