Melbourne Kebab Station, Coburg by Big Fil

It's just a kebab shop, but it's not just any kebab shop. It's actually possibly the best regarded kebab shop in Melbourne, and after our lunch I can understand why.


You wouldn't know that though just looking from the outside. Sure it looks cleaner and better lit than most, but it's got the usual rotating skewered meats, and just a handful of tables situated much too close to the glass window. Admittedly the cooking meat does look more appetising than in most kebab shops, but not enough to say that this place is in any way special.

What sets it apart though is the food. While there were a couple of minor issues, most of the food wouldn't have been out of place in a restaurant rather than a kebab joint. The only major issue - selling great beer food in a halal place meant no beer!

For me (and I suspect Kit Kat as well) the highlight was the Iskender. I think both of us would put this right up there with our favourite Turkish foods, a delicious mix of meat with yoghurt and tomato sauce. What made this dish for me though were not the juicy meats or well flavoured sauce, but the bread over which the meats had been served. It was almost like a taste of childhood, when my mother used to make lasagne with too much meat and the juices would soak into the pasta, rendering it slightly soft but unbelievably delicious. The large serve was very generous, but even when full I continued eating, determined that none would go to waste.


Almost as good was the warm, freshly baked bread eaten with the carrot and capsicum dips. While these looked a little plain on the plate they were well tasty, better than my usually preferred hommus and eggplant dips which we also ordered. The other thing which was surprisingly good, the light, fluffy and well separated rice.


As mentioned a little bit disappointing was the hommus and eggplant dips, as well as the lamb doner that I thought was slightly dry. Still, that’s being a bit picky, as if the other food hadn't been as good we would probably have been categorised them as better than typical kebab shop fare. The falafel on the other hand were a bit average, more hockey puck than fluffy.



Service was mixed, with the woman who took our order appearing a bit distracted and unhappy, whereas we were also offered a container to take away the remaining doner we were struggling to finish without needing to ask. On the slightly weird side was the reserved sign placed on our table when we were waiting for our final dish.

Overall
Within its limitations we all thought Melbourne Kebab Station was pretty good. That’s without even trying the kebabs, which looked excellent. The food is good, it was an ok if crowded place to eat and as a whole the service was reasonable and friendly. Size of serve is enormous for the price, with a small meal probably enough to feed two.

Verdict
Food - 8
Ambience - 6
Service - 6.5
Price - 8

Address
10/459 Sydney Road
Coburg VIC 3058
Tel: (03) 9355 7766

Chan House, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

After our recent visit to Enlightened Chinese Cuisine I am no longer such a foe of faux pork, nor willing to mock, mock beef. In fact I was quite looking forward to our visit to Chan House, a vegetarian Chinese option located in a very obscure food arcade off Little Collins Street.


If anything I was probably looking forward to it too much, expecting to compare a cheap bain-marie style stall to a mid-level price restaurant. It's certainly not at the same standard as ECC in either taste or texture, but expecting to be able to make that comparison was undoubtedly unfair. The biggest let down to me though was not the quality of the food but the limited choice. While there are a number of different options prepared by the kitchen they are rotated on a daily basis, so that rather than choice of a dozen dishes there were only four to choose between.

When we visited there were two mock meat - Mongolian beef and sweet and sour pork - and two more vegetarian style dishes - mixed vegetables as well as vegetables in a curry sauce. Of the mock meats I preferred the beef, which looked like beef and tasted like something resembling beef, although the texture wasn't right. The pork though had some problems, in fact Bureaucrat initially had difficulty trying to work out what was the pork in her dish so that Snooze and I could try it.



The curry vegetables came in a coconut based sauce and suffered from one of the typical curses of bain-marie food, how do you keep the vegetables nice and crispy fresh when they are sitting in the dish keeping warm? The result was that they were not as firm as I would have liked, and I didn't find the flavours terribly interesting. The vegetable dish was more beanshoots than anything else.


Snooze also ordered a curry puff, which was probably the best flavoured thing we tried. The pastry was a bit soft and oily, but we all agreed that the flavour of the filling was good. The dish which looked much better than the others though was the vegetarian curry laksa, which unfortunately we appeared to be the only ones not ordering.

Overall
Despite all the negatives Chan House did have three things going for it. First of all, it’s hard to give noticeably good service when standing behind a bain-marie, but smiling and making helpful comments when we were trying to sort out what was and what wasn’t available helps. Secondly it’s cheap, choice of two mains with rice for $6.50 cheap. And thirdly, the feeling of moral superiority you gain from knowing that no animals were harmed in the making of your meal.

Verdict
Food – 6
Ambience – 5.5
Service – 7
Price – 8

Address
Shop 10, 422 Little Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: 0402 798 748

Cacao Green, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

I've been eating frozen yoghurt at Cacao Green for a while now but had never really thought about writing a blog post about it. But with summer coming up it was probably now or never, time to stop being lazy and explain what I like and what I don't like about this frozen yoghurt store.


The first thing I like is that it's frozen yoghurt, not ice-cream or gelatti. While I love a really smooth, creamy ice-cream sometimes you don't want something so diary heavy. Particularly when it's hot something lighter and refreshing can be in order. To me the use of yoghurt makes it still creamy but a bit less sweet and more suited to a Melbourne summer, particularly with the slightly tangy aftertaste that it leaves in your mouth.

Secondly I like the toppings you can sprinkle over the top to add some additional flavour and texture. There are usually a dozen or so to choose between but I always head for my old reliable favourites, almond slivers, walnuts, and honey macadamias. If you had a healthier outlook I think there are normally a few fruit varieties available, although I have never tried them.


Thirdly, for a frozen dessert eatery sitting outside at the footpath tables is a surprisingly nice place to sit and eat. There are a few trees for shade and the passing foot traffic adds a bit of life to the scene. Much better than the normal white, fairly sterile environment that some other places have.


But despite three big pluses I still only visit here irregularly. Why? Two interrelated reasons. First of all, they feel a bit stingy with the serves. When you first see your yoghurt in the cup it looks enormous, piled high and heading for the sky. It's pretty misleading though as there is always a hollow centre in the middle.

Secondly, the price. Regular Italian original with two toppings - $8.70! I mean its good, but there are other places I can head for good ice-cream that are at least a couple of dollars cheaper than that, and I don't consider them cheap either.

Overall
I do like it here. It tastes good, its light and healthy tasting and it’s a nice place to sit and eat. It is the sort of place I'd probably head for lunch once or twice a week during summer if it was a bit cheaper. But while the quality is undoubtedly good, the price puts it in the every now and again category

Verdict
Food - 7.5
Service - 7
Ambience - 7.5
Price - 5.5

Address
285 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel (03) 9654 9674

Noodle Kingdom, Preston by Big Fil

I'd been nagging friends for ages to visit Noodle Kingdom in Preston. It's a part of town I rarely get to but I knew it was a popular restaurant, and I'm always keen to visit anywhere that makes its own dumplings and noodles. My friends weren't as enthusiastic having been there a few times before, but last Saturday night they finally gave in.


It's probably not the best time to show up and expect to get a table straight away, 6.30 pm on a Saturday night, but it was only a ten minute wait fortunately. Inside is a little crowded and noisy but the décor is surprisingly restrained, lots of light and earthy brown colours. It's also one of those restaurants where you can watch the staff prepare the dumplings and noodles, something that always intrigues me.


But rather than be entertained by the preparation of food, we were more interested in its consumption. Always enthusiastic in our ordering, our selection of noodles, soups and dumpling dishes were soon on their way.

Having seen them being made in front of us our first choice was the fried pork dumplings. Consistent with a couple of the other dishes we tried, they were basically ok but should have been better. The filling was good and the skins nicely thin, but they had been overcooked to the extent of seeming more deep fried than pan fried. The end result was that the skin had a texture more like cardboard than the nice crispy/chewy feel I like.


Second dish up was the stewed beef with broad noodles. It was a very generous serve with good noodles and tender beef, and a step up from the dumplings. Unfortunately though, some of us found the soup a little salty.


One dish I liked was the Shanghai fried noodles. To me this dish is more about the texture than the flavour, as I love the slight chewiness of the noodle and the way it slithers down. What can ruin it though is if it's overly oily. I thought this was one of the better I've had, because while the flavours were certainly a bit muted there was no problem with oiliness whatsoever.


Last two mains were the pork belly in Chinese wine sauce and the Beijing style fried noodles. Solid dishes, nothing much to complain about but nothing particularly special either. I'd probably not order them again, not because I didn't like them but more to save the space for something else.



Finally to finish off, red bean pancake. I don't think I've ever had this where they've been so generous with the red bean paste, but unfortunately I thought it'd been over-cooked slightly rendering the pastry a little dry and hard.


Overall
A kind of frustrated experience. It wasn't that anything we ordered was bad, it just felt like it should have been better. Staff did appear to be rushing around a lot and it's possible they were feeling the pressure, resulting in a couple of overcooked fried dishes. It was also hard to get their attention at times, and bringing out one spoon when we said we wanted to share the soup between five of us was a bit poor, particularly when we had to ask twice for the additional spoons. Serves were very generous though, particularly given prices are fairly low. The end result was a restaurant I'd be willing to give another go if I'm in the area but I probably wouldn't make a special trip to visit from the other side of town again.

Verdict
Food - 7
Ambience - 7
Service - 5.5
Price - 7.5

Address
469 High Street
Preston VIC 3072
Tel: (03) 9478 8885

Old Town Kopitiam Mamak, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

For services rendered, Beaker took me out to dinner at Old Town Kopitiam Mamak.


Ever since I arrived back in Melbourne, Beaker has been singing the praises of OTKM.


Apparently alot of Malaysians give this place the authenticity thumbs up.


We arrived early for dinner and chose our drinks of freshly squeezed apple juice, Ribena special (which had chunks of agar agar and lychees) and chrysantheum tea (which was served cold). And once again, Bubba Chuck couldn't wait for me to take a photo of the drinks before gulping down her drink. The drinks were served in these big mugs. Although big size, I still thought the drinks were a bit pricey.


We ordered the roti with egg and onion. It was served with three different curry - a mild dahl, a typical curry sauce (which wasn't too spicy), and a curry which had dried anchovies as the main ingredient. Beaker and I liked the dried anchovy sauce the best. It wasn't too spicy and the anchovies gave it a delicious umami flavour.


Next up was a dozen of beef satay. OTKM is known for its authentic satays, which are apparently are cooked over coals. It came served with cucumber, red onion and peanut sauce. I quite liked the satays, although I found the beef a tad chewy. Beaker said that they're not normally that chewy. But I quite liked the strong lemongrass flavour in the beef satay. The peanut sauce was the best I've ever had. Normally I find peanut sauces to be too sweet and runny. This one wasn't and had nubbly bits of toasted peanuts.


Next was Pan Mee Dry. Hand-stretched noodles, which had a pleasantly chewy texture (the texture was somewhere between al dente pasta and a freshly-baked sourdough bread). It was cooked with lots of dried shrimp, dried anchovies, reconstituted shiitake mushrooms and some mince pork - umami overload! Despite all the strong flavours, the flavours balanced each other. It came served with a chilli-based sauce, but we didn't add it to the noodles. Beaker and I both liked this dish.

Overall
I really liked the food at OTKM. Each dish was delicious and tasted authentic to me. And there was quite a varied menu, with lots of things that I hadn't seen before and would like to try.

However, the service was the big let down. When we arrived (before 6pm), we were given a small table. After the drinks had arrived, we asked if we could move to the next table, which was bigger. We moved. An even though we only moved one table over, the staff were confused for the whole night.

The dishes came out incredibly slow. Something obviously went wrong in the kitchen there. There was about a 20 minute wait for each dish. Other diners who arrived after us (and sat on our original table) had all of their four dishes served before our third dish was served.

Also, the staff didn't come to remove the empty plates when we were finished. They remained blissfully ignorant while all the plates piled up. I mean, it's not too much to expect the waiter to take away the empty dish when they served the next dish. We ended up having to put the empty dishes on the unoccupied tables. I noticed that this was happening at quite a few tables.

I would like to go back to OTKM, but the bad service is the only thing that's making me think twice.

Verdict
Food - 9
Ambience - 7
Service - 4
Price - 6

Address
Old Town Kopitiam Mamak
210 Lonsdale St
Melbourne 3000
Telephone: 9654 2682

Ikea Restaurant, Springvale by Bureaucrat

Okay. I know this may seem odd to some people, but I definitely believe Ikea's restaurant deserves a blog entry. During a recent shopping trip at Ikea for a Fjellse and possibly a Sultan, I, naturally, got hungry. And of course, one naturally goes to Ikea's cafe, because it's right there and it's cheap. What to order? Their Swedish meatballs.

I know there's a bit of a fan club of Ikea's Swedish meatball lovers out there. A few of my friends were skeptics, but when I challenged them to try one, they all end up loving them as much as I do.


From a kids' size (which is pictured here) to a big adult-size plateful of porkish goodness. Smooth in texture, lovely dunked in Ikea's lingonberry sauce (it's obscured by the chips in the photo), creamy gravy and lots of chips. There's something so comforting about this dish.

Verdict
Food - 8
Ambience - 7
Service - 7
Price - 10

Overall
If you're already an Ikea meatball fan, well, there's no need for me to tell you to go eat them. And if you're like me, eat them there, and then buy a 1kg bag of frozen meatballs, lingonberry jam and the packet of gravy to cook at home...and buy a soft serve ice cream cone when you leave the store.

If you're a skeptic go treat yourself to a culinary experience - don't knock it until you've tried it. Ikea's furniture may be dodgy, but the meatballs sure ain't.

Address
Ikea Restaurant and Cafe
917 Princes Highway
Springvale 3171
Telephone: 8523 2154

The Hungarian, Richmond by Big Fil

Central and Eastern European food always feels to me simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. It's stews and potatoes, lamb, pork and beef, things I've eaten all my life. It's Strudels, Schnitzels and Sauerkraut, things that I've eaten every now and again. But at Czech, Hungarian or Croatian restaurants it's also menus filled with unpronounceable names, flavoured with paprika and other unfamiliar spices.


Fortunately The Hungarian provides dishes named in both Hungarian and English, such as The Drunken Pig, The Secret of Buda and the MonsterSchnitzel. It's a cute neighbourhood style restaurant, with red and white checked table cloths and curtains, and assorted European photos on the walls. Obviously popular, on a Sunday Night it was fairly empty till around 7pm, full by 8.


Unfortunately there had been a run at lunch time of two of our first choice for mains, The Drunken Pig and The Secret of Buda. After a last minute swap with Ms Counting Her Calories it was the lamb goulash for me, a slow cooked lamb stew served with potato. A lot of the secret to a good stew is slow cooking at a comparatively low temperature, to ensure the meat remains properly tender and moist. After my first couple of bites I thought the stew had been overcooked, as the meat was slightly dry. Fortunately (and a little strangely) this only seemed to apply to the first couple of pieces, as the rest of the lamb was nicely cooked. Very good potatoes too.


The Szegediner pork stew was my first choice but after seeing the dish Ms Counting her Calories decided she didn't want all the potato. Based on my small sampling I am glad we swapped. I think that stewing favours stronger flavoured meats such as beef, goat or lamb and so tend to avoid pork stews. Served with sour cream and slices of dark bread, Ms Counting her Calories enjoyed it but I preferred my goulash.


Tucson Trevor decided on the MonsterSchnitzel, which was large enough to count as a small monster. Normally pounded to ensure the meat is both thin and tender, crumbed and then lightly fried, good schnitzels are comparatively hard to find in today's world of deep fryers and re-heated pub parmas. And while not the best I've had in Melbourne this certainly counted as a good schnitzel, hearty and well cooked with the same good potatoes as the lamb goulash.


While I only managed a small sampling of Ironman's tipsy chicken or Ms L's dumplings and scrambled eggs, both appeared to be tasty and generous in size, and not as heavy as they looked. Ironman also commented that his small side salad was a good size, with its pickled vegetables any larger would have resulted in too much vinegar for him.



There is an extensive range of mainly crepes for desserts, including a plum and cinnamon version. Lighter than I expected and with an optional scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side it made a nice way to finish off the meal. The only other dessert I tasted was Ms Counting her Calories French Custard Slice, advertised as a future best in the universe winner. While that may be an overstatement it was very good and maybe even better than my crepe.



Overall
Once upon a time over dinner we discussed with our resident Czech Mr Foghorn Leghorn the type of Central European food available in restaurants here. It's mainly of the peasant or home cooked variety, dumplings and stews eaten after working in the fields while the Lords presumably stuffed themselves with venison and wild boar. With an extensive range of soups, sweet and savoury crepes and mains the here food is good, of the comforting home style variety and with serves almost generous enough to feed two. Service is surprisingly quick (although it was a few minutes between the first and last dishes coming out) and the whole restaurant just has a very friendly feel. Nothing about here that we didn't like and great for a casual meal, but for a weekend you'll probably need to book.

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

Address
362 Bridge Road
Richmond VIC 3121
Tel: 0421 993 132

Teppansan, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

Teppansan is a small, downmarket, fairly nondescript looking restaurant on Russell Street, providing cheap lunches aimed at the student and officer worker crowd. It's hardly unique in that but it does have something that its neighbours do not have, a clutch of Age Cheap Eats stickers for the past few years pasted on the window. While a Cheap Eats recommendation is a hardly a definitive guide to the quality of a place it's normally enough to suggest that it might be worthwhile checking out.


The restaurant itself is a slight surprise when you enter. I was expecting something small and fairly pokey but instead it's a bit Tardis like in that the inside appears bigger than the outside, the room long and light. A few decorations on the wall, some friendly staff and a bit of sizzle from the open kitchen near the entrance and first impressions are positive.


My lunchtime set meal option included a couple of small prawn and pork dim sims as well as some small vegetarian spring rolls. Of the two I thought that spring rolls were the better, very nicely fried so as to be crunchy but not hard. On the other hand the dim sims had an unusually strong taste that I didn't particularly like, and didn't taste especially fresh.


I hadn't had okonomiyaki before although I do know they are a very popular snack in parts of Japan. You often see them though in food courts, sitting next to the yakitori. Normally when I have seen them they have looked like a large, flat patty, sometimes folded over but served topped with mayonnaise and a sweet dark sauce. This version was almost like a wrap, not made with the normal bread but with the casing folded up over the ingredients, in this case pork, and topped with Benito flakes. Because of the sauce and mayonnaise I thought this might be a quite heavy dish and filling but instead was nice and light with fresh, slightly zingy flavours. I can't comment on whether the style in which it was made is authentic but both Snooze and I gave it a thumbs up.


Snooze's set lunch option was the Oyako Don, chicken and egg on rice. I quite like Don (one rice) meals and this was a good one. Surprisingly it wasn't so much the chicken or egg that I liked so much as the fluffy, beautifully cooked rice. Very generous serve too, with Snooze unable to finish it even with a bit of help from me.


But what really tipped me over into liking this place were the drinks. Snooze's tea looked very cute served in its pot. But more importantly I loved my green tea (soy) shake. Lacking any of the bitterness you sometimes get from green tea ice cream, light and frothy, great flavour and very refreshing.




Overall
A very nice surprise given I had avoided it for so long and a great option for a cheapish lunch. Staff were quietly efficient and our food came out in a reasonable time for someone just popping out of the office. In addition to the lunchtime set meals there is also a fairly extensive range of other dishes available to try out. But best of all, I'll be back again for that green tea shake!

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

Address
179 Russell Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9663 1938