Hills BBQ Noodle Shop, Box Hill by Big Fil

It's sometimes a bit of a cliché, that such and such a place brings a touch of 'X' (Italy, Greece, Thailand...) to Melbourne.  Usually I think it's an exaggeration but for Hills BBQ Noodle Shop it really did remind me of a neighbourhood cafe in Kowloon, somewhere at the base of a big apartment building frequented by locals looking for a late night roast meat feast.

There are several reasons why this is so.  First of all the typical roast meets hanging in the window.  It can't be a Hong Kong diner without ducks, soya chickens and crispy pork hanging in the window. Secondly the interior of the place, with its chequerboard floor, plasma screen TV playing Chinese soap operas located directly above my head and the booths around the side of the restaurant.  It's a busy place and full of life, and in a major compliment for somewhere as blessed with cheap eateries as Box Hill at 6.30 on a cold night people were willing to line up in the doorway waiting for a table to become available.

While I'd never been before apparently it's Mr and Mrs Mmm's favourite place for takeaway.  We all carefully perused the menu but it was pretty much always a given that Mr Cha Siu and Mrs Siu Yuk would be paying our tables a visit along with a serving of roast duck.

I was a little surprised when they all arrived heaped on the same plate.  As far as roast meats go around town I'd probably put these in the above average category.  The duck was nicely tender but a bit too greasy, the cha siu had good meaty pork flavours but was more purple in colour than the typical red, and I thought it was marginally dry.  Siu yuk is generally my favourite Cantonese roast meat but again I liked it without being blown away, the skin crispy and a good balance of meat and fat but without the melt in the mouth tenderness of the best versions.

After a long argument about whether I liked tofu (aiyah, yes Mmm I do like tofu.  Yes, I am sure...) we also ordered the pork belly and tofu claypot, which actually comes served in a metal pot (go figure).  Slightly sweet with soft in the middle tofu, I didn't think this was quite as good as the roast meats with some of the pork surprisingly slightly chewy for belly pork.

Overall

So, with food a bit above average and service which left a bit to be desired, would I return? In a heartbeat. The place just felt vibrant and alive in a way I really liked.  I wouldn't go there for fine dining or exquisite service, I would go there for the theatre of it all. There's no real rhyme or reason to it, but it definitely has that X factor for me.

Verdict

Food - 7

Ambiance - 8

Service - 5.5

Price - 7

Address

586 Station Street

Box Hill VIC 3128

Tel: (03) 9899 3382

Whoopie Pie, Camberwell by Big Fil

Hmm, I know ‘Whoopie’ as an exclamation of surprise, and making whoopee is something we can all enjoy.  But when we received an email about a Whoopie Pie place opening in Camberwell I must admit I had no idea what it was all about.

I was a little embarrassed when I found out they originate in New England.  I’ve got friends who lived around there that I stayed with a few years back but don’t remember coming across Whoopie Pies.  Doesn’t really surprise me though, as we were so addicted to Kimball’s pecan and maple syrup ice cream that that remains just about my only food related memory from the trip.

Ok, so what is a Whoopie Pie?  To me, taking into account I had never tried them before and have no idea how authentic these were, they were neither a sponge cake nor a biscuit but had a texture somewhere in between, sliced in half and filled with a sweet, creamy filling.  The Whoopie Pie Bakery seemed to have around a dozen or so varieties, offered in bite sized and a larger size and quite delectable looking behind the glass fronted counter.

Having already had breakfast we were limited in how many were could sample but headed for the red velvet, salted caramel and tiramisu.  What were they like you ask.  Well, to be perfectly honest not really my thing.  I think they are a bit like cupcakes, some people absolutely go crazy over them and I can appreciate a really good one but for me they are a bit meh.

On an individual basis I thought the best and which I wouldn’t mind having again was the Red Velvet.  I love rich Red Velvet as a flavour – maccaron, cupcake, now Whoopie Pie, as long as it’s well made you can pretty much guarantee that I’ll like it.

The tiramisu on the other hand I thought was a strike.  The filling didn’t seem as smooth and the flavour was a little crude and unsophisticated. 

In between was the salted caramel, which could have used a bit more of a salted punch to bring out the flavours of the caramel.

Best thing about the bakery though was the wonderfully friendly woman who served us.  We weren’t sure what time the bakery was supposed to open and arrived really early but when we found ourselves standing outside in the cold she opened up especially early just for us.  The shop itself is nice and the red and white stripes reminded me of a candy store as much as a bakery.

Overall

Interesting and novel and worth checking out but not quite for me (or Snooze).

Verdict

Food – 6

Ambience – 7

Service – 8

Price – 6.5

Address

700 Bourke Road
Camberwell VIC 3124

Phone: (03) 48339041

Collective Espresso, Camberwell by Big Fil

Ok, so what are the two things I particularly remember from a Sunday morning visit to Camberwell.  First of all spending way more money than I’d intended at the Camberwell market.  Yes I got some cool things, such as a book on Japanese graffiti, but it put a hole several meals wide in my wallet.

Secondly, what Snooze described as one of the three best breakfasts she had had in Melbourne.  Thinking about this afterwards it was definitely not in my top two favourites, for which I have two clear cut winners.  However, it was very good and I think Snooze had an arguable case it was amongst the best handful of Melbourne cafe breakfasts I’ve eaten.  So which was this paragon of Melbourne cafes that so impressed us?  Collective Espresso, just near Camberwell train station. 

I’m glad we got there early though.  Getting there a few minutes after opening the cafe was nearly empty, enabling us to gain a prime seat at the very long communal table and listen to the Beastie Boys while reading the paper.  By the time we left around an hour later the cafe was full, the table was crowded and the background hum loud enough to drown out the music. 

First thing that struck me about the menu was the number of dishes I’d have been interested in trying.  While we ended up choosing the ham hock with grilled baby cos, poached eggs, peas, rosti and pork scratchings, and the sake, orange and miso cured salmon, herb and zucchini pancakes, corn relish and poached eggs, on another day it could well have been the ricotta and blueberry dumplings or something else from the menu.

The grilled baby cos I was a bit indifferent to but the ham hock was pull apart tender and the poached eggs perfect.  When I asked Snooze about the dish, she felt the peas made the dish taste fresh (and she particularly enjoyed the dash of mint that came with the peas), and the rosti was delicate and a nice touch of carbohydrate she likes in breakfast. Overall, Snooze thought her breakfast belonged in her top three because the texture and taste of each of the elements in the dish complimented each other beautifully, and none fought or overpowered each other.

What I liked most about my herb and zucchini pancakes was their lightness in flavour and texture, and the change from the usual sweet pancakes you normally get.  Again perfectly poached eggs and nice fresh salmon, a bit more delicate than your usual smoked variety.  Just a delicious well balanced blend of flavours.

Overall

I don’t get out this part of town terribly often as there had never really seemed to be a lot to drag me out here.  Collective Espresso certainly changed my mind in this regard.  Nice place to eat, at least until it started to become over noisy, interesting and very good food, and enough things I was interested in trying to suggest a revisit was in order.

Verdict

Food – 8.5

Ambience – 8 (pre-horde)

Service – 7.5

Price – 7

Address

3 Cookson Street

Camberwell VIC 3124
Tel: (03) 9882 8995

Zaatar, Coburg by Big Fil

So what is Zaatar? Is it (a) a middle-eastern spice blend, (b) a type of herb pizza commonly found in Melbourne’s northern suburbs or (c) a new bakery/cafe located on Sydney Road in Coburg. If you answered (a), (b) or (c) you pass but if you answered all of the above take a bow and head to the top of the class. 



There are a number of middle-eastern style bakery/cafes on Sydney Road but the still fairly new Zaatar stands out from the pack with it’s much more modern layout.  



Big glass windows, communal table, funky wall decorations, it’s definitely different in style but based on the level and variety of the crowds appears to have quickly been adopted by hungry locals. What really stood out when lining up to order though was just how comparatively professional and organised it seemed and how cheap everything is.  I mean, the bakeries along Sydney Road are cheap but for some items Zaatar seems to be around 10% cheaper than most of the others.  And my experience is that service at most of the bakeries is friendly but here it is just that little bit more polished. 

There is one dish I always order without fail when visiting Sydney Road and that is a cheese pie.  The cheese used is normally haloumi, a soft, slightly salty cheese that sometimes feels a little ‘squeaky’ when you bite into it. Because it can take a bit of heat without melting everywhere it’s often grilled and served either in salad or with a slice of lemon.  It’s one of my true tests for a bakery and unfortunately this was a little disappointing for two reasons. Firstly, the casing seemed a little heavier and flavourless compared to some of the other nearby offerings.  More importantly though, it hadn’t been sufficiently heated so that the pastry was barely warm and the cheese filling still cold. 

What were really good though were the little pizzas.  These are thin, crispy, delicious and so so cheap.  For example, zaatar pizzas one dollar!  For this you get a great blend of spices, salt and oil, perfectly cooked and folded over for convenient one handed eating while turning the pages of Saturday morning’s paper. 



Alternatively you can choose from amongst the meat based pizzas.  One I hadn’t seen before was the Aleppo pizza, minced lamb, onion and tomato with pomegranate molasses. The lamb flavour is delicate and complemented by the sweetness of the molasses. 



Final dish was the soujuk pizza, a Turkish style sausage which comes with tomato and capsicum.  On occasions the wetness of the tomato and capsicum can result in the crust going a little soggy but this was perfectly crispy.  Given it’s only four dollars an absolute steal. 



Overall

It’s new, it’s good, it’s cheap, and if you eat at these sort of places all the time and want somewhere a little more upmarket then it’s a fine choice to eat.  Alternatively if you want to try the little middle-eastern pizzas for the first time and want somewhere comfortable and fairly familiar in style then it’s a fine choice for that too.

Verdict

Food – 7.5

Atmosphere -7

Service – 7

Price – 8

Address

365 Sydney Road

Coburg VIC 3058

Tel: (03) 9939 9494

Long Dragon Dumpling House, South Melbourne by Big Fil

Kings Way is not where I’d expect to find a pretty good local dumpling bar.  It’s somewhere I normally only pass through on the way to the airport and I always think of it as semi-industrial.  I know that once you head back into the side streets it’s residential, and that there are a string of large apartment buildings in the area, but it always puts me in mind of used car and home delivery pizza services.

The Tan Clan were visiting the builders for the new Chateau Bundoora on Albert Street so I scored an invitation to lunch and duties entertaining a four year old who likes to pretend she's a tiger.  My preference would have been to visit Peko Peko, the go to place for a friend who lives in the area and a place I’ve never tried.  However, with a hungry tiger roaring they want noodles and an hour till opening time for Peko Peko, Long Dragon Dumpling House it was.

 

To be honest, from the outside Long Dragon Dumpling doesn’t look like an attractive place to eat.  It looks like it was adapted from a show room of some kind, blinds cover the large glass windows and my feeling was it was going to be very utilitarian inside.  Wrong.  They've actually done a very nice job with the space they have.  It’s never going to win any design awards but I liked it.  The chairs are comfortable, it’s well lit with natural light and despite becoming busy at lunchtime it never grew too noisy.  It's been found by a good range of diners as well, from Chinese families with small kids to a couple of local hipsters.

 

Obviously given the name there are lots of dumpling options on the menu but the list of mains is also substantial.  In fact the best dish of the day was the pork ribs with sweet and sour sauce.  These were very different to your typical suburban or even Chinatown version of the dish.  The sauce included a fairly generous amount of sweetened vinegar, which helps to cut through what was otherwise a pretty oily and fatty version of the dish.  Both Tan sisters commented it was very similar to their mother used to cook pork ribs back home in Malaysia – I think I scored some ordering kudos for next time having chosen this.

 

To ensure the hungry tiger didn’t start on us we ordered her favourite fried noodles with combination seafood.  This led to a terrible pun that took a surprisingly long time for the others to get (What, you didn’t order the mee for me?).  It’s obviously not fine dining in quality and was a bit more oily than I really like, but it was nicely cooked, filling and full of squid and fish balls.

 

As you’d expect for a place with dumpling in the name the dumplings were good, a definite step up from the usual suspects around the place.  The pan fried pork dumplings were perfectly cooked, not at all oily as you sometimes get and nicely balanced between pork and vegetable filling.  They were a bit smaller than usual though and the filling less generous, so I wouldn’t put them at the absolute top of my dumpling heap.

 

You could make very similar comments about the boiled chicken and dumplings.  Skins marginally thick but nicely flavoured, again spot on with the cooking and good filling that could have been a bit more generous. 

Overall

It’s not the best dumpling place in town, in my opinion anyway, but if I was in the area and wanted dumplings I’d be happy to return or recommend to friends.  Everything was nicely cooked and presented, the inside is much nicer than you’d anticipate and the staff, well their softly spoken English wasn’t always the easiest to hear or understand but they were friendly and courteous and laughed when we turned up to pay wearing our lion and tiger hats.  Food was good and came out quickly, there was really nothing not to like about our visit.

Verdict

Food – 7.5

Service – 7

Ambience – 7

Price – 7

Address

322 Kings Way

South Melbourne VIC 3205

Tel: (03) 9682 1628

Bao Now, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

Up until about a month ago there was nowhere you could go on the northern side of the CBD when you were suffering from BDS (bao deprivation syndrome).  Now there are two very different choices, Wonderbao which dispenses traditional style bao or the fusion style of Bao Now.

I think Bureaucrat had a bit of a wtf moment when she entered Bao Now.  The menu includes the steamed bao, san choi bao and rice bowls.  They aren’t the normal char sui bao or custard bao though but include Cheeseburger Bao, Buffalo Wings San Choi Bao and Vanilla Slice Bao.  I’d been through before and knew what to expect but I certainly got the impression that she was taken by surprise and a little outside her comfort zone.

This post though is all about my take on Bao Now and with a few caveats I did like it here.  Given it is small and narrow it is surprisingly comfortable eating here, although with only room for 6 inside you’ll need to get here early or trust to luck on getting a seat.  Alternatively you could try for one of the two outside tables – on second thoughts get here early or it’s likely takeaway for you!

Staff are friendly and enthusiastic and obviously pleased with what they had to offer.  What they have to offer, in my opinion, is not the greatest bao in the city but something a bit different, somewhere to go when you want bao but are over the usual pork or combination varieties. 

The bun itself is kind of average, a little dense rather than the light fluffy but filling cloud I prefer.  I’ve tried a few of the fillings and these vary from those I don’t particularly like (bacon and eggs), don’t mind (cheeseburger) and like a lot (Buffalo Wings, Cheesecake and Vanilla Slice).

The main issue with the bacon and eggs was that I found it a little bland and uninteresting.  My grandparents ran a bakery many years ago and the cheeseburger bao kind of reminds me of their old beef mince pies, but in a bao rather than pie casing.

What I liked about the Buffalo Wings is what Bureaucrat and Snooze didn’t like about them, the flavour boosting spicy kick.  Snooze had these as san choi bao, Bureaucrat as rice bowl.  Neither of them are fans of spicy food and so unsurprisingly didn’t really like these.

The biggest divergence of opinion was over the cheesecake and vanilla slice bao.  I found both of these smooth, creamy and delicious.  Snooze is a fan as well and MMM thought they reminded her a little of the bao she had growing up in Singapore.  Bureaucrat though did not like her cheesecake bao.  While we didn’t discuss in detail I think she found it slightly sour and the texture a bit strange and unfamiliar.

A bit embarrassingly given that it was his first foray with us since returning from London I neglected to pay much attention to what the Lawyer offered, but think it might have been a Thai curry rice bowl.  What I do remember though is that given the staff had indicated it wasn’t too spicy it was certainly spicier than he had anticipated.

Overall

It’s a little pricier than most of the bao around town and that combined with the texture of the bao not being the best means that it is unlikely to become my favourite.  Probably not my everyday choice for bao but definitely somewhere to go back to when I feel like something a bit different. 

Verdict

Food – 7

Ambience – 7

Service – 7

Price – 6

Address 

119 Hardware Street

Melbourne VIC 3000

Tel: (03) 9670 6394

 

Circuz, Glen Waverley by Bureaucrat

For a catch up with Ms W, we had dinner at Circuz. Ms W had been to Circuz before and thought it was okay. Circuz is located near Springvale Rd. For many years (at least 15 years), this was an Italian restaurant. Then it was briefly a Chinese vegatarian restaurnt. And now it is Circuz, a Japanese restaurant. I've driven past Circuz (and its predecessors) countless times, but I had never frequented the place.

 

So on a wintry night, I walked through its iron wrought door with a sense of curiousity. Inside, it's quite big. Although there were many tables that were set out, the place still felt kinda empty... like there was too much space and they didn't know what to do with it.

 

The thing that I remembered most about Circuz was the staff. It's a bit hard to explain, but they were an odd bunch. Very eager and slightly scattered brained when they actually paid attention to you, but for the rest of the times (when you're trying to get their attention), they seemed more interested with flirting and gossiping with each other.

 

We placed our order and waited. About 20 minutes later, Ms W's dish came out. It was this vegetarian soup/broth. It looked quite pretty - tender veggies, fresh shiitake and enoki and tofu.

 

To go with the soup, Ms W ordered a bowl of ramen.

Alas, for me, there was more waiting. Another 10 minutes passed, still there was no food. 15 minutes passed, and I started to get stroppy. Other diners who came in after us had already got their mains served. Given the scattered brainyness of the staff, we wondered whether they actually took down my order. Good waiters should be aware of whether diners have been served their dishes in a timely manner - as mentioned above, these waiters here wasn't so observant and were in at the bar just flirtin' and gossipin'. In fact, they seemed confused when I asked them when my food was coming out.

 

A few minutes later, my unagi don arrived. A nice fillet of unagi, which had a lovely smoky flavour. By memory, I think Circuz actually use a grill to cook certain dishes. As you can see, there's a few chicken teriyaki sushi. I had asked for the sushi instead of the sashimi (I don't like raw fish). The unagi was the best item in the bento box, and the rest was good.

Overall
Circuz presented a slightly odd experience for me. The food was okay but a bit pricey for what it is. There are better options for mid-range Japanese food in the Glen Waverley area. I think Circuz is trying to pitch itself as an upper-middle Japanese restaurant but I don't think it's quite there yet. If you want an upper-middle Japanese restaurant dining, I'd suggest you go to the teppanyaki restaurant inside Century Village Walk.

Verdict
Food – 7
Service – 6.5
Atmosphere – 7
Price – 6.5

Address
Circuz 193 Coleman Parade
Glen Waverley 3150
Telephone: 03 9560 8666

 

Little Deer Tracks, Coburg by Big Fil

It’s located not on the main Sydney Road drag but on O’Hea Street.  Looking at it from the outside you wouldn’t necessarily pick Little Deer Tracks as a cafe let alone a vegetarian one.  A non-descript looking shop in a group of non-descript looking shops on a non-descript looking street, it wouldn’t surprise me to know that it had been a furniture retailer or something similar in a previous life.

Inside is in some ways fairly typical Melbourne cafe in style, although for me appropriately for a vegetarian cafe it felt more organic and less forced than in some locations.  For example, the art decorations on the wall, the casual wooden furniture and the cups and saucers felt more like the sort of ‘what will we do with what we have’ approach of a student share house than the very obvious seeking to create a particular mood or space that some cafes have (and consequently can feel very artificial).

I got a very mixed vibe from the staff.  Our waitress was lovely, friendly and helpful, charmingly slightly flustered when she realised she had neglected to provide us with table water.  The older guy behind the counter didn’t come across the same way though.  It’s one of those things, if the first thing and last thing you see is a scowl that’s what you are going to remember.

What I loved most about our visit here had nothing to do with the cafe at all.  Seated just across from us were a mother with a girl around three years old.  When asked what he wanted for breakfast I swear I heard him say at the top of his lungs ‘Coffee!’ although Snooze later told me she heard Cookie.

First impressions of the food were really good, with one of the most chocolaty hot chocolates I’ve had in a while.

Vegetarian Little Deer Tracks is not vegan, so that Snooze’s baked beans on sourdough bread came with hash brown and Greek feta on the side.  The entire dish was enormous. The crispy hash brown, was enormous, crispy golden on the outside and white fluffy goodness on the inside.  The feta was also delicious, smooth, creamy and not overly salty.  Unfortunately the beans themselves were disappointingly tasteless. It's a good thing I was there because Snooze would never have managed to eat this dish on her own.

I decided to go with the buckwheat and apple pancakes.  Things I liked about it: the slightly coarser texture of the pancake, the burst of apple flavour and the maple syrup served on the side.  I wasn’t that fond of the vanilla cream though, finding it a little runnier than I would have liked.

Overall

Little Deer Tracks is a pleasant local vegetarian cafe.  It’s never going to be a personal favourite, the style is not quite me, the menu is on the limited side and I’d describe the food as good rather than top notch.  Putting all that aside I did enjoy our visit here and, if it was closer to home I'd have no problems with visiting again with vegetarian friends.

Verdict

Food – 7

Service – 7

Atmosphere – 7

Price – 7

Address

44 O’hea Street

Coburg VIC 3058

Tel: (03) 9354 3449