Stuck to the favourites at Seabay Handmade Noodles

I get stuck with ordering my favourite dishes sometimes, none more obvious than when I'm having northern Chinese food.

With a large, enticing menu at Seabay Handmade Noodles in Burwood, I found myself gravitating towards the cucumber salad, pan fried dumplings and zhajiang noodles – which is precisely what we ordered.

Cucumber salad from Seabay Handmade Noodles, Burwood Road, Burwood

The generous cucumber salad was slightly different to what I'm used to (and the one I've started to make at home) but no less satisfying and refreshing.

With tomato wedges as well as smashed pieces of cucumber, the vinegar dressing leaned towards tart, with soy sauce and chilli aromas following close behind, garnished with shallots and coriander leaves.

Pan fried pork dumplings

The pan fried pork dumplings at Seabay looked the goods with thin dough wrappers cooked to golden bottoms. The minced pork filling lacked a little on seasoning – perhaps a flavour on top of pork, like sesame, ginger or coriander, may have elevated the little parcels of pork.

Zhajiang noodes

The feature dish had to be the zhajiang noodles with the fresh, house-made pulled noodles. Cooked to a particularly chewy state, the noodles of varying thickness soaked in a flavour-packed bean sauce of minced pork, tomato, shallots and a requested chilli addition.

The julienned cucumber was great for contrasting texture and freshness when mixed into the noodles, while also cooling some of the chilli heat.

Quick and cheerful, Seabay Handmade Noodles delivered favourites that I'm stuck on – not for safety's sake but just because they're so darn good.