Landmark Chinese Restaurant, Chermside
Dedicated to my parents and daughters
Landmark Chinese Restaurant has been on my list of restaurants to visit and try for a year or so now. It’s a relatively new restaurant in the recent big renovation of Westfield Chermside’s food precinct.
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I was in Brisbane this weekend visiting my daughters and my parents so we thought on Saturday night we’d try our luck; not make a booking, and rock up at the restaurant just after 6 pm. We didn’t have Ms17 because she was at a party but we did have Ms23’s BF with us.
When we arrived we could see the restaurant was busy. We were offered a table on a balcony outside or a booth inside opposite the maître d’s ‘lectern’. The booth had a setting for four and we were six so two extra places were added, and we sat nice and cosy.
I’m grateful we agreed on the booth inside because the lighting was much better inside than outside and I had iPhone photography on my mind. Always the food photographer here!
Service
The service was relatively fast and positive. It was friendly. After being shown our booth we were offered Chinese tea while we interrogated the menu.
It was suggested we should make up our minds quickly because larger tables were getting ready to order and if our order came in after the larger tables we could be left waiting for an extended time.
Once we figured out what we wanted we were able to order the dishes we wanted. The wait for our entrée wasn’t long.
Entrée
We asked for three serves of the mixed deep-fried spring rolls, dumplings, and curry puffs.
The entrée came with some chilli sauce which was pretty mild. If I was on my own, I’d ask for something with a little more kick.
Main meal
There were six of us so we asked for six dishes.
Tender beef and stir-fried vegetables
A standard Chinese dish with lots of flavours. The beef was tender and could be broken down with chopsticks. The vegetables were cooked but still crunchy. The sauce was thick but not stodgy.
Sizzling Mongolian lamb
Another classic of Australian Chinese cuisine. I have no idea if people in Mongolia do this. I suspect not.
A smoking hot metal plate was wheeled to the table on a trolley and the meat and vegetables were added, sizzled, and cooked on the table.
The lamb was as tender as the beef and the sauce was delicious with steamed rice.
Honey chicken
The chicken was tender and the honey sauce wasn’t overly sweet. The coating had a nice crispiness.
Salt and pepper prawns
The prawns were well cooked and not overcooked. My only concern was the lack of seasoning on the prawns. The plate itself was nicely covered in fried onions and hot chillies. This was the best part of the dish. I was fortunate, no one else really wanted any of it so I got to stir it into my steamed rice.
Roast duck
Gee, I love roast duck. This dish was a half duck. The skin was good but unfortunately not crispy. The flesh was tender and had that smooth mouthfeel that is typical of Australian Chinese restaurant cuisine.
I really liked this dish.
Roast belly pork
Okay, who doesn’t like pork belly? If you don’t like pork belly, I like you because that means there’s more pork belly for me.
The muscle to fat ratio was great. Lots of fat. The fat had a nice flavour. The skin was crisp but not really crackly crunchy. The best thing was, even though it was salty, it wasn’t overly salty like some roast pork is in restaurants.
Dessert
We didn’t get dessert, although we were tempted by deep fried banana and ice cream. An Australian Chinese restaurant favourite and something Mum made for dessert when I was growing up.
Fortune cookies
As I was paying the bill, Ms23’s BF hovered hoping for some fortunate cookies. Sadly, no fortunate cookies.
While Ms23 and her BF took Mum and Dad home, Ms21 and I went to Coles and bought a box of fortune cookies and some Streets classic vanilla drumsticks.
Photographs
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Questions and answers
Is the Landmark Chinese Restaurant worth visiting for dinner?
There’s nothing fancy about this place and the food takes me back to good old suburban Australian Chinese restaurants that sell classic dishes like honey chicken. I forgot to check if sweet and sour pork was on the menu!
What was the damage?
For six people sharing six dishes and three entrées, the meal cost $220. Even though there were AMEX signs the restaurant payment system rejected my AMEX card.
Would I go back?
Sure, I was pretty happy with the meal and if my daughters wanted to return and/or if Mum and Dad wanted a dinner there I’d go back.
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Final thoughts
- Do you like Australian Chinese cuisine?
- Did you notice I mentioned Coles in the post like I do with my recipe posts?
- I’m pretty sure there will not be a post next week. I’ll be travelling for work across two weekends. Sorry about this. Yummy Lummy will be back at the end of November.
Sponsorship
Yummy Lummy has no sponsors but maintaining a blog isn’t free. If anyone or any company would like to contribute please contact me.
This looked soooo good! I love fortune cookies. Some are too hard and cardboard like, but they are still fun.
Do you prefer sit down places or street vendors?
It depends on my mood but if I’m with family I like to sit down and enjoy time eating and chatting.
This sounds and looks like a good dinner. Growing up in South East Asia, I really do prefer the Chinese food over there. Just a preference. That said, Chinese food in Australia is okay though I feel dishes like black pepper chicken and honey chicken are catered to Westerner’s tastebuds. I wasn’t surprised there wasn’t any fortune cookies…I never expect fortune cookies to be served in a Chinese restaurant in Asia (fortune cookies were apparently invented in the States within the Chinese community over there).
Odd that your AMEX card got rejected. Guessing you had another card on you 😄
Thanks, Mabel, I assume the AMEX card got rejected because despite the signs the restaurant doesn’t want to get tangled up in the extra fees associated with AMEX.
Yep, all those sweet dishes were created for a different palate. I’ve read the story of fortune cookies, you’re right. That said, I do like the biscuit used in fortune cookies. I may need to buy a box for myself.
I’m just back from holiday and had particularly good pork ribs. They fell off the bone. Any tips on how to make these?
I am hopeless when it comes to trying to replicate my Mum’s cooking. All I can recommend is low and slow and tasting as often as possible. Adjust as you go.
Sounds like a fine restaurant, but a bit far for us to travel. All the dishes looked great, but I’d have gone for the Salt and pepper prawns and Mongolian Lamb.
The roast pork belly looks so good, in Malaysia we call it siew yoke. We have it as a second choice of meat when ordering roasted chicken or duck rice!
I think pork is my favourite Chinese meat. Although I’m very keen on duck 😃
Mongolian lamb looks very good from the photos. I would also have ordered the salt and pepper shrimp…to bad it wasn’t seasoned properly. I know you enjoyed sharing the meal with your family.
I did Karen, it was wonderful to be with them.
Everything looks delicious–especially the shrimp!
It was a really nice meal 😃😃😃
Sounds like a very nice line up of dishes, and I’m glad to hear you got some fortune cookies and ice creams to end the night with!
It was a good night out Kirsty. I think I still feel full from that dinner 😂
Australian Chinese cuisine is one of two of my favourite things in the world to eat, that and pizza. Shantung chicken is my favourite dish at the moment because I like the shredded cucumber and the special sauce, which contains chilli but not enough to overpower the dish. Mongolian lamb and beef and black bean are also favourites. Sometimes I just buy lots of dim dims and eat them as a meal on their own!
Thanks Cathy. These are amongst my favourites too 😃😃😃
That looks delicious. I have no experience of Australian/Chinese cuisine, but I suspect it might be nicer than Chinese/British.
I want to visit England and Scotland for curries and Haggis.
LOL I love your logic re pork belly! I wish my husband hated oysters (he never used to eat them but now loves them). I almost wish I hadn’t gotten him to try one! 😉
Sounds like you need to do what I do sometimes and instead of dessert I ask for more oysters.
Sounds like you enjoyed your meal Gaz. In relation to Mongolian Lamb – no the Mongolians have never heard of this dish nor have the Chinese any idea about the other Aussie/Chinese dishes – it’s funny I was out with my Chinese friends the other day and one works at a Chinese restaurant in Gunghalin (and that is the restaurant we went to) well she got out the proper Chinese menu that is given to the Chinese not the Aussie/Chinese one (that is given to the Aussies) and we enjoyed quality Chinese food – it was this night we laughed about what ‘Chinese’ food is here in Australia that what dishes the Chinese have never heard of.
The Aussie/Chinese dishes are definitely made for the Aussie palate but enjoyed by all which is great.
Thanks, Sue. My maternal grandparents ran Australian Chinese restaurants in Sydney and Brisbane after they sold their cane farms in Bundaberg. I got to ‘work’ in one as a little boy before it was destroyed by the 1974 floods. I remember asking what chop suey was and why we didn’t have some of the dishes on sale at home. I was told it was for the Australians.
That said, those dishes are still tasty and I am happy to eat them.
Must check this out next time I’m in Chermside.
I hope you do Christine. It would be good to get your take.
I enjoy Chinese food. My former colleague who has since retired used to get many of the single Security guards out for Dim sum, bento boxes and other Chinese food. We would go to real sit down restaurants not the fast food restaurants. She is Chinese so she knew the best places to go. Plus She speaks Cantonese. A plus in asking the staff questions. Everyone would get different dishes so we could share and sample. We always had a great time.
New York city has many excellent Chinese restaurants.
One day I want to visit New York and experience all the food including the Chinese restaurants, sandwich places, and pizza joints.
Great! New York city is a Foodie paradise. Visit between May and October when the weather is warm.
Thanks for the advice. I’m pretty keen to avoid snow and winter 😃
Same here. Snow, ice and blizzards are not my cup of tea. Wish I could move to Hawaii from December to the End of April.
When I retire I’m heading north (which is the good direction in Australia) and hopefully I’ll always be warm.
Lol! Here in the United States we must go south to get warm! 😀😁😃😄😉