Simmer Huang with Alvin Quah (Masterchef Australia Star) | Chatswood

 Simmer Huang has recently settled their top floor restaurant in Chatswood Interchange. They are known worldwide with over 500 venues across the globe for the interesting take on a hotpot, the Simmer Pot! You must head to Chatswood and experience this unique new hotpot based restaurant concept! We were invited to dine at Simmer Huang by Wasamedia to taste the limited special edition dish created by Masterchef Australia star, Alvin Quah which you can try now!!

On arrival, we were welcomed with a cocktail and directed to our table. What a better way to finish a work day with a fancy liquor filled cocktail. Matt secretly loves cocktails if you didn't already know!

Plum Blossom and Bubbling Asian
Plum Blosson: Hibiki 12YO, Aperol, osmanthus with smoked plum juice, lemon juice and ginger ale
This was our favourite drink of the night. Not only does it present well at your table, but it is a cocktail lend mixed with plum juice and had a striking resemblance to a sangria! We fought over this drink, however Christie eventually stole it eat the snow fungus!
Bubbling Asian: Sweet fermented rice wine, Makgeolli, osmanthus honey, ginger, Calpis Soda
Calpis soda - the protagonist of this drink. The subtle liquor taste only kicks in as an after taste. Then you have the sweet rice ball to finish the drink. A great drink!


Grapefruit Daiquiri
When I think of a daiquiri, I picture shaved ice mixed with liquor and flavouring of your choice. This was presented more like a martini. You could definitely taste the alcohol in this drink, but it was refreshing with the sashimi-looking grapefruit pieces.

The overall presentation of this venue is top notch. Everything is uniform and is neatly presented. They even provide you with an explanatory step by step process to guide you through how your meal will be cooked (in the photo below)


Edamame
Lightly salted soy beans in the pod with black pepper

A very simple and light treat to start the meal. If you have not before tried Edamame, it is a cold serving of salted green soy beans. Although the skin might be salted, refrain from eating it as you are suck on the skin and enjoy the bean inside. 

Hometown Chicken
Cold chicken with spicy sauce

The spicy sauce tasted like a satay/peanut sauce and who doesn't love that? If you answered "me" then you would probably want to keep that to yourself as this dish is a favourite among any western household when it comes to Chinese food. Interesting enough, a quarter of a chicken with bones in tact was presented with this dish.

Spicy Tofu Noodles
Cold bean curd strips with spicy sauce

This dish had everyone guessing exactly what it was at first. There were guesses of egg noodles, while others guessed tofu. Funny enough the waitress corrected them and advised it was actually bean curd. This was a dish served cold and was a great filler to munch on while your simmer pot prepares. It actually paired well with the Hometown Chicken mentioned above!

SPECIAL - Alvin Quah's Duck Salad
Before eating this dish, we were warned by Alvin himself to be cautious of the chilli. This was not a problem at all, as it had just enough chilli to make an impact, and not leave you gasping for water. The duck was almost lost in this dish, however what was noticeable was it's gainy texture. The salad dressing was the clear winner of this dish, as it was fresh and made you wanting to go back for more. It would be a perfect summer dish!

You must be wondering what this ‘new’ hotpot concept we are talking about.
Well prepare yourself as you can see exactly how it is made below.


All the ingredients are cooked and packaged prior to them arriving at your table. They are neatly organised into separate containers which the wait staff carry to your table.

The hot plate is turned on and the vegetables and on goes the vegetables to cook in melted butter.

Next, the selection of meat is added. For this course, we enjoyed the Alvin's special braised pork belly! They then add a special super top level CIA sauce to the mix. We questioned what the sauce contained, but was politely let down by the wait staff who advised us that it was a secret.

The lid goes on and it cooks for roughly 10 minutes. The smell travels throughout the restaurant, and it is so tempting to open the pan and sneak an early bite...


SPECIAL - Alvin's Pork Belly Hotpot
Voila! The finished product. You would be suprised how tender that pork belly was, the fat literally just melts in your mouth (sorry for the cliche). There is also a damn good reason that the ingredients of the sauce are so secretive, because it is so damn tasty! This was by far the best dish of the night and we are so thankful for having been able to experience it!

Barramundi Hotpot
After feeling satisfied from the pork belly, another plate came out to our table! We were not expecting "another" hotpot. This time however it was filled top to bottom with Barramundi. Our table attempted to pick a bite here and there but was too full from the pork belly! 

.. wait a minute ... our main isn't finished yet?
Surprise! Now comes Simmer Huang's take on the hotpot. When you are nearly complete with your meal, a waitress comes to your table with a plate of unformed noodles.

They pour a clear broth into your hotplate to let it soak up all the wonderful flavours of the dish you previously had. Next, a performance is put on at your table where they stretch your noodles into thin strands and then place it into the pot to cook (no singing or dancing monkeys unfortunately)


3 Minutes later and you have yourself a really enjoyable hot pot. Now interestingly enough, this dish reminded us of a Ragu we had recently, and one that you might find at many Italian restaurants. The noodles were cooked aldente, and tasted almost like pasta. The broth (having soaked up the super secret sauce) has now also morphed into a thicker soup which the noodles soaked up completely. The one and ONLY negative for this dish was the fact that we were not provided with any bowls/spoons to taste the soup...

That about wraps it up for the event! 
A big thank you to Wasamedia for the invite, and for Simmer Huang to treat us to such a great feast. Of course, we can't also forget to thank Alvin for the photo below! Such a great guy who was very easy to talk to, and yes.... we can’t believe we didn’t try the peanut soup cocktail (YES, peanut SOUP!!) Thanks for the next cocktail recommendation Alvin!

Below are a couple of snaps we took of the interior and just how dark, sophisticated  and comfortably romantic the atmosphere was. We hope you enjoy!







Simmer Huang Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Latest on @snapshotsoffood