Quick bite: Papa Bo Min, Sydney
This new Sydney Cantonese restaurant knows how to make amends when it doesn’t get it right.
The restaurant complaint: how do you handle it? How does the restaurant handle it? For me, it’s not something to think about too hard. I have a satisfying way of reporting issues via the medium of Newsprint and its very important first cousin Online. But occasionally …
I’m sitting in Sydney’s newish Papa Bo Min, a name that suggests far greater Asian-ness than the tenancy delivers. Never mind, we’re here for the food. The waiter is particularly good, and I don’t mind him asking if everything is to my satisfaction, because it’s not. It’s my second time here in two days, and I’m back only because yesterday’s food was so jolly enjoyable. “I’m sorry,” blurt I, “but this is terrible.” “This” is a truly woeful version of the ubiquitous salt and pepper squid.
“I’m very sorry, I’ll take it straight back to the kitchen.” He takes a look at the brown clumps of oily floured squid, eyes betraying a subtle, unsaid “I don’t blame you”. He does as he promises, and returns to say sorry, again, and that it has been removed from my bill, as has my pot of jasmine. Goodo. Then he does the smart thing: asks if I’d like to replace the squid with something else. It gets me back to the quantity of food I wanted and claws back a little revenue for the business, so at least they may have broken even on the tossed calamari (which he later explains had gone into under-temperature oil). I’m happy; they’re happy. It’s a masterclass in handling poor customer feedback and turning a loss into a win.
The Pitch. Clean, light and user-friendly (mostly) Cantonese food with flair, at reasonable prices, for the middle management, Rocks-end of George set. PBM is part of a mini food precinct including a Sake Junior and soon-to-come Rosetta, both part of Neil Perry’s expanded, post-independent portfolio.
The reality. With a kind of dining veranda plus a dining room, the look is contemporary, if a little bland. The only real way you know the food is oriental, from the outside anyway, is by spotting the afterthought Chinese lanterns in the curved window to chaotic George Street. The plus side is a very simple menu and efficient, personable service. The restaurant is part of the much larger Lotus Group, and one gets the sense manuals and training are all in place. It ticks.
The cuisine. Cantonese, pretty much. The food is not dumbed down, but the presentation and user interface are extremely friendly. The dishes have an emphasis on lightness.
Highlights. The steamed prawn and calamari dumplings — thin, slippery sheaths around crunchy seafood chunks — are outstanding. Tried twice over consecutive days, there was too much raw, minced garlic second time around but, inconsistency aside, these are worth seeking out. So too the glutinous rice flour steamed dumplings with spinach, garlic chive and diced duck meat. The braised silken tofu with fermented soy beans and minced pork is a gem too, the meat/tofu balance just right with lots of mild chilli and spring onion garnish, and fried rice with mustard seeds and finely sliced baby asparagus has that breath of the wok thing going on too.
Lowlights. That salt and pepper calamari, obviously. Sad brown clumps of yech. And terrible, terrible music played though a sound system with similar audio credentials to my childhood crystal set. Note to management: your customers are not into it, and the speakers are rubbish).
Will I need a food dictionary? No.
The damage. More than Chinatown, less than Mr Wong.
In summary. Papa don’t preach.
Papa Bo Min
Address: 225 George St, The Rocks, NSW | Phone: (02) 8318 3622, lotusdining.com.au/restaurant/grosvenor-place/ | Hours: lunch, dinner Mon-Sat | Score: 3.5 out of 5