Happy Chef is a Newtown institution, it’s been around for at least a couple of decades, noodlies Sydney food blog has been neglecting an old favourite, we last visited over a year ago. It’s time to re-acquaint with some of our favourite dishes.
At first glance Happy Chef offers a bewildering choice of all your favourite Chinese dishes, Mongolian, honey pepper, sweet and sour, satay, black bean, with the usual combination of chicken, lamb, beef and seafood. They’ve got a good selection of soups too; wonton, satay, laksa etc.
It doesn’t matter how extensive a menu is, I’m told that most people have their favourite restaurant and they pretty much order the same dishes each time. That’s true for this food blogger, our last visit was December 2009 and I’m craving the same dish; Happy Chef’s (in)famous Emperor’s Chicken.
The chicken is well cooked and tender on the inside, although the skin could be a lot crispier, but all that is more than redeemed by the sweet soy, ginger and chilli sauce, which is not too salty so you can dunk the chicken in to allow the flavour to soak though.
Walter had the Mongolian Lamb, which was almost faultless in his books. Fresh vegetables, extra tasty sauce with oh-so-tender lamb.
It’s certainly cheerful, but not exactly cheap, soups start from around $9.50 and rice dishes are generally around $12.
It’s been too long, Happy Chef.
Happy Chef Chinese Restaurant
264 King St, Newtown
(02) 9550 3423
I definitely gravitate towards ordering the same dishes at my favourite restaurants, though I do attempt to try new things too most of the time!
Apparently studies have been done and people always order the same dishes
Happy chef = happy eater 🙂 I almost never order the same dish, and I try to avoid eating in the same restaurant, even if I love it. There is so much variety in this city and not many opportunities to eat out!
That's interesting lateraleating… I try to think like you, but just end up ordering the usual favs
Happy chef is an old favorite happy place too! It's served as a nice treat after a days work in RPA! The emperors chicken is also one dish I would keep going back to!