Happy Chef Chinese Restaurant, Newtown

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.

Happy Chef, Newtown

Happy Chef has been a Newtown institution well before I started going there in the early 90s for noodles.

It's now going stronger than ever judging by the crowds. I haven't been for a long long time, the menu boards are very fancy compared to the old days.



I still remember my fav dish was Emperor's Chicken, basically crispy skin chicken in a wicked soy, shallot sauce.

Was delighted to see Emperor's Chicken still feature prominently on the menu. Sadly this time, it seems like the time or the new cook hasn't been as kind. The sauce seemed less delicious and the chicken, while retaining the crispy skin, retained little of the tastiness I remembered... oh well...