LAN YUAN RESTAURANT - RYDE, SYDNEY

Lan Yuan Restaurant
Shop 4005, Level 1
Top Ryde City Shopping Centre
Crn Devlin St and Blaxland Rd
Ryde, Sydney

Lan Yuan literally means Bamboo Garden, and once you arrive here you'll instantly know that you're in the right place! There's bamboo everywhere!

The food is Cantonese, but with innovative twists in many dishes that work really well.

Lan Yuan is in the piazza at Top Ryde City shopping centre, a great foodie hub. In fact it sits above the piazza looking down from the first floor so you need to get there from inside the centre rather than outside from the piazza.

They seat around 90 but this may expand in the near future. They also do a popular yum cha by day before switching to their dinner menu.

While we were studying the good sized menu, a plate of prawn crisps arrived. We don't know about you, but these things are so addictive for us! We also had a pot of chrysanthemum tea at the suggestion of James, our waiter. What a great choice it was too. We hadn't tried this before and it was delicate and refreshing with a hint of floral aroma. 

Robert, our other waiter, recommended the seafood san choi bao. We love san choi bao anyway, but this variation was packed with prawns, scallops, vegetables and crispy noodles and served in lettuce leaves - as expected.

The sauce was surprisingly subtle so you could still taste the delicious seafood.





















Pippies can sometimes be fiddly things to eat, but these ones were so plump it wasn't a hassle at all. These wok fried pippies were served with a tasty but not overpowering XO chilli sauce with some kick but not to much.

The Lan Yuan fried rice was a treat, packed with fresh prawns and scallops and topped with colourful crab roe.

We love a good lobster dish - and there are several mouthwatering choices here.

We ended up having the wok fried rock lobster with soy, ginger and shallots.

The lobster was beautifully cooked and there was so much of it. We were in heaven. The flavours of the sauce went so well too - it was a lovely dish.

If you like a dish with a real kick - a big kick in fact - then you have to try the Szechuan pepper chicken.

It's a powerful dish that has a massive serving of tender chicken served with a generous topping of black peppercorns and loads of dry chilli.

It looks like it would be hot and it is hot.

Possibly the dish of the night for us was the delicious Lan Yuan beef eye fillets.

This was again a big serving with tender beef coated in a tangy but surprisingly delicate house made wasabi sauce.

Some may be scared off by the word "wasabi", but don't be, it's purely for flavour and not for heat.

Any of the dishes with the words Lan Yuan in the name are basically signature dishes. The Lan Yuan salt and pepper crispy bean curd was exceptional. It was so light and fluffy inside with a nice delicately crisp outer layer. The flavours were lovely too.

It's a great way to eat your veggies and enjoy them - especially for kids!

There's something about the words Deep Fried Ice Cream  that brings out the inner kid in us all.

This very tasty version had a crisp coconut crumb batter surrounding vanilla ice cream.

You then choose your topping - chocolate, caramel or strawberry (or all if you must)! Mlady chose chocolate - no surprises there. 

Lan Yuan is an oasis of bamboo and timber that has very interesting and innovative cuisine served in this garden-like indoor setting. They also do yum cha at lunch time every day too, before shifting to their dinner menu at night. It's well worth visiting!

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Lan Yuan. Special thanks to James, Robert and Naterlie for looking after us so well. Big thanks also to Vanessa Gregory from Wasamedia for arranging our visit.