We had no idea what to expect. Sunnybank is your typical Australian suburb with quarter acre blocks and shopping centres, except the shopping centres and surrounding commercial strips are packed with excellent Asian eateries. Urbanspoon lists 70+ of the them, and there's probably more. That's an impressive list, Sunnybank must be one of Australia's top Asian eating suburbs.
We get off the train in the summer midday heat and walk twenty-five minutes through ho-hum suburbia to find the food action. A street sign in Chinese was the first clue that we were in for something good. We find all kinds of interesting places in the commercial strips leading into the main shopping malls. Our favourite shop was the Mega International Commercial Bank, we wonder if MegaMan is CEO.
Sunnybank Plaza is your average suburban shopping mall, except it is packed with great Asian restos. It's so popular there's even restaurants in the carpark. We had to check we weren't dreaming when we see a branch of our favourite ramen joint, Hakataya Noodle, out the front, as well as a MOS Burger.
Below is a bunch of random pics to give you the gist of why were were so food-nerdy excited about a suburban shopping mall.
Taiwanese!
There's a Hazel Tea Shop in the Dixon Street mall in Sydney too, next to Superbowl.
Taiwanese pancakes, our favourite are creamy custard and corn.
There's even restaurants in the carpark at Sunnybank Plaza.
We gotta try a carpark restaurant, Home Town looks like us.
Inside Home Town. It's sparse and car fume free.
The food is good honest, homely Taiwanese food. Happy chappy. We try bubble teas, a tofu and veggie mix, a small cold dish of pigs ears and tripe, and three cup chicken.
We cross a busy main road to another shopping centre and there's loads more food there too.
As we leave we see strip malls in the distance with more food. We could spend months eating our way through Sunnybank, such a shame as we only had an hour to spare.
We'll be back next time we are in the Brisbane neck of the woods. In fact, we're contemplating having a week just staying in Sunnybank and eating as much as possible.
Our tip for getting there: don't go by train, the station is a 20 minute walk away from the main shopping centre. There are many buses that cross over the area from Brisbane.
I just wanted to thank you guys. I'm half-Japanese half-American and had an internship in Sydney from Aug-Dec of last year.Your blog was great helping me satisfy my asian food fix. THANK YOU
ReplyDeleteFantastic, thanks for the comment. We probably didn't satisfy the American part too much, but we do what we can on the Asian side.
DeleteUnbelievable! Great food in suburban shopping malls!!! Can we please have some in Sydney?
ReplyDeleteStan
i used to live close to here! Landmark Chinese restaurant has some of the best yum cha I've had anywhere in the world. Little Singapore in the shopping centre diagonally opposite does great roti. Brisbane does not have a reputation for street food but it is out there!
ReplyDeleteHaha! The "strip malls in the distance" have the best food. You have to go back!
ReplyDeleteWe hope to get back sometime soon, Brisbane sure has some great eating hidden in its burbs.
DeleteThere must be 70 or 80 restaurants in Sunnybank (chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Malay, Indonesian, Thai). There are also some other hidden gems in Brisbane, Inala (Vietnamese 20 or places), Mooroka (a strip of African restaurants, Ethiopian mostly but also Eritrean and Sudanese), Upper Mt Gravatt (lots of Indian street food, best ever biriyani, Pakistani, Lebanese, Korean) Runcorn (20- 30 places mostly Korea, Taiwanese, Chinese), Woodridge (has a huge veg market every Sunday in one of the world's most ethnically diverse areas - lots of authentic street Thai, Laos, Malay, Viet, Samoan, Maori/Kiwi, African BBQ, Filipino) around Logan area (Turkish, Afghani, Polynesian, Indian Street, Lebanese breads, Pakistani plus more). All in old strip malls in outer suburbs, all cheap!
ReplyDelete