Lan Yuan Restaurant | Ryde (Top Ryde Shopping Centre)

 Located on level 1 in Top Ryde Shopping centre sits a beautifully designed authentic cantonese restaurant where you can really sit back and enjoy some Zen with your meal. You will enter a garden of bamboo giving you the feel of southern China. Lan Yuan Restaurant serves both a la carte and yumcha (further details of opening hours). Lan Yuan is so sophisticated and welcoming, a great place for friends, families and even somewhere you could consider for client meetings 

(hint hint).

Prawn dumpling

Look at those succulent prawn dumplings - who could say no to them? 

Chicken dim sum

Normally this dish would use pork as the filling which can be quite coarse sometimes so having tasted the chicken version, we found it quite moist and more juicy than pork.

Alright lets get started! Get your eyes and bellies ready as we proceeded to tasting Lan Yuan's a la carte menu. 

We sampled nine whopping mains and even topped it off with dessert. 

Keep reading to see more! 

Steamed white cut chicken in chicken broth

The chicken was so tender, moist and had loads of flavour. A lovely way to start your palette and left us even more excited to taste the upcoming mains.

Hokkien-style eggplant - deep fried with garlic and dried chilli

This dish won many over and it was the hero dish of the day. At first we couldn't tell if it was eggplant or squid but we later found out it's true nature. It was lightly battered so it was really enjoyable to snack on. Felt like a somewhat-healthier option to a thick cut chip!

WARNING: Highly addictive :)

Sweet and Sour Pork

This dish is normally cut into small cubes and then deep fried. The pork in this dish still had the bone! I preferred this style as the taste of the pork didn't overpower the sweet and sour sauce. Further to that, the batter was very light so it didn't feel like you were eating play-doh (I swear I have never tried... ). Lastly, the pineapple gave it a nice enjoyable sweetness to let the flavours linger that little bit longer.

Lan Yuan beef eye fillets with house made wasabi sauce

The wasabi game was pretty strong in this dish. Actually, that was an understatement. This wasn't one of our favourites as the wasabi was way too overpowering.... (unfortunately a miss for us)

Wok fried mud crab Singapore style

What definitely hit the mark was the dish that had everyone (except Matt for obvious reasons) salivating from the moment they saw this monster! I loved the crispy vermicelli base at the bottom. And it's even better when soaked in that tasty sauce.

Egg yolk tofu - deep fried tofu with duck egg yolk

 Matt normally snubs his nose at tofu, but surprisingly he was all over this dish, as was the whole table! It is definitely not your average tofu, but once again it was lightly battered and yet it still maintained the soft silky texture. I think I am seeing a pattern here with light batter.. It is working!

Lan yuan fried rice with fresh prawns and scallop topped with crab roe

Any fried rice is great as a side to compliment with the jampacked flavour from the mains. I often find myself eating more meat than rice. Some people prefer meat with steam rice (but I find that bland) so Lan Yuan's fried rice is great with any main dish.

Shandong chicken - crispy chicken with shandong sauce

This is one of those dishes that when you see it, immediately you are thinking of nabbing the best part of the chicken for yourself. While the chicken tasted great and the skin was thin, nice and crispy... It wasn't well presented. The photo above was untouched from the kitchen and it looked like a chicken was hacked to death on the plate! That said, the chicken was really tasty and the serving was generous. 

Sweet and sour crispy barramundi

The presentation of this dish is great isn't it? Normally fish heads don't look the best but Lan Yuan managed to pull it off. My piece of the fish was still crispy

 (YES...I KNOW!! even after bloggers took turn taking photos of it).

Deep fried ice cream - coconut crumb vanilla ice cream

Lastly but definitely not least(-ly?) was the deep fried icecream drizzled with your choice of Caramel, Chocolate or Strawberry sauce. We decided that we need to try two flavours, so Matt got the Chocolate and Christine ordered the Caramel (which Matt ended up stealing). The best thing about this dish was the hidden coconut throughout the ice-cream. It definitely made the dish stand out from a deep fried ice-cream you would find at your local Thai cuisine.

This place would be perfect for a warm summer lunch. The balcony is beautifully presented and it overlooks the restaurant district below. At the time there was a performer playing some relaxing live music, it would just be perfect.

We dined as guests of Wasamedia and Lan Yuan. All opinions expressed are those of our own. We did really enjoy the day and it was great to see old faces and meet some new.
The event was well coordinated which made it that much better!

We can't wait to attend the exclusive VIP launch of Lan Yuan Restaurant next week!!!