Tom Phat, Brunswick by Big Fil

With its heavily Asian influenced flavours Tom Phat is a bit different to most cafes on or near Sydney Road. Toast becomes roti, fried onion becomes spring onion and grilled pork chops have been marinated to give them a citrusy taste. The result is a series of strongly flavoured but delicious options for brunch.

Tom Phat has one of the nicest café settings I have seen in Melbourne. Dark wood, specials on the chalkboard, bottles on the back wall and a glimpse into the well lit kitchen area.


The food itself is very good. The roti omelette is a mix of things that all work well together - egg, bacon and spring onion, bacon and tomato (relish), egg and roti - to form a well matched dish with slightly unusual flavours and textures. Despite looking fairly small on the plate, the roti makes it a very filling breakfast.


The claypot baked eggs is another rich and filling option. The sweet tamarind pork infused the tomato base giving it a rich meaty flavour. When digging through with my fork the soft yolk broke, leaving a golden puddle on top. The bread was toasted a bit more than I usually like it but this made it perfect for dipping into the claypot.


Third and final breakfast was 'Uncle Ho's breakfast'. I don't know who Uncle Ho is but he does make a mean breakfast, with a grilled marinated pork chop served with fried rice topped by a fried egg. Strong tangy flavours would make this a great early morning pick me up after a long night out.


Overall
Lots of things to like and nothing really to dislike about Tom Phat. High quality, filling breakfasts, nice spot to eat with good background music, friendly efficient service and good hot chocolates. I'd also recommend grabbing one of the chocolate and pecan brownies to go on the way out. While I haven't been there for lunch or dinner, these menus looked interesting as well.

Verdict
Food - 8.5
Service – 8
Ambience – 8
Prices – 7

Address
184 Sydney Road
Brunswick VIC 3056
Tel: (03) 9381 2374

A Minor Place, Brunswick by Big Fil

At first glance A Minor Place isn't much too look at, particularly its outside milk crate seats with ironing board like tables. Step inside and it has the same functional sort of look but has suddenly become much more appealing, with warm brown tones and naturally well lit interior. Light and airy, I much prefer its minimalist approach rather than being overly fussy. Admittedly I was there early so not many had arrived by the time I finished but I found it a relaxed and comfortable place to spend 30-40 minutes over breakfast and newspaper.

The food is very good. The French Toast came with stewed rhubarb, pistachio ricotta and maple syrup, all served in little glass bowls on the side. The ricotta was creamy and subtly flavoured, the rhubarb wasn’t overly sweet and the maple syrup served on the side meant I could adjust the sweetness to my own preference.


I’d read good things about the White Beans but it looked a little underwhelming when they arrived on the table. However, after a couple of mouthfuls I understood why they’d been recommended. The still firm beans are nicely garlicky and the bread, which initially appeared over toasted, is perfectly firm for use in scooping them up.

Final dish was the corn fritters, with bacon and tomato relish. While the tomato relish I could take or leave, the bacon was beautifully cooked (slightly fatty in parts, crispy on the edges) and the corn fritters moist and flavoursome. Three dishes, three hits.


Overall
On the plus side were three good dishes, a very good hot chocolate and appealing interior with good music playing at background music levels. On the negative side the serves could have been a little more generous, and depending on which staff member served you service did occasionally come across as a little uninterested. Still, I will more than happily return if I’m in the area.

Verdict
Food – 8
Ambience - 7.5
Service - 6.5
Prices – 7

Address
103 Albion Street
Brunswick VIC 3056
Tel: (03) 9384 3131

Empress of China, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

It was Ms M's birthday so six of us headed off to try Empress of China. Only one of us had been there before for dinner and not for a long time, but while it never came up in conversation about possible locations to eat I remembered its good reputation back in the early 2000's and it turned out to be a lunch time favourite of one of our group.

On the inside Empress of China is bright and well lit, with white mirror lined walls. While starting to lose some of its sheen, I think it's a much more attractive setting than most of the restaurants on or near Little Bourke Street. Quite busy too, on a cold and wet Thursday night.


Ms M was doing the ordering so as per usual the food was plentiful. First dishes to arrive were the steamed mini crab and pork buns and the tea smoked duck. The crab and pork buns were well filled and tasty, with juicy fillings inside relatively delicate outer casings.


The duck, which was served with steamed buns, was good but not the best version of this dish I have tried. I felt the duck was a little dry and the skin could have been crisper. Still I seemed to be in the minority and it went quickly.


The next two dishes were the noodles with dry shrimp paste and pork ribs with sweet vinegar sauce. The noodles were good, well cooked with a bit of a 'punch' at the end.


I was always going to like the pork ribs. As I've said before, I'm a huge sucker for slightly fatty pork with any sweet sauce, and I did like the way the vinegar sauce didn't give the dish the gluggy texture some similar dishes can have.


The last three dishes to arrive were the Shanghai fried noodles, garlic crispy chicken pieces and the braised fish with bean curd in hotpot.

I'm not always the biggest fan of Shanghai (or Hokkien noodles) because many places drown the dish in strong sauces, masking the flavour of the noodles and other ingredients. Not a problem with this dish, with the vegetables fresh and the flavour of the noodles discernable through the sauce.


The crispy chicken was crumbed on the outside and nicely moist on the inside. Or at least the one piece I got was, with the chicken disappearing quickly while I tried the other dishes.


Lastly and my favourite was the fish and bean curd in hot pot. The fish had a much softer flavour than the other dishes, and unlike what I was expecting the fish definitely dominated the dish, to the extent we had to search for the sliced bean curd.


We finished off the meal with a Tiramisu cake from Browns Bakery. After a series of misadventures trying to take the plastic wrapping off the side, we sang happy birthday to Ms M after which she blew out the three candles the restaurant managed to find for us.


Overall
After visiting once I was left wondering why I haven't been here before. Above average to good food, in a respectable setting with polite and helpful staff, and prices competitive with most restaurants in Chinatown. The bill came to just under $90 between 6 of us. I can see this place becoming my regular Chinatown haunt when feeling like a cheap eat which isn't dumplings.

Verdict
Food - 7.5
Service - 7
Ambience - 7
Price - 8

Address
120 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne Vic 3000

Monk & Me, Hawthorn East by Big Fil

Most Malaysian restaurants around town cater to the student end of the market. Grab a seat, order a plate of noodles or some chicken rice, eat while rubbing shoulders with neighbours and get some change from $10. Monk & Me, located in the upper middle class suburb of Hawthorn East, offers more sophisticated food at lower to mid level restaurant prices. I'd wanted to try Monk & Me for months, and last Saturday finally managed to arrange a visit.


For starters we ordered the curry puffs. These were lighter and fluffier than usual but I found them a little oily. I think the amount of oil the puff soaked up wouldn't have been noticeable if the outer skin was thicker but was emphasised because the skin was so thin. Good, but could have been better.


The three mains we ordered were all good, with the Udang (prawn) Ria probably the best. Fragrant, with the capsicum and onion adding a touch of colour to the dish, the coconut based sauce complimented the tender prawns well.


The hot plate tofu made the biggest impact when it arrived at the table, sizzling madly and threatening to flow over the edge of the well filled plate. The tofu had managed to soak up the relatively subtle flavours of the minced chicken and egg and had a different texture to the dry tofu served with most Malaysian dishes I have had; soft and almost creamy.


The final main was the Nyonya fish (steamed barramundi). Nyonya are the female descendents of mixed Chinese and Malay marriages, with the men known as Baba. Nyonya cuisine generally mixes Chinese ingredients and cooking techniques with Malay (or sometimes Indonesian or Thai) spices giving flavours and textures different to traditional Chinese cooking. The fish was nicely moist and flavoured, the sauce spicy but not hot. This was probably my favourite of the mains but one of us felt that some of the fish he tried wasn't cooked evenly.


Two of us decided not to share dishes. Ms Watching Her Calories went for the Tom Yum Soup. The bowl of soup was enormous and filled with prawns and calamari amongst the tomato, tofu and sweet corn. Offered a taste, while I quite liked the sour soup it could have been spicier, which was rectified by some cut chillies on the side.


A bit tick for Monk & Me was having a separate children’s menu, which came with a serve of ice cream for dessert. The Hokkien Mee looked good, with lots of calamari and fish cakes and served on a bed of bok choy to cut through the heaviness of the sauce.


I'd have liked to get a photo of Ms L's ice cream with chocolate topping desert, which looked very tasty in its tall, clear glass bowl, but unfortunately I was a bit slow with the camera. Maybe next time.


Finally, for dessert we went for the Pandan crepes, stuffed with caramelised coconut. These were served with vanilla ice cream, strawberry topping and a caramel like sauce (made with palm sugar maybe?). Beautifully presented, very tasty, and also a hit with Ms L when she tried mine.


Overall
If you like Malaysian food, but want a change from the more café like restaurants around town, Monk & Me is well worth a visit. The food is good to very good, and while not cheap it is reasonable for the size and quality of the servings. It’s very popular so you will need to book. As we arrived several people were told that if you hadn't booked a table the wait was around two hours. It was quite noisy as well and somehow the service managed to feel both efficient and chaotic at different times, so maybe not the venue for a slow and romantic first date.

Verdict
Food - 8
Service - 7
Ambience - 7
Price - 7

Address
9 Evans Place
Hawthorn East VIC 3123
Tel: (03) 9813 3261

Los Amates, Fitzroy by Big Fil

With all the different cuisine and restaurant options available around Melbourne, one thing often said is how few 'real' Mexican restaurants there are. I must admit, if someone put two bowls of corn chips and beans in front of me and told me one was authentic Mexican and the other 'Tex-Mex' I'd be hard put to give a reasoned argument as to which was which. Los Amates is often billed as one of the most 'authentic' Mexican restaurants in Melbourne so I was looking forward to learning more about this style of food (as well as indulging in some good food).

The front room of Los Amates is bright and colourful, with a large Mexican flag behind the well stocked bar. While the seating and tables were fairly basic and the room a bit noisy, when combined with the very friendly and helpful staff it gave the place a very welcoming feel.


We ordered two entrees to share between us, the nachos and the pork crackling with guacamole. The highlight of both of these dishes was the guacamole. "Ms Watching Her Calories, recently returned from the US and a big fan of Mexican (and Caribbean) food" (also known as Ms Watching Her Calories) declared it good, the best she's had outside the US. The Nachos also didn't fall into the common failing of feeling like it had been overloaded with cheap cheese to bulk it out.


The pork crackling wasn't quite like I expected, light and puffed up rather than crispy pork skin with a thin layer of fat. While this probably made it better for scooping up the guacamole it caused it to lose some of its flavour.


For mains we tried the Tacos de lengua (tongue), Pollo con mole poblano (Chicken with poblano sauce?) and the Albondigas al Chipotle (Meatballs with chipotle and tomato salsa). The dishes looked more attractive than my photos - but unfortunately they were a bit dark and with the lighting levels being moderate rather than bright my camera struggled to take clear shots. The tongue came in a small bowl with the mildly spicy sauce served on the side and half a dozen or so soft shelled tacos. I quite liked this, as did Ms L who had apparently been asking to try tongue for a while. It is a fairly strong tasting meat though and may not be for everyone.


I had never tried mole before. Almost black in colour, it looked a much thicker sauce than it turned out to be. It also obviously had a number of different spices and other flavourings running through it, including chocolate (which I like adding to stews myself to give them a deeper, richer flavour). It's kind of hard to describe the flavour of the mole because it was so unfamiliar, other than it is rich and mildly spicy in a smoky kind of way with a sweet undertone. Iron Man noted that it was more chocolatey and sweeter than mole he had tried in the US. The chicken was nicely tender and matched with the sauce well.


While I tried the meatballs they didn't make much of an impression on me. While they were among the better ones I've had, moist and meaty, they didn't have the novelty appeal the mole did. As with the chicken mole, the photo doesn't really do the dish though, with the meatballs under the salsa constituting a fairly colourful dish.


For dessert we tried the Flan de la Casa and the Pastel de Elate. The flan is basically a solid dish custard served with strawberries and cream. Good but not spectacularly so.


On the other hand the pastel de elate (Mexican corn pie) was very good, tasting like sticky date pudding without the sauce.


Overall
Nice food, good service, welcoming atmosphere with super friendly staff. My only real negatives are that the mains took a while to come out and it was a little pricey (but not unreasonable). Another place that wouldn't be my choice for everyday eating but which I would happily go to for special occasions.

Verdict
Food - 8
Service - 7.5
Ambience - 7.5
Price - 6.5

Address
34 Johnston Street
Fitzroy VIC 3065
Tel: (03) 9417 0441

Cafe Francais, Luxembourg, by Bureaucrat

So far, it's difficult to eat the local cuisine when you travel through Europe. Even though I don't have much clue what the local cuisine is in Luxembourg, I couldn't see anything that looked Luxembourgish.

Ergo, when dinner time came, we were faced with the options of Mexican, McDonald's and French (and the soup place is closed for dinner...).

Cafe Francais' menu was your typical European stuff - grilled steak, pan fried chicken/pork/veal/fish w cream sauce, etc. Nothing exciting or enticing.


In an attempt to try and eat something local, I picked the grilled steak w white asparagus (it was asparagus season at the time). I haven't had white asparagus up until this point. I liked it - it's flavour is less intense that the green variety. The fillet steak was nothing to complain about, the veggies all looked and tasted like they had been sitting in a bain marie for a while.


The Lawyer had the grilled trout. Flavour was sweet, skin was crispy, veggies a bit soggy, but nothing really to complain about here too.

Overall
This was our most expensive meal there and it was an average experience. If you're loaded (Luxembourg is an expensive place), I suggest you go to a fancier place (perhaps a Michelin-starred restaurant). Otherwise, this is probably the best you're going to get without having to resort to Le Big Mac for dinner.

Address
14, Place d’Armes, L-1136 Luxembourg
Telephone +352 47 45 34

Penang Coffee House, Hawthorn by Big Fil

I always like to either visit in a group or return to a place a few times before blogging about it. That gives me a chance to sample a few dishes and feels a bit fairer to the restaurant, that I don't dislike (or like) it based just on one poor dish or day in the kitchen. In the case of Penang Coffee House that made a big difference as my three visits differed quite in bit in the quality of the food and experience.


Penang Coffee House is one of those bright well lit places with white walls that appear clean and well managed but don't necessarily appear to have a lot of individual style. That’s not all bad, as fake or pretentious style is worse than no style at all, but means that it doesn't stand out from other similar places.

On my first visit I went for the Hokkien Mee and the Pulit Hitam. Both of these dishes are old Malaysian favourites for me and I had high hopes which were sadly disappointed.

Firstly, and one of my biggest restaurant hates ... they forgot my order. I thought the food was taking a bit long when I noticed that people who arrived after I ordered seemed to have their food already. Moments later the waiter came around apologising that there had been a mix-up in the kitchen and they were going to do my noodles as a priority. At this stage I was hoping for something good to help balance the situation but my noodles, when they arrived, came with a bit too much sauce, dominating the flavour of the noodles and an underwhelming amount of fishcake, prawns and calamari. A below average version of the dish.


The Pulit Hitam was also a little disappointing. A warm desert with black rice and coconut milk, it tasted over salty to me. Not to the extent of being unpleasant, just not tasting quite like it should.


As I was stuck in a comparatively dark corner table (the place was almost full) even my photos came out a bit dark, matching my mood as I left.

Second visit was completely different. It was early on a weeknight and I had my choice of tables. Deciding to go for the seafood laksa and the Ais Kacang the food and experience was much better.

Firstly the friendly waiter remembered me from a few days before and again apologised for the problem with my last visit. Secondly, the laksa was much better than the Hokkien Mee, generously full of calamari, prawns, noodles and other good things. The soup had one of the better basic flavours I've had in Melbourne but was slightly thin. Not a great laksa or the best I've had around town, but a good one.


The Ais Kacang was as good as the laksa. While I slightly prefer it with ice cream the Penang Coffee House version came topped with generous amounts of condensed milk and lots of raspberry flavouring. Bright and cheerful, a big contrast with the pulit hitam.


My third visit came somewhere between the other two. The roti paratha looked a little strange when it came out, almost like a fried bun, but that was because the roti had been rolled up slightly. The roti was flaky on the outside and soft in the middle and soaked up the delicious curry sauce very well. My only criticism was that the roti could have been stretched a bit thinner, but then again I would have happily eaten more.


The Hainanese chicken rice wasn't quite as good. Nothing particularly wrong with it - the chicken was silky, the rice tasted of chicken, the chilli sauce had a nice tang to it and I didn't get the msg overload you often get with the broth. There just wasn't anything which particularly stood out about it. It was more a dish that I'd happily order if I was in the neighbourhood and had a hankering for chicken rice, but I wouldn't cross several suburbs to try it.


Overall
A bit hit or miss. One good experience, one poor and one average. I did appreciate the way the waiter remembered me from the previous visit and the staff did seem very enthusiastic about their service and guests, even when the restaurant was very busy on a Sunday night. But I had the overall impression that its popularity is as much because of its status as a long time Melbourne institution as the quality of the food or its prices.

Verdict
Food - 7
Service - 7
Ambience - 6.5
Price - 6.5

Address
549 Burwood Road
Hawthorn VIC 3122
Tel: (03) 9819 2092