Dragon Peking Restaurant ~ Chinese - Parramatta

Great Beijing cuisine and famous Goubuli Steamed Pork Buns at this Parramatta hole-in-the-wall, run by lovely ladies with great buns.






Up from the station on Church Street in Parramatta there's a handful of rippa hole-in-the-wall joints.



Today we take a blind punt on Dragon Peking Restaurant, because the food in pictures out the front look pretty, and it's full of our favourite kind of people in the world: tops old Chinese ladies. There's two super nice ladies running front of house, they are run off their feet with the relentless flow of punters getting steamed buns to takeaway. Folks are buying these buns buy the dozen, lovely big pork buns as well as huge plain buns, which the boss lady explained are used for soaking up the sauce from dinner, a great alternative to rice. If we lived round here we'd be getting these all time. Running the kitchen was an elegant looking lady in glasses and beret, she looked like she read Dostoyevsky while stir frying. A place run by ladies always has a nice vibe, Peking Dragon is no exception.



Rice Noodles Hometown Flavour - $8.80. We have no idea what 'Hometown Flavour' is, neither does the waitress, what better reason to give it a try?  It's like Singapore noodles with slightly thicker noodles. Perfectly cooked. Small prawns, little hunks of ham and strips of green capsicum are threaded throughout.



Pork Ribs Noodle Soup - $9.80. A very plain (almost just boiled water), clear broth with thin rice noodles and vegggies. The pork ribs are served deep fried and on the side, naughty but nice. They are sprinkled with salt and pepper after deep frying, so you can either munch on them as you please or soak them for a bit in the soup. It's what you would get if KFC served pork instead of fried chicken.



Goubuli Steamed Pork Buns - $5.80. We have to try these to see what all the fuss is about.



Oh, now we get it, these buns are sensational! A thick fluffy dough with a golf ball of pork mince inside, it's like a rissole in a bun. These are delicious, there's just the right amount of juice inside to keep them moist. A bit of googling tells us these Goubuli buns are famous, originating from Tianjin. Wikipedia says the direct English translation for Goubili is "Dog's will ignore." I don't think any creatures two legged or four will be ignoring these.



The takeaway steam buns are just in the front window at the shop entrance. A side serve of chili sauce will add fifty cents to the paltry $1 for these yummy tummy fillers. There's big tables inside, great for a family lunch or friends get together. Weekday lunch specials too for all you Parramatta worker bees.

Dragon Peking Restaurant is at Shop 4|115-125 Church Street, Parramatta.


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