New Royal Garden

Ph: (03) 9886 1388; 562 High St Rd, Syndal 3149

chinese, $, ** for Food
Open 7 days 11am-3pm mon-Thu-sun 5.30-10.30pm fri-sat 5.30-11.30pm; Licensed, BYO, Corkage $1.50 person; AE DC MC V
Chef David Hung (7-11-07) Owner Bang C Hua & Johnny Cheung (7-11-07)

Mietta's Review
This is a big, busy restaurant on a prominent suburban corner. The room is pleasant and pinkish with a nice outlook but overall is fairly bland. What gives it life is the sea of Asian families eating together. Professional waiters move through the throng dispensing well cooked and equally well priced, Cantonese dishes and splendid roast meats (there is a display of these meats and poultry at the entrance which doubles as a take-away shop). The English menu is unhelpful so you will need to quiz one of the senior waiters if you want to experiment - it's worth it.

Other published opinions

The Age Cheap Eats 2008 "They say dog owners take on the characteristics of their pooches - perhaps the same is true of waiters and their restaurants"

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 13/20 "New Royal Garden is that familiar suburban Melbourne experience: a bustling, large-format Chinese restaurant that attracts locals in droves"

The Age Cheap Eats 2007 "Yum cha that's fit for the forbidden city is the calling card at New Royal Garden, where attentive waiters in matching dinner jackets wheel trolleys laden with Cantonese morsels around a space big enough to seat a king's entourage."

The Age Cheap Eats 2006 Yum cha's the drawcard at this bustling restaurant: it's available daily, but really goes off at weekends, when dinner-suited waiters competently work the room filled with families fighting over plates of har gao

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 13/20 "Let's cut to the chase and say from the outset that you don't come here to be wowed by the wine list or by an eye-zapping interior. It's all about the food - reliable, dependable and totally convenient, if not always glorious, food."

The Age Good Food Guide 2005 "THERE should be a word to describe the reassuring feeling generated by a Chinese restaurant full of Asian diners, It would certainly apply to New Royal Garden, an unprepossessing suburban barn humming day and night with the excited chatter of families and the clacking of chopsticks."