Believe me when I tell you that the Lobster with Black Pepper, Butter and Garlic dish at North Ryde’s House of Tong restaurant is one you’d happily cross town for. With generous portions of shelled lobster nestling on silky rice noodles, it’s a dish worth celebrating with a fine Chardonnay (of which there are numerous good choices on the restaurant’s extensive wine list).
Sydney is blessed with many wonderful Chinese restaurants, at all price points and in all corners of the city and its far-flung reaches. But I hadn’t expected to find food this good in an RSL Club in North Ryde. Yet excellent restaurants are popping up in clubs all over the place, and it can be great fun seeking them out and finding gems that are outside your own neck of the woods.
One of the advantages of House of Tong, aside from the good food, is that the North Ryde RSL Club is well-endowed with free parking, making that cross-town journey much less of an ordeal.
On entry, it’s an attractive space that welcomes us, with elegant décor of charcoal brown and beige booth seating, and yellow lanterns casting a glow over white linen tablecloths. Further along, we come to large round tables that are bustling with families and groups. On the back wall, there’s a long line of seafood tanks with some of the biggest crabs and lobsters I’ve ever seen.
The restaurant prides itself on its live seafood, with executive chef Tong Lau hand-selecting the fish and shellfish from premium suppliers every morning.
As a quick glance at the tanks indicates, the offerings are truly extensive: baby abalone, deep-sea black lip abalone, snow crab, Darwin mud crab, jumbo oysters, scallops, whelk (sea snails), Tasmanian lobster, various types of live fish including coral trout and parrot fish, etc etc.
There’s even live Australian eel, which the restaurant serves grilled over charcoal with kabayaki sauce, a Japanese sweet soy sauce-based glaze. Other specialities on the seafood menu include Salt and Pepper King Crab, Braised Pipis with Garlic and Butter, and Ginger and Shallot Lobster.
We started with a single Tasmania oyster each, deep fried in a light batter and so large it filled a side plate. A lovely combination of calamari and eggplant chunks was also fried in a paper-thin batter, sprinkled with chilli and dried shallot and served with a tantalizing house-made XO sauce.
The previously mentioned Lobster with Black Pepper, Butter and Garlic was the showstopper, but our host, Helen Wong, tells us there’s even the option of a 3-course lobster menu. First comes the restaurant’s prized lobster sashimi, then the dish we experienced, and finally omelettes made with the lobster coral.
Helen also enthuses about another signature dish: mud crab served on sticky rice and Chinese ham, in which the juices trickle down over the rice — apparently very delicious.
Tong Lau brings more than 40 years of experience to House of Tong, having been involved in city restaurants Golden Century and East Ocean in the early years, and subsequently Sea Treasure at Crows Nest and Shanghai Stories 1938 at Chatswood.
Established a decade ago, House of Tong specialises in Cantonese or southern-style Chinese cuisine, although some dishes come with a fresh twist. There’s always room for Peking duck, of course, but you’ll also find dishes such as Wagyu beef with truffle oil and egg white, and smokey American pork ribs with housemade Asian barbecue sauce.
Renowned for its yum cha
People come from all over for the restaurant’s yum cha, served every day except Monday. The choice of Cantonese and Shanghai dim sum is enormous, although since Covid not served from a trolley but rather ordered on a slip of paper and served directly from the kitchen.
A simple but very tasty dish of Honey Beef with Broccoli very nearly had us stumped, so there was just room for the teeniest amount of delectable Mango Pancakes. We dined at night so our table by the window didn’t afford us a view, but we’re told that looking out over Lane Cove National Park is pleasant by day.
The restaurant has private rooms available for celebratory events. Note that all guests need to sign in as a guest of the club if they are not a member.
House of Tong
Level 2, North Ryde RSL Club
27-41 Magdala Road
North Ryde NSW Australia
Tel: +61 (0)2 9878 4766
www.thehouseoftong.com.au
Disclaimer: Food Wine Travel dined as guests of House of Tong.
