You can usually tell whether a restaurant is any good by looking at the front door. A good restaurant will have a nice mix of locals and out of towners, loitering around the foyer, tippy-toeing up and down to check if there are any empty tables. You can see them eyeing the seats of the diners who have just finished off their desserts and ready to pounce once the diners stand up to pay.
Crab Claw - Large
Cabramatta’s Vinh Phat is one of these places. It also happens to be our favourite place for yum cha in Sydney.
Vinh Phat
Vinh Phat has been around since I was a kid. The great thing about this place is the incredible consistency. The same shopfront, the same decor, the same 15-20 tables in the same layout, the same long wait, the same unique dishes, the same waitstaff.
The same folding partition in front of the toilets...
During our latest visit, we arrive on a Saturday at 9:30 in the morning. Any later and we’d have to face the long lines and ridiculous parking situation at Cabramatta. When we enter the restaurant, we’re a little disappointed to see the tables have already been filled. Then out of nowhere, a family of 6 sitting at a table for four stands up and is ushered onto an larger table. The mother and kids carry their teapot and bowls still half full with food across the restaurant. We are gestured to move into the newly vacated four seater table.
Chai Tow Kway - Extra Large
As soon as we sit down, Ms Taste gestures for the Chai Tow Kway and it teasingly sits there in front of us before we have even gotten our chopsticks and yum cha card. Many Cantonese yum chas don’t have this dish so it’s a ‘must order’ whenever we come here. The steaming hot mixture of soft but firm, slightly burnt flour cubes with the sweet soy and the egg and the radish means that this is polished off very quickly.
Crab Claw - Large
The minced crab claws also get a lot of love. You only get three, so if you’ve got an even party, you might need to barter for the rights to one for yourself. Or you could just order another serving of them!
Seafood Spring Roll - Large
The seafood spring rolls here are a favourite from my childhood. My mum and I would come here when I was little just and get a serve of these each for ourselves. The soft, crunchy skin covered in a sweet and sour sauce and the always hot filling of minced prawns and water chestnuts are a winning combination. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these anywhere else.
Seafoody goodness
Seafood Dim Sim - Medium
When I see those yellowskins, my tastebuds have been programmed to expect a nice mouthful of pork with specks of tiny prawn bits but these dim sims are filled with a juicy minced prawn mixture.
Prawn Rice Noodle - Large
Steamed rice noodle dishes would have to have the shortest yum cha shelf life. If not eaten fresh from the steamer, the taste and texture can drop from a perfect 10 down to a 1. Another advantage of a small restaurant, these get gobbled up by every table as soon as they leave the kitchen so they’re as fresh as you can get.
Prawn Dumpling - Medium
These prawn dumplings always come with bright bits of bamboo shoots in the filling. Other places do this dish a lot better but these are pretty satisfactory.
Chicken Feet - Medium
Ms. Taste cleans up the Chicken Feet any time we have yum cha. I would have one and she would eat the remaining three or four. Again like the prawn rice noodles – the quality of the dish decreases exponentially with time.
Iced Coffee
Total damage for the 7 dishes and a drink? $35. Is there any other Yum Cha in Sydney where you can get such excellent bang for your buck as Vinh Phat? Feel free to prove me wrong but I don’t think that there is.
Vinh Phat
40 Park Rd
Cabramatta
NSW 2166
# 02 9726 2720
Open daily for lunch and dinner
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14 comments
looks like some great dishes. what would you order again. those crab claws looking really interesting.
Yum cha at 9.30am is pretty early! Looks like they have some slightly different dishes to the usual yum cha but they all look delicious, especially the seafood dim sim
Hi Simon! I’d order everything again
This is pretty much what we get every single time we come here.
Hi Jacq! The earlier we eat, the more time we have for more eating
I think that is the biggest appeal for us, the fact they have all these dishes most other places don’t
Gosh I could do a big bowl of chai tow kway with fluorescent chilli sauce slathered all over the top right now… I’ve only ever eaten this at home or in Malaysia – had no idea you could pick it up at yum cha (in Sydney no less!)
And I’ve gotta go with Ms Taste on the chicken feet front. Love them & will eat as many as fit in my stomach
This used to be our favourite place for yum cha when I was young too! I remember the flavouring they use with their pig’s blood dish is the best in all of Cabramatta and we used to go there just for it. Ah, brings back the memories..
Hi Shez! I love chicken feet too but one is more than enough for me. You can get chai tow kway fresh out of the wok at the Chatswood markets on Thursday nights too.
Hi Forager! I love the pig’s blood too! But on this visit, it only came around when we were already so full and Ms. Taste would’ve made me scarf it down myself if I had ordered it.
Love Vinh Phat. You can’t find seafood spring rolls like the ones they serve anywhere else in Sydney. The tangy sauce they drizzle over it is so good. And I could do with a plate of the Chai Tow Kuay right now!
I can’t believe I’ve never been here! My family normally go to the city for yum cha, and there’s no way we’d be able to get to Cabra in time to beat the queues. damn. I’ve never seen char kwoy teow at yum cha!
My fav yumcha place…hate the ridiculous lines out the door.
loved the way u tried to name the dished in chinkish then gave up and just added a description
Its one of the better places for yum cha in Cabra,some of the other places have gone down in quality,and the one of the same street only a few doors down,can i say i had the worst experience there,little cockroaches running from underneath my bamboo………
Food looks absolutely fantastic. Never tried this place before.
I practically go there for every yum cha meals, with the family! It’s awesome!
this is my fave yumcha! :O)
Best Yum Cha I have had in a long time, my wife and myself are known now by the staff