Omar Hsu opened Ommi Don in a Broadway arcade in May last year. Now, the familiar neon signage is beckoning to passers-by in Redfern to come and try Hsu’s creative Taiwanese menu.

Hsu honed his craft at Matt Moran’s Aria and North Bondi Fish, and he says the Redfern iteration of his hole-in-the-wall takeaway joint was a natural next step. “It’s affordable comfort food for the locals,” he tells Broadsheet. “It’s not a fancy restaurant, it’s takeaway – that’s the business style we want.”

While there are a few tables for customers to sit, the MO is attractive food to grab and go. And, with the store right next to a busy supermarket, the model is working.

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“For the past 10 years I’ve worked as a chef in Australia, it’s helped me a lot to know the flavour the local people want,” Hsu says. The Broadway store allowed Hsu to refine the menu, meaning Redfern had a head start when it came to crowd-pleasing dishes. His top pick? The lu rou fan, a Taiwanese pork belly dish that showcases the beloved Taiwanese Q texture, which is something springy, almost chewy, with a bit of resistance.

Others Hsu proudly calls out are the beef noodle soup – complete with handmade noodles and braised Wagyu, and rich with soy sauce, ginger and garlic – and the chicken wings that are accompanied by tangy golden kimchi, an Ommi Don signature where cabbage is cured and flavoured with spicy bean curd and carrot.

Of course, there’s also the variety of “don”, donburi rice bowls where your choice of protein – the lu rou fan, perhaps? – is served with a jammy egg over purple rice.

“The three-cup chicken don is one of the traditional Taiwanese foods,” Hsu says. “The ‘three-cup’ is one cup of soy sauce, one cup of wine and one cup of sesame oil, and some ginger. In Taiwan, it’s a chicken with a bone; [here] we’re doing boneless crispy fried chicken.”

New to the menu at Redfern are the prawn rolls, fried in bean curd until crisp, inspired by the popular street food in southern Taiwan. Desserts include a creamy serve of tofu pudding, topped with the Q-heavy boba or sweetened red bean.

“There are not many Taiwanese food restaurants in Sydney,” Hsu says. “I’d like to encourage people to know more about Taiwanese food, come to try and see the difference … it’s pretty amazing.”

Ommi Don
7–9 Gibbons Street, Redfern

Hours:
Mon to Sat midday–3pm, 4.30pm–8.30pm

ommidon.com.au
@ommisdon