Shanghai Village Dumpling
SVD is one of those mainstays in Melbourne, somewhere almost everyone has heard of and almost as many have eaten at. Situated in the heart of Chinatown, this place definitely gets some very foot traffic, perhaps not as heavy as it used, but a lot of people nonetheless. The popularity is quite understandable, given that they do decently nice dumplings and other Chinese food for a good price. I would rate the quality better than Camy but not nearly as good as somewhere like Shanghai Street Dumpling. The service is pretty bad, they are very abrupt and a high turnover of tables is the business model here. I wasn't expecting amazing service so wasn't so much bothered by that element but what did annoy me somewhat was the fact that the bill came to us non-itemised with just a number written on it for the total cost. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm fairly certain that's illegal.
Wonderbao
Finally came here not too long ago after wanting to try for a very long time but never actually bothering to go. Wonderbao is a clever little concept, Chinese-style bao in a clean and trendy setting with a nice mix of both traditional and not-so-traditional fillings. The prices are also really quite reasonable. I had gone there wanting to try their Kimchi bao but at the time they had discontinued them. I think they're back on the menu now, however. Instead we picked up a couple of pork belly gua baos with were pretty tasty—the pork belly was sticky and not too fatty and a good flavour throughout. We also picked up a couple of sweet taro baos, which were OK but definitely not earth moving. The dough in the buns was very soft and supple and had a good mouthfeel.
Shark Fin Inn
I've been here a couple of times before when Dad has been in town. This is definitely one of the better places in Chinatown. They apparently do a nice yum cha but I've only ever been here for dinner. As with any good Cantonese-style Chinese restaurant, they have plenty of live seafood swimming in takes. Let me tell you, there are, in my opinion, few things worse than the texture, flavour and mouthfeel of a lobster that wasn't swimming right before it was cooked. They have a pretty good selection of seafood here, including the aforementioned lobster, abalone, snow crab (!!) and of course, fish. The most recent time I came here we had a seafood hot pot. This hot pot didn't feature the stuff you might normally associate with a hotpot (e.g. fish balls) but we had it with lovely, straight out of the tank seafood. One of the revelations was the sliced green lip abalone, which actually tasted amazing in a hotpot. I'm not normally a huge fan of the green lip variety of abalone as I fine it quite bland and tasteless compared to the smaller black lip version but in the hotpot it tasted great. We also had a huge fish which was sliced up for us and for some reason the fish was sold by the unit not by the found as you'd normally get which actually made it very good value.
Indochine
The first time I'd been here was for a team lunch when I used to work in Box Hill. I've since been back a couple of times and had a good experience on each occasion. If you go, I absolutely must recommend getting the traditional hanoi spring rolls (nem ran/cha gio), made with rice paper and filled with pork and crab. It was here that I was first introduced to this dish and I've since had it many times, both at restaurants and making my own at home (which btw, is pretty easy). Indochine's is still the nicest I've had at a restaurant. What makes theirs great is that they're really evenly fried and super crispy and they use an abundance of pepper which personally I love. They also use these spring rolls in their grilled meat and spring roll buns, which I also highly recommend.
Schnitz, Queen St CBD
I don't know much about the history of the Schnitz franchise but this was definitely the first I'd ever seen in Melbourne. I used to work in the building right near where this little outlet is situated and I first got exposed to their food when a colleague bought a bag of their chips and served them with me. Of course we all know that Schnitz make some of the best tasting chips you could ever hope to try. The chips are as good as always here but the overall quality of food is better than the other Schnitzes, as is the value. If you get a schnitzel chips and salad here you'll get two schnitzels, whereas in the franchises you'll get just the one. Their salads are also quite tasty and substantial; try the caesar. While it might not look as outwardly cool as other Schnitz locations, the food and value here are definitely better.
Hanaichi
Before Rice Workshop, came along this and Don Don were about the only places in the CBD you could find sub $8 Japanese meals. As you can imagine, this place is very popular with students but not exclusively. We've been here once and didn't have the greatest experience. We had a Katsu Curry don which wasn't at all great. The Katsu cutlet left a bit to be desired; it was very thin and dry. We also didn't like that the curry sauce came separate to the rice and cutlet. Part of the appeal for me of a bowl of Katsu curry is getting to mix everything together. I do however like their own brand of bottled drinks which you can get for something like $2 extra on top of meal. However, as long as something like Rice Workshop exists, Hanaichi will always be left in the dust.
DOC
DOC definitely do some of the best and most authentic pizzas in Melbourne. Situated in a street not far off Lygon, the quality here is much better than your standard Lygon St Italian place. The little restaurant is quite charming and is staffed by very friendly Italian waiters. They also have a very interesting selection of soft drinks, which is a pretty nice change. The prices are also reasonable for the quality of the food and ingredients used. There is plenty of San Daniele prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella on the menu which you'd think all places that charge $20-$30 for a pizza would do that but it's definitely not as common as one would like. Lots of people have cottoned on to the quality of the place lately so come here early if you don't want to wait a while for a table.
Canberra
PappaRich
It's a pretty sad reflection of a city's food when Pappa Rich does some of the best Asian food in town. Alas, such is the case for our national capital. That is not to say that the food at Pappa Rich is bad—it's of course usually pretty tasty—but I would never go to a Papa Rich in somewhere like Melbourne because there are just many better and cheaper options there. However, for Canberra, this is excellent. I'd recommend the egg gravy fried noodles (not sure what they call it on the menu), the chicken with mee and curry sauce, the rotis and the excellent satay sticks. The prices are of course Canberra inflated (average of about $15 per dish) but that's not far off what they charge in the real cities anyway. Understandable given its relative quality and central location, this place gets very busy and doesn't take bookings so come early or be prepared to wait for a table.
Tak Kee Roast Inn
If you feel like Asian food in Dickson that isn't Vietnamese, I'd definitely recommend Tak Kee Roast Inn. This place is sort of in the style of class Cantonese BBQ restaurants which are pretty common in other Australian cities, but aren't terribly ubiquitous in Canberra. On this occasion I had a bowl of beef brisket noodle soup, which was very tasty. The beef brisket was very nicely cooked and unctuous like it should be. It was also well flavoured and went very well with the rice noodles that came with it. The service was also very pleasant and efficient and the prices reasonable by Canberra standards. Definitely a better choice than the nearby Dickson Asian Noodle House.
Penny University
Came here with work for a farewell lunch not long ago. Ordered the cheeseburger which came with a generous serving of chips. It was also pretty decently priced from what I remember. Other colleagues meals looked less generously portioned, however. The burger I had was pretty adequate, definitely not amazing and could have done with more flavour. I would have also liked something other than ketchup to dip my chips in. Something like aoli would've been perfect, but that's a personal preference; I know plenty of people like ketchup with their chips.
Autolyse
I came here on M's recommendation after he discovered it wandering around the area when he was up here for a job interview. On that occasion he enjoyed the coffee and lime pie he had picked up from here after his interview. From the outside, Autolyse certainly doesn't look the part of a hip cafe/brunch venue. The facade is decidedly gauche, complete with an awkward, borderline fluoro sign. Inside, it's a bit better with decent interiors and a large section where you can watch the bakers at work. It's after seeing this and the descriptions on the menu where you realise that this place is definitely vying for the hipness factor. However, the 'Sous vide lamb shoulder sandwich with quinoa and pickled onion' was decidedly uncool. As if the eyeroll-inducing description, didn't make me want to throwup a little in my mouth enough, the sandwich that arrived turned out to be a bit of a disaster. It was very very bland and dry. A part of that there was too low a filling-to-bread ratio, but even when eating the fillings on their own they were decidedly bland. The dominant flavour was an unpleasant one: acid. The quinoa tabouleh was very acidic and the pickled onion on top of that just compared the unpleasant sourness. The lamb certainly wasn't very fatty or rich so it's not like it needed to be that acidic for a purpose.
Molly
I'd like to think this is named for the drug but in all likelihood it probably isn't. However, the bar does aim to be as transportive as a Molly trip. This starts with the location, it's 'hidden' underground behind a wooden door somewhere in Hobart Place. Their website only gives you coordinates to help you find your way. In reality though, most people in Canberra knows where it is. When you enter the place it's certainly obvious what they're going for: a dimly lit, small space in the style of Jazz Age speakeasys. The place certainly has its charms and while I didn't get to try any of the food, their menu certainly did look enticing, as did the various small goods hanging above the food station. Drinks are fairly pricey; the Virgin Mary I had was $10 (fairly expensive for a non-alcoholic drink) but I don't think anybody comes here for cheap drinks.
No comments:
Post a Comment