Hu Tieu Xao w/ Do Bien (Stir-fried rice noodles with seafood) $14.90

Kem Chien (Fried Ice Cream) $10.90

V Bites

313 Chapel Rd,

Bankstown NSW 2200

Open 7 days a week

7AM - 10PM

The Mandoo (which translates to "The Dumpling") stands at the corner that once housed one of Strathfield's many froyo places, the particular name of this place which now escapes my mind. However I have such fond memories of hanging here in Year 12 after school that it kind of made me sad to acknowledge the new restaurant in its place. 

The very first time I ate here was very recent. I remember I was speed-eating a whole bowl of cold kimchi noodles by myself. And thoroughly impressed with how delicious it was, it was to no hesitation that I ushered my girls Anne-mary and Terry into the place on a winters night. Which I think we should all know ended up being such a fateful night despite how it began... with those two forgetting to pick me up to a party that I invited them to.

The whole place is very small and cramped and the only table we could get was by the door where people somehow forget to shut it on their way in and out. However in its own way, the busy atmosphere and proximity to the kitchen has a certain charm about it. Like you just know the food is going to be fresh and delicious.

We were all starving to death and even though the menu is quite small, we felt quite overwhelmed with choices. This was my first time eating Korean dumplings and I was told they're very large and filling so we ordered a few of those as well as a bowl of noodles to share.

Ain't no comfort food like fried food. We couldn't go past without trying the fried dumplings and I'd say its the perfect accompaniment to the steamed dumplings and noodles. These are quite large (almost the size of my hand), flat and extremely crispy. Not too oily at all. The perfect golden brown colour all over makes me so excited to pick one up and bite right into it. The filling is piping hot - a mixture of ground pork with noodles. I loved these topped with pickled white radish and dipped in the vinegary soy sauce! A little bit expensive but we enjoyed these down to the last bite.

A while back, Vanessa recommended these dumplings to me as she told me they were so huge and contained the whole prawn. And she was not lying. These dumplings are indeed really big and contain the whole prawn. It's not chopped up or minced or anything, it's just draped over the dumpling filling and ready to go. I thought these were so good and definitely recommend it! 

This was my favourite 'dumpling' of the lot! Because when I clearly expected it to taste like the sweet, white Banh Bao dough - it was completely different. Dense yet light, and slightly chewy the Korean buns are without a doubt unique. I really enjoyed the texture although the filling was a little more disappointing. While nothing wrong with it, I found it on the bland side and completely lacking in kimchi flavour although the colour and vegetable was all there. 

Had some discussion with the servers over this. Terry was looking to order the spicy cold noodles that came with the chilli paste and very little/no soup. Turns out it's a very simple difference on the menu. If you're after that, order the spicy cold noodles - not the spicy cold noodle soup. FYI! 

Anyway these were delicious and not to alarmingly spicy at all! There was a bit too much soup in it for our tastes but still enjoyed overall. 

And finally this is the noodles I was talking about at the beginning of my post:

So delicious!!! It's probably the best cold noodle soup I've had in a long while where I don't think it's too sweet, to mellow or too tangy. There are satisfying cuts of pickled radish and kimchi and half a hard boiled egg. This place seems to always be busy so if they forget to give you scissors, don't be afraid to ask! It's an essential! 

I am 100% going to dine at The Mandoo again. Let me know below if you have any recommendations or how your experience was when you went! Thank you for reading! xx

TL;DR:

Price: Everything under $15

Quality: Fresh, hand-made, excellent

Service: Average, can be a bit rushed but efficient nonetheless

Ambience: Small and cramped corner with very busy atmosphere

The Mandoo

12A The Boulevarde,

Strathfield NSW 2135

Open 7 days a week

11AM - 9PM

Last month with the help of my friends, I had the amazing opportunity of being able to review an app called MealPal which had just launched in Sydney. At the time of trialling the service, orders were only available from select CBD restaurants. And now at the time of writing, Surry Hills has been welcomed into the range of choices!


MealPal is a service started by Mary Biggins (cofounder of ClassPass) and Katie Ghelli (previously of ZocDoc). Through MealPal, consumers can pre-order their lunch every weekday from a restaurant in the MealPal network for less than $8 per meal. Each restaurant offers one meal per day and the consumer chooses which meal they'd like to have.

In Sydney, MealPal has over 100 participating restaurants such as Sumo Salad, Belle's Hot Chicken, Down N' Out, Fratelli Famous, Chicken Confidential and Zeus Street Greek.



My first step to using this service was to download the app. Easily done! ✔️

From there, a whole list of restaurants with their meal of the day is displayed for you to scroll through and choose to pre-order for the next day. Orders are to be made from 5pm to 9am. You select your meal of choice as well as the time that is most convenient for you to pick it up.

As mentioned before I gathered the help of my friends to review MealPal on my behalf as the week I had to do these reviews I was quite busy and unable to travel to the CBD. So first up is Vanessa's two reviews on both the food as well as her experience with the app:







"The process was so easy in how you choose a meal and your pick up time in advance. The staff were very friendly and had everything fresh, packaged and ready to go. They even offered a slice of complementary bread to accompany the salad which was a nice touch.

Unfortunately the salad itself was a bit bland and there wasn't a lot of chicken in it. I don't know if you would call this a Thai chicken salad and even with the bread it wasn't very satisfying. But overall the ease of ordering off MealPal was a great start to this experience!"







"True to its name, this is super spicy. Almost an unpleasant and inedible spicy. But once again today the use of MealPal was very easy especially in the busy and crowded Westfield Sydney food courts. There was a special area for those collecting their MealPal orders which made cutting the actual lines to order an absolute breeze!"


And my last review on this app was courtesy of my girl, Terry:






"The process with the MealPal app was so quick and easy. I was running behind time and showed up late, yet the staff were friendly and still had my order ready for me to pick up. The poke was pretty good however there wasn't much choice for what type of salad greens or dressing to go into the bowl. The dressing was particularly on the spicy and heavy side so it would've been nice to be able to customise this meal."




So there you have it! Besides being very quick and easy as Vanessa and Terry have advocated, I think MealPal is such a great advantage to have when you're choosing a lunch around the CBD/Surry Hills area because you only make a one time payment online for a package and you don't have to worry about any extra cash payments. At such low prices as well, this is great when you're trying to save money.

One thing I noticed about MealPal which I didn't particularly like is that the packages you pay for only last a certain amount of days. This means that if you forget to put in your order for lunch the next day, that's one lunch lost that you won't get back. Also you can only order one lunch a day so those lunches you missed? All lost. Of course this is all about the business strategy and self organisation but it was an inconvenience to me when trialling this app as I didn't have the freedom to travel out to the CBD every day.



Thank you so much to the team at MealPal for giving me the wonderful opportunity to review the app and for always answering my emails and queries in such a quick and friendly manner. All the best! xx