Beijing Restaurant, Newtown (17th October 2010)

After spending most of the day hiding at home due to the terrible wet weather and gale winds, Jono and I decided to get out of the house for a bit and walked towards Riddiford St for dinner around 6.30pm. We were looking around considering our options - curry? Or maybe pub steak...or kebab...hmm, I can't decide...

"Hey, the lights are on at Beijing Restaurant and it looks like there are people dining in...," said Jono. Beijing Restaurant had been closed for quite awhile though I somehow recall seeing the restaurant sign lighted at night whenever I drove past the street...hmm...Curious, we walked towards the restaurant to find that it was indeed open and filled with patrons! Guess where we went for dinner? Haha, yep, pretty much decided that where we were having dinner tonight :) I've never been here but Jono's has and often raves about their duck pancakes (my baby loves duck - bless him!) whenever we passed by the formerly closed restaurant.

I reckon the restaurant was closed due to renovations - the place looked newly painted and the kitchen area was visible from the dining tables (you could see the Chinese chefs wearing their chef's hats working busily in the open plan kitchen). The place must serve good food because people were constantly pouring in. Lots of people = good food! We had a Tsingtao beer each (served in a highball glass minus the bottle which felt a little odd) and shared one of their 'specials' dishes, pork slivers in a special sauce, with a side serving of rice. The pork dish is said to be a popular Northern Chinese cuisine and like eating Peking Duck, we had to wrap the pork stripes that were cooked in hoisin sauce in the pancakes provided. The pork dish came with fresh lettuce and deep-fried thinly shredded potato which I wasn't sure if they should also be wrapped in the pancake with the pork or eaten separately but they tasted really good eaten altogether! A tad messy but delicious ;) Though this dish was for 2 people, it would probably make a main meal for just one. We still had room for dessert so tried their pineapple fritter ice-cream, 2 pineapple rings deep fried in batter served with 2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream. A nice combination of warm and cold sensations in the mouth when you take a bite of the pineapple fritter and a spoonful of ice-cream.

Cost us $48 all up for our beers and food. Got to come back here another time to try their Peking Duck and many other yummy dishes on their list. My mouth is already watering at the mere mention of it!