New Dragon BBQ House in Auburn, NSW

DEPENDING on where in the world you're eating, a barbie means different things.

new dragpn

DEPENDING on where in the world you're eating, a barbie means different things.

But there's no doubt Sydney has fallen in love with fire and charred slabs of meat, from the primal South American wood grills of Porteno to Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar and Grill.

I've chosen a Chinese barbecue, because if you want a barbie at home without firing up the Weber, visit one of these shops, where ducks, burnished red pork and glazed chickens hang enticingly in the window. These places top my list for an instant take-home dinner.

The window at New Dragon BBQ House, opposite Auburn train station, is filled with silver trays of chicken feet, entrails, duck wings, roast and barbecue pork and Peking ducks, and today I'm staying put.

The room can't come any plainer or more practical, with a cafeteria charm that resembles countless Cantonese diners in downtown Hong Kong. The TV's on, and the cream-coloured walls are decorated with colourful sheets of cardboard detailing specials and other dishes. The tiled floor and bare tables with boxes of tissues mean the room clangs with the industry of eating.

Service is reticent, as is often the case in Chinese restaurants, so you need to be assertive about what you want and when, otherwise it's limited to taking orders and then delivering them.

Dragon BBQ House's strong point is great-value, filling food. The long menu of nearly 200 combinations favours Cantonese-style dishes, including the breakfast staple congee - rich porridge pungent with preserved egg and pork, $6.80, or more elegantly speckled with seafood, $7.80. It's also not afraid to visit its Asian neighbours, with laksa and tom yum soups.

Impressively, most dishes are under $10 and generally one is enough.

The star is Peking duck, taken seriously as a two-course $32.80, or three-course, $39.80, event. It starts with pancakes, followed by the meat with snow peas and noodles, and if you go the whole hog, the traditional finish of a tofu soup made from the bones.

While sizzling dishes, hotpots and umpteen versions of rice or noodles do have their appeal, the combinations of barbecue meats are my main interest. But why limit yourself to one, $9.80, or two, $11.80, meats with rice, noodle soup or stir-fried noodles when you can go the full symphony with a barbecued meats platter, $24.80, abundantly crammed with duck, soya chicken, barbecue pork loin, roast pork, ribbons of crunchy braised pig's ear and jellyfish.

It's a tour de force of great-tasting proteins, and if there are only two of you, you'll struggle to finish it all.

A couple of dishes miss the mark. They include beefy and metallic stir-fried razor clams with shallots and baby corn, $11.80, which looks like it's auditioning for Alien. And barbecue pork ribs on hokkien noodles, $8.80, with a stir-fried choy sum, is a rather desultory dish, lacking any personality.

Thankfully there's a return to form in a lush, chunky jumble of tofu, barbecue pork and mushrooms, $10.80, with a splash of colour from broccoli, baby corn, and the tofu in firm blocks as well as sheets.

What makes New Dragon BBQ House stand out from countless other similarly flavoured Chinese restaurants is that front window filled with roast and barbecue meats. If you'd rather throw another pig on the barbie, then it lives up to its name.

[e-mail]

--

HOW IT RATED: NEW DRAGON BBQ HOUSE

Food 12/20

Staff 6/10

Drink 2/5

X-factor 2/5

Value 8/10

Total score 30/50

Address: 126 South Pde, Auburn; ph 9649 9622

Food: Chinese/Cantonese

Drink: BYO, no corkage

Hours: Lunch & dinner daily, 9.30am-9.30pm

Wheelchair access: Yes

Parking: Limited timed street parking

Price guide: Dishes $6.80-$39.80

Snapshot: A simple no-fuss Chinese with a long menu that's notable for its Cantonese barbecue meats.