Star House Chinese restaurant

Growing up in a Chinese family, I daresay I have been subjected to quite a number of traditional Chinese dishes from simple homecooked family meals to fancy celebratory affairs. After years of living in Adelaide, it dawned on me that there are in fact, 2 obvious types of Chinese fares that one may stumble upon at Chinatown which are either Mandarin/ China inspired dishes or Cantonese/ Hong Kong inspired fare. I am a fan of the latter, which brought me to Starhouse Chinese restaurant.

We got here on Sunday night and were lucky to be secure a table despite the huge turn-up at the restaurant, mostly families. I may be biased here but I find that their interior appears to be more welcoming and classy, perhaps due to the good positioning of the tables (a little more privacy in some parts of the restaurant). If you are organizing a dinner event, I highly recommend coming here (but do make reservations!).

We received complementary Chinese type of chips, which is customary in most Chinese restaurants here. I used to binge on these whenever my family and I go out for restaurant dinners in Malaysia!

Roast duck with plum sauce ~ I am obsessed with roast duck despite it not being something that I crave for as a kid. The duck's skin is crispy and the meat is still moist and juicy. Having said that, I found some parts to be a tad dry, possible because the thin layer of meat was near the bone and consequently, dried up in the roasting process. But never mind that, we did get decent sized pieces of duck flesh which we happily dipped into the slightly tangy and sweet plum sauce. Delicious:)

Steamed barramundi with ginger and shallots ~ one of my favourite's at Starhouse. Their concoction of ginger, shallots and soy sauce is somewhat unique and really marinates the fish well. I would love to get my hands on their recipe but I doubt that's going to happen unless I volunteer myself for kitchenwork! The fish is taken out from the fish tank and is freshly prepared. I could eat this with steamed rice all day.

Abalone with sea cucumber and broccoli ~ we decided to try something a little different for a change and ordered this as it was a special occasion. I hardly eat abalone or sea cucumber and am afraid I can't give a reliable verdict of this dish. However, I found that the abalone was thinly sliced and well coated with the gravy that it is drowned with:)

I can't really say much about the service here as we did arrive when the restaurant was packed full of patrons nor can I recommend coming here for yum cha. I am open to suggestions so please do drop me a comment in the comment section:)