Located in the Castle Hill RSL, the ambience is more up-market compared to other Yum Cha places. The main difference is the service, it’s so noticeable after having The Eight as a baseline, they must have brought over descendants of emperors’ servants and from the part of China that speaks English. All jokes aside, it is a breath of fresh air to see that good service and a Yum Cha restaurant can co-exist in the same universe. Whether they are consistent with their level of service, that’s another question. The Yum Cha selection and quality overall is average. Steam dumplings are about as good as any place within that price range. Squid was a tad rubbery, all-time favourites congee and mango pancake were also good! Coconut flan dessert was surprisingly good! Conclusion Jin Yan is a solid restaurant within its area although I wouldn’t say it warrants a trip down if you do not live near Castle Hill. On the other hand, if you do, it is the closest thing to the real deal with pretty good service for an Asian restaurant. If convenience is a big factor, this place isn’t bad. @thesydneynoob
Cathy C.
Place rating: 1 Australia
DONOTGOHERE THEREISNOSERVICEANDTHEFOODIS hard to find thought we would try yum cha here as it was local. Called — no booking needed so we just rocked up at about 12.30 on a Sunday. There was no waiting at the front of house which is unusual for a good yumcha place. The reataurant seemed quite full and we were seated quickly. And then the waiting began. There was no service. We sat and tried to flag down a waiter to get some drinks but we couldn’t see anyone, I wasn’t sure whether they had all left for the day or were in the kitchen partying — either way no one was on the floor. When I did spy a waiter they refused to look at me. I wasn’t the only one in this position. I noticed quite a few people trying to flag down waiters. 20 minutes of this and we were laughing at just how bad this was and wondering what we had to do to get noticed — MY partner even volunteered to strip, but he didn’t think it would help. We were just about to leave but my partner was hungry and decided that he would fix things by going to see the manager. The manager apologised and we had a drinks waiter in 30 seconds and one dumpling cart, great we got excited again. Then the wait started again. the food carts were few and far between and the food wasn’t good enough to wait for. we had a few things but nothing any other ordinary yum cha supplies. we left hungry. I would never go here again and would not recommend it to anyone.