Chairman Mao Chinese Restaurant

If you are wondering why the tribute to Mao, Hunan is Mao 's hometown, and Chairman Mao aims to bring authentic Hunan dishes to Sydney. While Sichuan is more internationally renowned for its spicy and numbing dishes, Hunan actually takes centre-stage when it comes to the use of chillis in cooking in China. There is a saying in Chinese that 'Sichuan people have no fear of spiciness, Hunan people fear it 's not spicy! '

Went for dinner on a Wednesday night with a group of 7 and a toddler. A baby chair was available.<br/ There were a few tables but the place was not crowded.<br/ The service was excellent, the waitresses attentive. We were not rushed through the meal. <br/ The food was very good. <br/ Honourable mentions include the house smoked pork with garlic shoots, stir fried egg plant,, stir pepper chilli king prawns, dumplings, steamed fish fillets with pickled green chillies and of course their signature braised pork.<br/ The only disappointment was the smoked duck and smoked chicken dish. Their special spicy noodles was not to our taste although the texture of the noodles was very good.<br/ Prices were average.<br/ I would give it a 4 star rating and I will certainly return again!<br/

Don't go here if you don't like oily or spicy food! I like both, so I enjoyed our meal here. It was my first time trying Hunan cuisine. The pork belly was insanely tasty, which had tofu puffs that had soaked up all the delicious, oily sauce. I also loved the spicy pickled radish. It's an inexpensive, authentic restaurant.

This place is great! We went early on a weekday night, and glad we did as it started filling up quickly after we arrived. There were only 2 of us, so we didn't get to try as many dishes as we liked. I love love love the dumplings in hot sour soup (my favourite dish of the night . We also had the stir fried leeks and five spice tofu (yummy! and the pickled green beans with pork and chilli. Everything was really good, and I look forward to trying more dishes with a larger group on my next visit. I thought the portions were quite generous for the prices. <br/ <br/ It's authentic, which means that it will be spicy and oily at times. I caught one woman leaving and telling the manager/owner that the food was too spicy. Seriously? That's like going to a French restaurant and complaining that there's too much butter. So yes, go elsewhere please if you want to have some Westernised/Aussie-fied Chinese food. Only serious eaters should eat here.

My host warned me about the oil and chilli in this place, but I was nonchalant at first until the dishes first arrived. The stir fried celery with straw mushrooms were super tasty when coupled with rice. We also had the braised pork. It was amazing, it came with fried beancurd. I don't usually touch the fatty skin part on the pork but this one was so well prepared, I ate a couple of it. The pork fat is so succulent it will simply just melt in your mouth. The last dish was the steamed fish with chilli and black beans. The chilli was mashed with some garlic, and tasted good with the steamed fish. This place is renowned for their spiciness but our dishes were a little toned down. Overall, the dishes were really delicious. However, there were a couple of drawbacks: the price and the amount of oil in the dishes. The place is a little pricey and it would be best to go in a group to share dishes with rice. Also, be prepared for the crazy amount of oil in the dishes. If you love deliciously spicy foods, Chairman Mao's is a must-try! Just prepared your stomach :p