Ever wondered why there are so many restaurants with grapes on the ceiling and similar menus on one Haymarket block? We have the answers.
Stop the clocks, lower the flags to half-mast, get out the violins and put out your special braised eggplants. Chinese Noodle House, a beloved institution at the south end of Chinatown, is shutting shop, and the devastation is real.
In a statement posted on the window of his Thomas Street restaurant and to Instagram this week, owner Eric Zhang announced the closure and thanked his patrons for their continued support. “It has been our honour and pleasure to serve you, and we are deeply grateful for your companionship along the way.”
The reason? Zhang’s landlord has decided not to renew the lease, leading to tearful tributes to a place where friendships were forged over molten-hot eggplant and many dumplings.
“If the world is against Chinese Noodle House, then I am against the world,” one Instagram user wrote. “What’s the point of anything?” asked another.
When it ceases trading in December, it will join Marigold, Golden Century and BBQ King on the list of Sydney Chinatown restaurants that have closed since the pandemic. Far from being a death knell for the area, though, recent statistics indicate Chinatown is actually in the midst of a $44 million revitalisation project, and is thriving.
“In the 2025 financial year, Haymarket had the highest annual spend amongst all precincts in the City of Sydney economy, at $630 million. To put it in context, that’s almost double Potts Point,” says Kevin Cheng, project manager at Haymarket Alliance community organisation.
“In terms of the bounce-back, the spend in Haymarket is up about 44 per cent on pre-pandemic levels, so the numbers are very strong.”
Regardless, the level of confusion regarding Chinese Noodle House’s closure has been in overdrive this week, not least because the restaurant – fondly remembered for its special braised eggplant and plastic grape decorations – is one of several scattered throughout one building complex with near-identical menus, decor and names.
What’s the best one, though? Can you still BYO? What happened to the man who used to play violin at one of the restaurants? We sat down with a plate of Xinjiang noodles and set out to get to the bottom of these burning questions.
I know Chinese Noodle House! It’s the one with the plastic grapes on the ceiling and the guy playing violin, right?
Actually, no. But kind of. And already, this is where it gets complicated. No shade on Chinese Noodle House, but the restaurant you’re probably thinking of is Chinese Noodle Restaurant, founded in 1991 by Xiao Tang Qin, who grew up in China’s Xinjiang region and was a concert violinist before he moved to Sydney in the early ’90s. He worked as a kitchenhand before launching the original Chinese Noodle Restaurant, where he spent 19-hour days pulling noodles and shaping dumplings, entertaining guests with his violin while they ate.
OK, so Chinese Noodle House is closing, but I can still go to Chinese Noodle Restaurant, right?
Sure can. It’s about 10 metres from Chinese Noodle House, with plenty of outdoor tables, umbrellas and a BYO-friendly policy. But that said, Qin and his wife Helen Sun are no longer involved. According to their daughter, Jenny Qin, they sold the original years ago, then systematically relaunched with similar concepts and menus, before selling again.
At various points they’ve owned Chinese Noodle Restaurant and Chinese Noodle House on Thomas Street, as well as another Chinese Noodle Restaurant on the corner of Quay and Thomas Streets, plus a sibling next door. They’ve also opened in Pyrmont, Neutral Bay, the CBD and most recently at Lemon Grove shopping centre in Chatswood, which trades under the name Chinatown Noodle Restaurant.
That’s a lot of Chinese noodles. So who owns the OG now, and who took over Chinese Noodle House?
The original is now owned by Annie Zhang, Qin and Sun’s niece. She’s kept the menu basically the same, and shares a slice of the sprawling outdoor seating.
The lease for Chinese Noodle House – the one closing – is reportedly in the hands of Qin and Sun’s nephew, Xin Jiang Sun. He used to run it, but then sold to Zhang before launching a similar concept in Newtown. Somewhere in there he bought the property, so he became Zhang’s landlord. Word is when Chinese Noodle House closes, Sun is planning to relaunch right back where he started.
Got it. But then why did the founders keep selling and relaunching? Isn’t everybody cannibalising each others’ businesses?
Jenny Qin explained this well: “We’ve had our ex-employees go all over Sydney, opening up similar Northern Chinese-style restaurants using our recipes. It doesn’t really reduce the business: the spaces are so small, with so many people coming to eat that if you can’t find seats in one place, you can find it at another restaurant, so it’s never really a bother.”
Your choice of Chinese Noodle largely comes down to where you’ve had the best times.
Opinion is even divided in the Good Food office regarding which is the best of the four in Haymarket. The original stays truest to the recipes, but then the corner site offers breakfast and Uighur-style lamb pilaf. At the end of it, your choice of Chinese Noodle largely comes down to where you’ve had the best times, whether it was sharing a table with uni friends, dumplings and cheap beer, or on a first date with BYO chardonnay.
OK, I really need my fix. So the Chinese Noodle Restaurant on the corner, which Good Food reviewed back in 2022, is where I’ll find the original owners?
You would have. But in 2023, they actually sold to their former kitchen manager, while their pastry chef took over the Chatswood branch, as well as another Chinatown Noodle Restaurant (seriously) on the corner of Quay Street and Thomas Lane. Xiao Tan Qin is approaching 80, so odds are that was his last hurrah.
Not to discount the very real emotions regarding Chinese Noodle House’s closure, or to trivialise Zhang’s dilemma, but if there’s a bigger story, it’s that the founders quietly left the stage a couple of years ago, and most of us missed it.
So that’s it then? No more violin?
Don’t count on it. Qin is teaching his grandson to play, and Jenny has seen him retire a few times in the past, only to leap back into business, so there might be one last dance in him. “One last one – or three,” she says. “He never wants to retire.”
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David Matthews is a food writer and editor, and co-editor of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2025.
