Let's Do lunch @ Zilver

I have a certain fondness for Zilver Restaurant, which used to offer all you can eat yum cha for $15 back when it was called Silver Spring. Ah, those were the days.

So when I spotted it on the GFM list, I was intrigued, and even more so when I read the offering:

Signature Entree: Peking duck.
Main: Choose from Stir fried king prawns in Singapore style or Wok seared diced beef fillet with wasabi sauce or Red braised melting pork belly or Braised seasonal vegetables wrapped in lotus leaf or Zilver’s BBQ tasting platter with barbecued pork, roast duck, soy-sauce chicken, jelly fish salad and Japanese seaweed.

To be honest, it seems bizarre to spend $35 for a two-course meal when you can have a decent yum cha for less. So when I met up with a couple of friends, we ended up getting one Let's do lunch meal and then picking out some yum cha favourites, such as whitebait, siopao (vegetarian in this case--they didn't have any meat-filled ones for some reason) and egg tarts.

The yum cha dishes complemented the tasting platter, which was substantial. I'm told the Peking duck was tasty. The roast pork (not mentioned in the menu) was gratifyingly crackly without being burnt, although I would have preferred less fat. The duck tasted slightly over-seasoned and the chicken was ... well, chicken, but the barbecue pork was excellent.

Let's do lunch tasting platter $35

The service at Zilver is much improved from the last time I visited. Although they stuffed up my reservation again (I booked for noon, but they put me down for 11am), we still got a table and they didn't mind that we were at least half an hour late. It wasn't too difficult to hail a waiter whenever we needed service, and the lady pushing the watermelon juice (???) trolley was kind enough to go back to the kitchen to bring us some Chinese taho (soybean curd).

I should also mention that the restaurant has pram access, and I was able to park my double pram comfortably even though our table wasn't along the aisle.

Which left my friends and me to enjoy an unhurried weekday lunch, catching up on news, talking about books, and having fun with the babies.

Zilver
Level 1, 477 Pitt Street, Sydney
02 9211 2232

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