Sydney Chinatown Favorites: A Walking Tour

We decided to share our Sydney Chinatown favorites through a virtual tour during the 2016 Chinese New Year festival. Interestingly, Sydney hosts one of the largest CNY celebrations outside of China! 

A tour Sydney’s Chinatown starts with a nice walk from either Town Hall or Central stations, or you can opt for the light rail from and stop directly at Paddy’s Market, where our tour begins.

Sydney Chinatown Favourites – Walking Tour

Market City

A visit to Chinatown is not complete without a stop in Market City. The top levels house a mall with outlet stores and one of the busiest yum cha restaurants in Sydney (we have yet to visit), and the bottom level is Paddy’s Market. Honestly, we are not big fans of the swap-meet atmosphere (and smells), but Paddy’s is a great place for random, super-affordable, electronic accessories and souvenirs. We bought our G7X camera pouch ($5) and laptop covers at one of the many stalls. The various stalls also have everything from Australian flag sombreros to boomerangs and baby clothes, for much cheaper prices than what you will find by the Opera House. There is also a food market section in the back with tons of selection at great prices, but make sure to do a lap because I found different prices for the same items in different stalls.  You will also want to bring cash.

Now it is time for a snack so let’s cross the tracks into Chinatown.

Emperor’s Garden

A bakery famous for cream puffs, and despite the ever-growing line at the window, their automatic cream puff machine keeps it moving. As you approach the window, you can see the machine clanking away. Stop to watch the impressive precision of both the machine and operator, as she uses small plastic tongs to transfer an endless stream of cream puffs to the patrons. Be warned, these puffs are freshly made, so the custard is MOLTEN LAVA HOT – and that is probably an understatement. After burning her mouth more than thrice, EZ swore off these little devils in favor of something safer. However, I found cream puff perfection by biting a small vent hole in the dough so it can cool before consumption. This stop will also require cash.

Inside the bakery is awesome array of Chinese baked goods. We picked up a red bean-filled Matcha roll and a piece of coconut cake, on our most recent visit. While both sugary confections were delightful, I have decided that my favorites are the custard filled, sugar dusted donuts. They are best in the morning/fresh, when the exterior is still crisp from the fryer – yum.

N2 Gelato

This spot obviously deserves mention, especially when discussing desserts in Chinatown. You can read more about them in this post. Their elaborate creations are individually frozen using liquid nitrogen.

Mother Chu’s Taiwanese

Mother Chu’s is a great place for a snack (BBQ pork buns are a must), or for a meal. As with most local Asian restaurants, the menu is the length of a novella, and pointing to the item you want is generally the most accurate way to order. I mumble enough in English, so there’s no use trying to pronounce a non-latin/greek word. We usually pick one meat main, one vegetable main, and then a side of noodles or rice – we are big eaters, so you might not need the additional noodles/rice. Cash is required here is as well – be aware that payment takes place before your receive your food.

Red Chili

If you are looking for a slightly more refined dining experience, their fried chili chicken is amazing.  My current favorites are the chili chicken, soft boiled chicken, egg-fried pumpkin, and the salt and pepper squid. The red chili chicken is served in a pile of super-spicy crispy fried chicken, amongst a sea of red chilis! One of our Chinese friends said that searching for the chicken in the chilis is the fun of eating Sichuan style food; this was after we had been trying to keep our composure whilst eating the little fiery red crisps. Also, they have high-chairs, and room for prams, but you do have to carry the pram up a flight of stairs. We ate here with CZ and while she can take the heat, we had concern she might be the loud disruptive baby. Fortunately, it was a pleasant experience. Surprise, surprise, you can use your card here! …Although one time the payment processor was broken.

If you haven’t found anything to your taste, there is always the teahouse and entry combo ticket at our final stop in Darling Harbour.

Chinese Garden of Friendship

As you are leaving Chinatown, stop at the Chinese Garden of Friendship. I always balked at exploring the garden because of the admission price ($6 per person), when the much larger Royal Botanical Gardens are free, but we will definitely visit again. The Chinese Garden of Friendship is a great place to relax and reflect on the day. While it may look small from the outside, it is laid out with so many well-planned features and a tea house! When we visited, there were specials combining admission with tea and/or dumplings for two people, under $20 each.

We definitely recommend the highlights tour, our guide gave us incredible insight into the thoughtfully designed garden and the significance of many of the features. CZ rode in the Bjorn during our tour, because we wanted to be able to pay attention to the guide instead of chasing her. We lucked out, and she ended up having a nap during this time!

I think the tour definitely contributed to our appreciation of the garden because at first glance we had no ideas about the purpose and intention behind each feature. According to the guide, the Chinese Garden of Friendship is modeled after the traditional Southern Chinese garden. They are known as scholars gardens because they were established to create taoist retreats for poets and scholars. These private gardens often served as family retreats and residences, with most esteemed locations reserved in the back of the garden for the elders.

This particular garden, is one of the few public, traditional gardens outside of China, and was a gift from Sydney’s sister city Guangzhou to celebrate the bicentennial in 1988.  Guangzhou was home to the first of the Chinese settlers who came to Sydney, and many of the garden’s features were actually made there and reassembled on location.  The dragon wall above is ~936 tiles that were reconstructed, here in Sydney, and represents the two cities playing together with a red pearl of friendship and prosperity. The blue, water dragon on the left, represents Sydney with its tail surfing the water, and the flying dragon on the right is Guangzhou.

In the end, we easily explored the garden for over 2 hours, and look forward to our next visit. I am even considering an annual pass because it would be a great place for a relaxing lunch during the workday.

Enjoy your Chinatown adventure, just to recap:

• You can start at either end (Market City or Darling Harbour), but we recommend beginning your day in the morning before it gets too crowded, or too hot in the summer.
• Go for one of the guided highlights tours in the friendship garden, which are currently scheduled daily at 10:30 and 2:30.
• Walking our tour either direction, you should try the amazing food as you pass through the heart Chinatown.
  • Bonus tip: Don’t be afraid of EATING WORLD! From epic ramen at Gumshara to cheap, delicious Thai, this is a favorite, affordable lunch spot with my work colleagues.
• Don’t forget to bring cash for Paddy’s Market, Mother Chu’s, and the Emperor’s Garden bakery.

Pin it: