China Spice, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

I recently reviewed Raw Trader which has opened up in Sutherland Street.  Another one of the new places along said street is China Spice (another one is Short Stop, which I'll also be posting up a review soon). Only a few weeks old, and China Spice is making a good impression with all the local workers nearby.  It's hard not to see why - it's quite competitively priced, decent serve, decent food, clean and quick.

For less than a tenner, there's a range of rice and noodle dishes.  Mr S chose the black fungus and sliced pork w rice ($9.80), which he thought was quite tasty.

I went for the kung pao chicken with rice ($9.80).  I liked the token bits of red/wild rice mixed in with the white grain rice.  Plenty of diced chicken thigh meat with a really good spicy buzz - this wasn't an in-your-face chilli heat but a zingy warmth (having said that, I did pick out a lot of the dried, big chillies).  I also liked the roasted peanuts and the edible flowers in the salad.

Verdict

Food – 7.5

Service – 7
Ambience - 7.5
Price - 8

Overall

I like it enough to include it my list of go-to places for a quick and cheap lunch.  Mr P went there and said the dumplings are pretty good too.

Address

China Spice

2 Sutherland Street

Melbourne

Telephone: 9600 3989