In Newtown, you won't see Chinese food restaurants as much as you'll see Thai food! So when Vanessa recommends that we have lunch at the Chinese/Malaysian restaurant Happy Chef after our dreaded WORK2225 tutorial, I brace myself for some mediocre take-away grade food. It's not that I don't like Chinese food. I very much like it because of how familiar it is to my own Vietnamese cuisine. But when someone mentions Happy Chef, my mind automatically reverts back to my Taekwondo days where all we ever had for a post-feed was Chinese take-away. It started out as the most amazing thing but soon when they changed management/chefs they started putting more batter on their meat and it was terrible but we all kept eating it because it was cheap. Even during high school when the girls and I would all head to Bankstown food court after class and pile up mountains of greasy battered Chinese food at Charlie Chan's self serve and then attempt to eat it all... for fun. What a life it has been 😞

Anyway I'm here to post about how WRONG was I in assuming Happy Chef in Newtown was on that level. 

(It also has a 4/5 on Zomato at the time of writing which is actually really good. I shouldn't make assumptions)

It's located closer to the station and I always notice it because I think the front of the shop looks a bit dingy compared to it's bright signage. It has those plastic strip things as a front door like my local butcher so it's definitely no fancy place

But surprisingly inside the shop, it's quite bright and warm and there is a lot of nice seating area out the front and towards the back. The furniture is old but it's still better than expected. There are lots of people coming here to eat so it seems really busy out the back. Also I notice it's really clean!

I thought it would be a dark hole-in-the-wall kinda place HAHAHA EXCUSE MY PRETENTIOUSNESS PLZZZZ I have been proved so wrong

There are SO many choices on the lit-up menu and the pictures all look SO good. The prices are more expensive than your typical Chinese take-away price but it's quite average for a sit down meal that you can find anywhere. I am so hungry this morning and literally wanting to eat every thing. I see choices like honey pepper, black bean, mongolian and even laksa but in the end I settle for my favourite Chinese dish: sweet and sour pork.

💔  I decide to judge this place by how good their sweet and sour is, 

and if they will disappoint me and break my heart with over-battered pork or not 💔

Our dishes don't take too long to come out...

Sweet and sour pork & rice $12.50

- WOOOOOWWW I had really low hopes for my dish so lemme tell you IT WAS AMAZING!!!

- There was so much on this dish from the pork, to pineapples, capsicums, onions and carrots

- Carrots are my favourite in this so I wish there was more of that and less capsicum but thats just me being real nit picky

- Ok lets talk about the pork… thEY DIDN'T OVERBATTER IT to try inflate it and make it look big :') It was really good, the thin batter they used didn't take over the pork and it retained its crunch the entire time instead of turning into a soggy mess. Best ever 11/10 !! 😍 👏 🎉

Close up of that deliciousness!

Combination wonton noodle soup $13.50

- If you never seen Vanessa eat noodle soup before you serious got to to see it b4 you die, it's hilarious and kind of sad but mostly funny HAHAHHA she'll literally spoon all of the soup and leave all of the noodles and toppings behind. Like girl you should've just ordered soup 😂 😂 😂

- But that's okay because I got to eat some of her fish cakes and I love them!

- Super generous with toppings, non-leafy cuts of greens and tbh idk about the soup (although I would say Vanessa enjoyed it)