Yum cha @ King Fook Restaurant (formerly Kam Fook), Chatswood [Sydney, Australia]

The irony of having yum cha whenever we travel out of Hong Kong is not lost on me. The truth is, though we can get good dim sum here in HK, we prefer the yum cha experience with the camaraderie of a large group dining, so we don't often do yum cha here. Last month we travelled to Australia to see our family, and we spent a weekend at The Entrance to celebrate my dad's 70th. The drive back to Sydney took about 1.5 hours, and it was lunch time by the time we got back (it was no small effort to organise our group of several families with children to make the apartment rentals' check-out time). My younger sister led our group of cars to Westfield Chatswood shopping centre for yum cha lunch at King Fook Restaurant. Lunch at this restaurant almost didn't happen because my younger sister got a little annoyed at the floor manager for refusing to sit our group on one table (we were seated at two round tables when there were rectangular tables and ample space on the stage, but manager cited safety reason). We made do by joining up the two round tables instead, and conflict was resolved. Service for the most part was friendly and helpful, but my dear sister-in-law speaks excellent Chinese which I think helped because many of the restaurant staff had quite poor English ability. One main gripe about the service was that the only a-la-carte dish we ordered took a very long time to arrive, long after we were finished with the dim sum dishes. I suspect our order got forgotten and the dish only got prepared after we asked whether it was coming. The quality of the dim sum was fair, not too bad considering they were not freshly steamed or prepared but served from trolleys/carts that were wheeled around the restaurant. The food was pretty pricey, about AU$25 per person, and I'm pretty sure you can get better quality dim sum for cheaper elsewhere in Sydney.

The vast dining hall with chandeliers:

Har Gow (prawn dumplings):

Pork Spare Ribs:

Phoenix Claws (aka chicken feet):

Siu Mai (prawn and pork dumpling):

Har Cheong (rice noodle rolls with prawns:

Scallop Dumplings:

Crispy Yam Puffs:

Fish Congee, ordered for the baby:

Chicken Pie:

Strawberry and Cream Crepe:

Fried Rice, with a combination of seafood:

Overall it was an okay experience. Not the best dim sum, but not the worst either.

King Fook Restaurant
Shop 600
Westfield Chatswood
28 Victor St
Chatswood, NSW 2057
Australia
Tel. +61 2 9413 9388