Golden Sichuan Chinese Restaurant, Chinatown, Sydney

Golden Sichuan is a good restaurant that often gets overlooked because it's next door to that roti sensation, Mamak.  It must be heart-breaking to see the queues outside the Malaysian restaurant when your restaurant is only half full. But I'm attracted to this place simply because the lack of queues, when I'm in Chinatown and feeling hungry, I know I can always rely on Golden Sichuan.

If they're  feeling the pinch, the staff don't show it.  They're up-beat, cracking jokes to each other and generally seem like they're having a good time.

Our order today is pretty standard; cucumber Sichuan style is as complex as it is simple.  Plain cucumber pieces floating in a sichuan sauce that is sweet and salty.  The good thing with this starter is that the flavours makes you very, very hungry.

Another favourite is cold noodles with shredded chicken.  We've had this dozens of times, but only by filming the dish being made did I realise the sauce is a combination of at least 10 different sauces from vinegar, soy, sesame oil... have a look at the video above and you'll see what I mean.  No wonder the taste is so complex, although sichuan pepper dominates the after taste.

It's hard to fault the shredded pork pancake, again simple ingredients but the bean sauce lifts and combines everything.

The pork belly in brown sauce looks the part but lacked flavour.  My preference would have been for a saltier sauce.  Apart from the pork, there's bean curd that's knotted in an intriguing way that makes them look like offal or mushroom.  To me they look spectacular and had great consistency, just missing the additional flavour in the sauce to make it sing.

Golden Sichuan Restaurant
17-19 Goulburn St, Sydney
(02) 9212 1868