Sydney Eats: Emperor's Garden Restaurant

Our first dinner in Sydney was in Chinatown (surprise, surprise!).  You see, my Dad is a forever fan of Chinese food.  He likes is so much that he looks for it every single time we go abroad, no matter which country.  Yes, that includes the US, Europe, and other non-Asian countries.  LOL.  So it's no surprise that on our trip to Australia, Chinatown was the first place he looked for.  

A year ago, my parents and my brother went to Sydney.  Without me.  Boohoo!  Kidding!  One meal that they remembered the most was from a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, so naturally, they went looking for that exact same restaurant this time around.  Emperor's Garden Restaurant.  Note:  please do not be shocked by the number of dishes on this post, we did not eat all this in one meal.  It's a combination of two dinners.  Told ya my Dad loves Chinese, and he loved this restaurant too, that we had to eat it twice!  

So what did we have?  Scroll down and take a look:

Fried Rice with Diced Scallops and Vegetables with Egg White

It's quite amazing that Emperor's Garden's version of this classic rice dish is much, much better than the others.  Why?  See the huge chunks of scallops?  Yes, in addition to the dried scallops, they included fresh ones!  It was so good that me and my brother had to fight for the chunks and leave the rest to my Dad.  What nice kids.  Haha!

Top Shell Slices Steam Boat served with Vegetables

Found this a bit boring.  It was served raw and came with soup which you can dunk your top shell slices to cook it.  Like hot pot.  Meh.

Stir-fried Pork Cheek Meat with Assorted Vegetables

The pork cheek meat gave off a nice bite.  It was pretty tasty too.  First time I got to try pork cheek cooked this way, and I like it!

Stir-fried Veggies with Garlic

Vegetables will be vegetables.  We're not very good friends.  LOL.  I took a few bites of this and that's about it.

Braised Cod Fillet Stir-fried with XO Sauce served in Hot Pot

The fish itself was a bit tough, but it was pretty flavorful since it was cooked stir fried with XO sauce.

Kangaroo Meat with Assorted Vegetables

Ooooh.  Another first for me!  Kangaroo meat!  Don't worry, this is legit.  Kangaroo meat is served in a lot of restaurants in Sydney.  Very tender and tasty.  Actually, it tastes just like beef steak!

Stir-fried Pork Cheek Meat with Broccoli

Another pork cheek meat dish.  We ate this the second time around with different vegetables and it was just as good.

Honey King Prawns

If there's one dish to make me come back to Emperor's Garden Restaurant, then this is it.  I must've eaten 2/3 of this dish!  See how big the prawns are??  They weren't kidding when they said king prawns!  Imagine the extra crispy batter, with extra succulent insides, all drizzled with honey.  It was pure heaven in every bite.

Stir-fried Scallops with Egg White

This too, was pretty good.  Note the scallops:  this time, they're not chunks, it's by pieces!  And yes, huge ones again!  Sadly, we had to return this one because they mixed a bit of flour in the egg whites and we could taste the flour in every bite.

Stir-fried Sliced Abalone with Vegetables

Tastes likes you're eating thinly sliced cuttlefish.  Not impressed.

Stewed Eel with Dried Beancurd Sheets

The eel was pretty yummy but I had a hard time with the bones.  Lazy 'ol me wished it was deboned.  The serving was a bit too much for us, so we had this to go.

Dining in Emperor's Garden Restaurant made me reverse my thinking that good Chinese food simply cannot be found in non-Asian countries.  Some of the dishes we had were even better than the Chinese restaurants here!  They're more unique too!  4 out of 5 stars!

Emperor's Garden Restaurant is at 100 Hay Street, Haymarket NSW 2000, Australia