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