Outback Jack Bar and Grill

Location:Knox City Shopping Centre, Burwood Hwy, Wantirna South
Phone: 03 9801 6305
Time: Dinner Time
Price: Not exactly CHEAP
Cuisine Type:Steak House








What got dished out:

I ordered a medium rare angus porterhouse steak with potato and sour cream, mushroom sauce and it came with a side of salad.
The salad looked old and tired, something that looked like it had been sitting outside all day and screaming out "I need to be eaten.... like 5 hours ago" The potato was also a disappointment as I had expected something that was going to be fresh and hot, it was hot but it looked like it's salad friend... tired looking.
The steak fared no better, I have a tendency to order medium rare because some chefs have a tendency to dish out "nuked" when you order medium and I never want to risk that chance.. I'm not a big fan of well done steak, seriously if i wanted to eat something that was almost rubbery/leathery and broke my jaw chewing, I'd start cutting up my handbag.
Needless to say, the people at good ol' Outback Jack didn't give me a medium rare steak, it was VERY medium borderlining to well done.
I would have forgiven them had the mushroom sauce I ordered tasted less packet like, almost something you'd get from a packet of GRAVOX (except theirs was well stirred and no lumps.. because thats what mine usually comes out looking like with plenty of lumps). Needless to say the steak wasn't exactly all that inviting, it wasn't anything special, it was more dry than anything else, I always expect my steak to be succelent and juicy, of course I got none of that.

Then there was the steak burger and to be honest when it comes to steak burgers this one didn't top the list of "seriously want seconds", it was the average burger with extremely dry, borderlining old chips with the bun which mostly likely had seen better days. Had the chips been freshly cooked in that "oh so bad oil" and the bun been nicely fresh, this would have been a burger where i would have given a two thumbs up. except it scored a perfect two thumbs down. Nothing wrong with the steak per se but it's a steak burger therefore everything else with it needed to support the steak.

The biggest highlight of my meal had to be the serving of the corn which we had ordered as a side dish. It was freshly cooked, juicy and succulent. All it needed was butter to melt all over it and the whole thing would have been PERFECT. It was such a shame that Outback Jack couldn't implement it to the rest of what we had ordered.
Had I gone to a Vegetarian place to eat, I would have scored them 10/10 for the corn, but this was a steak house and the only thing they got right was this corn...
And so, I took my time to enjoy the corn and wished that my steak and potato had been as awesome as this.




My thoughts:
One of my pet hates is when someone advertises that they make the "best" steaks and that they have the "biggest selection of steaks" and then they don't deliver. I'm not sure if they do have the biggest selection of steaks, if it's not cooked properly then it's a mute point. You could a very small selection however cook it to perfection and you have a winner.

My other problem with the place was that, as I had mentioned, everything seemed to be almost "old", and not exactly fresh. The salad wasn't on the fresh side, the chips were probably a batch that had been cooked for 5 orders ago and frankly the bread was more or less a day or two old. Being an extremely busy place, you'd think everything they'd dish out would be extremely on the fresh side, but it wasn't... which leads me to the next thing, this place is in a shopping centre, so it was almost as if it was like "shopping centre" rubbish where the food had been sitting there for ages and ages and ages....(and then some sucker buys it), I expected more from Outback Jacks, yet it disappointed me so.



The worst bit about this was that what we ordered didn't even fill us up... and so I left not only disappointed but also hungry but too afraid to order anymore.
To be honest it was an upgrade from La Porchetta (not that theres anything wrong with their steak) and the alternative was having steak at Hogs Breath (I hate that place) but it Outback Jack surely wouldnt and couldnt compare to the likes of Squires Loft.
The most interesting thing about this is that Outback Jack is planning to open up a store in Docklands, i hope for their sake that it's nowhere in the vicinity of the Squires Loft chain (although the best store is still Toorak Rd), because the reality is, it might just die on its ass, sure the people down in Knox will be happy to eat it (considering the alternative is Hogs Breath) but I don't think the rest of Melbourne would...
Unless of course, you like the tacky stuff that Outback Jack's got going for itself (think TGI FRIDAYS) but instead you have this massive crocodile(or maybe alligator) hanging off the roof. If you like the novelty then you'd like the place, however novelty only works for about 5 seconds with me, if the food just can't deliver, they could have a real crocodile on show and I still wouldn't go back...

(yes thats a croc hanging off the roof, scary stuff... if you were a 3 year old and just woke up... from your nap)

Passionflower

Location:2/168 Bourke St Melbourne
Phone:(03) 9663 0033
Time: Mid Afternoon
Cuisine Type:Desserts galore
Price: $6 bucks onwards
What got dished out:

My sister thought she'd be daring and order the dessert called "Golddigger" which comprised of ice shavings,lychee, mango,jelly syrup, oranges and mango sorbet.
The best thing about this was the mango sorbet, the most disappointing thing about this was the ice shavings..
Well calling it ice shavings would be misleading because what should have been ice shavings or finely crushed ice, wasn't exactly like that. The ice were small little ball size, not huge but not exactly small, and this dessert definately needed something that was finely crushed to compliment on what it had to offer, and thus it became a disappointment. I guess almost like in real life, golddiggers, only ever lead to disappointments,whether looking for real gold or dating someone who's after all of your money.

I wished the cookies and cream was as delightful as it looked but it wasn't to be, there wasn't anything interesting about it, it tasted just like any other ordinary cookies and cream ice-cream that could be purchased basically anywhere and everywhere. Actually my complaint was that it should have been a lot more creamier or milkier or something. But not as bland and basic as this. Oh how basic it was...

And then there was this, and for the life of me, I can't remember what this damn dish was called, but it had plethora of good things to offer or what looked liked good things to offer.
I was impressed that the strawberries were ripe and sweet, when they come out on any dish sour,i age as i make the face of a 90 year old enjoying their dinner eating sour strawberries.
But no fear, I wasn't disappointed, the lemon  icecream(the white icecream pictured) did that for me. Oh, Lordy was it sour or what! It was an odd mix of mango sorbet and green tea and this lemon ice-cream. You went from bland-ness (green tea) to sweet (mango) to absolutely sour (lemon). I guess they covered everything but frankly it's a weird combination of ice-creams to jam together, kinda like the person making this thinking to themselves "now, how do i really screw up customers tastebuds!!?!?! ooo I know, let's shove mango, green tea and lemon icecream together, that will sure get them!"
I liked the crepes, nice and think but the pancakes were a bit on the thick side. No amount of cream and jam could mask how terrible the pancakes were. I think they should leave the terrible pancakes to the pancake specialist (the guys that make them 24/7) and just stick to the crepes.

My thoughts:
There was a LOT of hype when this store first opened in Melbourne, considering there's not exactly a place anywhere in Melbourne that offers so many different types of desserts. I mean there are a few but they usually charge an arm and a leg (i.e pancake parlour.. btw can someone ask them to give back my leg.. im still missing it from my last visit), it's no wonder it's basically packed to the brim with people.

The biggest complaint that I would have about Passionflower is that it's slow and the service is beyond a joke. The staff aren't just slow, they're VERY slow to serve you, it's kinda like they're too dumbstruck and they don't know what exactly they're supposed  to do with themselves. It's quite simple really, you see people, you get them a table, and you take their order and when the order is ready, you quickly serve it as ice-cream melts. I know, I should make a career out of it or something, but alas waitering pays peanuts, so really i shouldn't complain about service or lack thereof.

But it's not just the waitering staff that are slow, the orders also come out slow. I'm not sure if it's because it's new and they don;t have the hang of it yet, or that the person who's making the order doesn't know his menu back to front that they're struggling but hey, as a customer, i really don't care, I'm ordering ice-cream, it's not something from Ezard where there's like 20 or so ingredients to use. having to wait 15minutes for 3 scoops of ice-cream is tad slopey. I hope this improves because if it doesn't, eventually customers get sick of waiting and end up leaving, no matter how great the ice-cream is.

All I can say is," I "hope" it improves" but judging with what goes on in Sydney, there's not much hope really because "slow" is really part of the business model at Passionflower. And considering Sydney people stereotypically are "on the go go" type people and are meant to be all on time constraints, it's a wonder how they have the time to sit down and enjoy their desserts. They're lucky that the ice-cream is nice, they've got someone who's controlling the menu who's creative and they happen to be in "asian-centric" locations. Asians for whatever reason have a crazy sweet tooth and love their sweets like you wouldn't believe. (i really wonder what the diabetes rate is amongst asians...) And for those who weren't aware, Passionflower really started up in Sydney and if they didn't get it right up there, they sure ain't ever going to get it right down in Melbourne... like i said.. "HOPE"

Is Passionflower really worth it? Not if you order anything particularly fancy like what I mentioned above, however if I stuck to the usual simple thing I always get- mango sorbet in a waffle basket, then i'd be utterly satisfied. These guys have the BEST mango sorbet going around in terms of whats available out there in the ice-cream scene, and believe me, I'd know, I love ice-cream, i'd eat it even if it's -3degrees outside.  I've taken friends and made them order that exact dessert and everybody's impressed, walking away with the belief that Passionflower is indeed the best dessert house going around town, unfortunately for those who have ordered anything else off the menu have walked away feeling disappointed.(tough luck, because they just don't listen).

I hope for it's sake that it's able to exist in Melbourne, I know it works in Sydney but Melbourne is a totally different kettle of fish altogether. It would be such a disappointment if it died, because really paying for flights to sydney to get decent mango sorbet would really bite..

Quanjude-Melbourne

Address: 299 Queen Street, Melbourne Vic (parking is a total bitch around this area... street parking is until 8.30pm M-F,of course that's not the restaurants fault. The paid parking right next door closes at 9pm sharp... so be careful)

Telephone: 03 9670 0091

Cuisine Type: Chinese.

Time: Dinner

What we ate:

The first dish that came out as part of the banquet was the seafood San Choi Bao. I have to admit, it was one of the most interesting San Choi Bao's I've had in a long time. Mainly because it had an addition of what looked like pine nuts (I'm not exactly sure what they were) but it made the dish all the more nicer to eat plus it didn't have that awful stench of seafood that some restaurants are unable to mask. The San Choi Bao was a decent size, actually it was abnormally large, larger than what most asian restaurants tend to dish up and that's always a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

It's no surprise when the next dish came out, I passed it off to the next person to eat the second  piece because frankly I'm not the biggest fan of dumplings (yes i do have an extremely long list of "not a big fan of" foods).

I can't say the Steamed Shanghai Crab Meat dumplings was bad, I just can't say that it's ALL that great either. (plus the person on my right loved dumplings way more than i did.. it's only fair to let someone else enjoy something that i find quite ordinary to eat).
To be honest, I really can't say that I could taste the "crab" inside the meat dumplings, but really I am only to blame, I only ate one, and i did so in one gulp (okay i chewed it slighly). The only way I knew they used REAL crabs and not something that was "fake" was when my friend had some crab shells in hers.

The reality was, I probably should have ate those dumplings because the next dish that came out, nearly made me sick. There's nothing wrong with it per se, it's more or less an acquired taste, okay more or less, if you had lost all sense of taste, it would have been the best dish ever made in the history of man kind. Actually, it's not just your sense of taste, your sense of smell would have to be eradicated completely as well as your tastebuds  for you to completely enjoy the "Stir Fried King Prawn with Goose Liver Pate". I'm not sure what exactly was stir fried because this dish looked like it was deep fried in Goose Liver Pate.

Don't get me wrong, I love Goose liver Pate because usually it's actually quite nice as a condiment  or as a dip but it was a strange combination with the prawn.

I'm also hesitant when seafood comes out and there's a strong smell of garlic, that's always an indication that there's something quite wrong with the seafood, i.e not being fresh. But you see, this dish DEFINATELY needs the strong garlic smell, and the reason for this is that it's strong to mask a more sinister smell, the smell of duck. It's not a nice cute smell (although how anything can have a cute smell is beyond me, but it's a nice adjective to use). Yes, the smell and taste of goose was just overbearing, it's kinda like shoving your nose into a dead duck and smelling it. What made it worse was that they gave us 3 in a serving, I ate one two many and happily donated the other 2, to someone else who's sense of smell and taste obviously didn't exist.

Yes, I have to admit, my photo taking skills are almost mediocre because looking at this next dish, even I'm like "wtf" is that.. because whatever it is, it's not exactly appetizing at all.. but the fact is, the steamed wild barramundi fillet with ginger and shallot really was that appetizing (well much more than what the photo depicts). Although it could have done with a little bit more sauce.

I'm not exactly sure what the difference is between wild barramundi and one that is farmed, I can't say that it taste much more juicier, or perhaps my palate isn't as twisted advanced to completely comprehend that this was a "mind blowing" dish, actually if i said that it was, I'd be lying. This dish was made to the same standard that could be found at 99% of chinese restaurants in Melbourne. 

 And then the Peking duck came out, and this is the stuff that apparently makes QuanJude, Quanjude. They even claim that they are the Peking duck specialist, considering they have a very successful restaurant in China (where lots of people apparently rave on how awesome the place is) I was expecting big things when it came to the peking duck... and that's all they have: a claim, unfortunately with nothing to back themselves up with because frankly what they dished up on the day wasn't anything better than what I had eaten anywhere else. In fact what I had that day, I found the duck to be quite dry and was completely disappointed. Seriously, I was hoping for something that screamed awesomeness, i expected awesome because scrawled on their front window stated that i should be blown away, (okay it didn't say that literally) maybe I was wrong, maybe these guys were specialist at making ordinary duck, just like what you could get anywhere else. It's either the standard in Melbourne is exceptionally good  or that  it's average, i'm not exactly sure which one it is. I guess I need to make that trip to China afterall to have my socks blown away and come back here and tell you guys exactly what to expect from Peking Duck, but with what's available here in Melbourne, Quanjude is really in a sea of averages.

The "Special Fried Rice" and the "Wok Fried Eye Fillet with Kung Po Sauce" came out together. I have to say, I was quite impressed with the Eye Fillet dish, it wasn' the beef that was exciting, it was the sauce. They should rename the dish to "eye fillet with Kung POW" because the POW just gets you in the mouth, yes, the sauce is just that good, unfortunately let down by an overcooked piece of tired steak. Had it been cooked medium to medium rare with perhaps the freshest piece of steak, this would have probably been THE best dish ever.

I'm not sure what the addition of the cashew nuts were supposed to do but I like cashew nuts nonetheless and happily ate mine and stole anyone elses when they weren't looking.

The special fried rice wasn't anything exciting but it wasn't bad. I usually facepalm when I get dished up very ordinary fried rice because if you can't get this dish right, there's not much hope with anything else. The fried rice got a passing mark.

The last thing to come out to us was the Fried Ice Cream with Strawberry Sauce. I'm not exactly sure how a place like this could plate this up to make it look more prettier and make it somehow a little bit more desireable to eat.
I wish I could say that this was absolutely fabolous because it wasn't. There was nothing wrong with the ice-cream or the batter (in fact I have to give them 2 props to making it nice) but my poor tastebuds were having an awful time dealing with the strawberry sauce. I half suspected that they either got the strawberry sauce on special hence why it was part of the menu, but to give you an idea to exactly what it tasted like, imagine someone shoving a spoonful of XXL strawberry jam in your mouth (you know the stuff you get from the supermarket). It was overkill.

My Thoughts: 

I have to say, I was somewhat disappointed with this restaurant. Perhaps I had such a high expectation of this place because my friend kept referring to this place as "poor mans Flowerdrum" and in all seriousness, a comparison such as that isn't exactly fair. Flowerdrum had a $99 banquet and this place was $68, it wasn't exactly on the cheap side either. The usual poor man still wouldn't be able to afford to come to QuanJude and frankly had he gone, he would be on the same boat as myself.. sitting in utter disappointment.

Sure there were some great dishes, the San Choi Bao was pretty decent but really, not many people go to restaurants eating San Choi Bao, actually for whatever reason there is some kind of stigma on ordering this dish when you are asian, apparently this is what westerners order... I HATE this stigma because i actually enjoy eating san choi bao's and i don't care it's because im asian, i'm going to eat it anyway and no ones going to stop me.

However for the price that we coughed up, considering there was 7 of us, and at $68 each for a banquet, I couldn't say it was value for money because it wasn't. I couldn't say that it was awesome like a hatted restaurant because it wasn't. For a total of $476 we could have gotten a lot more dishes elsewhere that were average or have paid half the price for the same type of food elsewhere.

Maybe the hefty price we paid was to cover the costs of the furnishing because the decor of the place was decked out as if I was sitting in the imperial kingdom all the way in China, at some point you'd expect the emporer or the emporess to step out and tell you to like their dish or have your heads chopped off.

I might as well have sat in China because it seemed if you didn't speak the required Mandarin, communication with the waitering staff was almost a joke.I have nothing against people who's English is not their first language however it becomes problematic when these same people have to try to service the English speaking community and with their heavy accents, it's anyone's guess to what exactly was being said.

I don't think I'd be going back to Quanjude in such a hurry, not unless I have at least 10 of my friends who go and come back raving about the place because frankly it's going to be on my list of "not really going back unless i really have to" and I know I won't have to.. so i can breathe easy. 

   

ZenZero Blu

Location:32 Best Street, cnr St Georges Road
Phone:03 9481 3393
Time:Dinner
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian/Mediterranean
Price: from $3-$20




What got dished out:

This was the first thing that came out as part of the Vegetarian Degustation menu to share.
We had Spanish & Australian Olives with Coriander and macadamia; Beetroot dip served with charred roti bread.
Personally I didn't like the Olives at all, the smaller ones were really bitter and we weren't sure which ones were the Spanish ones and which ones were the Australian ones.
The dips on the other hand were a nice surprise, I warmed up quickly to the Macadamia/Coriander one a lot quicker than I did to the beetroot.



The second dish that came out was Pumpkin cream and Basil Soup. I was impressed when it came out looking the way it did (as you see it in the photo) but I couldn't help agree with a user on my FourSquare app commented that it "tasted like something from a can" because it definately did taste like something served from a can.
But at least i can safely say that it was a nice "canned" soup, although I don't think it was from a can as the waitress claimed that everything made was fresh. I hope she didn't mean they "freshly opened up a new can for us". I also find it quite disappointing when "pumpkin" soup is served as part of any Vegatarian meal, It's almost like a palm off. You know Vegetarians have more exciting tastebuds than just pumpkin soup, and they don't just eat pumpkins... arghz

We were then served "Warm breaded dutch goats cheese with zucchini" which was a nice surprise. I didn't mind the goats cheese so much because I usually make interesting faces when I have to eat this. For some reason I just can't get my tastebuds to like goat's cheese.
What I really liked about this was the bread, it was nice and crispy and it was the only thing that was making this dish work.
I loved the fact that these were quite small although in the photo they look like large servings, in reality it's on a small plate.
It was a good thing I didn't have to share this because I don't think I would have been sharing this with my friend.

I was disappointed with the "porcini mushroom and pumpkin arancini ,tomoato sugo and salsa verde" in short arancini's served.
I was struggling to eat the first one, let alone having to go onto the second one.

There was just wayyyy to much stuffing and frankly by this stage I was starting to get completely full.





By the time the salad came out I was completely and utterly full. It didn't meant that I stopped eating altogether. The salad was interesting to say the least. I could taste the orangy-zest marinade over it which was quite nice, the walnuts and sesame was different, but I didn't appreciate the pumpkin or the greenery(rocket)..Seriously everytime someone puts rocket into my salad, it always reminds me of the weeds my dad used to pull out of the garden. *shudders*

When I say the salad was interesting, what I meant was it was much better than the next dish (Risotto with Peas and Cheese) that came out at the same time as the salad.
Coming from a Vietnamese background, Risotto's are somewhat hard to eat because the rice is something I'm used to. I have come across great Risotto, this was not it. In fact it didn't even meet the good catergory.
The first thing that came to mind besides "this is such an ugly dish" was "OMG it smells". The cheese was a heavy pugnant smell. It was so bad, I wished I had lost my sense of smell as the abuse on the nose was so bad I wanted to vomit. Actually, it smelt like stale vomit. You can guess that I only had a little bit and pushed the dish as possible from myself.

When the dessert came out, I was hesitant to even try it considering the last dish happened to be so bad. I had lost complete hope. Surprisingly the Pear and Chocolate Crumble was so devine, it melted in my mouth... and I was in heaven!
The apple did crumble in my mouth :P and the chocolate was nice, warm and milky!

I was saddened that the dessert was so small, although the photo makes it look like it's a large serving, and heck I wished it was a very large serving because frankly I could have eaten it even if it were the same size as a large dish.


My thoughts:
This set us back at the cost of $32, in terms of dining standards, actually degustation standards, that's extremely cheap.
However, like any degustation experiences, there are usually some hits and misses. This place had very few hits but a lot more misses.
I was impressed that they even offered a Vegetarian experience as there aren't that many places that I know of that even bother with degustation targeting at Vegetarians...
Perhaps I was deluded thinking that like with any other "degustation' experiences that the food would interesting in fact an exercise to give the restaraunt the opportunity to showcase their techniques, a small introduction to what's on off.
However thedishes were very unimaginative and very un-original. Very typical vegetarian food palm offs that restaurants like to throw together when they're stuck with a vegetarian and the chef is at the back screaming "what do we do? what do we serve?!!?!? ahhh pumpkin soup!?!?!"

In terms of service, I couldn't fault the waitering staff other than they were too friendly and started chit chatting to us about their lives. For first-timers this is a bit too much, for regulars I'm sure it's fine if you had built that rapport.

Overall I'm still reserved. I'm not sure if I like it as of yet, just the Risotto alone is enough for me not to go back, but the dessert and the dips were winners for me something that could potentially draw me back.

I've been told they do change their degustation menus on a regular basis, perhaps another opportunity to try it all over again. For those who are reading this, they also do have a "meat" degustation as well. One I would be interested to try ... maybe

David & Camy Noodle Restaurant

Location:590 Station St, Box Hill 3128
Phone: 03 9898 8398
Time: Dinner
Cuisine Type: Chinese
Price: Under $15

What got dished out:

We ordered Hot and Sour Soup (forgot the price sorry) assuming that it was going to be a small bowl, I know the photo doesn't help because you can't be sure if the camera's made it bigger. But trust me, you could make a full meal out of this. We had two smaller bowls and we still couldn't finish this soup off. Actually we couldn't finish it because I didn't want anymore, it wasn't that GREAT. I'm not a big fan of Hot and Sour soup, (this was my second time eating this) and this soup confirmed it. Personally I think there's something weird about hot and sour soup and I can't get my tastebud to like it.
However the soup we had was quite disappointing, it was sour but it wasn't hot (spicy wise) and it wasn't hot as in (heat wise) either.
They should have called it "sour soup"

We ordered Pan-fried Pork dumplings (around $8 bucks) and steamed beef dumplings($8 bucks), I can't remember exactly how many they give you ( I think 16 of each) but the pan fried ones were a lot nicer than the steamed ones we got.
Actually anything fried is generally a lot nicer to eat.
We didn't do the beef dumplings any justice by asking them to be steamed. I'm not sure why anyone would want steamed dumplings (I guess because it's healthier) but I thought having two fried dishes would be a tad too much to eat (and not healthy for one's heart).

For whatever reason, I came to the conclusion that it was better to steam beef then pork. I have this fear of eating raw pork, not that the restaurant would serve raw pork. Pork is actually hard to cook and if not well cooked, you can end up in all kinds of trouble (actually I'm not sure about this, but I'm not going to dispute what my mother's been telling me for years, perhaps scare tactics, i'm not sure)..

I think if we hadn't ordered the soup we would have been able to polish the lot off quite easily, however we did the best that we could. Leaving a couple left on the plate. Needless to say the dumplings were pretty awesome.


My thoughts:
It seems to operate a dumpling place in Melbourne, the prerequisite is that everything in the restaurant has to be greasy, the tables, the chairs, and the food. Whenever I go to these places, I always finding myself having to clean my bowls, my chopsticks and cringe when the plates of food come out because really, if they couldn't keep the bowls and chopsticks clean, what are the chances that my food is on a clean plate?(actually don't answer that), David and Camy's is no different.

Service is another sore point about these places. It's bad enough that you have to get their attention but you also need to get your plates, your chopsticks, your bowls and your sauces. (actually David & Camy's are a little bit better, those things are already on the table waiting for you to clean) but nonetheless I still had to get the sauces and other bowls on my own. (Whilst I'm at it, I might as well get everyone else's order too right?)

In truth, I like David and Camy's not because it's marginally cleaner than a lot of the other dumpling places that are available, the food itself is good (the dumplings), I've never eaten anything else they have (okay once i did order noodles). However it's a place I haven't frequented much of the years due to two reasons:
1. I once dated a boyfriend who LOVED dumplings and was so obsessed with it, he ordered enough to feed a village. Needless to say I ate as much as I could and was so sick of the sight of dumplings, just the thought made me want to throw up.
2. It wasn't years after that I managed to get over that nauseating feeling of the first experience, however when I was ready to tackle dumplings, I was fortunate enough to date someone who's mother made dumplings. And let me tell you, there is NOTHING better than home cooked dumplings, especially the awesome ones. I literally could eat plates and plates of her dumplings. Suffice to say, I am no longer with this person and those dumplings are no longer available to me. Thus the next best thing is David & Camy's, they're not as awesome as those home cooked dumplings I was getting but heck, they're pretty darn good.

So if I'd ever need a dumpling fix, I'd be going back to David & Camy's, I know it won't be often because I just need to get over the grease factor first.

The Groove Train

Location:Level 3, 211 La Trobe St, Melbourne (it's inside Melbourne Central)
Phone: 03 9654 2730
Time: Dinner
Cuisine Type: Cafe food
Price: averaging $17-$22


What got dished out:
We ordered the "Groovy Eggplant chips"($12.90) which were eggplants lightly crumbed with Parmesan, stacked on balsamic reduction with aioli sauce to share. We ordered this on the recommendation from the overly excited waitress who believed that this would "blow my mind away" because this was something that she loved and ate on a daily basis.

In truth, I wasn't entirely blown away by this dish. I was impressed however that i didn't cringe at each bite. I'm not a big fan of eggplant however I couldn't tell that I was eating eggplant itself (which is always a good sign).

I found that the chips were quite bland to some degree and needed a tad more salt. But like any chips, it's always better that the customer given the choice on how salty they wanted their chips to be instead of being decided by others.
What really made this work was really the aioli sauce which wasn't strong of garlic (I once had a bad experience where someone had gone garlic-friendly with the aioli sauce and scarred me for life). The aioli sauce was light and quite tasting. The chips on its own were boring, add a bit of aioli and the experience was pretty good, not "mind blowing"

The biggest mistake I made on the night was ordering a main because the chips itself were quite filling. When my club sandwich ($17.90) arrived, I cringed. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to finish such a large dish.
I was less impressed at the presentation of my club sandwich. I've been to OTHER Groove trains and have ordered the same dish over and over again, and not once have I ever had them cut the the sandwich in half (and in such a crookered manner as well).

Everywhere else that I've been to have always cut them in triangles. Perhaps I've been spoilt however I think the cook/chef was lazy. How hard is it to cut the sandwich into smaller pieces or to even cut it properly. If they were going to leave them in such a manner, at least give me the option of utensils to try to eat the damn thing or something.

For $17.90, i expect a little bit of presentation because the contents inside (lettuce, tomato, bacon, egg, chicken, mayo) and the side of chips surely doesn't cost that much. I expect some effort involved for that price mark up.

In reality, the side of chips were undercooked, it wasn't crispy, the potato was a tad hard inside. The bacon was overcooked and frankly there was just too much onion stuffed inside. I only ate 1/2 of the first piece of the sandwich but was so overwhelmed at the size of my dish, i gave up. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great either.

My thoughts:
Personally I think Groove Train is overpriced when it comes to food. I don't think it's great food, it's not even that GOOD either. However it's easy food, and it's a place where you can easily get a table with friends to catchup

Suffice to say though, there must be loads of people who love Groove Train because there's one popping up literally everywhere around town. I hear they've recently opened one in Geelong, but in Melbourne alone there's one down Clarendon St, South Melbourne; Doncaster Shopping Centre, Bridge Road, Richmond and one in Plenty Valley Shopping Centre.

I guess the layout does help where it's "groovy" very retro feel, an easy place to sit back and enjoy a coffee (their coffee isn't that fantastic either, okay but nothing exciting).

I was actually impressed with the service that we received that day, the waitress was bubbly and quite friendly, quite different to the usual stuff you get. Most people go to work these days clearly not wanting to be there.
If only their food was as good as their service, I'd be happy to board that Groove train anyday. This is really just a place to go with lots of friends and every other eatery is packed.

Oriental Spoon

Location:254 La Trobe St,Melbourne, 3000
Phone: 03 9654 9930
Time:Dinner
Cuisine Type: Korean
Price: Reasonable for korean food (approx $15-$50)




What got dished out:
As with any Korean eatery, they always serve some of these small condiments to share. I've been to places where you have to pay for Kimchi like Yami Yami, however it's free at Oriental Spoon (the kim chi is pictured far left).

I know in the photo it doesn't look like kim chi and frankly it didn't taste like kim chi either. Okay I lie, it did kind of tasted like kim chi but kind of tasting like it is a tad different to actually tasting like kim chi. Sure it was lettuce, sure it had spices all over it but it almost felt like I was eating an imitation of the thing.

I think the kim chi is either OLD or had been sitting out in the open for way too long and it didn't taste fresh which is always disappointing because kim chi is actually quite nice. The other thing is it's not very spicy which is disappointing as well.

The middle dish was spicy radish but it tasted more like spicy apple. I'm not a very big radish fan but what was served on the day wasn't too bad, actually it was that or the bad kim chi.

The bean shoots (far right) was pretty tasty and was the best one out of the 3. It was evident because it was quickly devoured by the people at my table. I don't know how anyone could get the bean shoots wrong, I guess serving old stuff would be the case but had they did. I would have walked out.
Our main dish to share was Beef Bulgogi (I can't remember the price for this). I'm a very big fan of Beef Bulgogi, perhaps over-indulged by the good Korean eateries that I have been to in the past but this one dished out by Oriental Spoon was a joke. The cuts of meat were way to large and thick, and frankly it lacked the taste that Beef Bulgogi is supposed to have. It seemed like the running theme at Oriental Spoon, tasteless Kim Chi, tasteless beef Bulgogi.
I guess it explains why not many tables around us had ordered Beef Bulgogi. I guess that should have been the warning bells for us but sometimes you could be sitting with a bunch of patrons who don't want to eat Beef for whatever reason. Nonetheless this is generally a popular dish at any Korean eatery. I can clearly see why not many people ordered this. Seriously, if this was my first introduction to the dish, I would have completely written it off and cringe each time I had to eat it.

I had mistaken ordered this dish seafood dish thinking it was going to be a hot pot style dish. I can't remember for the life of me what this dish was called. We were too dumbstruck when the dish came out. Not only is it a very large dish but it wasn't what we thought we ordered.
Nonetheless it was seafood, quite tasty, quite spicy and combined a collection of :crab, shrimp, prawns, pippies, calamari, muscle, octopus, bean shoots, carrots and lots of onion.
For $49, they surely didn't go skimp on the seafood that's for sure.

The silly thing about this dish was not giving us a crab cracker to use. As strong as our teeth maybe it's just not going to be strong enough to crack open parts of the shell. Sure they had cracked parts of the crab but not all of it.

My biggest complaint about the dish (and i do apologise for the quality of the photo) was the octopus. No one at my table was daring enough to eat the damn thing because it looked horribly AWFUL. There's nothing wrong with octopus per se, I've eaten them before with other dishes but these ones were pretty large, head still in tact with all 8 tentacles. It just looked disgustingly creepy. I don't know about you but I'm not big fan of having to look at my food that almost looks alive. (perhaps that's why i'm not a fan of fish, especially considering they serve the whole thing on a plate) Needless to say, we played with our food and moved it around from side to side and hid it under the crab shell so it wouldn't stare at us whilst we ate.

My thoughts:
I've walked past Oriental Spoon quite a number of times, several times being knocked back due to the large group I was in (note: it's pointless when you have more than 4 people to try any restaurant without a booking because you either get knocked back or have to wait a very long time for a table).
So when the opportunity came up to try Oriental Spoon I jumped at the chance.
I was taken back by the place, it never occurred to me how large Oriental Spoon is as a venue, I know it's generally very busy (on any given night) but one would assume that the food has to be either very cheap and/or very good to be as busy as they usually are.

Oriental Spoon isn't exactly on the cheap side, it's relatively priced the same as any other Korean eatery serving the same types of food anywhere in Melbourne, it's not exactly the greatest food served. I did encounter a hit and miss with their food: great seafood dish, awful beef bulgogi and kimchi (although a friend assures me that it's usually a lot better), the service was also a hit and miss as well. At times, they were quick and attentive, the moment our condiments ran out, one of the waiters promptly replaced them, another time I had to try to get their attention whilst they stood around as a group and gossiped. That's the one thing I really dislike in any restaurant, when waiter/ress stand around talking and not looking busy. Their job is to service their patrons not stand around to talk.

I'm a tad reserved about Oriental Spoon, I'm not quite sure where it stands, it's not great but it's not terribly bad either. I guess it's a place that I'll have to go again with more friends (bookings at least) to try more of the dishes, plus I hear their korean bbq is meant to be good. I hope I get an opportunity to try this sometime. I'll let you know how I go

Tran Tran

Location:74 Victoria St Richmond, 3121
Phone: 03 9429 6147
Time: Dinner Time
Cuisine Type:Vietnamese
Price: Cheap, around $8-15



What got dished out:

The prawn and pork rice paper rolls were ultimately nothing special. What makes good rice paper rolls is actually the dipping sauce, bad dipping sauce means it just ruins the entire experience.
The dipping sauce used here was missing peanuts and more or less tasted like it came straight from the Hoi Sin sauce bottle. (yes, that what you use to make it, but you're supposed to add water, oil and peanuts. Some people use peanut butter because it's easier plus it gives a bit of texture).
Like the lettuce served with the spring rolls, these types of rice paper rolls although widely served in all Vietnamese eateries isn't really the standard rice paper roll that Vietnamese people eat. The paper used is the same one, but the filling.. well it varies. Actually you can use whatever filling you want, egg, seafood, beef etc etc. Somehow it became standardized as "prawn and pork"rice paper rolls, I'm guessing it's to suit Western tastes. Rarely do Vietnamese people even bother ordering this either.
Seriously for $5.00, I can make a lot more than what's pictured! (actually I can't remember how much these costs)

A good Vietnamese restaurant should be able to make this dish with ease. Unfortunately was done quite poorly. What makes a good "Salt and pepper squid dish" you make ask? For starters the batter has to be light, this was heavily saturated in oil. Actually it was over cooked which made the squid very chewy. It was also flavourless. I understand the whole concept of "blanding" food to cater for western culture but this goes beyond that. This was neither salty nor spicy and you didn't need to have a western palate to realise this.

This is one of my most favourite dishes but rarely is it done well. Places that know how to cook this properly are also the ones that I'd be going back to on a frequent basis because if they can master this dish properly everything else on the menu is a shoe-in. Sadly, Tran Tran's rendition of this was so poorly done that I regretted ordering this.


Personally I think my camera has done this dish a little more justice because it actually looks a lot better here then it did sitting on our table (although the food isn't nicely presented) however in real life, the dish came out more PINK.
We ordered Chicken cooked in Mongolian sauce.
When the dish came out, I thought "omg, you got to be kidding me, why is it so pink?" In fact it was the first time I'd ever seen anything like it. (the colour pink of course).

I appreciated that there were hardly any vegetables with it because I'm not a big fan of broccoli/peas/carrots etc etc in any of my dishes but I also know that just having meat makes the dish tiring to eat.
The Mongolian sauce wasn't anything spectacular, it didn't sing out to me. The chicken was well cooked, not too dry and frankly if it were raw I'd run out screaming in fear (jk)
The other thing that bothers me is... what on earth is a Vietnamese restaurant doing serving anything with Mongolian sauce? It's not even a Vietnamese dish... it's just wrong and weird.


I didn't have any of the fried ice-cream unfortunately as I was too busy devouring the Banana Fritter.
As much as I love banana fritter, that aren't many places that can do them well. I only know of 2. 1 of which costs an arm and a leg to get(Flower Drum) and another unattainable (ex bf's parents restaurant).
The batter has to be light not heavy and thick (which happens to be the case here).

I was a tad confused when they asked me what topping I wanted for my fritter. I was like "what do you mean", apparently you get the choice of strawberry, chocolate and caramel. The first two choices seem strange, personally I've only had caramel or honey, not chocolate and strawberry.

My thoughts:

The thing with Tran Tran is that it's different from all the other Vietnamese restaurants lined up on Voctria Street, they all serve pretty much the same food, the service is quite bland (actually the service is quite shocking, after they left us with the menus the waiters neglected to come back to ask for our order, we waited around, and eventually we had to raise our hand to ask for service)

Tran Tran has had a new fitout, feels less greasy, cleaner and more modernized. Which is a good and bad thing. It's great being able to sit in a restaurant and not feel the need to clean the cutlery before use again.
I like modern, don't get me wrong. But there are some things that seem a tad odd with the modernization. For starters the menu is only in ENGLISH. Tran Tran is still situated in an area where a lot of Vietnamese people go about their shopping, sometimes they eat out too. Many people who do the shopping on Victoria street don't speak English nor read it for that matter. Which means one thing, Tran Tran is solely only catering for the Western market. But even Western people know that if you go to an Asian restaurant and there are Asians (particularly the same kind that the food are from) then the place must be a winner, however a place with hardly any Asian people must mean it's a crappy place. Especially if it's a reasonably priced restaurant.

On the night that we went, there were hardly any Asian people in fact, most Westerners. Of course you could tell that the cooking was made towards a Western palate but eventually Westerners clock on that there's something quite wrong with something like pink mongolian beef when everywhere else is a bit brownish/red.

I'm still surprised at what seems like this particular restaurant shunning out the community that helped them become what they are today. I hope for their sake that they improve their cooking because pretty layouts only go so far with patrons. Lackluster service and mediocre servings of food will surely turn out to be a bad investment for the owners.

Personally, with so many different options on Victoria Street I wouldn't be coming back, not for a long time, unless of course one of my Western friends stupidly made a booking there. Then perhaps I'd consider in going, or just end the friendship


EDIT:(09/09/10)
I was going through my collection of photos that I had taken on the day that I had visited Tran Tran and the biggest crime that i committed (to myself of course) was not adding this photo and commenting about it. You're probably wondering why there's a picture of rice on a plate.
That was the same question that my friend and I had asked when they served us the plate of rice to us.

Most restaurants give you either a bowl of rice and when you've finished they re-fill and charge you more OR give you a container of rice for you to serve. Never on a plate. I guess there isn't anything wrong with doing it like this... actually there is...

They gave us a LOT of rice, and it didn't fill our two bowls which meant most of the rice sat on our table and got cold. Which is never a nice thing. I don't understand why they don't put these in containers (too cheap to supply or perhaps gone broke after the renovations) or too lazy to get their waiters to refill it for us as we ate.