Sun Chung Cafe

This is the best value Chinese I can find on Brisbane North side. The food is very nice; (not as good as high rated sit down place) and the value per dish is amazing. Average price per dish is $ 9 — $ 10. Which considering most places are $ 14+ makes a big difference when putting in a family order. Rice, entrée, and 2 mains is $ 36!
Don’t let looks deceive you. From the outside you wouldn’t look twice. But give it a try and you won’t be disappointed
**note — they don’t have eftpos so bring cash

I found this place after getting a little carried away on a bike riding adventure and ending up deep in Brisbane’s sprawling suburbs. In desperate need for fuel for my belly to get me back to the CBD I found myself with two options. Either go all Bear Grylls style, cycle along and open my mouth and wait for the bugs to fly right in providing me with the needed sustenance. Or I could find me somewhere yum that satisfies not only my belly but also my uni student wallet.
You’ll be happy to know I chose the latter and definitely did not regret it!
As soon as I entered, I took one look at the décor and knew I was in for a treat. Think medical centre waiting room meets caravan park reception. In the Oriental restaurant world this is always a good sign.
With various incentives in place it seems they prefer to cater for takeaways. Reluctantly I paid the 10% surcharge and ate in as I didn’t really have anywhere else to go being far out whoop whoop with just me and the bike.
The food was so cheap that 10% of the price was next to nothing anyway. Sporting quite the hunger I thought why not make the most of the affordability and order two plates.
The food was brought out faster than fast food chain quick, by two waitresses, one for each plate. They weren’t smiling and didn’t acknowledge my small talk. They did remove the newspaper from the table which was nice I guess.
Once I dug into the food the service shortcomings were soon forgotten. The plates were full of tasty and fresh ingredients. The food was much less greasy than most Chinese food I’ve experienced meaning I was able to scoff down the entire two plates without a belly full of regret afterwards.
After a very satisfying oyster sauce steak, large special (chicken and pork) fried rice, ginger beer and surcharge I still had change from a $ 20 note. BARGAIN!

We choose to visit Sun Chung Café upon the recommendation of the preview Unilocal reviewer and almost regretted our decision when we got there. Sun Chung Café is just in a small complex of shops on Gympie Road and it looks run down! Like, really run down.
There’s hardly anywhere to sit inside, so you can tell they just focus on takeaways only. Dine in even incurs a 10% increase, so if the décor wasn’t enough to discourage you, the price hike might.
However, the meal prices were crazily cheap, so we stuck with it and WOW, am I glad we did!
When we got home and opened those takeaway containers, the meals looked and smelt fantastic. We had ordered Lemon Chicken, Chicken special with ginger and shallot and Mongolian lamb.
Lisa (previous reviewer) wasn’t kidding about big succulent pieces of meat. The Lemon chicken was something spectacular and the chicken and lamb in the other two dishes were so tender and delicious.
And so much food! The dishes were really generous sizes, and for less than $ 10 a dish! Sun Chung has definitely raced to the top of my Chinese Takeaway list — we ordered 3 dishes and large rice and paid just under $ 30! What a bargain!

Talk about diamond in the rough! You’ve heard the expression ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ well Sun Chung Café gives new meaning to this old expression. I had always avoided this place because it looks so dodgy but it’s now my local favourite.
Sun Chung is definitely not the prettiest Chinese take-​out restaurant in Brisbane but I guarantee bang for your buck! Most of the mains here are under $ 15.00 and they are loaded with big fat succulent pieces of meat! The shop is run by a small family who don’t speak much English — they are pretty friendly and usually through in a bag of free prawn chips. I LOVE freebies!
The pork ribs special and braised chicken with cashew nuts are my two favourite dishes. The sauces are so thick and sweet — they never skimp on the meat and you don’t get those nasty post MSG consumption water cravings you get from other cheap and nasty Chinese take-​outs. I would recommend phoning ahead because you usually have to wait 15 – 20 minutes while they cook your food. If you do end up eating here make sure you order a serving of steamed dim sims — Yum yum!