Sugar Bun, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

The curiously named SugarBun is a restaurant that specialises in Borneo cuisine.  Borneo is an island (third largest in the world) and its land broken up into three parts, which are governed by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

I first came across SugarBun while stuck in really bad peak hour traffic.  My car was idling for 20 minutes on Russel Street, which is where SugarBun is located.  During that time, I spotted SugarBun with its bright pink neon sign and glossy black paintwork.  As I had time on my hands, I grew more and more intrigued about the restaurant.  What is Borneo food?  What does it taste like?  Why is it called SugarBun - do they serve sweet buns?

At the earliest opportunity, I wandered in there for lunch.  It's a narrow space but it's very smartly decked out.  Bright lights, polished concrete floors, exposed brickwork, nice little touches of pot plants (albeit of the plastic variety).  The pink and white sign of its name and the black and white high-gloss tiles made me feel like I was setting foot into an American style soda shop rather than an Asian eatery.  

It's very prim and proper, and there's also this really nice homely feeling about the place and its enhanced by the ever so sweet and friendly staff.

For my inaugural meal, I went for one of the main dishes, a SugarBun Delight.  I went for the very reasonably priced broasted chicken ($11).  I didn't know what broasted meant (I actually thought it was a typo).  But Google told me that broasting is essentially deep frying breaded/crumbed meats in a pressure-cooker.  In this case, it was two fairly hefty pieces of chicken marinated in Sarawakian (one of the Malaysian states in Borneo) spices, served with savoury rice and Appe-hancer.  

The menu declares the chicken to be juicy and tender meat with a crispy crust, and boy, it's a spot-on description!  To borrow a (trademarked?) term, it's definitely finger-licking good!  The skin is 100% crispy all over, and impressively it's not oily at all - the skin is incredibly dry.  There is no grease on the plate.  The meat is definitely juice and tender.  The seasoning is an aromatic blend, and I think it has thyme and cinnamon in it.  Even more impressively was that, despite wolfing all the chicken and the sides, I didn't feel bloated afterwards - even several hours later.

The sides were also a delight.  The savoury rice had these nubbly bits of what I think is pork through it (but given that Malaysia has a large Muslim population, I'm not entirely sure that it is pork) and juicy sultanas.  It tasted very much like a pilaf.  The Appe-hancer was a pickle of deseeded cucumber and pineapple.  I don't know what the name refers to, as I did a Google search and was none the wise.  

So impressed was I with SugarBun that two days later I convinced Mr G and Mr P to come along with me to try it.  This time, we all went for the $12 lunch special - you pick from a selected range of mains and get a drink with it.  Mr P went for the Ribena Sprite...

...and Mr G and I both went for the Sabah (the other Malaysian state in Borneo) tea.  We were both expecting something more than just a Sabah branded tea bag.

As I liked the broasted chicken so much, this time I went for the nasi lemak with broasted chicken.  The chicken was as delicious as the first time.  The rest of nasi lemak was pretty good too.  A mound of coconut rice, fresh side veg, a generous serve of roasted peanuts.  The sambal was a sweetly savoury smooth-ish sauce which was a blend of the usual chilli sambal ingredients and ikan bilis.  I quite liked the sambal served this way.

While both the guys liked the sound of the broasted chicken, they chose other dishes to see what they're like.  Mr G got the fish burger with fries and served with two types of chilli.  While this was a tad smaller than I was expected, it was quite cute.  Mr G said it was a nice crumbed fillet of white fish, with a nice sauce and fresh salad ingredients inside.  He also said that it had a fairly generous serve of fries.

Mr P went for the hearty beef stew with mixed grain rice, served with a different type of chilli sauce.  While I didn't get to try this, Mr P quite liked it and said it had good flavour and liked how tender the beef was.  It was served in a clay/iron pot and in this red wicker basket.  These clay/iron pots seem to be a speciality of the place, as quite a few people were ordering this type of dish.  

Verdict

Food – 9

Ambiance – 8.5

Service – 8

Price – 8.5

Overall

I'm loving SugarBun!  It's only six months old but I reckon it won't be soon before everyone knows about this place.  

I loved the cuteness of the place, the more unusual menu items (including offal and buttermilk fried prawns).  I want to go back to try their bak kut teh, which appears to be a speciality.  The staff are friendly and the food is tasty and quite reasonably priced.  More, more, more!

Plus, I still have a reason to go back - next time, I have to ask the staff where the name SugarBun comes from.  There's no sweet buns on the menu... any excuse to go back to SugarBun!

Address

SugarBun

205 Russell Street 

Melbourne 3000

Telephone: 9650 4336

Shophouse Kitchen, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

It’s becoming a tradition that during her school holidays, Bubba Chuck visits me in the city for lunch.  In doing so, Bubba Chuck has a cute, but unrealistic, view of the working life – that it’s about deciding what outfit to wear the night before, a hot chocolate when you get into the office, a nice lunch, a quick raid in my desk drawers for chocolate before heading own home before peak hour traffic.  

For lunch, I suggested that we go to the Shophouse Kitchen in QV.  I had noticed that it opened recently and it seemed quite popular with the lunch crowd.  

Getting there early (before 12pm), there were already a few tables of diners.  I liken SK as a more schmick version of the standard China Bars. 

As with both places, there is a roast duck/bbq meat counter and a fairly extensive menu.  But the decor inside SK is newer and a bit more fancier with the details, which includes mah-jong tiles decorating the tables, Chinese newspapers as wall paper and a video projector on a feature wall. 

We all chose different dishes.  However, of the three of us, it was clear that Beaker got the best dish, while Bubba Chuck and my dishes were rather ho-hum.

Beaker got one of the signature dishes – fried pork chop set lunch.  Two pork chops on the bone with a salty glaze and lovely grill marks.  It came with a fried egg, a nice mound of stir fried veg and a big bowl of rice.  Beaker was pretty happy with her choice.

Bubba Chuck on the Chiew Chou fish ball noodle soup.  She seemed a bit indifferent to noodles and didn’t wolf it down, which is what she does when she really likes something.  Beaker and I tried some of the noodles and, boy, talk about MSG!  I took one spoonful of noodles and a fish ball, and it was enough for me.  There wasn’t anything really special or interesting about this dish – just rice noodles, fish balls/cake, some baby buk choy and beanshoots.  It was really something you can cook yourself at home and it’d taste better.

I got the least tasty and impressive dish – stir fried beef w tomatoes and scrambled egg.  This dish is real comfort food – and Mother Hen does the best version at home.  The SK version looked good but failed.  Getting the balance of flavours in the gravy is key.  It’s meant to be aromatically sweet (from the tomatoes and maybe a little added sugar if the toms aren’t the ripest) and have an appetite-inducing tartness from the white vinegar.  This was just sickly sweet and with the heavy handed use of cornstarch, the gravy was a bit gloopy.  

Disappointingly, the beef (which should be nice tender strips) was as tough as leather and had lots of sinewy bits.  I don’t have anything against eating cheaper cuts of meat as long as they’ve been prepared/cooked accordingly.  There wasn’t much scrambled egg or fresh tomato....sigh.  Needless to say, I didn’t finish this off.  Beaker tried a bit and wasn’t impressed with it either.

Verdict

Food – 6

Ambiance – 7

Service – 6.5

Price – 7

Overall

As two of the three dishes weren’t that great, SK was disappointing.  The only redeeming point about the food was Beaker’s pork chop.  

Service was okay.  But when the staff greet you, give you the menus, take your order, etc, they give off this vibe as if they’re not really sure of what they’re doing.

I like the set up and the location.  However, I’m of two minds about going back to SK.   I can live with the service, and the prices are reasonable.  If I didn’t have other (many) options nearby, I’d go back.... but because there are options, I don’t think I’ll be coming back.  

Address

Shophouse Kitchen

Shop 29 

QV

Melbourne 3000

Telephone: 9639 6663

SatayBar, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

On, that I-can’t-believe-I’m-back-at-work-and-I-should’ve-taken-more-days-off day, 2 January, Big Fil, Snooze and I needed to perk up our spirits by getting out of the office and having lunch.

Heading out in the sunshine, we had, in hindsight, an overly optimistic plan of eating at The Grain Store.  It was overly optimistic because, as we were in the torpor of being back at work too early, we all forgot that most cafes/restaurants were still closed in the first week of January.  It didn’t help matters that we didn’t know where exactly TGS was located and the fact that I was getting progressively narky as my blood sugar plummeted while we wandered around looking for the cafe.

When we found it and realised it was closed, we then tried to go somewhere else (I forget where), but only to later realise that it, too, was also closed.  Getting really narky, I insisted that we just eat at the next place we see.  And that happened to be SatayBar.  SatayBar is this tiny shop that does satay.  It’s basically an open kitchen, with a few stools on the inside and some tables on the outside.  There’s not space to move about in there.  

You can get the satays on their own, or in a meal.  We all went for the meal.  I think Big Fil and I chose the same thing – chicken, lamb and prawn satays. For three satays, you can pick three sides and we got rice, achar salad, krupuk (vegie crackers) for $11.40.  However, I was rather hoping they had the garden salad, but that had sold out.

First bite and I was quite disappointed.  The lamb tasted really muttony and was chewy.  The peanut sauce had a gloopy consistency and I didn’t really care for it.  The only positive about the sauce was the fact that it had a reasonable amount of peanuts in it.  The prawns were tiny and were most likely frozen ones.  The chicken was equally bland.  I wasn’t impressed with the sides either.  The rice was claggy (although there was lots of it), the achar (pickled veg – in this case, carrot, turnip (I think) and celery was ho-hum) and the krupuk was bit of a carb-overload.

Snooze got the two satays with two sides deal for $9.40.  As Big Fil and Snooze had previously eaten here before (back in Feb 2011), I asked them whether the satays have changed.  They both seemed to think the quality was about the same. 

Verdict

Food – 5.5

Ambiance - 6.5

Service – 6.5

Price - 6.5

Overall 

While the satays are on the small side, they are generous with the sides – especially with the rice. I only ate enough of the satays to take the edge off my hunger - I threw the rest away as it was that unappetizing for me.  While Big Fil and Snooze seemed to like the satays enough, I'm just not a fan of them.

Service was friendly but bit slow - but I'll chalk this up to the staff just starting to get back into the swing of things. 

Address

SatayBar

Custom House Lane 

Melbourne 3000

Telephone: 9629 1466

Dundas Place Cafe, Albert Park by Bureaucrat

Continuing the documentation of my post-xmas but pre-nye eats, I took the opportunity of going out to Albert Park for brunch one day.  I haven't explored much of Albert Park as I tend to only associate it with St Kilda Road, apartments and the Grand Prix.  I did eat out around here in years ago at The Point (for the Lawyer's graduation), which is a fancy restaurant in the middle of said park.

I quite liked all the boutique shops and ultra cool cafes that were situated along Bridport Street and Victoria Avenue.  The laid back, unhurried vibe and the quiet affluence totally won me over.  While there are many cafes and restaurants to choose from, on this day, it was Mother Hen's choice.  And she chose Dundas Place Cafe.

Based on looks, DPC is one of the less cool, hip and happening cafes around the area.  It has more of your unpretentious neighbourhood cafe vibe.  As I'm unapologetically bit of a wank, I was rather hoping that Mother Hen would pick one of the cool, hip and happening cafes that were just a few shops down from DPC.

To brush off the mid-morning cobwebs, we got some tea and coffee.

Deciding what to order was a bit of a struggle.  None of us felt particularly hungry, but because we had things to do and people to see, it necessitated that we have an early lunch/brunch.

So for the three of us, we ordered two dishes to share.  The first was my choice, sweet corn fritters w poached eggs, smoked salmon, smashed avo and tomato basil salsa ($16.90).  This wasn't as good as I had hoped.  The fritters were more pancake in nature - so more doughy and only some token nibblets of corn through it.  For me, fritters are meant to be crispy, and these weren't.  The good points were that it had a reasonable amount of avo and the salsa was fragrant.  However, the serve of smoked salmon was a smidge less than average and was of an 'okay' quality.

Mother Hen chose the club sandwich w cheese, bacon, lettuce, toms and egg.  It came with either chips or salad ($15.90).  This was of similar quality to the fritters.  While Mother Hen and Mr Strong seemed to like it, I was rather 'meh' about the whole dish (except the chips, which were nice and crispy).  It's an old school style club sanger - with the white loaf bread, slice of cheddar and iceberg lettuce - which is keeping with DPC as a unfussy neighbourhood cafe.  I guess I was still hoping that I was eating at a different cafe where they would use homemade bread, cos instead of iceberg lettuce, a nice schmear of homemade aioli and/or chutney.  But this club sanger was generous in serve, though.

Verdict

Food – 6

Ambiance - 7

Service – 7.5

Price - 7

Overall

An unfussy neighbourhood cafe.  I don't have anything against the place, it's just not a cafe that I'd pick to go.  The service is friendly and congenial; and despite the popularity of the hip cafes nearby, DPC does have its fair share of local customers coming in for a coffee or meal.  

Address

Dundas Place Cafe

131 Dundas Place 

Albert Park 3206

Telephone: 9699 4561