J is back from university on holiday break, so we decided to fulfil the dreams of our ten-year-old selves and visit the all-you-can-eat Asian food restaurant: China Bar Signature.
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| Walking into China Bar gives me a feeling of fulfilled content-ness, much like how I imagine a religious person would feel walking into their place of worship. |
Between you and me, I think buffets are one of the greatest inventions in food history. Having the freedom to choose from such a wide variety and quantity of food usually makes up for the average quality. However, at China Bar Signature, the quality is a lot better than what you’d find at most buffets; we were able to taste the fresh ingredients.
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| The sushi bar (and salad bar at the front). To be honest, this was probably my favourite section. I could've pigged out here for the entire night and been happy. |
China Bar Signature offers the best of Asian cuisine, prepared by chefs from China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. We were greeted with a range of sushi and sashimi, fresh seafood, yum cha dumplings, Peking duck, made to order stir-fries, traditional Asian soups, and a variety of Asian desserts. You can also get some hot chips if you want – J suggested that that might be to cater to the desires of the Asian customers.
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| The dumpling station - the big baskets contained steamed pork and custard buns, whilst the smaller ones contained one different variety of dumpling each (to avoid wastage). |
The dining hall had high ceilings, ceiling to floor windows and plush couches, and J and I were lucky enough to score a good position, with a short walking distance to the food. Because it was getting dark, decadent chandeliers lit up the hall, creating an atmosphere to match the night of indulgence ahead.
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| The made-to-order stir fry station was to the left (J and I spent a long time just watching this guy perform his magic) and to the right was the meat section an the Peking duck and soup section. |
J and I arrived at 6pm on the dot and didn’t leave until around 10pm (we even got to chat to one of the super friendly waiters about why they were changing around the layout of the furniture - for service the next day) – that was probably because it was a Sunday though and we were allowed to take our time. On peak hour nights like Friday and Saturday, I hear they run a tight ship, trying to get customers in and out on a 1 and a half hour rotation.
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| Fresh seafood - this was at the end of the night, there was a lot more available at the beginning. |
The sessions and pricing can be found on their website, as it differs to whatever location you go to. Lunch will be cheaper than dinner (at Burwood during the week it's 30$ for lunch and $59 for dinner, and on Friday and the weekend it's $30-35 for lunch and $63 for dinner). However if you dine for lunch you won't be able to try any of the seafood, sashimi, or Peking duck as that's only available during dinner.
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| So many deserts and pieces of fruit, it was hard not to grab a little bit of everything. |
Handy tips:
- Take your time. Take breaks. Digest your food. You don’t want to tap out too early.
- Don’t eat too much sushi, rice or noodles, you don’t want to fill up on that and miss out on the good stuff
- Don’t waste food, they don’t like it, and why would you want to anyway – it’s delicious
- Leave room for desert!!
Here are photos of some of the stuff I ate (sorry for the low quality, it was dark and I only had my iPhone). Also sorry I can't remember everything I had so I'm going to caption as best I could.
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| Fried dim sum included prawn dumplings and parcels, fried fish, prawn pancake covered with bamboo, and fresh prawns with sweet and sour sauce and tartare sauce. |
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| Fried rice with steamed mushrooms and broccoli, steamed eggplant, and this Indian chutney. |
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| Sushi and dumplings!!! I had prawn and crab dumplings and the sushi going clockwise was unagi, grilled salmon, wasabi drizzled prawn, salmon and avocado, calamari and cucumber, and hamachi. You got to pour your own soy sauce and wasabi into one of those little bowls if you wanted it - it was delicious. |
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| Made-to-order stir-fry noodles, with mushrooms, carrot, prawns, and egg (I didn't ask for egg but they just added it, not that I minded). |
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| Desert: I didn't get that much because I was absolutely stuffed but I did get a chocolate wafer cake, creme brulee, some rockmelon (I also got a few grapes but I ate them before getting back to the table) and an egg tart because no night is complete without an egg tart. |
China Bar Signature (Burwood East)
9887 8011
Hours:
Mon - Fri: 11:30am to 3pm and 5:45pm to 10pm
Sat: 11:30am to 3pm and
SESSION 1: 5:45pm to 7:45pm
SESSION 2: 8pm to 10pm
Sun:
SESSION 1: 11:30am to 1pm
SESSION 2: 1:30pm to 3pm and
5:45pm to 10pm
Website:
http://www.chinabarsignature.com/
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