Another interesting Chinese food in Burwood - Master Chen Northeast Chinese Cuisine

In Burwood, there are a few restaurants (or 3 by my count) that always have a queue outside. Master Chen is one of the 3. The other two are Chungking Szechuan and My Aunt's Handmade Noodles.

We went to Burwood for dinner on a week day around 6. Heck... There was already a small queue but nothing like the weekend. We decided to wait... Took us like 20 mins (5 tables before us). Finally got in for the first time.

I have never had north eastern Chinese food (东北菜) before. According to Google =>

• 烹调技法：以“炖、溜、炸、酱、炒、蒸、扒”见长，其中炖、溜、炸、酱最为核心。

• 口味风格：口味浓郁、咸鲜微甜或酸甜，擅长一菜多味、咸甜分明、热气腾腾。

We ordered 4 dishes. See Pic 2-6 from chicken in a pot with mushroom + corn cake, lamb (the bony spine bits if I am not mistaken), pickled bok choi, and pickled vege and fish (soupy).

I can see why people like the place. The taste of 东北菜 is distinctive.. Very different than the cantonese style food that I have grown up on. Strong flavors actually. The pickled bok choi packed a good punch (hot).

Our 4 dishes were tasty. What struck me was the ingredients.....The star of the chicken pot was the chicken and the mushroom. The name of the dish was free range chicken with deer mushroom.... For some reason, the chicken was especially chewy (so different from most places)... Maybe it was really a free range chicken. And the mushroom also had a distinctive texture. The corn cake was a bit doughy so not sure if the $10 extra was worth it. I also liked the picked vege and fish dish. The fish pieces were "bouncy" if it was the right description. The lamb dish tasted really good. The sauce went down very well with rice. My favorite dish of the night was the picked bok choi. It was the punchy taste plus the crunchiness of the bok choi and the 木耳 that I liked.

After the meal, I had this thought.... Food/taste were good actually.... But how can we tell if it is not 预制菜 ? My gut about Master Chen is it is real (and good) food (based on the ingredients). Please leave a comment if you know for a sure. Why I raised the question ? I was thinking about this other Xbowl restaurant down the road. Is that place 预制菜 ? It has a few restaurants in Sydney now so central kitchen may make sense. The first time we went to that restaurant, it was great... Then the taste became quite pedestrian subsequently....

Going back to Master Chen, in terms of quantity (haha you know me), it was reasonable in my opinion.

My friends reckon 3 of the 4 dishes were authentic/legit 东北菜 taste.

Value for money ? Again.. Reasonable (but not super cheap) and in line with other restaurants in Burwood... Probably around 30/head.

The bottom line is, 陈师傅东北菜 for me was a new experience. Worth checking out Master Chen. Good food/reasonable price (by Sydney standard). Why not try something different and see if you like this style of Chinese food ?

Oh.. one more thing... If you want to skip the queue, have to go there early.