Perfectly positioned along Alexander Street in Crows Nest is Peacock Gardens, a wonderful Chinese restaurant serving modern Chinese cuisine. First established in 1975, Peacock Gardens is expertly run under the careful eye and guidance of owner Mathew Chan.
Not only does Mathew carefully select the tantalising menu, specials and extensive wine list, he also ensures that all patrons receive the ultimate first-class dining experience through attentive and friendly service by his staff.
This was my second time at Peacock Gardens and I was just as impressed this time as I was when I visited last year. We didn’t have a table booked, but luckily for us there were still a few tables remaining on this busy Friday night. Peacock Garden was already bustling with activity and lively conversation and the serving of sizzling plates of mouthwatering food when we arrived, always a good sign of a restaurant’s popularity. In fact, Peacock Gardens over the years has won numerous awards including Best Chinese restaurant of 2007 and 2011 from the Restaurant and Catering Association.
Our waiter Ricky, who has been with Peacock Gardens for more than 30 years, was all smiles and extremely friendly and helpful and simply brought a smile to my face. It’s a real pleasure to be greeted so warmly with his smile never lapsing throughout the service.
Peacock Gardens’ menu is full of tantalising choices making my decision even harder, especially when presented with the monthly specials and the house specialties. The Sang Choi Bow on the house specialties sounded wonderful, but I will have to come back for this as it was a minimum of 2 pieces. Instead, I opted for a bowl of Wonton Soup - one of my favourite soups and a dish I have to order whenever I see it. My boyfriend and I also decided to order the Half Crispy Duck Pancakes as we remembered how good they were from last time.
We also shared the fillet steak in Szechuan style sauce, served with snow peas and had the Singapore Noodles to go with this. We mentioned to Ricky that my boyfriend had an allergy to seafood, so he ensured that no prawns came with the dish.
Other choices that drew my attention, but will have to await next time included the crispy king prawns with garlic and chilli, the shang tung chicken and pork ribs with honey pepper sauce.
On the main menu there were plenty of soups, entrees, fish and seafood dishes as well as your meat and poultry dishes cooked with your chosen cooking method, as well as a selection of vegetarian dishes, rice and noodles.
We also had a glass of wine each from the specials menu for $8 a glass which seemed pretty reasonable, whilst if you preferred a bottle then there is an extensive wine line to suit all budgets whether you want a $40 bottle of wine or $420 bottle. I even spotted a bottle priced at $1,800 (Penfolds Grange Hermitage) if you really want to splash out!
After about 10 minutes or so, my wonton soup and our duck pancakes were brought to the table. Our waitress served the duck for us which included four pancakes. She expertly shred the duck and made up our pancakes for us with a good serving of hoisin sauce and cucumber, before leaving the rest of the duck on the table. The only thing about the crispy duck pancakes is that it tastes so good and there is never enough! I think we could both eat a whole duck to ourselves – dangerously delicious!
My wonton soup was equally as delicious, served piping hot and with a generous serving of wontons - I must have had at least six or more wontons in my bowl which made my tummy very happy.
Shortly after finishing our duck our table was cleared and our Singapore Noodles and steak dish were served not long after. Again, our waitress plated us some noodles and steak on our plates before leaving the main dishes on our table. Our Singapore Noodles were incredibly tasty with good hints of chilli running through, whilst the steak was absolutely succulent and well spiced with the heat of the Szechuan sauce running through. The snow peas also added some green and crunch to our dish which was welcomed.
Once we had finished, we were provided with hot towels alongside fortune cookies. I really do believe in my fortune from these fortune cookies, and this time mine said, “You will be awarded with some great honour.” I will just have to see what this great honour is!
Overall, our food and service was first class and I cannot wait to return. There is a wonderful variety of menu choices to appeal to all tastebuds and there are plenty more dishes I definitely need to try out! Thanks again Peacock Gardens and to our waiter Ricky who brought smiles all around.