LOCATION
Located on the first floor, corner of Pitt and Hay Street, next to the Capitol Theatre.
PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
With a throng of Chinese restaurants around Sydney’s Haymarket competing for your attention, it’s hard to decide which one will satisfy your cravings with truly delicious cuisine and which will leave a less pleasant taste in your mouth. Zilver, we’re happy to confirm, is definitely the former. Sitting at the corner of Pitt and Hay Streets, this restaurant bangs out fantastic lunchtime yum cha and an impressive a la carte dinner selection. Set over a couple of areas, Zilver varies in mood – from the brisk, no-fuss classic simplicity of its expansive yum cha area to decadent red-walled, white-set private and dining rooms.
Come at lunchtime and carts stacked with Chinese favourites like dumplings, steamed bok choy, barbecue pork, Peking duck, noodles and the like will greet your palate. But if you’re a seafood or Chinese cuisine buff, you want to come for dinner when the 140-dish menu comes out blazing. Offering a fabulous selection of contemporary and classic Chinese dishes, it covers areas like “fusion dishes”, “barbecued specialities” “soups” “poultry”, “beef and lamb”, “pork”, “hotpots”, “vegetables and bean curd” and “noddles and rice”. However this place is undoubtedly a master of seafood, a lot of which resides in restaurant fish tanks. Browse the “shark’s fin”, “ abalone, sea cucumber and fish maw”, “live lobster and crab” and “prawns, scallops, pipis and squid” sections to find what tempts. Too hard to choose? Try the signature of deep-fried mud crab tossed in salted egg. Alternatively this is a good place to splurge on lobster, which comes served two ways. If you’re not convinced don’t worry, there’s a more subtle way to try the seafood. Zilver infuses some of its classic Chinese dishes like “Zilver’s special fried rice” with seafood embellishments (in this case crab meat, fried scallop and salmon roe).
Agnes Gajewska
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Stone-clad fish tanks display live seafood, with modern timber lattice screens lining one side of the walls, accented by bronze mosaic pillars. Custom-designed upholstered silk chairs in copper tones complement latte tone tablecloths laid with pure white china and cutlery specially sourced from China. Zilver’s cuisine captures the best of contemporary and classic Chinese dishes. Using Australia’s freshest produce with an emphasis on live seafood, Zilver’s menu spans a volume of 140 dishes.
Signature dishes such as deep fried live mud crab tossed in salted egg, where the mud crab is deep fried and then tossed in a hot work for 40 seconds in salted egg to coat the shellfish with a subtle savoury film, or braised mud crab with hua diao wine, where cups of wine are painstakingly added at different stages to deliver just the right amount of sweetness and complexity. Flaming pork ribs with mayonnaise arrives at the table flaming with the drama of live fire and the intensity of wine while wok-seared diced beef fillets with wasabi sauce has the beef marinated in a secret seasoning, then seared in a hot wok till medium rare and added with snow peas and mushrooms at the end.
FUNCTIONS
From an intimate corporate business lunch to an elaborate wedding reception, the main dining room sits 550, with an interchangeable backdrop and stage that allows for customized wedding props, corporate logos and innovative product launches.
PRIVATE DINING
For a more personal touch, choose from the five private dining rooms – Diamond, Crystal, Silver, Pearl and Platinum, which cater to every style and requirement. Each room features a different colour theme inspired by their names and are equipped with state-of-the-art audio-visual. Minimum spend of $650 per table applies.
Opening Hours
Monday to Sunday
Lunch 10:00am-3:00pm
Dinner 5.00pm-11.00pm