Uncle Ming's

I do not have an Uncle Ming. I don’t know anyone who does, but if owning a groovy small bar in York St Sydney is part of the territory of having an Uncle Ming, then I want one. The small bar vibe in Sydney is constant, strong and elevating. There are lots of small bars in Sydney which have unique/awkward/unusual methods of entry. My personal favourite two bars (for the entry-value purpose alone) are The Rook and Baxters…. The photo adorning this review was in fact taken just last week at Baxters of yours truly, my colleague and occasional lycra wearing friend Peter Bobbin and Immigration/visa guru Rita Chowdhury from Withers lawyers in Sydney. Rest assured that separate reviews of those two likely hot spots (Baxters and The Rook – not Bobbin and Chowdhury) are not far away for you! So lets talk about the Uncle Ming point of entry. It gets a few ticks for the following reasons: it appears in an otherwise unappealing and uninteresting part of York St; you can buy a cheap suit at the adjunct and highly publicised adjoining premises, and despite being underground (which is a seeming precursor to any small bar success in Sydney) it is an ideal launching pad for further nearby nocturnal activities. Having nestled your way inside, what’s next? Well, there is much to like about what the good uncle has to offer. Firstly and secondly (and importantly) – there are no unfortunate dark caves in the den, and it is indeed possible to hold a normal conversation with a normal (even lawyerly) friend/accomplice/acquaintance. The beer offering (as if that is important!) is sound, as is the dumpling and associated steamed Asian cuisine offering. During this review we had no real difficulty finding a bevy of attractive, moist dumping-like things to eat and also managed to find various colours of wine to soundly accompany. Some people I know would suggest that I have never had this problem, but I digress. In short, if you are looking for something relatively groovy and painless so far as the after-work drink and grub thing is concerned, then get yourself a friend who has a relative called Ming, marry into the family and/or front up to Uncle Ming's for a bit of jocularity. Uncle Ming's is located at 55 York St, Sydney.