RESTAURANT REVIEW: MR WONG BY MERIVALE (DAN HONG, JOWLETTE WU AND ERIC KOH CHEFS)

Last night, I celebrated my friend's birthday at Mr Wong.  This is a newly opened restaurant by Merivale on Bridge Street.  I have seen Facebook advertise Mr Wong and have read mixed reviews of this place.  My take on it was that the food was pretty good.  It kind of looks like a warehouse with wooden chairs and tables surrounded by old looking lampshades and fake peony flowers.  Even the toilets were traditional old style.  The restaurant is big - it stretches from one side to another on two levels.  Still because I decided to go there for my friend's birthday the day before I couldn't get a booking so we go there around 6.15pm to place our name down for a 7.45pm seating.  We finally got our tables around 8.00pm.  We were starving however food came out relatively quickly and the waiters were always polite unlike other chinese restaurants.

Mr Wong restaurant

The atmosphere was amazing and they had a bar for those who come early and are waiting for their tables.  Establishment was just around the corner too so can always go there for a drink too.  My friend and I ended up waiting for hours and we didn't even end up at a table but a sit down bar table with high chairs.  We were disappointed because spacing is difficult but we managed.  Due to the long wait the food had to be great otherwise we would never come here again.  Thankfully the food was good.  It was slightly salty but still flavoursome and we can tell the quality of the ingredients were fresh and good.  I've tasted chinese restaurant food before and it just doesn't taste great and leaves this MSG aftertaste.  We ordered four dishes on the night - a five spice tofu dish, kung pao chicken with crunchy shallots, peanuts and sichuan chillis, five kinds of mushrooms stir fried and steamed fish with ginger and shallots.

The tofu can be ordered as small or large.  You can smell and taste the five spice and the tofu was soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.  Thought, there wasn't much of a crunch but still crispy.

Five spiced tofu with chillis and coriander

The kungpao chicken was spicy because of the sichuan chicken and added peanuts gave it an extra edge to the dish.  Though spicy it wasn't too hot and the shallots were nice too.

Kung Pao Chicken with shallots, peanuts and sichuan chicken

I loved the five mushroom dish.  The mushrooms were so soft and it was tasty too.  It seems like a simple dish but definitely exceeded expectations.

Five mushroom stir fried

The steamed fish did not disappoint either. Normally you have the whole fish at chinese restaurants but here, we had soft fillet fish cooked to perfection.  Very light in taste so need to immerse in the soy sauce and shallots.

Steamed fillet fish with coriander and soy and vinegar sauce

I think Spice Temple was too spicy for my liking and Billy Kwong was too salty so I prefer Mr Wong over these two restaurants.  My old time favourite is Jimmy Liks so I am yet to return and Mahjong Room is also lovely too.  Overall I would rate Mr Wong as 8/10 (Same as what SMH had scored but the Urbanspooners and other readers don't seen to be that impressed).  For SMH's review of Mr Wong, you can read the article here by Terry Durrack: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurant-review-mr-wong-20120827-24vga.html.  Apparently the crab dish look really good, pekking duck and live lobster are also a must.  The dumplings are colourful be a bit on the expensive side.  Last time I had green and orange dumplings were from London and what do you know, the dumpling chef is from London!

Mr Wong
Address: 3 Bridge Lane, Sydney, NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9240 3000
Opening hours: Lunch and Dinner - Thurs to Sat until 2 am
Website: Mr Wong website