Jin Yan (2) - Castle Hill

For an early birthday dinner with my family and some family friends, we went to Jin Yang, the Chinese restaurant within Castle Hill RSL. The waiter who served us was relatively noob. We were like - how's the crab? He'd reply... we don't have crab...wait, let me check (then 2 mins later)... oh, there is crab. We'd ask - Can we get a barramundi (after seeing a tank full of them outside)? He'd reply ... we don't have barramundi today ... wait, let me check (then 2 mins later)...oh, we do have barramundi. He was so slow and absentminded the whole night, it would be interesting to know what was on his mind.

Anyway - after all the waiter cafuffle, we got food on the table (albiet slowly). There was the XO pipies with a fried thin rice noodle base, and the mud crab with vermecelli pot. The pipies were not bad - tossed in a good amount of XO sauce and accompanied by crunchy sauce covered noodle chunks. The crab was likewise ok. There was vermicelli a-plenty (which was lucky since everyone was wanting the vermicelli more than the crab) and the crab was tasty and fresh too.

mud crab vermicelli hot pot

XO pipies

Since there were a few people on the table (myself included) who were not huge fans of white rice, fried rice was ordered instead. There was the barramundi cooked with blackbean sauce and the scallops with sea cucumber stir fry. Both these seafood dishes were alright. The scallops could have done with a bit less time in the wok though.

fried rice

scallops with sea cucumber

steamed barramundi

There was also a honey black pepper pork, some garlic tossed bok choi, and a seafood tofu pot which came out (and remained) sizzling hot. The black peppered pork was extremely black peppered - so black peppered that you could taste virtually nothing but the black pepper. The veges were... veges? The seafood tofu pot was quite good though. The tofu was silken and smooth - good amount of sauce and flavour, and a decent amount of seafood residing within it - there was scallop, fish, squid and prawns. Not bad.

honey black pepper pork

garlic bok choi

seafood tofu hot pot

So overall, the food was average but the service was a little lacking or subpar. We all left with a satisfied full feeling though :)

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money -7/10
Overall - 27.5/40

Jin Yan
Castle Hill RSL
77 Castle Street
Castle Hill
NSW 2154
Tel: (02) 8858 4848