March 9, 2016

Spice Alley, Chippendale, Sydney Central

Next to the swanky big new apartment blocks of Central Park, there is a new hawker style eatery. Tucked away behind some old heritage listed buildings is ‘Spice alley’. Not actually a restaurant in itself, but a hawker style area serving a number of different Asian cuisines. Inspired by the kind of food halls you see through out south east Asia, Spice alley offers food from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, just to name a few.

Drinks are purchased at the drinks stations and food is served at the various stalls. Just line up at the one you want, place your order, get your ticket and wait for it to be called. Seating is first in first serve and you can choose to sit in the outdoor open air section, or inside the heritage buildings.

I think the best way to enjoy spice alley would be to go with a bunch of friends, all order a bunch of dishes from different stalls and to grab a table inside a heritage house and pig out. This is what we did and below are some of the dishes we ordered.

The semi-secret entrance to Spice alley

Outdoor seating and the food stalls

Thai papaya salad with 3 chicken ribs ~$11 – The surprising thing about this dish was the chicken ribs. I had expected just bone but instead there was meaty morsels of tasty chicken rib cage meat inside the bones. Cooked with a salt and pepper coating, it was like eating mini – KFC wicked wings

Crispy pork belly with stir fry vegies and steamed rice ~$14 – my favourite dish of the night. Lovely crispy crackling with a chili jam sauce that was enough to make my forehead burst with sweat.

Roti Canai ~$5 – Not enough sauce! The roti is made on site by the roti chefs who you can observe through an open kitchen, however, the issue is that there is not enough sauce for the roti and the sauce itself is a bit too watery for my liking.

Char kway teow ~$12 – not a bad char kway teow, but it was missing the ‘wok hei’ (breath of the wok) that usually makes this dish so special. A tad bland but that is easily fixed by a dollop of sambal. A decent smattering of plump prawns.

Curry puff ~$5 – curry puff was good but not great – filled with mince and vegies

Nasi Lemak ~$12

Durian Roti with vanilla ice cream ~$9 – there’s not much places you can get a nice durian dish in Sydney where as there is plenty in Singapore and Malaysia. This is a decent attempt to bring the king of fruits back to the mainstream but there wasn’t enough durian inside the roti 🙁 Might be good for those that have never tried durian before, but for those durian addicts outdoor, you will be left wishing you were in Malaysia.