Grand Park, Epsom

By JENNIFER YEE for canvas


Raceway at Alexandra Park is a hoot of a place to have a licensed Chinese seafood restaurant. You can place a bet at the tote between courses and head out of the front doors and watch your race, should you desire. A Friday night call asking "Have you eaten yet? There's a new restaurant opened by the Grand Harbour group at the night trots. Interested?" sparks my curiosity and I reply, "Pick me up in 5".

We were seated at table "33, no smoking". The decor is easy on the eye and modern, with fresh roses on the tables, although the main floral arrangements are a mixture of fake and real. By the main entrance there is a fish and cray tank and a smaller tank of huge surf clams. The menu offers the likes of abalone (paua) prepared on a mobile kitchenette brought to your table —at $100 a plate. Since we were feeding five we chose a selection of tastes and cooking methods from pork, fish and fowl to share.

Our boys, Martin, Bruce and Ray, are discerning cooks, and hoovers when it comes to the table. Linda and I come from a family of enthusiastic eaters. We are not into namby-pamby. Seven generous dishes followed, in fairly rapid succession.

What we had: To start, a plate of crispy roast pork served with hoisin sauce and a small dish of white sugar. Our maitre d' explained that the sugar was a popular side dish for Chinese patrons, providing "extra sweet and crispy". We weren't so convinced.

Deep fried bean curd (tofu), fish and mushroom puffs with wilted choy sum greens was accompanied by a lightly flavoured mushroom and spring onion sauce served in a stainless steel sauce boat. The puffs were delicious two-mouthful bites and well worth trying.
The taro duck intrigued us. The half duck wasn't available, but that didn't deter us. A dauntingly huge platter appeared, with a whole deboned duck, coated in a cloud of bland mashed white taro and with the taro side deep-fried until light and crispy. It was served as portions of duck meat and skin reassembled into the shape of a butterflied duck on top of shredded iceberg lettuce. This dish is technically quite a mission to achieve. The duck was meltingly tender and rich overall, but deserved more flavouring and perhaps a citrus-based sauce to complement it. Instead, we got two more jugs of the mushroom and cornflour sauce.

The rest of our banquet included a whole steamed blue cod with light soy, spring onions and coriander, sweet and perfectly cooked.

A dish of chicken and celery with XO sauce lacked "wok hei" — a fierce tossing in a hot wok — but everything was fresh. Our gai laan, Chinese broccoli, were vivid green, tender and cooked as they should be.

We are rather fond of sang choy bau as we like the hands-on approach of filling, wrapping (in iceberg lettuce cups) and eating, so the seafood lettuce wraps were eagerly awaited. The pyramid of filling was composed of finely chopped beads of squid, bamboo shoots, and a hint of prawns and deep-fried rice vermicelli. This was a little disappointing, as the mixture was overpowered by a strong squid flavour.
We chose the Nobilo's 1991 Sauvignon Blanc, which was minerally aromatic, with a crisp, citrus finish.
A venue worth checking out for its novel value and by selecting carefully, the menu includes popular favourites and offers something for everyone. Yum Char lunch is also available daily.

Service is friendly and English is a second language for all staff. Some of you will enjoy the Glen Campbell background music.


OUR MEAL: $230 for 5 (including drinks and 1 bottle wine); appetisers $5-$15; dishes to share $15-$35; abalone and shark's fin $55-$120.


OUR WINES BY THE GLASS: by the bottle $38-55

* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, party places and entertainment in canvas magazine, part of your Weekend Herald print edition.