Ricky and Pinky

​I love a good Chinese banquet. I love the food; I love the childhood family memories I have as we are seated at a a round table and course after course arrives; I love the hustle and bustle of a busy Chinese restaurant.

When I read that Ricky and Pinky is an homage to the bygone era of Chinese restaurants I was so excited to try and these places are better in a group than just Steve and I so we brought our friends Sam and Christian along for the ride.

I arrived a little bit earlier but the table was ready. It was around 7pm on a Friday and the pub was already busy and tables filled with ​happy revellers seeing in the weekend.

The rest of the group soon arrived and drinks were ordered and as we perused the menu we ordered some nibbles to aid the decision making.

• Sweet & sour pork skin & crackers
• Salt & pepper squid

We ordered these from the Snacks menu and they are small. So small we immediately requested another serve of the squid as soon as the first arrived! The squid was piping hot, crispy and well seasoned so the perfect snack with an aperitif. The sweet and sour crackers were a modernisation of the familiar prawn crackers and day glo, hot pink, gloopy sauce but far more appetising and attractive. Both dishes have that fingerlickin' good quality!

We were tempted by the banquet menu but ended up ordering a la carte. Plenty of delights to choose from meaning a repeat visit is definitely required to sample more - XO pippies, five spice chicken, drunken chicken. noodle salad, mapo tofu....yum!

We start with two interesting entree dishes:

• Scamorza spring roll, plum sauce
• ​Crispy rice cake, homemade Chinese sausage

The spring roll looks pretty standard but the filling is pretty much salty, stretchy smoked mozzarella and it's delicious. It's not exactly Asian but who cares when it tastes good?

I had high hopes for the rice cake as we used to love the version at Golden Fields when it existed. It looked great and the Chinese sausage was cooked perfectly so it was slightly crispy but still chewy. Flavours were good but texture was a bit soggy and it kind of disintegrated. A little more hold and a crispy bottom would make this dish amazing.

• Grilled Wagyu rump cap, XO mushroom
• Spicy prawns, Dainty style
• ​Chinese broccoli salad, pine nuts & sesame oil

We shared two main dishes, some veggies and rice. Only one small, teeny bowl of rice arrived - hardly enough or four of us so we had to order more immediately. I'd have thought the waitress who took our order could have figured out how much rice we'd need between us or at least have opened up a conversation about it.

The rump cap was beautifully cooked and delicious. The veggies were tasty too. The sauce the prawns were cooked in was tasty and much rice was needed to soak it all up.

The prawns themselves were a touch mushy and overcooked so didn't really showcase them as an ingredient which was a let down.

Dessert was far more successful than the soggy prawns. Between us we had:

• Coconut, lychee granita & strawberry
• Banana semifreddo, chocolate caramel, crispy batter
• Steamed ginger sponge & custard
• ​X.L fortune cookies

Steve and I had the coconut dish which was like a panna cotta in a bowl and reminiscent of something we had at Cumulus that I loved loved loved. And I loved this version. Perfect fresh, fruity and light way to end a Chinese banquet.

Sam's chocolate log with crispy batter was very appealing to the eyes and I loved the way it was a modern take on the good old banana fritter.

Ginger sponge was probably the one dessert that didn't exceed expectations. A little denser than it could have been.

We wanted to end the evening on a fortuitous note and no better way than with a fortune cookie and Ricky and Pinky make a XL version. Made fresh to order they're crunchy and crumbly and so not fancy that they're amazingly delicious.

So Ricky and Pinky, you're too cute not to like. Sure, some things aren't perfect and you're pretty rambunctious and noisy but there's also a lot to like and a lot left to try and I like you enough to try again!