Yum Yum Cha – Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club

On Saturday we had a carefully laid out plan.   Run some errands, check out the Rozelle Markets and then find a yummy café somewhere on Darling Street for lunch.

Things didn’t go according to plan.

As we drove down Victoria Road past West Ryde I suddenly had a craving for Yum Cha and asked the boy if he was thinking what I was thinking. Clearly not as he was thinking about the sausage sambos from the Bunnings we had just left, and that the person in the car in front of us was a tool. Sigh.

When we were living in West Ryde the hands down best thing about the place was the Yum Cha at the Hawks Nest Restaurant in the Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club.  I just felt like we had to relive the good old days…immediately.

So a quick left turn off Victoria Road and we're back in my happy place in a matter of seconds.

Happiness lies within...really!

The best thing about this place for me is that you order your Yum Cha off a menu so it always arrives hot and fresh – something that doesn’t always happen in many of the places with Yum Cha trolley ladies (and lads).  We also love that we don’t have to wait for ages for something we want to come trundling by…we order it and then it just appears. Heaven.

That said, they’re not equipped for an ad-hoc request like the green beans with pork mince that I’ve been craving for weeks.

In the past they’ve had a special board written in Chinese and the staff couldn’t really translate the myriad of options for us. We always saw other people eating the secret special board treasures and felt jipped.  This time they produced a neatly typed menu of everything on the specials board.  I’m going to take full credit for this stroke of genius as it’s something I suggested to them last time. Snaps to me.

We usually go for six plates of food, but as they didn’t have the crispy fried chicken we normally die for (and I’ve put a ban on all desserts as we’re getting married in two months and I need to squeeze my sausage like body into a dress) we settled on five choices. 

Today’s little plates of happiness include Steamed Pork Buns, Prawn Gow Gee, Scallop Dumplings, Prawn & Chive Dumplings and Salt & Pepper Squid. 

I know Salt & Pepper Squid is not exactly healthy, but it’s SO yummy – especially as it arrives at our table hot & fresh. We basically pick the plate clean leaving only the red chillies behind.

Hey! Stop stealing my Salt & Pepper Squid

I’ve been having a love affair with Steamed Pork Buns for years and these don’t disappoint me – although do they seem to be getting smaller these days, or is it just my eyes getting bigger?

Steamed Pork Buns

Three types of steamed dumplings – happy happy joy joy! 

Happiness x 3

Of course as we’re leaving I spy something on another table that wasn’t on our menu or specials board – doh!

The Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club is at 117 Ryedale Road, West Ryde.