This restaurant is large and very busy. Fortunately there is no background music because the noise of a couple of hundred people talking provides enough background noise.

The food is good value for money for a large group celebration. The service is fairly fast but there is nothing refined about it – waiters bring steel trolleys to deliver meals and more trolleys with large black plastic tubs to clear the tables.

We went with a group of 12 for a post-recital dinner and chose the cheapest banquet option for $29/head. Banquet options move north price-wise to $39/head, $49/head and over the page to $109/head from memory. Each step up includes more expensive dishes and adds more dishes to the banquet. Live crabs, lobsters and fish swim in fish tanks by the door and across the room awaiting their fate. The menu warns that live seafood takes a bit longer to prepare. I found the live seafood rather disquieting – they don’t tie up pigs, cows and chickens by the door after all . . . . and the bulbous eyes of the crabs in the murky water and bubbles seem forlorn to me.

The entrees were all deep fried – spring rolls, crab balls, curry puffs all with a basic dipping sauce.
Then came chicken and corn soup – not much flavour and heavily thickened to a glutinous consistency. There was also a large platter of fried rice.

The tables are all set with chopsticks but waiters can provide forks for those not adept with chopsticks.

The main dishes then arrived – the garlic prawns were large and juicy and lightly cooked to perfection. There was also a very tasty slow-cooked pork dish, a platter of thinly-sliced chicken, and a platter of cubed beef with onion that was tender and tasty. None of the dishes included much vegetable – just a few strips of capsicum or chunks of onion.

It was easy to share the platters of food as the table had a large lazy Susan in the middle that could be turned round for people to serve themselves. The quantities were generous and everyone felt pretty bloated by the end.

A dessert trolley arrived with banana fritters and ice-cream. Our waiter asked for a show of hands for ice-cream toppings – chocolate, caramel or strawberry and squirted toppings on, adding the plates to the congested Lazy Susan that was still covered with the empty and almost-empty platters from the main meal.

This is not the place for a romantic meal but it works well for groups who like Anglicised Chinese food and want to stick to a budget. Visited October 2014.