Eastern Port

5 stars, hands down
First of all, for first time visitors be warned, unlike most restaurants, quality, size and price are not consistent, you think your ordering entrée size snacks based on the price/​vs description but they are in fact mains.
I made the mistake of thinking i was trying lots of little things to share with the family, but only half of them were actually snack size.
Plus in general everything is quite big, if you order a soup, any sort, even though it doesn’t cost much you’ll still get a traditional ramen bowl. Technically speaking your getting what your supposed to be getting.
I had the seafood laksar, dumplings, rotti bread with tasting curry, my younger brothers won ton noodle soup (he couldnt finish it he had lunch 3 hours prior), some form of migoreng i cant recall by name which was seasoned flat rice noodles with an assortment of thin sliced veges.
And lastly, a spring role plate which i shared.
the laksar, amazing, generous seafood portions with quite apparently fresh soup filler consisting of thick noodles and sprouts. The soup while hot, was not so much so it was ever un-​enjoyable. Also it had some prawns and a mussel in it.
Dumplings, very authentic, no different to how i had in singapore. Though it is something quite basic, in retrospect i should not have ordered it, they are quite large and filling.
The rotti bread came with numerous amazing sauce-​type strong curries, all of which amazing, the rotti bread, a very thin presumably rice based bread made similarly to crepes, but instead crunched and fluffed up, on its own was very good, though we ran out of bread before going through even half the curry, the waiter was generous enough to freely get us a refill on the bread. The main component of the tasting set was the curry, but still very nice they did that.
wonton noodle soup, somewhat plain compared to the laksa i just had, but, it was the best chicken broth soup i had ever had, and the noodles were clearly freshly made there and then as they had the particular texture and taste of freshly made noodles. (in the laksa i didnt notice, maybe they had been sitting in a fridge for an hour prior, but certainly not reconstituted like common supermarket egg noodles), overall while basic given the cost it was larger and better than i would have expected though i never ordered it for myself i did battle over it against the laksar when ordering.
the migoreng as expected was also quite plain but its a plain food i expected as much, and like the others it surpassed my expectations ive been looking for good migoreng for a while and this is the first place outside of singapore ive found any that is decent.
The quality is dictated almost entirely by the sauce/​seasoning since its literally flavored noodles and they have the sauce perfect.
Spring roles were freshly made as far as i could tell they were also pretty good. Unlike every other place ive been the sauce they paired them with actually worked together. And speaking of i could tell where soy sauces were used, the specific type was tailored to the dish. Soy sauces vary almost as much as different wines do and are purposed as such.
Overall for quality, its awesome. If your going for authenticity, your in the right place, but if your after pissy «wholesome looking» foods that look 5 stars but taste like 2, go somewhere else. Traditional Asian cooking cant always look good and taste authentic. These chefs do not mess around sabotaging the food to look pretty. The recipes have literally been refined over millennia, and those recipes do not feature bland, raw, aesthetically pleasing additives. Expect authenticity, real, authenticity. And in general more than you bargained for in serving size and quality.
I would recommend this as the best Asian restaurant period from rockhampton to airlie beach.
Regarding the parking situation, getting late you’ll have the canelands shopping center empty so the convenient road side parking, literally at the restaurants curb, will be free, otherwise, you can park in the parking spot literally 30 seconds away which even during the day is hardly ever full.
Even during the day when business is slow, as the only customer there, arguably the first of the day, wait times are better than most
As a whole, the best feature of this place is its genuine authentic styles, and the worst, its authentic menus, traditional naming is used on most everything so for most meals you’ll either need to know the language or stick to the pictures and descriptions: p
you will not go home dissapointed, or hungry for that matter.

Three and a half out of five stars.
This place offers pretty decent Chinese for not too expensive prices. Mains are around $ 20 each and the place looks inviting (Lots of outdoor seating and big windows). We ordered the sweet and sour port, stir fry chicken with black bean sauce and a beef curry. While not out of this world, everything tasted really good and each was, like I said, around $ 20. It is quite a big restaurant so could easily fit a large party. I went on a Monday night and there was quite a few people there, despite this. It is within walking distance of the Lanai Apartments, where we were staying, and there are a bunch of other restaurants closeby. There is street parking available and it is close to a shopping centre, so there are car parks as well.
The service was pretty quick, we didn’t have to wait too long but a funny moment did come when our waitress gave one of the guys at the table a funny look and said «Really? Ok» when he ordered a diet coke. Classic. Though on the way out the same waitress asked where I got my shoes, which made me feel awesome.
Overall, a solid offering and I will be back the next time I am in Mackay.