218 Chinese Style Restaurant

Revisited this local eatery in a group of three on last Tuesday night. Being smart, we ordered the it’s signature of pan-fried meat bun upon arrival because it will take around 20 minutes preparation time. Then we ordered the steamed vegetable and pork dumpling, pickled vegetables with fish and vermicelli chitterlings hot pot.
Dumplings, fish and chitterlings hot pot kept its consistency in taste and portions. Although the meat bun lacked the usual juicy inside, pastry of the bun still deserve appreciation.
Previous rating: Sep 2019 4/5; Dec 2018 4/5

Uncle Lai is on a week’s holiday so Dom and I drive back towards Sunnybank. I recall Ronnielui2003’s review of this restaurant and we decide to give it a try. Perusing the menu, I note that prices here are very reasonable. I place our lunch order and within 10 minutes our shared dishes start to arrive.

* Cold Entree of Beef Tripe, Pig Ears and Tofu ($9) is good and my Italian friend enjoys all of it! Rating: 4

*Shallot Pancake ($5) is excellent and the best in Brisbane with the closure of Endless Noodles. Rating: 5

*Pan Fried Pork Buns ($10) are a serve of 6 humongous hand-made buns! The buns are soft and chewy on the top, crisp and chewy on the bottom. The meat filling is a tad lacking but is delicious! Rating: 4.5

*Pork & Wombok Dumplings ($9.80) are a serving of 12 boiled dumplings. They look ordinary but the filling is fresh and sweet. Rating: 5

*Beef Ho Fun ($12.90) is stir fried flat rice noodles with vegetables and sliced beef. There are six pitiful slices of beef weighing 20grams. This dish is a disappointment! Rating: 3

This is a small restaurant and it feels a bit “squeezy”. They only speak Mandarin but the Menu is in English and Chinese. I like the Shallot Pancake, Dumplings and Pan Fried Buns here! Will return with Phuong Tran!

At 218 I had honey chicken. I wasn't feeling particularly hungry so I thought this would be a great dinner. I also had shallot pancakes. They were hot and tasty but very oily. I enjoyed the honey chicken a lot but it was more filling than I thought. Overall, food was great and this is a nice place for Chinese food loving people. Service was fast.

After having dinner out last night, as we were driving through Eight Mile Plains, as we passed the shopping village at Padstow Road, I saw a noodle sign in bright red, which caught my eye. In deciding where to go to lunch today, I decided not to wait any further for it to slide down my list of places to try, and just go whilst it was still fresh in my memory. The menu covers quite a significant part of their window, and I loved the large variety of foods offered for such a tiny little shop. We were seated very promptly. I found service to be exceptionally good, especially for a Chinese Restaurant, where I usually expect minimal service. The waitresses were really friendly, polite and paid a lot of attention to detail, which was a definite refreshing change from the usual you would get at Sunnybank. Water was also provided to us very quickly. The regular condiments were available on the side. I made my signature dipping sauce for dumplings with what was available (2 parts vinegar, 1 part soy and a dash of chili oil). First to arrive was the Crispy Skin Chicken with Rice, which is pretty much the default for my traditional (also can be construed as boring) father. He found the chicken to be crispy, and the portions were very generous. The sides of veges were very ample, and the added chives on top made that extra little bit of difference to the dish. The rice dish was served with complimentary seaweed and egg soup.  My other two companions ordered the Wanton Noodles and just Wanton Soup respectively (despite my protests about two people eating similar things when I am trying to blog...) Lucky for me, and unlucky for them, I stole one of the dumplings.  I found the soup to be light and comforting. The dumpling itself had a reasonably thin skin, but I found the fillings to be really delicious. It had a pretty ideal meat to vege ratio, and it was really well seasoned. I ordered the beef noodle soup. The beef was very tender, but not very oily. The broth was done really w