Peng You

Where to begin?
Seated quickly, order was taken very quickly and professionally, the place was tidy and efficient while maintaining elegance. Our orders were filled and presented with a level of class and speed I would expect in the kind of place that doesn’t put prices on the menus.
The food was resplendent and delectable (shush. I like big words.), the atmosphere relaxed and genial.
They even bring the credit card machine to the table.
My only regret is that I didn’t come here sooner.

Being at the gas works I came prepared for a big price tag and $ 30 for a couple wasn’t too bad. I will leave the bad for last so let’s start with the good. Good service, nice friendly atmosphere, helpful staff, everything is well presented. Spring rolls are really nice.
Now for the bad. We asked for a vegetarian dish and we got it with prawns and sausages. The special fried rice was very average.
Maybe this was just an off night for them considering the other reviews?

The Peng You menu takes you on a tour of Hong Kong and Cantonese cooking styles with a few detours thrown in. Co-​owner Joyce Chiu told me that they had to include Sichuan Mapo Tofu as it was the most popular and requested dish at her other restaurant, Obsession Chinese at Southbank. We went with some small bites to nibble on whilst catching up on the last few months of gossip. Griddle Cooked Gyozas steered us towards Japan with a mix of flavours and were good value at four for $ 6 though I would have liked them to have had more colour from the griddle pan. The Duck Sang Chow Bau ($ 14.50) was flavoursome and nutty. There was a generous use of the dark meat with a great inclusion of puffed rice noodles to give added crunch. The perfect starter on a hot day.
The Kung Pao Chicken was different from others we’d had before with a lighter though still spicy sauce. The Hong Kong Noodles were fairly tame. Nothing to excite but nothing to offend either. The Mapo Tofu with pork mince was unbelievably good and gave the taste buds a work out. The tofu itself was obviously very fresh and I waxed lyrical to Jenny about its silky texture between sipping down water and forking more of this spicy, saucy delight into my mouth. The tofu is a huge serve so this and one other dish would have been sufficient with the entrees but as we’d ordered three dishes, we ate the lot.
Peng You is simple, unpretentious food, served in pleasant surroundings. There was lots to tempt on the menu and as usual, I was sorry there were only the two of us and that we couldn’t try more dishes. All of the meals were packed with flavour and generous main ingredients — absolutely no padding out with onion or capsicum as you sometimes find when eating Chinese. Some would say that the prices are a little steep but this is not a hole in the wall in Chinatown. It’s a modern restaurant in a destination shopping and dining precinct. I would be happy to return to Peng You with the work gang for the obligatory ‘team building’ lunch and to chat again to Joyce, who so clearly enjoyed engaging with her customers and talking about her favourite dishes.

New kid in the block or should I say plaza, nice fit out, sat inside near kitchen, lots of noise, but busy and very organise. Interesting menu went pork gyoza, spring roll, pork belly and rump very porcine oriented.
Watch the chilli sauce on table starts easy but goes for the throat.
Food was great nice flavours well cooked coming back

We dined here on the first day of Chinese New Year, so perhaps our experience is not «normal». We had the mapo tofu which was really tasty, and the shredded duck noodles, which unfortunately was not so tasty — very oily.
Our main gripe with the place was the service — very poor. They had many staff on (being CNY) and yet we frequently had to ask for more water, enquire about when our food was coming (it took ages! Even just a simple bowl of rice took half an hour) and even just get the attention of the staff. Not cheap either.
Disappointed. The only redeeming thing about this restaurant was the very tasty tofu dish.

Great lunch
Gyoza for a start. The boss had pork salad & I had prawn & scallop starter. Enough for a light lunch