Blue Eye Dragon

By Franz Scheurer

28^th April 2010

Blue Eye Dragon is a restaurant showcasing Taiwanese food and they just relocated to a disused Catholic church, diagonally across the road from the casino in Pyrmont. This is a fabulous old building with high ceilings and it gives the Chen family a lot more space, both in the kitchen and on the floor. The public area is divided into 2 levels with the upper level separated by a couple of heavy, velvet curtains. The upper level can be used as a private dining room, or as an extension of the main dining area. The walls and ceiling are painted a lovely, muted blue-green, imparting comfortable and peaceful feeling. I adore the old-fashioned windows which tilt and slide up to open; such a lovely timepiece. There is a large area outside which will be great in summer for alfresco dining, too. They are licensed but allow BYO.

The food at Blue Eye Dragon has always been terrific. With mother Jade Chen ruling the kitchen with an iron fist, Muriel Chen runs the floor and they’re both good at it. Here you will not only get great food, but you will be surprised with terrific service, so unlike many Chinese restaurants. Although the food definitely falls into the Chinese food category it is amazing how different Taiwanese fare actually is. It’s a lot subtler (this does not mean it does not have a good chilli kick every now and then) and it uses combinations of ingredients that hold one’s interest. Jade Chen is a wizard in the kitchen and her food is well worth the journey across the bridge (you can tell I live on the ‘dark side’).

Last night, as there were 9 of us, we managed to eat a lot of the dishes on offer. We had the ‘Stewed Beef Shin’ presented thinly sliced, with sesame oil and shallots, ‘Deep Fried Chicken’, a comfort dish with basil and Chinese five spice, both the prawn dumplings, stuffed with prawns, water chestnuts, ginger and shallots, and the pork dumplings with chives, ginger and shallots (which alone make me want to eat here) and the ‘Deep Fried Prawns’ with house plum sauce. All dishes so far were superb, with the exception of the prawns, which were nice and crunchy on the outside but tough and stringy inside and for some reason the superb plum sauce never eventuated. I had it before and it’s superb. We moved on to ‘Calamari Rolls with Salted Duck Egg and Seaweed’, one the best dishes at Blue Eye Dragon. The salty egg yolk works incredibly well with the soft, almost gelatinous calamari and the seaweed gives it depth. A few ‘Oysters with House Spicy Garlic Sauce’ were spicy rather than hot and the oyster, although served warm, is not cooked. A brand new dish of twice-cooked pork belly, finely sliced and served with a vinegar and chopped garlic sauce was another winner and the ‘Eye Fillet’ served in a black pepper sauce was most people’s favourite. The ‘Tofu Stuffed with Minced Pork & Prawns’ is served on a hot plate and it shows off the craft in the kitchen. For the vegetarians there is a really unctuous ‘Chinese Turnip Omelette’ and it’s so good you won’t miss the meat.

Desserts are very Asian and we tried the ‘Sticky Rice with Chinese Wolfberries & Sultanas’ finished with sweet peanut powder and coriander, “Sweet Red Bean with Vanilla Ice Cream’ and ‘Sticky Rice Cakes in Ginger Syrup & Sweet Peanut Powder’, a dessert not unlike that the Malaysians call ‘moneybags’. They are competent and the last dessert was by far the best one.

Entrées are mostly between $8 and $14 (with a shared entrée plate for two for $30), mains mostly between $22 and $30 and desserts $8

We started with a few Taiwanese beers, which are very sweet and not very fizzy, then we opted for a couple of bottles of Ashton Hills Chardonnay 2003 from the Adelaide Hills, and a magnum of Curly Flat Pinot Noir 2002. The wine list, although passable, does animate for bringing your own but make sure you don’t just BYO because it might be cheaper but bring something special that will live up to the food. Service is terrific and not just because it’s a Chinese restaurant. The timing is surprisingly good, taking into account how long they’ve been open. I do believe this is one of the most underrated restaurants in Sydney and it deserves your patronage.

Did I like it? Yes, without any reservations.

Would I go back: often! And I would recommend it to my friends

Value for money: exceptional

Nose: 79 db (you can easily hold a conversation with people near you, but not if they’re further away).

Score: 7.5/10

For more information of bookings:

Blue Eye Dragon

37 Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont

Tel.: 02 9518 9955