Our story starts with Mum.
I'm Muriel. Blue Eye Dragon exists because in 2001 I asked my mum, Jade, a simple question: will you help me open a restaurant? She said yes without hesitating. Twenty years on, she still makes the dumplings.
Meet Jade
Mum started cooking for her aunties and uncles at 13. Later, in Taiwan, she ran two restaurants at once, one with 400 seats and one with 1,000, and rode a scooter between them during service.
She can cook ten courses for 20 people without a helper or a recipe. She never taught me recipes - she taught me why: the ingredient, the preparation, the technique.
She's in her 70s now and still won't let me cook her a proper Taiwanese dinner. Her reason: "It's faster I cook, and you don't dirty your clothes."
Our regulars know her well. Plenty come in as much to see Jade as to eat.
From Grain to Blue Eye Dragon.
Blue Eye Dragon opened in September 2005 on the ground floor of the old Pyrmont Arms Hotel. In 2010 we moved into St Bede's Hall, the heritage building at 37 Pyrmont Street, and kept the fit-out simple so the building could do the talking. The dishes came with us. So did the regulars.
Pyrmont has changed around us. The food hasn't. Years ago I put my beef noodle soup on the cover of a local paper with nothing but the line "the best kept secret in Pyrmont".
No name, no address.
People found it anyway. It's still on the menu, and I still like that line.
What we cook and why it tastes like this
Three generations of Taiwanese cooks, one kitchen.
Native Taiwanese traditions, provincial Chinese technique and Japanese clarity: flavour, balance and freshness, dishes cooked for the table rather than the trend.
The dumplings are folded by hand every day, and Mum still makes them. They're still the thing people write about twenty years in.
The beef noodle soup is hers. The sanbei three cup chicken, the slow-cooked pork belly, the chilli wontons, the XO sauce people ask to take home: all hers first, mine now.
Nothing on the menu is there simply because it photographs well. It's there because a family has been eating it for three generations and I like to think it's really good.
People who cook for a living come here to eat, and sometimes to learn.
We’ve hosted and taught fellow chefs, such as Justine Schofield from MasterChef, and Kate Bracks, in years past.
We’re proud of our regulars, such as Stefano Manfredi found us back in the Grain days, followed us to Pyrmont and has been bringing his family in for twenty years.
I teach small cooking classes at the Miele Experience Centre in Bondi Junction, four people at a time, dumplings and the dishes people ask about most. For teams and private groups I can bring a dumpling class to you. Dates are on What's On.
My mother and I wrote three cookbooks together: Blue Eye Dragon: Taiwanese Cooking (2008), Wu-Gu (2015) and, most recently, The Taiwanese Table (2026). All published by New Holland, all cooked in this kitchen before a word was written. In good bookshops and at our counter, $49.99. The Taiwanese Table is dedicated to Mum.
As featured in Time Out Sydney, Sydney Morning Herald Good Food, AGFG and ABC.
"Go here for the service as much as the food."
Time Out SydneyCome visit us.
Twenty years, with a lot of help.
None of this happens alone.
Our staff, our regulars, our suppliers and a very understanding landlord got us here.
The day before the March 2020 lockdown, customers turned up and ordered far more than they needed, just to help. We haven't forgotten.
37 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont.
Open for general table bookings:
- Lunch Tue-Fri, 12pm to 2pm
- Dinner Tue-Sat, 5pm to 9pm
Private events are available any day, including Sundays, Mondays and public holidays.
Plan a private function and corporate event with us.