Bistro Hulu

If you know Crows Nest you will understand the vast amount of restaurants available so to sample something new was exciting!
Having recently relocated from the city to a new store in Crows Nest this modern style Cantonese restaurant had all you need including hand pulled noodles, dumplings and the signature dishes. Tried the Piña colada tofu shake and it tastes just as it sounds. Then onto some prawn toast — very generous servings and then onto some hand pulled noodles with beef cubes, soy and garlic. Yum! Nice and soft noodles with great texture. Finally for dessert it was a traditional mango sago with shavings of frozen mango! wow loved the dinner and it had inspired me to come back to sample their dumplings!

What originally stood out on the menu at Bistro Hulu were the giant dumplings, so I couldn’t resist ordering one when I finally ate here last Friday (now that it’s been open long enough that a booking isn’t always required for 2 on a Friday night). Unfortunately, they’re mainly a gimmick. Sure, it was tasty, but they’re very difficult to eat, particularly without losing the soupy goodness inside.
My partner and I also shared one of the hot pots, one of the specialities of the restaurant. We chose the beef combination without really thinking what combination referred to. As it’s quite an authentic Chinese establishment, it meant the dish contained various types of beef offal, which I’m not a big fan of.
I would love to return, but next time order different dishes (maybe the dumpling platter and some of the kung fu noodles that a customer next to us had been eating). The service was great, the prices good value and it seems to be BYO including beer (which we didn’t take advantage of), but we made the wrong choices with ordering!

The crowd have spoken. And the crowd like Hulu.
The crowd also like a new restaurant because SHINY.
Also, hotpots and dumplings.
These dudes recently located from Liverpool St in the city to Crows Nest and they’re killing it, way more customers, way more busy. The food is tasty, no doubt son, with some old favourites (xiao long bao, hot pots) and some new dishes you’ve probably never seen before (like poached beef dumplings with fresh garlic, fried garlic, and chilli oil. Small serve, but WOW).
The service weren’t amazing unforch, pretty much a symptom of their own success really, as the wait staff were run off their feet and didn’t seem to know which way was up sometimes, between the high table turnover and the number of dishes people were ordering and scurrying to and from the kitchen and what not. Our entrée soups came out well after the mains, and the specific orders we put in with the person that took our order (one soup spicy, one mild, chilli oil on the side for the dumplings) got lost in translation and didn’t happen. Which is fine, growing pains and all. I was just reals hangry that night, which probably didn’t help.

When did we get a dumpling and hot pot place in Crows Nest?!
I think if your specialty is dumplings, a high standard is expected due to restaurants like Din Tai Fung which are just so dominant in that arena. Bistro Hulu is not bad but not amazing either. The pan fried pork and chives dumplings are a little too greasy and the dough is a little tough. The real delight though were the poached beef dumplings in soy with garlic and chilli oil — amazing amazing flavour from the fried garlic (in large quantum!) and the chilli oil. Wouldn’t recommend it though if your chilli tolerance isn’t high as I was sweating after the first few dumplings. Finally, I tried the steamed eggplant which is served in a bamboo tray and makes for a pretty picture but was quite bland despite the soy sauce. If there was salt at my table I would have added it to the dish and as a bland eater, it is extremely rare that I feel like that.
I wouldn’t return except to try the hotpot in winter but didn’t mind the service and atmosphere.

For the past few Friday evenings, we could never get into this «new» Restaurant that serves Dumplings, Noodles, Hotpots as there was always a ‘line’ of patrons waiting to get in. Finally yesterday on a Tuesday evening, we managed to get into the restaurant for dinner without having to wait.
Clean, brightly lit and comfortable chairs in this restaurant. The staff were helpful and attentive. Envy those that live around Crows Nest, so many good restaurants and now another one!..
The Siew Long Pao has excellent. hot tasty soup inside as a «good» dumpling should be!
The noodles are excellent and the HOT POT, really HOT!
Definitely will be back for dinner again to this «little gem’.