Kitchen Republik, Box Hill by Obelix

Kitchen Republik is the type of place where there's a queue of punters snaking and overlapping itself.  Being intrigued by its popularity, P and Kiddo and I decided to try it out for Sunday lunch.

It had something for everyone.  Essentially Kitchen Republik serves Pan Asian type cuisines.  Hankering for Hong Kong style street food? Here it is.  Craving Taiwanese fried chicken?  Here it is also.  What about Shanghainese dumplings?  No problems!  It also incorporates Dessert Story for those wanting more of a tong shui or iced kachang experience. Kitchen Republik is deceptively large.  It has a mezzanine dining area as well, tucked away.  We were radioed up.


I cannot go pass a menu item which states "Chef's specialty.  Must try!" so I ordered their Taiwanese Beef noodles.  It was in a sublime broth which had little bits of chopped preserved veggies, ginger, coriander and spring onions.  Very fragrant.  The beef itself was meltingly tender.  Yes, it was a 'must try!'.


P and I shared the Xiao Long Baos with pork and crab meat.  P was rabbiting on about the xiao long baos in Shanghai having fillings of crabmeat and how he missed them.  So we ordered eight to share.  I must admit, I prefer the standard pork filling baos as the crabmeat tasted a bit too fishy for my liking.


Kiddo was keen to try the fried chicken noodle soup.  It was a fried chicken maryland but filleted so that it was predominantly flat, like a schnitzel bar the drumstick.  The batter was super crunchy and not at all greasy.


P had a schnitzel in a bento box.  He was happy with the accoutrements alongside such as the stir fried veggies and the mince sauce with the rice.


P and Kiddo washed their meals with soft drinks and juice.  There were also South Eastern styled beverages such as soya mil, grass jelly, etc similar to those at Pappa Rich for those who would prefer this.


One of my favourite meals from childhood is Xa Jiang Mian.  So I had to order this on a separate occasion.  I like to think of it as Chinese Bolognese.  It's essentially a beef mince sauce, in this case made fermented beans (trust me, it tastes better than it sounds) and tiny bits of tofu.  It's a rich savoury sauce to be mixed through thick white noodles, blanched bean sprouts and crunchy cucumber.  A real textural contrast.  My only complaint about this was that I wanted more of it!

Verdict

We really liked it.

Cheap eats.

Overall

Kitchen Republik is popular for good reason.  It is noisy, crowded and hot - but worth tolerating all of that for a decent representation of Asian cuisine for a reasonable price.

Find it at

Kitchen Republik
1 Main Street
Box Hill Vic 3128
Phone: 9898 6669