Lobster San Choy Bow and cocktails that take seven days to make: Jinja opens in Macquarie Park with Crown chef

Luxe Cantonese has headed west. At Jinja at Macquarie Park, punters lap up lobster San Choy Bow, and drinks that brew for days.

A luxe new Cantonese restaurant, Jinja, has opened in Macquarie Park bringing with it esteemed chef Sebastian Tan from Crown Sydney.

Tan, who has worked at Silks and Teahouse, leads the kitchen on level one of The Governor Hotel at Macquarie Park in North West Sydney.

It’s the first for the area which despite being a central business district and also in proximity to Macquarie University, has had a lack of quality dining options.

Sebastian Tan pictured at Jinja Restaurant. Picture: Richard Dobson

The move has been rewarded with customers already. Despite only being open for a couple of weeks, Jinja is already booked out on the weekends.

Drawing the crowds are Tan’s signature Lobster San Choy Bao, the Peking duck pancakes and a pan-fried prawn sesame toast.

Mark and Marita Puglisi enjoying Duck Pancakes at Jinja. Picture: Richard Dobson

Singaporean Style Lobster. Picture: Richard Dobson

Crispy Pork Belly at Jinja. Picture: Richard Dobson

The venue has also brought in a chef from India, Kushal Lama, to assist Tan. He comes from a family of celebrated Chinese chefs and has over 16 years of culinary experience including cooking for award-winning restaurant brands such as Hakkasan and Yauatcha.

The drink offering is just as elevated with Ryan Adams (who previously worked at Little Pearl and The Rook) using the legend of The Eight Immortals to create unique offerings like the Polysemous, which contains the Chinese spirit Baijiu and takes up to five days to make.

Jinja’s bar manager Ryan Adams. Picture: Richard Dobson

Tan hoped the initial success would push other restaurateurs and chefs to think outside the CBD when opening venues. “Having quality restaurants and venues closer to where people live and work benefits the whole community,” he said.

The Beetroot Elixir which takes seven days to make. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The community reaction so far has been overwhelmingly positive! Both the member for Ryde The Hon. Victor Dominello MP and City of Ryde Mayor Jordan Lane attended the opening and were both thrilled to have a restaurant and chef of this calibre on the doorstep for their local community,’ said Tan.

Jinja is open for lunch Wednesday to Sunday and dinner Wednesday to Saturday.

There is also an extensive tea selection with a ceremonial tea tasting dispensary.