Little Malaysia

26 Liverpool Street,
Melbourne

Little Malaysia is tucked down Liverpool Street, which runs between Bourke and Little Bourke near Spring and China town.

I went with a group on a weekday lunchtime. There was a friendly greeting on arrival and we were shown to three tables which had been moved together, there was just about room for everyone, but it was a tight squeezer. We'd ordered in advance which mostly helped, but there was still a bit of chaos!

I had the curry puffs to start, the cases were light and crisp, the filling was mostly potato with a light curry flavour.

I went for the seafood Laksa, which was slightly smaller than others I've had, (Laksa King for example). There was a prawn, a couple of pieces of fish and some squid amongst the vegies, tofu etc. The broth was fairly mild, lacking a bit of spice and punch.

The satay beef came complete with a flames, I'm not quite sure why - apparently it was good!

The sizzling scallops was mouth burningly hot apparently and tasty once it cooled a little.

I've attached a faxed copy of the menu below, I couldn't find it online...




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Thai on Charles

88 Charles St
Seddon
3011

BYO wine only.

Friends had recommended Thai on Charles, so we thought we'd give a try. It has been empty a few times we'd walked past, but was fairly busy when we arrived on a Friday evening.

There are two rooms, one with low tables and Thai cushions, and the other with standard tables and chairs.

We tried the Keaw Tod, "marinated chicken, crispy wonton with served with plum sauce". These were OK, but were mostly wonton, with only a little chicken.

The chicken gang panang (panang curry) was tasty, to the extent I didn't to try any!

I had the tom yum with noodles which was good, and authentically flavoured without having the full punch of some tom yum I've had.

Overall we were happ y with out meal, and with a decent menu, and reasonable prices I'm sure we'll visit again. With a couple of beers it all came to $49.





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Jerry's Vegi Burgers - Meredith

I guess this is a bit different to most reviews, as Jerry's Vegi Burgers is 'just' a stall we ate from at Meredith Music Festival, but seeing as we were looking forward to trying the burgers again, I thought I'd do a quick review...

There was a queue at the stall every time I walked past, and we had burgers both nights. Now I'm not a massive burger eater, and have never been a veggie burger fanatic, but these are good. They wholemeal bun, nice fresh leaves, the tasty, filling lentil heavy burger and the toppings, satay with sweet or hot chilli for me all add up to a great satisfying meal...

$9 worth of goodness, and it's great to have a burger that tastes good and is good for you too!

You can find other events they will be at on their facebook page.

The views while we ate weren't bad either...

From 2010_12_Meredith

More photo's here.

Trunk

275 Exhibition St
Melbourne, 3000

Trunk is a stylish bar restaurant in a recently refurbished building set back from Exhibition Street at the corner of Little Lonsdale. It looks slightly overshadowed by the surrounding buildings, but that impression goes away as you enter the courtyard and go inside. I'd been in the evening for a drink before, but a recent lunch was the first time trying the food there.

The menu was slightly different to the one on the website, fortunately the veggie pizza I'd decided on was still available.

The pizza was great, wonderful base, a decent size, enough toppings and not too much cheese...

The service was good, everyone seemed happy with the quality of the food and drink, the only negative being the very small salad that a couple of diners had...





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The Imperial Hotel

8 Bourke St,
Melbourne, 3000

I met a mate for lunch and to catch a bit of cricket at The Imperial. There were a few others people around while we were there, but it wasn't packed. It sits in a historic building and has eating and bar areas. The menu has some pub favourites and a range of pizza's.

I ordered a pizza, and it took about 40 minutes to arrive, I even had to ask where it had got too. At lunch time especially that seems to be a long wait.

The pizza wasn't bad, the anchovies being a highlight, unfortunately I had to wolf it down...

Updated Jan 2012:
Another lunch during the cricket, this time I took advantage of the 'Steak night' offer and went for the $15 250g Porterhouse. I asked for medium rare, and ended up with a steak that we well done on one side and rare on the other. As I was hungry and again had waited a while, it didn't seem worth complaining about.

Brendan went for the parma which was huge, brought out on what looked more like a sharing plate, he certainly put a good dent in it. Bizarrely the chicken seemed to be shaped a lot like a map of Australia, with a bit of melted cheese for north Queensland! 

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Hung Vuong Saigon

128 Hopkins St
Footscray, 3011

This was one of the first Vietnamese restaurants we visited when we moved to Footscray, and although we'd had a good bowl of Pho, we hadn't been back for ages, probably because it's always looked really busy!

We decided to try it again on a Sunday evening, and it was busy, although we did get a table straight away. Inside it is quite modern, I guess it must have been one the earlier venues on the Hopkins/Barkly Street strip to get a refurb. The menu is pretty straight forward, mostly consisting of various beef and chicken noodle soups...

We had some spring rolls which were fresh and crispy and came with a mild dipping sauce and lettuce leaves.

The pho ga was huge for a medium and came with plenty of chicken. The broth was good, but lacked a bit of punch.

We'd be happy to pop in again, if there is a spare seat!




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Night Market @ Vic Market

Elizabeth Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000

The night market runs from November to March on Wednesdays at Queen Victoria Market.

As well as various stalls selling clothes and other items there are several rows of food stalls.

We weren't too adventurous, I went for a double veggie curry, one dahl and a Malaysian chickpea. They were both fine, but just a bit gluggy, maybe too much potato?

I managed to resist the ice-cream, but I was assured the rum and raisin was good!

It was getting pretty busy by 6:30...

It was a fun place to go and eat, only slightly dented by the over zealous security, who seemed to not even want people to arrive on bikes and use the bike racks!




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O'Connell's Centenary Hotel

407 Coventry Street (Corner of Coventry and Montague Streets),
South Melbourne

 

We had dinner with friends at O'Connell's, which is a gastro pub, with a mix of high end Aussie Pub standards and some higher end dishes on the menu.

As with many South Melbourne pubs, the building is impressive, and inside it was bright and nicely decorated.

 

Amongst the entrées tried were spring rolls, wontons and the quail, which got positive comments.

I had the prawn penne, which actually had a lot more pumpkin then prawn...

 

The medium porterhouse steak was rare if not blue in the middle, and had an inedible portion of gristle.

 

We had a nice time, but the food wasn't really worth the prices being charged.




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Camy Shanghai Dumpling

25 Tattersalls Lane
Melbourne
3000

I'd read about the service at Camy Shanghai Dumplings before going for lunch. We got there fairly early 12.15 on a Monday, and got a table quickly, but it did fill up as we were there. Ordering took a little while and the waiter taking the order seemed like he'd never seen the menu before, it's one thing to have trouble with the language, another not to know what the restaurant serves!

I ordered the prawn and spinach dumplings in the chicken broth, and Mr Hatch went for the beef dumplings, we both went for the 12 dumpling option.

Both of our meals were incorrectly described when handed to us, but we managed to work out they were for us - it was quite easy to tell which were mine, as they had a distinct green tinge.

I'm not sure if I actually got the prawn and spinach dumplings, there were also spinach dumplings on the menu, and I couldn't detect any prawn! The bill also indicated I'd been mis-heard...

The dumplings were nice, but could have been prawnier! The broth was pleasant too.
We had to find our own tea and plastic kids cups to have it in too, but overall the meal was great value at about $12.50 for both of us! I'll have to go back for the prawn and spinach dumplings.

Update 4/2011:

Back again on a Sunday lunch time and started with spring rolls which were crunchy fresh and tasty.

Mushrooms and vegetables dumplings in chicken stock, with a distinct nutty mushroom flavour coming through.

The steamed beef dumplings were also apparently good...

 The service in general seemed better and more under control, all our dishes came straight to us in a reasonable time.




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Cafe Lalibela

91 Irving St
Footscray, 3011

We've eaten at Cafe Lalibela occasionally, but not that often, as M isn't a big fan of the injera bread on which everything is served. We decided to give it another go, and we do like the restaurant atmosphere, on of the nicest vibes in Footscray, whether we've been 2 or on a table of 15...


I'd tried Ethiopian food once before I had visited Lalibela, and have tried one other restaurant serving food from this part of Africa, so it is hard for me to say how authentic it is... The menu starts with a description of the cuisine and how it is presented and eaten.

We ordered the mix of vegetarian dishes and a lamb curry, as can be seen these were served on the injera bread. We ate it with our hands following the tradition (and because you don't get any cutlery). Both the meat and vegie curry's were tasty in a distinctive way. Grabbing the food with the injera bread is a great way to eat in my opinion, but once the bread starts to get soggy and cools it can put people off.

Cafe Lalibela is a great place to eat, and pretty keenly priced, our meal came to $31 including corkage, there are good imported Ethiopian beers on offer too.






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