Blue Eye Dragon – Pyrmont
Dinner last night was at the Blue Eye Dragon in Pyrmont, a restaurant specialising in Taiwanese cuisine. Being early diners, en route to catching a screening of Paprika, we were the first customers through the door – a good thing, as the noise levels picked up quickly once the place started to fill up.
I love the place, as soon as I step in. The muted grey walls and wood tones add a sense of cosiness and warmth to the room – not to mention the gorgeous collection of teapots on display. Something tells me I’ll be in good hands if I order some tea. In fact, there are two types to choose from and the one we get at $2.50pp comes in a cute no-drip teapot with it’s own tealight warmer.
Beverages sorted, it’s on to the food. The menu is so tastily worded, there’s nothing on it that I wouldn’t happily order to try. We start with a set of four Calamari Rolls with Salted Duck Egg and Seaweed, which arrives as strips of tender calamari wrapped around a seaweed covered yolk, all of which are encased in a crisp golden crust. Delicious, and perfectly seasoned. The two mains that we share are Prawns with Dry Chilli & Shallot in Gongbao Sauce and QLD Scallops in House XO Sauce and Vegetables. Both are beautifully presented, tasty dishes, though I did think the prawn dish was perhaps a little bit on the greasy side.
Because it sounded so intriguing, we stick around for the sticky rice dessert. Sticky Rice with Chinese Wolfberries & Sultana, with Sweet Peanut Powder and Coriander, as stated on the menu, arrives very simply as a small mound of plain sticky rice topped with sweet wolfberries and sultanas, surrounded by said peanut powder and torn coriander leaves. As a whole, it was a very well balanced dish. I liked the chewiness of the rice, and while it’s not always my idea of what I’d like dessert to be, it somehow really appealed to me that evening, and I managed to demolish the majority of it, despite claiming to be “not very hungry” at the start of the evening!
A satisfying meal in elegant surroundings is perhaps what appeals to Blue Eye Dragon’s regulars (of which there seem to be many). It isn’t as cheap as you’d expect a meal in a more typical Chinese/Taiwanese restaurant to be, but you do get a sense that the food is lovingly prepared and surely that’s worth paying the extra for.
Blue Eye Dragon
Shop 2, 42 Harris Street,
Pyrmont 2009.
B said,
June 22, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
You were very kind in describing the dessert – I thought it was bland and unappetising, and on looking back I wish we’d skipped it!
Y said,
June 22, 2007 @ 5:47 pm
Skip.. dessert?? *gasp*
It’s hard to explain what I liked about it. The overall effect was a bit like dry rice pudding, wasn’t it. I think it has something to do with nonspecific childhood memories of Asian sweet snacks… that peanut powder, and I like sticky rice (remember that fabulous sticky rice we had at Spice I Am?).