Pounding Rice Bowl
Where the interactive smash-hit signature is just the beginning.
You’ve ordered food, the kitchen has prepared it, and it’s arrived at your table looking lovely. There’s only one thing to do: wreck it. Pick up the provided pestle and pound your meal into a mash. That’s the concept at Pounding Rice Bowl, a city restaurant that explains its key activity in its name. Smashing a bowl of rice, minced pork and soft braised eggplant is a great idea.
The broken rice absorbs the juice from the pork, the eggplant becomes almost creamy and the amalgam makes for comforting chopsticked mouthfuls. Other toppings include braised pork belly and meatballs, but the premium wuchang rice from Heilongjiang province in north-east China – medium grain and slightly sticky – is a star too.
It’s not all pestles, either. Classic Aussie-Chinese dishes sit alongside dumplings and a fried chicken carcass served with a zingy Sichuan spice salt. Smashing.
Good to know: The scallion oil noodles here are one of the best sub-$10 lunches in town.
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.
Last visited: 2025
Continue this series
Up next
- Review
Red Cliff
A sensory assault and heartfelt celebration of China’s spiciest cuisines.
- Review
Reed House
A gorgeously lit restaurant hiding in a cottage.
Previously
- Review
Pinto Thai
A fast and no-frills spot for lovers of meaty, spice-packed dishes.
See all storiesMore:
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.