Jinja Restaurant is housed in a venue that expands what you expect from a contemporary pub. The Governor Hotel is located in Macquarie Park inside a fenced compound with its own underground car park. It has elements of a club or casino with flashy fit-outs, no doubt subsidised by the dedicated gaming floor. The hotel has three different dining options with the flagship, Jinja, accessed via a dedicated lift adjacent to the reception desk.
Stepping out into an intense, bulb-studded entranceway you turn down a corridor into colonial Hong Kong. The expansive dining room includes comfy plush couches, bright red banquettes, a glass box wine cellar and a dedicated tea dispensary. With red neon, moody lighting and toilets papered in Shanghai calendar girls, it belies dining in a pub er… club er… whatever this hybrid is.
Basking in your sense of wonder, staff are proud of the restaurant and its offerings. Our sunny hostess steers us toward the signature prawn toast ($12/2 pieces) softly updated with foie gras and prawn mousse without losing the essence of the dish. The other yum cha highlight were the bright tangerine peel sui mai ($20/4 pieces). In battle prawn dumpling, lightly blistered Causeway Bay typhoon shelter “har gao” ($16/4) edge out the steamed version ($18/4) though even they are fancy with dill, bamboo shoots and Queensland king prawns.
The textural king prawns also make an appearance in a stir-fry with scallops ($36) and a medley of well-handled vegetables, from snapping fresh snow peas to frilly wood ear fungus and ribbons of red chilli. Roe-topped homemade seaweed tofu ($28) with preserved radish and egg white sauce is ridiculously good, including over the typhoon shelter-style XO crab fried rice ($40). Yes it has a high price tag, but you won’t be searching for crustacean.
While my cocktail, Panacea ($24), a well-presented pale pink concoction of rice wine, ginger, lychee and flower pepper, wanted for a bigger alcohol hit, the tea service was reverent and satisfying. Simple Jasmine Pearl ($8) green tea was also regularly topped up with hot water without request. While the (pistachio) deep fried ice cream ($25) sounded expensive, it arrived at a size bigger than a kid’s head. Cloud puffs ($22/5) chewy golden cheese bites, were a tasty misnomer. With my fortune cookie advising me to stay healthy by eating more Chinese food, I might have to come back and try the duck.
