Straits Kitchen, Mount Waverley by Bureaucrat

As part of my plans to try out a few more places within the Pinewood shopping area in Mt Waverley, I picked Straits Kitchen for a takeaway lunch one day.


Having googled the place, I had high hopes. It looked good and the reviews were quite positive.  SK is one of the newer places in the Pinewood area - it's been open for about a year or so. Inside, it's been refurbished - it's clean, spacious and the furniture is smart and new.  It looked so promising that I thought, if my takeaway lunch was good, I'd bring my family back for dinner.  I was hoping that SK would become one of our favourite places to eat in the local area.

A friendly waitress took my order of chicken nasi lemak.  On the car ride home, the aromatic scent filled my car.


First impression of the food, was that it looked good.  So far, so good.  The chicken was flavoursome, although it was  a wee spicy for me (but I'm a chilli wimp).  Everything else was good to - crispy ikan bilis and peanuts, the softly moreish onion sambal and the nicely sour veggie achar.  However,the good impression didn't last for long.  There was MSG.  Lots of it.  So much so that I only ate half of the nasi lemak (and chucked the rest away) and I promptly got a migraine from it and was nauseous.

I just do not understand why people need to use MSG.  If your food is good you don't need to use MSG.  If your food isn't good, then improve upon it - but don't resort to using MSG.

Verdict
Food - 5
Ambience - 7.5
Service - 7
Price - 7

Overall
I'm kinda disappointed that SK isn't as good as I had hoped.  It's clean, smart, reasonably priced, above average quality, and friendly service and in my local area.  However, I can't get beyond the fact that they use so much MSG.  It's a real shame because I really do want to try out more of their dishes, but I'm scared to do so because I'm afraid of risking another migraine attack.

Oh well...

Address
Straits Kitchen
51 Centreway, Pinewood Shopping Centre
Mt Waverley 3149
Telephone: 9803 4355

Hong Fat BBQ Restaurant, Adelaide (SA) by Big FIl

First of all I should admit to a slight prejudice.  I lurve good Hong Kong style bbq meats.  Pork, chicken, duck, goose (which you rarely see here), it's all good.  And when you see BBQ in the name of a Hong Kong style restaurant it's a pretty good sign that the bbq meats are what you want to order.  That was pretty much our experience at Hong Fat - the greater the proportion of bbq meats in the dish the better the dish.

Hong Fat is simple in set up and moderately busy when we visited, with around half the tables in use.  It's got the typical dishes with photos pinned to the wall, generic brown tables and chairs and the usual suspect condiments on every table.  Fairly typical for a low end Chinese Restaurant in the city really.



Being fairly hungry we ordered three of my favourite dishes to share between two.  One, unfortunately, wasn't really up to speed.  This was the beef tendon hot pot, which was small and greatly lacking in the beef tendon which I like so much.  Guess I should have just followed my instincts and stuck to the bbq meats.



The bbq pork omelette on the other hand was exceedingly generous.  The egg was nicely cooked, the pork moist as was the rice, which is occasionally not the case with this dish.  If you are looking for something with a bit of carbohydrate heft to fill an empty stomach - maybe even enough for two to share for lunch on its own - this would be a good choice.



The dish which would have me returning though was the siu yuk (crispy skinned pork) and the cha siu (bbq pork).  The cha siu was moist, with good meaty flavours if a little sweeter than normal.  The siu yuk though was delicious, with just a hint of fatty goodness sitting under the crunchy pork skin, reminiscent of the finest pork crackling.



Overall
A generous and pretty decent feed for the price.  I must admit that it did feel a little weird just being handed a fork and spoon without even being asked if we would like to use chopsticks but then it's not really any biggy.  Would be happy to return but next time just order big plates of pork, duck and whatever other meats were hanging in the window.  And apparently Friday and Saturday they have suckling pig!

Verdict
Food - 7
Ambience - 6
Service - 6.5
Price - 7.5

Address
75 Grote Street
Adelaide SA 5000
Tel: (08) 8410 0908

Water Flame, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

Back in Melbourne now for a review or two before a few more posts on Sydney.


Located on Lt Lonsdale Street is Water Flame, a Taiwanese place that was spotted by Big Fil.  Although WF is within a stone's throw of Hardware Lane, it seems a little bit lonelier.  However, that doesn't mean that others haven't found the place.


WF has an unusual layout.  There's two wings and in the middle is the payment/take away area.  On our first visit, we were taken to the right wing and into the upstairs dining area.  Inside is neat, slightly homely and proper.

There is quite an extensive menu.  I kept on saying to Big Fil that I "had a good feeling about this place".  Just something about the friendly, polite service and the homely vibe to the place.

To start off, we got some Taiwanese popcorn chicken.  Nice pieces of chicken breast meat with a light batter.


We both went for soup noodles.  Big Fil got the Taiwanese stewed beef noodle soup ($9.80).  A very big bowl of piping hot egg noodles, braised beef and Asian veg, topped with spring onions.  I thought there was a pretty good serve of beef.  By memory, Big Fil liked his noodles and beef.  I had some of the beef and it reminded me of Mother Hen's own braised beef (but not as good, though!).


I got the homemade pork ball, prawn ball and cuttlefish ball w dry seaweed and rice noodle soup ($9.80).  This took a while longer to come out.  But when it did, it was impressive.  An equally big bowl of noodles (and there was lots of noodles), with two balls of pork, prawn and cuttlefish, and lots of seaweed.  It was topped with fried onion bits and fresh spring onions.

What I liked best were the balls.  Definitely homemade and not manufactured.  Each had a nice 'bouncy' but light texture, and were pretty good size.  I also liked the generous seaweed.  A nice simple dish, but despite the presence of the seaweed, the soup base itself was kind bland.


Given that I liked the food on our first visit, the next time, I took Mr S there.  This time, I went for the beef stir fry rice noodles. A generous serve of rice noodles, reasonable amounts of tender beef.  While this was a simple and tasty dish, I would have much preferred it if it had the addition of egg being scrambled through it.  As wtih my noodle soup, there was so much noodles that I couldn't finish it off.


Mr S got the chicken rib bento box, which he quite liked. The chicken ribs definitely looked very good, and smelled really good! Fresh salad and a nice mound of rice.

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

Overall
Simple, homely and good.  Good value, good quality. They don't use MSG, which is a definite plus in my books.  WF is unassuming but it clearly has a following (going by the number of diners and people getting takeaway).  I'm kinda surprised by some of the negative reviews on Urbanspoon - I have to say that I don't agree with them at all.

Definitely on my 'go to' places for a nice hot meal at a good price.  It makes a good change from the many Korean/Japanese places around.

Address
Water Flame
336-368 Little Lonsdale St
Melbourne 3000
Telephone: 9642 2882

Gelato Messina, Pyrmont (NSW) by Bureaucrat

To cap off the rather unimpressive dinner at Din Tai Fung, I had my eye on the ice cream at Gelato Messina.  It seemed to me an upmarket ice creamery.  During my time in Sydney, I had walked past Messina several times.  Each time, there was always a crowd of people lining up.  Once, there were so many people there, that I couldn't see any of the ice cream.


On this occasion, we got coconut and salted mango (R), dragonfruit and ginger (L), and masala and fig (bottom).  The coconut and salted mango was interesting.  I'm not normally a fan of coconut as the flavour is too cloying. However, here, it was mellow and I definitely think the saltiness in the salted mango help cut through that cloying flavour. The dragronfruit was aromatic, almost flowery in flavour.  Disappointingly, it only had a faint hint of ginger and it was a bit too sweet for me.  But it was a very pretty colour. The fig and masala was my favourite.  Deeper flavours, more creaminess and I liked the boozy hit of the masala.




It has lots of mouthwatering flavours, and they certainly look very, very, yummy.



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

Overall
Very morish ice cream.  Lovely the incredible range of interesting flavours.  I can't wait to try some more!

Address
Messina
Level G
80 Pyrmont St
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Telephone: 02 9571 1918

Din Tai Fung, Pyrmont (NSW) by Bureaucrat

Onto the final stretch with my foodie detour of Sydney - with two more places inside Star City.


Dinner at Din Tai Fung.  Now, I've heard the name bandied about before.  Apparently DTF is know for its dumplings and has a bit of a cult status.

As such, I was expecting a tasty dinner.  Located in the food court area, it did seem one of the more popular places to eat.  Although it was not yet 6pm, there were already several families tucking into their steamed goodies.


Having spent the previous night studying its menu, I knew what we wanted to order.  When I was paying for the order, I thought "ouch!".  Surely, two serves of dumplings and one beef noodle soup doesn't cost almost $30?!  But it did.  Sydney.  Only in Sydney... that's all I'll say about the price... for now.

We were given one of them beeper thingies which would let us know when the food was ready.  And not everything would come at the same time.


Firstly, pork xiao long bao ($5.80 for four).  A touch on the small side, these were.  However, they were piping hot inside, with a nice broth and minced pork filling.  These were nice, and of the dishes that we ordered, I'd say this was the most value for money.


Next was the exhorbitantly priced shrimp and pork shao mai ($9.80).  This was an utter rip off. Four small dumplings with a shrimp on top.  Nothing special about it.  I have no idea why this was so expensive... was it the shrimp?  I mean, it's just shrimp.  If the dumplings came with a large prawn, I'd understand the higher price.  Plus, I couldn't help have an immature chuckle at the rather bulbous appearance of the dumplings.


Lastly, the Lawyer got a bowl of braised beef noodle soup ($12.80). This was also slightly underwhelming.  A smaller-than-average serve, with egg noodles and four exact pieces of braised beef. While this tasted fine, there was nothing exceptional about it.  The beef was tender and the flavour was deep and beefy with a hint of star anise.  It was decorated with a small pathetic amount of spring onions.

Verdict
Food - 7
Ambience - 7
Service - 6.5
Price - 5

Overall
My thoughts are:
1. Rip off.
2. Small serves.  Everything about the food at DTF screams "we're maximising our profit at your expense".
3. Reasonably tasty food, but nothing exceptional.  Nothing to justify the higher prices.
4. Definitely do not understand why it's so popular.  Is it just that Sydney punters know no better?
5. Avoid.  I'm sure there are better places for dumplings.
6. Did I mention, rip off?

Address
Din Tai Fung
Level G, Shop 6
80 Pyrmont St
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Telephone: 02 9692 0791

Jackson Dodds, Preston by Big Fil

Jackson Dodds is located at the end of the 112 tram line, way outside our normal stomping grounds.  However, we am generally willing to make the effort to cross town when we hear a place is good, particularly if there is a dish which has caught our attention.  For Jackson Dodd's that was the pea and haloumi fritter, a variation on the corn fritter which I so often order.



If you want to dine al fresco you can sit alongside the wall length mural.  Alternatively, inside the cafe is brightly lit, with pale brickwork and wooden tables and chairs.  It also appeared to be a real local favourite, with a significant proportion of young families amongst its patrons when we visited.





So given we had travelled halfway across Melbourne to get here, what were the fitters like?  Scrumdiddlyumscious!  Salty and creamy haloumi naturally makes everything taste better, the peas more flavoursome than many of the corn varieties of this dish.  The fitter was nicely moist and the bacon - despite being lean - was crispy without being dry.



Snooze thought her 'Rad eggs' was better.  These are lightly curried scrambled eggs with coriander and crispy shallots of toasted Turkish bread.  They normally also come with fresh chilli, but not for Snooze.  These were light and fluffy and delicately flavoured, with a bit of crunch added by the bread and shallots.  I think I agree with Snooze, the fritters drew me in but the eggs won me over.



The muffins looked good but we weren't that hungry on the day and so gave breakfast dessert a miss.

Overall
Looks like a typical local cafe but the food is on a different level, as was Snooze's fresh orange juice.  Service was friendly and if not particularly quick also not unacceptably slow.  One that's worth travelling to the end of the line for.

Verdict
Food - 8.5
Ambience - 7.5
Service - 7
Price - 7

Address
611 Gilbert Street
Preston VIC 3072
Tel: (03) 9471 1900

Ribs & Burgers, Pyrmont (NSW) by Bureaucrat

Continuing my tour of the eateries within Star City, the next day saw me placing an order for a naked burger at Ribs & Burgers.  R&B (ha!) is, more or less, like the burgers that you get at Grill'd, and that you also get ribs there too.


R&B is located in the food court area.  I found the food court to be a bit odd.  It has about a dozen eateries, all of them pitching themselves as the upper range of a mid-range eateries so that it matches the slightly more upmarket furnishings of Star City's food court.  What the heck does that mean?  Well, think your typical tables and chairs that you find in a food court, throw in some better quality light fittings (chandeliers), some mirrored alcoves, the odd golden enamelled seat, diners quaffing bottles of sparkling fizz while they eat thier lunch, and less riff raff hanging out here (mainly because everything's a bit more pricey than a run-of-the-mill food court).  Despite this, I still just see a food court - rather, I see a food court trying to pass itself off as a quasi fine dining place.

But I digress.  Back on to the food.

While the staff are friendly, what irked the most was the wait. I waited, and waited, and waited some more.  I went up and asked whether they had forgotten more order.  By the time my burger was ready, I had waited for 25 minutes.

Because of the long wait, by the time I got my lunch back to the office, I had no time to eat the burger, as I had to go to a meeting.  Skip forward 40 minutes later, I finally got to eat my burger.


Despite liking the packaging of the stripey big bag and box, I felt a wee guilty of all the excess packaging.


Opening up the box, I saw my naked burger - a beef patty w baby lettuce, toms, red onion, dill pickle and olive oil and balsmaic vinegar.  I know it may not look that impressive, but it tasted pretty good.  Despite the 40 minute delay, the food was holding up well.  The beef patty was grilled, still warm and juicy - I'm pretty sure that it would have tasted even better had I eaten it straightaway. It was lean and not gristly at all.  Lots of fresh salad that was crisp and not soggy.  And I liked the addition of the olive oil and balsamic.  By the end, I was full and felt virtuous.

Verdict
Food - 7.5
Ambience - 7
Service - 6
Price - 7.5

Overall
Despite the long wait, I did like the food at R&B.  If I was in the area again, I'd definitely go back to try more of their burgers... and the very tasty looking onion rings I saw others had ordered.

The prices are on the higher end (mid to high teens), however, you do get that back in the quality of the ingredients they use.

Address
Ribs & Burger
80 Pyrmont St
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Telephone: 02 9518 8825

Little Ramen Bar, Melbourne CBD by Big FIl

If you want to have lunch at Little Ramen Bar you better get there early, midday at the latest.  Otherwise it's guaranteed you'll need to line up for a table.  It's small, it's popular, and in a city that loves to eat out you occasionally have to make a careful assault plan if you want to avoid the luncheon rush.  Even getting there at 11.55 - before the 12.00 rush - meant that we were simply first in the queue for a table rather than just walking in.



Inside it has that 'hole in the wall' type feel with bare brick walls, wooden tables and seating.  Reproductions of posters of glamorous women in kimonos and flapper dress line the walls, and the place has a pleasant low level hum without being overly noisy or crowded.



The menu offers ten or so different versions of ramen, as well as gyoza and a few other small snacky treats.  I'd never really been able to get into ramen in Melbourne.  Whether it's the dish itself, the way it's prepared here or simply the places I've tried it, it has always been the poor cousin to pho and laksa.  I was keen to see if Little Ramen Bar could be my ramen epiphany, the place that convinces me that yes, ramen is good and I need to get more ramen into my life.



The dish which would need to do this was the chashu tamago, apparently their most popular dish.  Available in three different varieties including shoyu and shio I decided on the miso, not for any particular reason.  The pork was tender and reasonably generous, the noodles nicely cooked and springy, but the thing I liked most was my soft boiled egg.  This was perfect, with the yolk soft and just the tiniest bit runny.  If I did order it again though I'd choose one of the other two soups, as I found the flavour of the miso quite strong compared to the softer pork and egg flavours.



Snoozes choice was the Shoyu Ramen, with bean sprouts, seaweed, bamboo sprouts, spring onion and BBQ Pork.  Snooze was a fan of the broth and I did like the bamboo sprouts, and it came with the same nice pork (even if just the one slice).  Both our servings were generous to the extent that I struggled to finish, and Snooze gave up a battle she wasn't going to win.



Overall
While I did enjoy this more than perhaps any other ramen I've had in Melbourne, it still didn't feel like a match for my favourite laksas and phos.  For some reason the soup bases of these dishes really do it for me in a way that no ramen I've tried ever has.  My search for ramen that really hits the spot goes on...

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

Address
346 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne Vic 3000
Tel: (03) 9670 5558

Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier, Pyrmont (NSW) by Bureaucrat

Following our meal at Fat Noodle, we had to stop by at Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier to try out his cakes.


Located in a slightly out-of-the-way part of Star City, AZP is this bright, pink shop of a wierd layout.


It's a narrow space, and the main area has a bath tub that's decorated with cakes and other goodies.  The cakes are displayed in these brightly coloured stands... kinda like a very watered down version of what Willy Wonka's factory might look like.


Arriving close to closing time, we didn't have that many choices.  So without ado, we ordered three cakes to take back to our hotel.


Because I'm a sucker for berries in a cake form, I got the Wunderbar. A sable biscuit, raspberry compote, pineapple cremeaux, vanilla creme fraiche mousse, fresh raspberry slices and red chocolate.  While it was pretty to look at, the taste was rather unmemorable. I couldn't really taste the pineapple cream and the vanilla creme fraiche and the raspberry compote was faint in flavour. I was disappointed with my choice and wished I had chosen another cake (there was one with salted caramel that looked real good).


Much better were our other two choices. The Jun & Jill was definitely both our favourite cake for the night.  This impressive, shiny dome with pistachio crunchy bits on top.  Inside, there was pistachio and mint creme chantilly, apricot compote, apricot and saffron creme and pistachio dacquoise.  I loved the layers within it and all the contrasting flavours and textures. You can definitely taste the toasted pistachio flavour.  Definitely would get this again.


Last but not least was the passionfruit tart. I loved the brilliant orange colour of the cake. Inside, it was gooey, smooth and creamy and you can taste the genuine passionfruit flavour.


Eating-in-progress.  From left to right: yum, double yum, meh.

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

Overall
I don't know much about Adriano Zumbo except that he's famous for his cakes, appears in MasterChef and has a bake-your-own range in the shops.

I'd go back to try some more cakes.  The cakes are above average - kind of like the cake selection you'd find at a high-end buffet in a hotel restaurant.  However, there's nothing there that I thought was exceptional.

Address
Adriano Zumbo Pâtissier
80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Telephone: 02 9810 7318