Sky Phoenix, Castlereagh Street, Sydney

Sky Phoenix, Castlereagh Street, Sydney

Sunday 18 March, 2007

I've never been disappointed by this place - it continually delivers a great yum cha experience. My last visit reminded me and this visit confirmed it.

Today we were celebrating two birthdays (well, three if you include the 75th birthday of the Harbour Bridge) so it was Chinese tea toasts all around . We arrived up the steep escalators from Pitt St Mall and were welcomed into the large dining space. The larger tables are located at the rear so we walked past the impressive display of awards, huge glassed in wine rack and private rooms.

The staff are in abundance here so for us hungry diners it was heaven. Trolleys rolled past so frequently that we were turning them away. We started with a selection of steamed buns served in baskets - pork buns, steamed vegetable dumplings and seafood dumplings. They also provided us with the hottest chilli sauce which added a wonderful kick.

We then moved onto the delicious, tender pork - served in thick sliced strips and lined up on an oval plate, Singapore noodles and salt & pepper calamari. It just kept getting better. Between the 5 of us we polished off everything with ease and finished the savoury meals with prawn wontons that were crispy on the outside and tender in the middle.

A trip to yum cha is not complete without sampling some of their sweet offerings. Today we decided to go with the mango pancakes - two long, thin slices of mango surrounded by a light cream substance (probably sugar and egg whites) and wrapped in pancakes.

We loved every minute of it.

Sky Phoenix - Level 3, Sky Garden, 77 Castlereagh St, Sydney - T: 9223 8822

http://www.skyphoenix.com.au/content/index2.html