Add to your del.icio.us
Levels 4 & 5, 683-689 George Street
Haymarket, Sydney.
Ph +61 2 9281 3388.
No trip to Sydney would be complete without sampling the local yum-cha on offer, so on Sunday we headed to Marigold Citymark at 1pm with two of Louis’ friends.
Having very limited internet access I was unable to check up to see the general reviews on Marigold, but judging from the crowds packing into the lifts, it seemed to be quite a popular place.
We squeezed in with everyone else, and alighted at the 4th floor. Evidently the 5th floor is the main restaurant level, but the queue here wasn’t too bad (you can’t pre-book) so we waited here.
After queueing in the wrong line (don’t queue at the cashier, queue at the unmarked podium nearby) we were given our number, and we waited for a short time.
We were then directed toward one end of the floor by the attendant, but once we got there a family was already being seated by another waiter. So we were then told to stand rather uncomfortably near a table where a group was still finishing off the last of their dumplings.
Then another waiter directed us back toward the other end of the floor, where they cleared and re-set a table for us. Finally we were seated.
We ordered some chinese tea and sat back to wait for some food to arrive. Two different waiters each put a tally sheet on the table, so we just discarded one.
Here’s some of the dishes we ordered, but I didn’t take photos of every one, as it all gets a bit the same after awhile.
The waiters were slow to refill the tea, and also some of the yum-cha ladies didn’t even stop at our table.
There wasn’t a great choice of steamed offerings - and I saw no shark fin dumplings at all. Almost all the dishes we ordered were stamped in the “Dim Sum XL” category, despite some of them being very standard fare.
I only saw one trolley of buns when we first arrived, and the majority of the food was either pastry or deep fried. Congee took some time to find, it was in what looked like a bucket with a tea-towel over top, underneath one of the trolleys.
As for the taste of our dishes, they were ok, weren’t overly salty, but nothing i’d go wow about.
I realised that i’d been to Marigold once before with some friends, about 2 years ago on one of my first visits to Sydney. We were on the 5th floor then, but were put into one of the side function rooms. That was a very unsatisfying experience, as most of the trolley ladies don’t even bother entering the function rooms. We spent half of that visit wandering around the main area trying to get things to take back to our table.
After we were finished, we asked for the bill. The cost ended up being roughly $26 per head, but we certainly didn’t order as much as when we were at Shark Fin.
The last time I went to yum-cha in Sydney, I met up with Kenny and we went to a place in chinatown (a block away) called East Ocean. In my opinion, our visit there was far superior (and cheaper) to both my experiences here at Marigold.
The restaurant itself is huge, stretching from one end of the entire floor to the other. They also have function rooms which you can book for weddings, gatherings and times when you want some privacy. I wouldn’t be surprised if those in the rooms get special treatment but i guess that comes with paying extra.
The food was above average - some selections i have not seen in my usual yum cha sessions. In many cases, Shark’s Fin Inn (see previous review) has a slight advantage in terms of flavour and service, but certain items like the century-egg congee served by Marigold impressed me for being actually tasty and chock-full of ingredients. They also had a cream-filled mango pancake dessert item which was quite unique and refreshing. The rest are the usual dumplings and pastries (all done well) you’ll find in any yum-cha restaurant so i won’t go into those.
Once again, i have to talk about their service. The staff seem to be in another world of their own with bored expressions. Half of the time, they push past their trolleys without stopping at every table. Fortunately, they don’t show blank expressions when you have a special request or ask them to bring a food item on another trolley over.
Overall, i would recommend Marigold for your yum cha sessions for the very fact that you can’t go wrong in terms of food quality - they have a reputation to uphold and you know the food is usually good. Pity i can’t say the same for their service - if they could train their staff better and do away with some of the arrogance, they could very well be one of the most successful Chinese restaurants in Sydney.
