Choosing between putting in the effort to cook out own food at Sichuan hotpot or a more innovative approach to Chinese food, we chose the latter as we joined the burgeoning crowd queuing outside at Mr Stonebowl. Known for being one of the busiest restaurants around, we were seated at a table for four after a 30 minute wait.
This is the Stewed Sweet Potato Vermicelli with Kombu ($16.60).
The kombu in this dish was fibrous and would’ve benefited from a longer cooking to better complement the chewiness of the vermicelli. Indeed, we’d have enjoyed an inversion of the kombu to vermicelli ratio, as we enjoyed the vermicelli.
This is the Deep Fried Chicken Meat with Passion Fruit Honey Sauce ($16.60).
The bits of chicken are tender and small, giving greater surface area for the crispy batter. The sauce has an intense honey sweetness with a punchy passionfruit tanginess with a brief dip being enough to carry the flavour.
This is the Wonton in Red Chilli Oil Sauce ($9.80).
The wontons have a silky wrapper that’s only a tad thicker than what’s needed to hold the filling within. The filling is a mix of pork and chives, with the peanut and chilli oil sauce delivering a medium burn at the end of each wonton.
This is the Crispy Corn Pancake ($10.80).
We were surprised when these came out with sprinkles — the promotional images did not lead us to expect something sweet. Shaking off the sprinkles aside, these pancakes taste like tempura crackers with pops of sweet corn.
To finish, these were the Lovely Panda Face Steamed Bun ($8.60).
These buns have the cutest faces and are filled with a smooth and sweet egg custard filling. While the bun was soft, the filling was not molten as I’d hoped. The brown coloured dough making up the panda’s face has no flavour of its own, which we preferred.
Overall, Mr Stonebowl is one of the most refreshingly innovative Chinese restaurants around. The restaurant is small, but surprisingly comfortable inside, despite being a tad loud.
Mr Stonebowl is located at 185C Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134.