Landmark Restaurant

Oh man Landmark is probably the best known yum cha restaurant in all of Brisbane. I swear if you've ever been to yum cha, you've probably been here before. I don't really like it though, mostly because the food can be a bit hit and miss. If you go there during peak hour, everything is great otherwise it's really average. The fried food can be a bit oily, the calamari can be tough at best and the service is surly at best.

Anyway, it's still an easy place to go to for a quick catch up with friends. Especially since parking is so easy since its in the shopping centre at Sunny Plaza. The day we went was really a get together for all the parents and me, because I like to eat.

I was on the prowl as soon as we entered the restaurant! My friends normally leave me to order for the table because I usually know whats good, but H., has to rein me in because I usually over order! We started off with har gao, some prawn and coriander dumplings plus siu mai! The har gao and prawn and coriander dumplings had very juicy, plump and flavoursome whole prawns inside, you can pretty much guarantee for all of Landmark's failings that their prawns dishes are pretty good. The siu mai was nothing special, the won ton wrapper was a little tough for some reason but I guess that's because we went a little before lunch time.

We had doubles of this!

You can faintly see in this photo that we had deep fried prawn rolls, salt and pepper calamari, steamed pork buns and crunchy kai lan with a side of oyster sauce. The salt and pepper calamari were a hit with the kids at our table, S.,'s daughter Olivia had one tentacle in each hand and was chewing gleefully. She kept trying to share her food with the other little boy there, Oliver, he was somehow convinced that he was eating chewy chips but tried the calamari anyway. He was a very shy little boy and kept asking his dad for more "chips". That being said, they were rubbery as anything, I don't think there's been a single time that I've had tender calamari here. The steamed pork buns were too sweet for my liking and had very little char siu inside them.

The token vegetable

A slightly different angle

You can't really see through all the steam but this was an interesting dish with eggplant where the hollowed inside was filled with fish paste and prawns before being steamed! Oliver was also gamely trying this considering he hadn't had eggplant or fish paste before. I feel like I shouldn't be allowed near small children cause I'd just feed them exotic foods without telling them what it was. I guess that's no different to how I treat some of my adult friends really.

What's behind that cloud of steam????

These were more deep fried prawns and beside them is a slippery plate of steamed rice noodles with more prawns inside them covered in a sweet soy sauce.

Well at least their prawns are good

Landmark Restaurant
Atmosphere: 5, your usual bright red and gold Chinese restaurant! Complete with tanks full of live seafood for you to pick and consume at your leisure. 
Service: 3, surly and unhelpful. Skip the trolleys and bring your bill straight to where they steam the food. Your variety will be a lot better and the food a lot fresher.
Food: 4. the food is nothing special. Anything with prawns is a safe bet, otherwise gloves are off as to what you're getting.