Shandong Mama, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

It’s not like dumplings are a new phenomenon to hit Melbourne, but the way they reinvent themselves they still sometimes feel like the latest in thing. There was a time not that long ago that dumplings meant those delicate steamed little morsels that you get at yum cha, or some overly thick skinned steamed or fried pork or vegetarian parcels. Then, if you didn’t do Xiao Long Bao you were no one. There’s obviously more to dumplings than that though, and Foghorn Leghorn has waxed lyrical on the lamb dumplings he tried many years ago in Xian and how difficult it is to find dumplings here from that part of China. Well now there is a new option, dumplings by the Mama from Shandong.

And very nice dumplings they are too, as I can confirm from four visits over a one week period! Shandong is a coastal province, and other than the open sided fried dumplings the other things which stood out as being a bit different were the fish dumplings and the use of dried shrimp to boost the flavour in a number of the dumplings. There are other items on the menu, and from a few brief encounters these are pretty good too. However, for this visit it was all about the dumplings.

Catch of the day was undoubtedly the fish dumplings. With a delicate fish filling and the use of coriander and ginger, these were undoubtedly the best fish dumplings I’ve ever had. That’s probably not as big a complement as it might sound at first, because I’ve always found fish dumplings interesting in theory but lacking in practice, mushy in texture and lacking in flavour. These though had managed to keep a nice texture and the freshness of the fish used shone. This was probably helped by using mackerel rather than some cheap mystery fish.

The other boiled dumpling sampled was the prawn, black fungus and chives dumpling. Ruby Grapefruit was not such a fan of these, with more added pork mince (for texture and flavour) and less black fungus and prawn than she had been expecting. On the other hand I thought they were good, with obviously much fresher prawn than you normally get.

Unfortunately on this particular visit the fried dumplings weren’t as good as those previously tried. Apparently the pan fryer was playing up, resulting in over cooked skins and somewhat dry fillings. However, from previous visits I can confirm that the pan fried beef dumplings are very good. These are served open ended, so that some of the juice mixes with the oil and infuses into the dumpling skins, adding great flavour to the crispy skins.

Overall

Located in an arcade in a shop where previous businesses had failed to generate a profitable concern, Shandong Mama has managed to generate a bit of a buzz already to the extent you might be hard pressed to get a seat at lunch time. Staff are friendly and while you have to wait a few minutes for your dumplings, that’s because the'are often being made fresh behind the scenes. Mama is also obviously very keen about the image of customer service they give, and we were offered a discount because our fried dumplings weren’t up to their usual standard. Cost is a couple more dollars than usual, but it’s definitely worth it.

Verdict

Food – 8.5

Service – 8

Ambience – 7

Price – 7.5

Address

Mid-city Arcade

Shop 7, 200 Bourke Street

Melbourne VIC 3000

Tel: (03) 9650 3818

Gold Leaf, Docklands by Bureaucrat

Apres shopping at CostCo, we headed to nearby Star Circus for yum cha at Gold Leaf.  I hadn't been to Gold Leaf before - however, my family has been there several times in the past few years.  I'm told that Gold Leaf has a reputation of doing above average dumplings and that on weekends, it's not uncommon for a long queue of people waiting outside for a table.


Glutinous rice

Gold Leaf is situated with views to the eyesore that is Melbourne's answer to London's The Eye. Beyond its wooden doors, it's moderately big inside, with an attempt at blingyness.


From (very) afar, you might mistake this for a genuinely classy place.  But when you come a smidge closer, you can easily tell that the faux gold trimmings and mirrors and glass ornaments are painfully cheap.  I could imagine the owners just importing a whole lot of nouvelle riche furniture and ornaments from China to fit out this place.


Prawn and scallop dumplings


Umm... I've forgotten the name of this dumpling!

Despite being a sizeable space, the tables are a bit more packed in than you would expect from a real classy place.  It's not too cramped, but while pouring some tea, I did bump my elbow right into a waiter's butt because there's that little space.


Prawn and chive dumplings

For a mid-week yum cha, I was surprised to see there were this many diners.  It was about two thirds full, mostly with tables of 4-5 diners (families and also a sprinkling of business lunches) and a few larger tables.  My surprise stemmed more from the fact that I've never seen any restaurant in the Docklands area being terribly busy.


Fried taro dumplings


BBQ pork buns

So on to the food.  This was a big disappointment.  They all sort of tasted the same.  The negatives were that there was lots of MSG (a big no-no in my book) and the dumpling wrappers had an odd texture... it was gluggy and gelatinously lumpy.


Ah, special mention is the steamed rice noodle wrapped around Chinese doughnut.  This was especially bad.  Incredibly oily and the rice noodle was particularly gelatinously lumpy - you can tell by the piece in the bottom left corner.





Verdict
Food – 6.5
Ambience – 6.5
Service – 7
Price – 6.5

Overall
I've heard hype and I've read the positive reviews... I just can't reconcile with what I experienced.  The dumplings were kinda average and laden with MSG.  Given the price, I expected to be wowed.  Service was average - not good, not bad.  I just can't see what the fuss is about this place.

Address
Gold Leaf
Level 1, Star Circus Harbour Town
Docklands 3008
Telephone: 9670 1128

G2 Korean BBQ, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

It’s been a while since I have done much blogging about the places we have eaten.  This isn’t because we have stopped eating out, although I for one have been doing so at new places a little less often.  It’s more a lack of time and motivation caused by a new job and busy time at work.

There are a few new places near work that have opened in the last few weeks though which behoved us to try.  One, Pepper Lunch, will be the subject of an upcoming Bureaucrat post [That'll be a while...I've got too many other posts to write up - Bureaucrat].  Just a couple of shops down is G2 Korean BBQ, the subject of this post.

For those of us who are students or office workers, looking for a cheap but filling lunch, there are a number of options for Korean food around Melbourne Central.  These tend to provide some generic meat on rice or bi bim bap for a smidgen under a tenner.  G2 seems to be aiming just a little higher than that.  No so that it is outside the price of students or non-executive types, but not somewhere you’d go for lunch every day.

On the day we went the bi bim bap was definitely the popular choice for Ruby Grapefruit, Ms No Meat and Snooze.  There are a few varieties on offer, with the choices de jour being the tofu, kim chi and beef bolgogi.

BBP has been described to me as the hamburger or hot dog of Korea, the sort of food that taxi drivers wolf down before or during shifts, when they want something quick and tasty.  It certainly seems a lot healthier than that, a rice, meat and vegetable dish where the ingredients arrive basically raw or undercooked but continue to cook from the heat of the bowl. 

I didn’t try any of the BBP so can’t comment from personal experience, but reactions around the table were positive.  Snooze’s kim chi seemed to have more of a spicy kick than she was expecting but still went down well.   Ms Grapefruit indicated that the beef was more mince like than the strips of meat that she was expecting, but she still thought it was one of the better ones she had tried.  And Ms No Meat’s tofu BBP?    Well, it was a bit of a case of I didn’t ask and she didn’t say.

What I decided to go for was a sizzling spicy pork and octopus number.  This looked good when it hit the table, particularly the two enormous rice balls which looked a little like seaweed speckled arancini.  The pork and octopus could have been a little more tender without being in anyway tough, but those rice balls.  Seriously, these were packed with enough flavour to make a great snack just on their own.

Overall

They have obviously put a lot of effort into the interior design and I particularly liked the exposed copper work and the dark coloured tables a chairs, even if it did feel a little cramped when trying to eat.  The staff seemed quite new but were trying very hard for which I’d cut them quite a bit of slack...I’d rather have a few hiccups but service with a smile than everything neat and tidy but done by someone who would obviously rather be somewhere else.  Overall, new but popular and definitely a worthwhile addition to the area.

Verdict

Food – 7.5

Ambience – 7

Service – 7

Price – 7

Address

301 Elizabeth Street

Melbourne VIC 3000

Tel: (03) 9642 3424

An Vy, Chadstone by Bureaucrat

Trying a new restaurant is always a gamble. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's great and sometimes it's disappointing and you wonder why you didn't stick with a tried and true place.


So when we opted for An Vy, well, we ended up being rather envious of the diners at Let's Bab (see my post back in Sept 2012, which is a few doors down from An Vy.


On the outside, we were intrigued with the $12 lunch deal - an entree, main and a soft drink. Inside, it's like your typical cheap eat place, but one of the cleaner ones - mirrors to make the place look bigger, simple tables and chairs. We all opted for the $12 deal.


For the three big peoples we all went for the spring rolls as our entree. This came out on one plate. Despite that we each ordered different spring rolls (veggie, pork and something else), they all kinda tasted the same. There wasn't much filling inside of them, and it didn't look like they were cooked with fresh batch of oil.


For Bubba Chuck, she got a serve of prawn and pork rice paper rolls. She seemed to like them enough.


I got the lemongrass pork w vermicelli. This was definitely not was served. Firstly, I was alarmed at the rather oily look of the pork. Thinking back, and to be fair, I don't think the menu said it was grilled pork. Assuming that it didn't say grilled pork, it was way more oilier than I would have expected. Secondly, lemongrass it ain't. It was chilli and not any hint of lemongrass. It was way too much chilli for me to handle that I had to swap my meal with Beaker. Also, the shredded lettuce and mint looked somewhat tired and soggy.


Beaker got the pork w vermicelli. Although this was less oily than my lemongrass pork it was still oily. I also had the same concerns about the lettuce and mint.


The Lawyer got the beef and tripe pho. The Lawyer thought this was okay and to use his favourite (and apt) description of meals of this sort of quality, he gives it a "solid 6.5". Not outright crap but quite meh.

Overall 
A rather average place.  Beaker and I didn't finish our meals because it wasn't good food... I definitely felt that the $12 was overpriced for what was served.... I wish I could request a refund for my money.  To borrow another phrase, if we could turn back time, we should have went to Let's Bab for lunch.

Verdict 
Food – 5.5
Ambience – 6.5
Service – 6.5
Price – 6

Address 
An Vy
647 Warrigal Road Chadstone
Telephone: 9563 2880

Australia Day giveaway—two vouchers to try Grill’d Coat of Arms burger by Bureaucrat

Winner

As we haven't heard from Eliza, we have drawn another winner. The vouchers will now go to C Keah.

Swinging Bowl Satay, Adelaide (SA) by Big Fil

It’s quite common to find that when a style of food from a particular region has been transported somewhere else it gets adapted to local tastes.  Fortunately there are exceptions, and while limited in range I found the food at Swinging Bowl Satay pretty similar to that which I had loved when visiting friends in Malaysia.

It doesn’t look that much different to your everyday city cafe, at least in terms of fit out.  Wooden tables, hot dishes behind the glass counter, drinks cabinet, pleasant enough but a bit humdrum.  What did make a good impression right from the start was the delightful women serving us, who managed to combine being polite and friendly but a little shy all while suffering from an occasional burst of the giggles.

The food is Malaysian and both Hungry Pete and I headed for the nasi lemak.  This is a rice based dish where the use of coconut in the cooking gives the rice a richness in taste, texture and aroma.  It’s one of  my favourite comfort foods and at Swinging Bowl Satay for a few dollars you can also select from one or more of the sambal or curried meats available.  Hungry Pete’s choice was the tamarind chicken, something I had also been thinking about and which looked good.

I ended up deciding to go with the beef rending though.  The peanuts and ikan bilis were crisp and crunchy, the sambal sweet with just a hint of a spicy kick and the beef rending the drier version which I much prefer.  While I wouldn’t classify it as particularly cheap the serving size was generous and represented an excellent value for money lunch.

While there I was also determined to try the roti chanai.  Bingo – crispy/flaky on the outside, fluffy in the middle and served with a rich and full of flavour curry dipping sauce.  Combine that with a cup of tea tarik (stretched tea) and you have what for me is almost the perfect mid-afternoon or late night snack.

Overall

What can I say, my kind of food served by nice people in ok surroundings.  Everyone needs a food security blanket, somewhere not fancy but where you can go when you need to get away from it all.  I suspect Swinging Bowl Satay could be that place for me in Adelaide.

Verdict

Food – 8

Ambience – 7

Service – 7.5

Price – 7

Address

18 Stephens Place

Adelaide SA 5000

Tel: 0402 342 684

Grill'd, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat and Snooze

Last week, Snooze and I were invited by Grill'd to try out their new Coat of Arms burger.  When I first read the invite, I got excited.  It's no secret I love Grill'd burgers, and I was intrigued about trying some of our lesser known local fauna and flora.

As the CoA burger is tres exclusive, we had to go to the Grill'd at Lt Bourke St.  I hadn't been to this particular Grill'd before (my 'local' Grill'd is the one at Melb Central).  It had opened in the recent months and they were giving away freebies to celebrate its launch (a busy work schedule meant that I wasn't able to go... sigh).

Although Grill'd is a chain restaurant, I do like the set up at the Lt Bourke St better than the one at Melb Central and QV.  For one, it has astro turf.  Another, they have even friendlier and spunkier looking staff (if that's even possible!) there.  And third, it doesn't have the loud background music (which the other places have and makes a difficult job in holding a conversation). 

Snooze and I reviewed the CoA burger and here are our thoughts.

Bureaucrat's review: First impressions are important and I was very happy that the CoA burger was impressive to behold.  It was well-stacked burger with a generous emu-roo patty and lots of fresh salad.  Based on this burger, I'vee now decided that, as with cakes, the higher it is and the more layers there are, the better the burger/cake.

The big question for me was, what does emu taste like?  I know what kanga tastes like (slightly gamey) and I wasn't sure what to expect for emu.  Because the emu and roo are mixed together, I couldn't distinguish what the emu tasted like.  This was a good and a not-so-good thing.  Good because it made the burger less confronting to eat (no one wants to eat mystery meat).  Not-so-good because I'm still curious to know what emu tastes like.  

Paul, who headed up the 9 month R&D into the CoA burger from Grill'd (I wish I had his job!), explained that they mixed in native thyme mayo and goat's cheese into the patty. This probably ensured that the patty wasn't dry and rubbery (as you would have otherwise expected for such a lean meat patty). 

Paul also explained how the roo and emu have been raised (on special farms) so that should assuage Mr Strong's concern that I'd be eating meat that hadn't been raised in accordance with health standards.

I particularly liked the native thyme mayo which was blended w Meredith goat's cheese (here's a suggestion to Grill'd - serve this over the chips like a cheesy-potato melt).  It added nice richness to the burger (and to further offset the potential dryer texture of a game meat patty).  I also liked the unexpected addition of quan dong - a tart plum-like fruit that's used by Aborigines for medicinal purposes.  

I also really liked the generous amounts of beetroot (which gave an earthiness to the burger) and the bush tomato relish and the caramelised onion (which gave a depth in flavour).  With the herbiness from the patty, the richness from the mayo, tartness from the quan dong you'd think the beetroot, relish and onion would be too much.  Not at all.  I found all the flavours and textures worked incredibly well.  As with the mayo blend, the beetroot, relish and onions help keep the burger moist.

Snooze's review:  

Wow, I think Bureaucrat's said it all.

I haven't tried a lot of indigenous foods and I was intrigued to try out something that combined quite so many together. It was seriously good overall, given how many of the things on the burger are favourites with me.

The emu and kangaroo pattie first; slightly gamey but smooth, tender and moist. I also liked the thought that went into the ingredients and how well they worked together. The smoothness, touch of tartness and acid and the salt kick from the goat's cheese. The smoothness and moisture from the native thyme mayo. (The thyme was quite strong and may not be to everybody's taste). The bush tomato relish added nice flavour and depth as did the quandong and the caramelised onion. All that's left is the mesculin lettuce, tomato and beetroot, compulsory on an Aussie burger.

Overall

Bureaucrat: I'm loving the CoA burger.  It's something different (it's different, it's noice, it's unusual) and definitely Australian.  For those who are squeamish about eating roo or emu, I do encourage you to try it - it doesn't taste too gamey. Love the look, love the ingredients and love the generousity of the serve. Propz for promoting native foodstuff in the mainstream foodie world - I'd love to see more of these ingredients permanently on the menu.

Get a wriggle on and try a CoA burger - they're only around until the end of Jan, and only in the Lt Bourke St shop and there's only 50 of these burgers available each day.  Check out our giveaway below to win two vouchers to try the CoA burger for free.

Snooze: I'm not usually a burger girl; meat just ain't my thing. But I enjoyed this burger and if it's an indication of Grill'd's burger generally, I think I need to go back. It's just a shame the ingredients are so hard to get that this burger will only be on the menu for such a short time. Fingers crossed for next year?

Address

Grill'd

369 Little Bourke Street

Melbourne 3000

Phone: 9670 7100

 

Song Huong, St Albans by Snooze

Big Fil and I visited St Albans planning to go to the Chinese New Year festival and pick from whatever was on offer for lunch. It was quite a journey: buses between North Melbourne and Albion because of works on the train line and then hanging around on the train for about 20 minutes because of an incident on the track. And when we arrived it turned out the celebrations were the following day. Whoops!

But it wasn't a waste in the slightest and we both enjoyed wandering around. St Albans isn't as vibrant or busy in the same way as Footscray when it comes to shops and crowds. The shops in St Albans seem to be spread out over a larger area, but the locals seem to be similar: older immigrants (like Greeks, Serbians and Italians), Vietnamese and more recently arrived North Africans. What I saw in St Albans, which I haven't yet seen in Footscray, was how much more the migrant groups seem to mix. That was nice.

On to the food. Expecting lots of things to try at the New Year festival we were faced with finding somewhere, unresearched, to eat. Not my favourite to choose somewhere to eat. It's usually less than satisfactory when I do it that way. But our choice seemed to be made up for us when we saw the number of people on the pavement outside Song Huong.

I was a little confused at first. There are two of them side by side, each with a separate kitchen and staff. We chose the one at the rear of the photo. No particular reason.

It wasn't bad inside. The furniture was comfortable but fairly close to each other. And like outside, most of the tables were full. If that many people ate there the food must be good. Right?

Vietnamese food is a particular favourite of mine, but I always pick pho. So much so that when I get a lunch break to myself I head for a local (and not really the best place) in the CBD for a bowl and to read. I was determined to try something new, but so many others were having pho. 

My pho was my favourite rare beef and beef ball.



Big Fil's was the tendon, beef and tripe pho, or all the good bits as he describes it. 

Pho was a good choice. I think the broth is the best I've tried in Melbourne: good colour and flavoursome, and with a generous serve of hand cut meat. The serve was also so large (although referred to as medium) and I struggled to finish it. Nice also was the pho wasn't over filled with noodles and you had to look hard to find the meat.

The pho also came with the freshest bean shoots and herbs I've been served with pho.

No photos but Big Fil and I both went for the durian ice smoothies. What a delight: intense flavour, cold and smooth. Durian isn't for everyone (because of the smell which neither of us find offensive) but Big Fil and I are both fans.

Overall

Given how good the food was at Son Huong, I can't consider the day a failure in the slightest and we'll just have to travel out to St Albans again next year for the Chinese New Year celebrations. The number of people inside and outside the restaurant, and the two sister restaurants side by side, point to Song Huong being a local favourite, with pho, and the chilli ban bo, seriously looking like house specialities. (Note to Big Fil: I think another visit is in order for you to try the chilli ban bo.) The service was quick and polite (and offered with a shy smile by our waitress), with tables turned over quickly. Vietnamese TV (girls in gorgeous costume singing and dancing) played quietly on large screens mounted on the wall. One point to note, which Big Fil didn't see, is the restaurant might be tidy enough but the kitchen and behind the scenes areas (like the toilets) were crowded and could do with a spruce up.

Verdict
Food - 8.5
Ambience - 6.5
Service - 7
Price - 8

Address
71 Alfrieda St
St Albans,VIC 3021
Ph: 03 9356 0567