Master - Surry Hills

With kids in tow we booked an early sitting. We were worried going to a potential - non kid friendly venue. However the staff were fantastic and accommodating for our large family. The food was SO good. Even the littlest loved it - especially the milk congee with dragonfruit dessert.

Let's start with the good. The scallop silk was delicious and so was the shezuan prawns that we had. And like everyone says the burned cabbage was really good too. The perch however, which came recommended by the waitress, was super bland and tasted like nothing. Now the bad....the service was shocking. I would give a terrible rating for that. Not only was the waitress super impatient and ripped our plates away from under us twice whilst one of us was still chewing food but she also was snappy with us. Add to that that our first course come to the table maybe two minutes after we had placed our order and then within the next 7 minutes we had the next two courses on our table we felt like they couldn't get us out far enough. Not an enjoy full dining experience at all. Would the food and the timing of the food have been mindblowingly amazing maybe you could forgive bad service but seeing it all as a whole I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. Shame really but also issues that could potentially be easily fixed.

The food and service was outstanding. The food is very adventurous and it works. My favourite was the watermelon, then the scallops. I enjoyed everything that we ordered. Thank you for a great night.

I was really excited to try Master, but left a little underwhelmed. Very happy i got a table with late notice, albeit at 6pm, arrive at 5.55pm but was told to wait outside in the cold, first cross. Wine list very limited and too trendy for my staid taste. Service a little aloof, but informed about the dishes. The food, very mixed, some superb, like the burnt cabbage, must try, especially closer to the burnt edges, where it loses a bit of its sweetness for a toasty flavor, yum! Seafood combo far too sweet for my palate and the fried rice sensational.The scallop silk divine, but i was expecting a hot dish, not cold.

My husband decided to book this place on Saturday night; it was a surprise. He wasn't sure what type of food it was so I expected another of those experimental food places. Our booking was at 6:00pm sharp; we arrived at 5:55pm to find the place locked when we tried to get in. Then, this guy in denim who looked like the restaurant manager opened the door and told us he assumed we had a booking for 6:00pm and said that the head chef wasn't there yet and asked us to wait. There were also other group of people who must have had a 6 o'clock booking who were already waiting outside. I looked at the place which looked like a recycled shop into a restaurant and the "Master" neon blue sign and thought: "what a great start" and didn't expect much about the food. At 6, we were all let in. I looked at the cooks in the opened kitchen and looked at the moment which offered some sort of fusion Asian dishes and thought: "Caucadians cooking Asian food; definitively experimental food". We ordered some scallop silk with xo sauce which tasted like a sheet of scallop noodle; I thought that it was made out of rice floor with minced scallop but was told that it was an actual whole scallop that they flattened into a sheet. The next appetizer was the Xi'an bun which I thought had too much meat juice skirking out but it still tasted good. Then, followed the eggplant, zucchini and black garlic which tasted divine. The burnt cabbage served on charcoal came next; this was also yummy. The above were all starters and were served pretty quickly. We finished our meal with the Peking style pro jowl which took quite a long time before it was served. We were not disappointed with the result: the meat was delicious and juicy and just perfectly cooked but less the fat would have been perfect; think that they should have added more pancakes as they were definitively not enough. We finished the meal with the rice congee which was actually a rice pudding with apple and dragon fruit sauce; this was actually delicious too and felt healthy. Overall, a very good meal and we will come back again.