woolloomooloo | Absolutely Ayana

To celebrate Helen’s 24th birthday we took an unsuspecting Helen to Woolloomooloo Wharf for her birthday dinner and erm… made her guess out of six restaurants on the wharf which we had chosen for her birthday dinner. Poor Helen couldn’t win and didn’t want to say the wrong thing, so we let her on that we were taking her to China Doll (Woolloomooloo Wharf, Cowper Wharf Rd) but I think secretly she was hoping it would be Kingsley’s (next time babe!). I was eager to try China Doll after recommendations from friends about the food and more importantly I heard the cocktails are amazing. The atmosphere was buzzing and it was a full house so we were seated outside along the wharf and though we didn’t feel the wind, we did have trouble seeing each other as they had forgotten to place candle lights on our table… which they promptly rectified as soon as we informed them.

After a few suggestions from our friendly waiter and hearing the specials on offer that night, we decided to opt out of the banquet menu and instead chose mostly signature dishes of 3 entrées and 4 mains from the a la carte menu hoping it would be enough to fill our bellies. We started the evening off with one of the specials; dozen oysters with a ginger and lime dressing which were divine and creamy. Followed by the sashimi of kingfish an ocean trout which uses sustainable produce and the kingfish is the "rolls royce" of kingfish from SA. I especially loved the blackened chilli dressing, very different to what I usually have sashimi with. Our third entree was yet another special on offer, the crispy wonton which encased a whole scallop!
Our first main served was the rich and numbing penang curry with melt in your mouth wagyu beef shin. The complexity of spices in the curry was absolutely delicious and I enjoyed every last drop thoroughly with my jasmine rice. The following mains were great too; the tea smoked duck was tender and our prawns were on steroids in our salt and pepper prawns. Finishing our mains off was my favourite dish of the night; the mind blowing delicious crispy pork belly. I couldn’t get enough of these tasty little morsels which were crispy and packed with flavour, I think I fell in love with this dish.
Not one to pass on dessert we ordered the large dessert platter which included a black rice pudding with ginger which isn’t my type of dessert, a trio of sorbet and ice cream and sago with passionfruit – I love love love sago!! I couldn’t resist so I also ordered the condensed milk tart as it wasn’t included in the dessert platter, and boy was I glad I ordered it. The crumbly tart oozed condensed milk which was like heaven, and I think I single handedly ate all the caramel peanut pieces scattered on the plate too 🙂

Their cocktails were indeed amazing and I did fall in love with the crispy pork belly so I’d return to China Doll again, definitely when I’m feeling a little fancy. I must admit it was quite glamorous sipping on pretty cocktails and staring at the city skyline under the beautiful pinkish hue of the sky.