Dan's House Peking Duck

You can see that owner, Diana Ren has grand plans for Dan’s House.  Step inside and the place is swish, bling lighting, mosaic tiled columns, a mesh metal chain feature wall that provides a perfect backdrop for the enormous Dan’s House logo.  It’s obvious Diana wants the place to be known for its style as well as food. Noodlies, Sydney food blog should probably stay away from style, so I’ll talk about food.

Dan’s House is so new, the grand opening is two weeks away.  Their specialty is Peking Duck and hand-made noodles.  Today, Heidi (a friend of the owner) and I have invited a group of food blogging friends to sample their menu.

Diana proudly proclaims her Peking Duck is better because each one takes two days to prepare, the time she claims, is why the skin is oh-so crispy while the flesh is tender and tasty.  The presentation is stunning too, square white plates divided into four quarters each containing a different section of the dish.  Two sections of the duck come on the plate; leg and breast – the breast goes with the steamed pancake, while leg is best with steamed round buns (not pictured).  All to be had with the daintily cut and presented cucumber and shallot and to be dipped in your choice of sauces: hoisin with honey, grapefruit and radish.  Diana explains it all in the video above.

Dan's House Peking Duck Skin

The duck skin also comes out separately and when dipped in sugar delivers an amazing crispy texture as explained by Heidi, also in the video above.

handmade longevity noodles

And then there’s the hand-made noodle, in fact all the noodles, whether steamed, boiled or fried are hand-made on the premises.  A particular specialty is longevity noodles, an entire bowl of noodles made from one strand that’s 40 metres long.  Longevity noodles is about long life and it’s the sort of dish you order on your birthday.  Diana says you’re meant to suck the whole bowl in one go.  Heidi demonstrates in the video below how to eat these noodles.  The picture above is a tasting portion for us on the day, usually the bowl is pretty full.

We got to watch the chef make these longevity noodles and as a bonus I was given a one-on-one tutorial… watch my feeble attempt in the video below (promise you won’t laugh!).

The hand-made noodles can also be fried as shown below, that flat noodle bread is actually made up of individual stands of noodles.

noodle bread

Dan’s House delights in contemporary Chinese too, like silken tofu sashimi.  The tofu was so smooth, sashimi equally delicate both combining perfectly with a light but extra tasty soy-based sauce.

tofu sashimi

It seems a restaurant can’t be contemporary unless wagyu beef is on the menu. Here it’s served on extra hot stone and sizzles in excitement when red wine sauce is poured over the meat.  Thick garlic chunks give this dish an extra mouth-watering aroma.

wagyu beef

Scallops in XO sauce is another Chinese favourite, here it’s stunningly plated in a fried basket of hand-made noodles.  The prawn flavour is brought out by the tasty sauce which contrasts, in texture, with the fried noodles.

scallops xo sauce

A light salad adds a fresh zing to our meal, the dressing is Asian inspired – I could taste a touch of soy sauce.  And of course, finished with a coil of fried hand-made noodle.

Dan's House salad

I’ve had Chinese toffee apples before, but this is something else – it’s jaw-droppingly stunning but at the same time is playful and fun.

Dan's Hosue toffee apple

Watch the food bloggers go crazy as we eat and play with the toffee apple in the video below.

dan's house chinatown

It’s obvious Diana wants her restaurant to be known as the place for contemporary Chinese fare and one that does it with flair.  The first floor restaurant is bling city, to borrow Penny’s description (see above), while upstairs is an intimate, classy bar that also has a VIP private room with karaoke facilities – what more could you ask for?!  As you can see below, noodlies is equally at home with intimate and classy as he is with bling, bling (pic courtesy of Penny).

noodlies sydney food blog thang ngo

Noodlies really likes noodles at Dan’s House.  Get to Dan’s House before the rest of Sydney finds out about this place.

PS. I took these photos with a new Samsung Galaxy Note. Need your advice dear readers, how do these photos stack up with the rest of the pics on noodlies? Love to know…

 

Dan’s House
Level 1 & 2, 710 George St, Sydney
9211 1112
Dan's House on Urbanspoon

Noodlies, Sydney food blog and the rest of the food blogging posse Penny (Jeroxi), Lauren (Corridor Kitchen), Angie (Angie lives to eat), Kevin (shiitake and stuff), Heidi, Shaun (Everybody loves ramen) and Simon (the heart of food) dined as guests of the lovely Diana of Dan’s House.