Mr. Stonebowl, Burwood, Sydney, Inner West

Let me start by saying that I love it when restaurant staff fill up your glass of water very shortly after it’s empty without asking! Here at Mr. Stonebowl this is exactly what they do – perfect as whilst eating some of these dishes it made me terribly thirsty.

Mr. Stonebowl is a relatively new joint on Burwood road. It’s hard to miss because it is generally packed with people with a huge line of people waiting out the door. Lucky for us the service is quick and the turnover quicker. We waited around 10 minutes at lunch time before we got a table for 3.

We browsed the large glossy menu which had accompanying photos and chose the ones that looked most appealing (we also looked at other tabls for inspiration, hehe). Service was super quick with dishes coming out before you know it.

Fried eggplant with garlic and cheese crumb ~ $14 – pretty much every tabled ordered this dish. Lightly battered pieces of eggplant deepfried and coated in this mouthwatering crumb. Soft cheesy goodness. The perfect substitute for chips or wedges.

Marinated tender chicken – $7.80 – a ‘chef special’ dish. Cold poached chicken with what initially looked like a wasabi sauce, but turned out to be some sore to parsley/coriander sauce. Refreshing contrast to the fried eggplant dish.

Oxtail in special sauce stonebowl – $15.80 – a rich dish of slow cooked oxtail chunks which had meat literally melting off the bone. The sauce itself was gelatinous and had a strong taste of Chinese spices.

Garlic prawn steamed with sticky rice – $18.80 – interesting dish which had the sticky rice cooked in a ‘stonebowl’. The menu has a section for all these stonebowl such as this and the above and probably is why the restaurant has its name (duh!). The sticky rice was flavoured with squid ink and the prawns deep fried in batter and then a thick creamy garlic sauce to finish over the top. A really filling dish especially if you want to eat all the rice which seemed to be bottomless.

Singapore style barramundi – $18.80 – essentially a whole barramundi cooked in your traditional Singaporean chili crab style sauce. Not my favourite dish, but not bad either.