Pok Pok, Docklands by Big Fil

I sometimes forget there are places to eat down in the docklands. Spencer Street Station acts like a bit of a Berlin Wall, it’s tall, has its own (railway) guards and the people who live on the other side are just that little bit different. Consequently I was quite excited when Mmm organised a Friday night visit to a small Thai restaurant down near the water that she’d heard good things about.

First impressions when you enter Pok Pok are a little confusing. There’s a desk at the bottom of the stairs but you have to go up the stairs and past staff who appear to be doing last minute prep work. Then you can sit at either of the bigger tables for larger parties if you wanted to indulge in communal dining, or at one of the smaller more personal tables.


Roasted duck curry

The menu is organised into entrees and mains but seems more designed for sharing.  Not a problem as we'd managed to assemble a group of eight and consequently got through a  good combination of curry, noodle and rice dishes.

Given we got through quite a bit I’ll focus on our favourite items. A surprising number one amongst the entrees and probable favourite for the whole night was the crispy sweet corn fritters. These were little round balls of crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, fried corn goodness. Best thing about them was just how light and fresh they tasted for a deep fried item.

Things I’d also order again were the school prawns and the fresh spring rolls. The school prawns are kind of like the little brother of soft shell crab, eaten whole with the edible shell providing extra texture. These were served with a choice of sweet chilli or better a chilli mayonnaise dip.

I thought the fresh spring rolls were going to be very similar to popiah, a lighter version of a spring roll commonly available in Malaysia and some other parts of East Asia. These are not normally as crispy fried as spring rolls and always feel a much healthier option. While these rolls were similar to popiah in look and texture they came with a sweet sauce on the top. To me anyway this meant the dish wasn’t quite as light and fresh tasting as expected.

From the mains I thought both the Massaman lamb curry and the roasted duck curry (see first pic) were delicious. In neither case was it really for the sauce, which to be honest I don’t really recall.


It was more the rich softness of the duck and the falling apart tenderness of the lamb, served along with what was a pretty good roti.


Other big hits were the fried flat rice noodles in a dark soy sauce and the Tom Zap wild mushrooms. With the rice noodles I was a little concerned that the soy sauce could have been a bit overwhelming, but the while they looked quite dark the sauce was not overpowering in flavour and I thought the noodles had a good amount of wok hei.


Hmmm, I think they had the ‘zap’ part of the Tom Zap right, as these came with an initial chilli and fresh ginger hit which built considerably after a few mouthfuls.


The Gapi Shrimp Paste fried rice and the Pad Thai King Prawns (sorry no pic for the prawns!) I didn’t really get to try (one dish only goes so far amongst eight), but I found the crisp barramundi with green mango and the spicy drunken noodles a little disappointing.


I wouldn’t describe either as bad but I didn’t find the barramundi particularly crisp or flavoursome, and the drunken noodles didn’t have the same sparkle as the soy noodles.


By this stage we were fairly full but still keen on trying some of the limited range of desserts. Bureaucrat and the Lawyer's roti with mixed berry compote looked very pretty but I didn't try any.


Instead I shared in a roti with condensed milk and sugar. While I’d have liked a little more milk this Thai version of roti bom is a tasty ticket to mega-calorie city.


The other dessert, the coconut ice cream in a sweet brioche sandwich, was the only fail on the night. The unanimous view of those who ordered it was that the brioche was hard and unappetising.

Overall
A spacious, modern Melbourne industrial style restaurant with friendly staff and pretty good food.  I don’t think it pushes any new culinary boundaries but it was tasty and would be somewhere that would suit a wide range of tolerance for spicy food.  Really, just a very solid place to eat at a reasonable price.

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

Address
803 Bourke Street
Docklands VIC 3008
Tel: (03)9620 4580

Spicy Ginger Cafe, Civic (ACT) by Big Fil

The reasons why I was in Canberra I won't go into.  Suffice it to say it resulted in two of the worst weeks of my life.  However, I did take the opportunity to check out a few places highly recommended by friends, as well as a couple of places down near Canberra hospital.

Ms International Jetsetter, soon off to New York to work for the UN, recommended Spicy Ginger cafe as her favourite place for dumplings in the National Capital.  With a recommendation like that, how could I refuse?  Unfortunately though I found the dumplings here mediocre at best, with even Ms IJ indicating that on the day we went they weren't up to their usual standard.

The restaurant itself is nice enough, clean, comfortable, well lit, a definite step up from your normal dumpling place.  After all, it's not just a speciality dumpling house but also appears to be a normal mid-range restaurant.  And the staff member who we spoke to after our meal, who at a guess was also the manager, was very friendly.

The dumplings though didn't cut the mustard.  Our choices were the steamed beef dumplings and the steamed combination dumplings.  Both had exactly the same problem - overly thick skins that resulted in a bit of a gluggy mess of a dumpling.  Really it was quite hard to tell what the filling was like because it was just so overpowered by the skins.  Not sure what happened as my companion who had recommended the restaurant said they weren't normally like that.

Our chicken fried with dried chillies was better but still not great.  Moist chicken but a little oilier than I'd have preferred, the major issue was the lack of heat in the dish.  Consequently we both started eating the dried chillies which had a great smoky flavour to them.  This was fine until we hit the occasional hot one which had us both reaching for the water.  Given that I have a fair tolerance for spicy food and Ms IJ is of Sri Lankan background this means that the hot ones were really little firecrackers.

Overall
A nice place to eat and I did like the staff even if it was sometimes hard to get their attention.  The food though was nothing better than average, with the caveat that apparently we didn't catch them at their best.  Would I go back?  Yes, but only because they had originally come so highly recommended.  Oh, and as usual I found the prices about 20% higher for the quality of the food compared to the bigger eastern state capitals.

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

Address
25 Childers Street
Civic ACT 2601
Tel: (02) 6162 1708

Don Don, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

I'd like to be able to say something cute, like is Don Don is good good, but I can't can't. Yes, it is extremely popular and I know people who swear by it but it doesn't really rock my boat.

I understand the appeal, it's amazingly quick and one of those places where you can get something hot and filling for a few gold coins. But everything comes with a cost and the reason Don Don is so cheap is because it cuts so many corners. First of all, it has to be one of the daggiest places in town to eat. Not that I have a particular issue with that as I usually love basic places, but Don Don really pushes the envelope in that regard. And the service is like a school cafeteria crossed with production line - it's quick and efficient but cold and not very welcoming.



In terms of the quality of the food it's all kind of mediocre. That's not to be confused with bad or terrible, if it was I'd never eat there. But the beef in my suki yaki don was bland in flavour, the meat tasteless and a bit stringy. Looked pretty in the bowl but the proof is in the eating and the eating is pretty average.



Looking a bit worse but in my view tasting a bit better was my curry chicken don. This doesn't use the more normal crumbed and deep fried chicken but recycles the teriyaki chicken used in other dishes. What I liked about this was the grilled chicken, which gave the dish a different texture to the usual curry chicken katsu don.



But even so I'd still not class it as anything special. Where Don Don does come through though is on price, where it is around 1/3rd cheaper than similar dishes at most of the cheaper places around town. 

Overall 
Serves are generous, it's quick, it is probably the cheapest place around town. Just don't expect any fine dining experience otherwise you'll end up disappointed.

Verdict 
Food - 6.5
Ambience - 5
Service - 6
Price - 8.5

Address 
321 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel :(03) 9662 3377

Green Refectory, Brunswick by Big Fil

It doesn’t happen every time, maybe not even most of the time.  But this morning was one of those rare occasions when Snooze and I agreed on just about everything regarding our visit to Green Refectory.

First of all, love the feel to the place.  Good music at the level to hear in the background but not interfere with conversations with your dining companions.  Everything has that slightly distressed look, from the walls to the tables, the mirrors on the walls to the menu items being posted on the blackboard behind the counter.  

But unlike some places where it feels a bit put on here it gave the cafe an unpretentious and welcoming casual style.  Lots of space early on a Sunday morning, although when I have walked past later in the day it has always been leaking people out the door full.  The menu is limited but prices seemed very cheap.  And in a great example of leading with your best foot forward, really, really good looking cakes just as you come through the front door.

 Combine all this with staff that are both friendly and cute and Green Refectory was off to a flying start.  Strangely enough the only slight let down as the morning went on was the food, which looked good and was generous in size but a bit lacking in subtlety or finesse in the flavour department.

Snooze’s choice de jour was the breakfast stack, which from what I could see included a potato patty, tomato, bacon, grilled haloumi and a poached egg.  The egg was nicely poached, releasing a small river of yellow goodness when broached.  The potato patty could have been crisper, as it resembled mashed potato more than anything else.  The bacon was adequately crispy if not as done as I like it, and the haloumi didn’t have the slight salty spark which we expected and was a bit more chewy than squeaky.  All up nothing unacceptable or bad about it, just not as good as it had looked on the plate.

Similar comments could be made about my breakfast burrito, with tomato, mushroom and scrambled eggs inside a tortilla wrap, with lots of cheese on top and a few slices of avocado on the side.  Looked really good when it hit the table, massive in size but the flavours were a bit bland and confused.

Fortunately though things were redeemed somewhat by the excellent cakes we tried for breakfast desserts.  Admittedly we were already quite full after our mains but the cakes looked so good we felt that further research was well justified, which certainly proved to be the case.  

Snooze’s choice of the vanilla slice came with passionfruit icing.  Now I normally don’t like passionfruit that much, no idea why just never have.  In this case though the passionfruit gave a real tangy zing which matched very well with the nice custard.

My choice of the apple and rhubarb pie wasn’t quite as good but still would have qualified as a very good cafe cake.  The fruit was fresh and the pastry sweet and crisp but the cake could have been improved by greater contrast between the sweetness of the apple and the tang of the rhubarb.

Overall

Good cafe with decent food but outstanding prices and great atmosphere.  I’d be in two minds about returning for the breakfasts, as I think there are better if more expensive options in the area.  No such qualms about returning for the cakes, which were very good and so very generous for the price.  And while occasionally the service did occasionally seem a little disorganised, I can forgive a lot for a smile and friendly attitude.

Verdict

Food – 7.5

Ambience – 8

Service – 7.5

Price – 8

Address

115 Sydney Road

Brunswick VIC 3056

Tel: (03) 9387 1150

Lau Tuo Jia Restaurant, Malvern by Big Fil

Another day another style of Chinese food not commonly found in Melbourne. Lao Tuo Jia Restaurant specialises in Xinjiang style food, food from the North West of China. Style wise its very different from your typical Cantonese, heavier and from what I could see very lamb focused, although that could reflect my personal meat preferences. The restaurant itself is basic, with plastic topped tables for I assume ease of wiping and a small TV playing Chinese soap opera in the corner. Staff appeared quite friendly and helpful. It's obviously a family run place though so I wouldn't describe service as professional quality and speaking Mandarin Chinese would probably make communication a lot easier.


Having visited a few times now I'd recommend three things from the entrees menu. First of all, some of the best lamb skewers I have had. Not so much because of the tender meat, but because of the good strong lamb/mutton flavours brought out through the use of cumin - a much underrated spice for use with meat in my opinion. It's also interesting how they are cooked on flat rather than round skewers, which stops the meat from slipping when turned and promotes more even cooking.


Also quite interesting is the Xinjiang style salad. I ordered this out of curiosity rather than any other reason as I had no idea what I would be getting. Turns out it is a soft, cold translucent noodle salad. Interesting flavours and a texture that reminded me of jellyfish.


To break up all the meat flavours I'd also recommend the cucumber salad. It's not what I would call a light or refreshing salad, but the slight crunch of the cucumber combine with the sauce to cut through the fatty flavour and texture of all the lamb.


From the mains, all three of my favourites involved the use of lamb. Best but not necessarily the healthiest option was the deep fried lamb ribs. Lightly battered ribs, deep fried and then dusted with cumin powder, full of flavour and lamb juices.


Not as fatty but without quite the same flavours is the lamb with cumin, which you can order either spicy or non-spicy. Stir fried rather than deep fried, I'd have preferred it with a bit more cumin but I'd happily order it again.


Last of all the very generous in size lamb with noodles. Not terribly complex but packed with great texture and flavour from the noodles, tender lamb, onion, red and green peppers, beans and zucchini. There also appeared to be a version served with the wide flat noodles but this was advertised as a dish for two. When I saw the size of this dish I think with a couple of entrees it would almost be enough for four!





Overall
I am sure it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but if you stick with the familiar you will miss a lot of great dining experiences. Basic and simple, obviously popular with the local student population and with more local diners than I'd have expected.

Verdict
Food - 7.5
Service - 6
Ambiance - 6
Price - 7.5

Address
19 Glenferrie Road
Malvern VIC 3141
Tel: (03) 9500 1919

Stefano's Cafe and Bakery, Mildura by Bureaucrat

In addition to our delicious degustation dinner at Stefano's, I made sure that we also ate at his cafe and bakery.


The cafe and bakery (and also, shop, gallery and bar) is spread across two rooms...


Stock up on your Stefano products and other food delights (I got a unctuous jar of caramelised onion jam)


The gallery, dining and bar area


For lunchies, we ordered some coffee and chai. Despite not being much of a coffee drinker, I do recognise good coffee when I taste it. It was smooth, deep and aromatic. Disappointingly, the chai was a bit lacklustre. It was a bit too sweet and the robust aroma and flavour was missing. I won't accuse them of making the chai from some instant chai powder (bleugh) but this cup of chai did not taste like the real thing (ie real spices and tea leaves).


Mother Hen and the Lawyer opted for the beer battered barramundi with salad and chips. A light, golden, crispy batter. The barra was fresh and succulent but I felt it could have done with some seasoning. Mother Hen especially liked the chips and the fresh salad. Although I didn't taste the tartare sauce, it did not look like it was homemade.  It was somewhat dull in colour and coagulated.  As with the chai, I didn't think this was the real thing.


After our rich degustation dinner the night before, I felt the need to be virtuous. So I went for the poached chicken salad w fennel, rocket, asparagus, snow peas and a yoghurt dressing. All the greenery was perfectly al dente and fresh... it was so green that it has to be good for you.  The chicken was tender and succulent, and was gently seasoned w cumin. I felt the yoghurt dressing was a bit much. Half the dish was covered in the dressing.... a slightly slap dash presentation.


Mr Strong got the most impressive dish - the steak sandwich. Holy moly this was big! In between two generous slabs of sourdough bread was crispy bacon, a decent sized grilled steak, with all the trimmings, including a tomato relish. Extremely good value this was! Mr Strong needed some help from us to finish this one off.


We also tried some of the cakes and pastries - a cannoli and a lemon curd meringue tart. The cannoli was good. Nice, crunchy pastry shell. The ricotta filling was a tad sweet for me, but I liked the use of vanilla seeds in the filling. I liked the meringue tart the best. The lemon curd (which is also on sale) had a nice smooth texture and was deliciously tart. The pastry was moderately firm and not overly buttery (a good thing in my books). And the meringue was soft and gooey. Yum.

Overall
For about 95% of the food we tried, I would say the food was definitely better than what you'd find in a typical cafe. The serving size was generous and the food was very fresh. The down side was the tiny touches - namely, the (lack of) quality of the chai and tartare sauce. I expected more from Stefano's.

The cafe/bakery is quite busy with lots of people dining in and getting their lunch and coffee to go.As such, the place could have done with one or two more staff on the floor.  As the cafe/bakery/foody shop is spread across two rooms, it's a bit hard getting their attention.

When we first entered, there was no one around.  When we finally got seated, our waitress disappeared to a more urgent task.  For about 10 minutes, we weren't sure whether there was table service, or whether we had to order up at the till.

The vibe the staff create makes for an uncomfortable dining experience. They talk sharply at each other; barking orders and questions at each other. Because the place is so big and there's not enough waiters, the chefs keep banging on the bell to alert the waiters that the dishes are ready. As we were seated just in front of the kitchen, we had to endure all of this throughout our meal.

Verdict
Food – 9
Service – 6
Ambience – 6.5
Price – 9

Address
Stefano's Cafe and Bakery
27 Deakin Avenue
Mildura 3500
Telephone: 03 5021 3627