Friday 14 December 2012

Melbourne Food Is Freaking Good Part III

An article by GenX published 
at Melbourne Victoria Australia www.melbournevicaustralia.blogspot.com
Please do not reprint or republish in part or in any form.

I was in Melbourne once again in early December 2012 for more than a week and I have more restaurants to recommend to you :)


I did drop by once again at Mercadante, Lygon Street for pasta (and then for dessert we crossed the road to Freddo for some ice-cream) and Hardware Societe for lunch. Both these restaurants were mentioned in my very first article on Melbourne's Food Outlets titled Melbourne Food and Coffee Is Freaking Good - click here to read it.

In my previous trips to Melbourne, I had dropped by Hardware Societe for Breakfast. However, this time around, my wife and I would sleep till pass 9am since this trip we did not have any specific programs for our trip down-under and was more like free and easy holiday. And if you want to have breakfast at Hardware Societe, you better be there before 10am or else most of the breakfast delicacies would be sold out and you are only left with pies to choose from.


Lunch at Hardware Societe

Anyway, we went to Hardware Societe for lunch and the food was really freaking good. My wife ordered the lamb and she liked it very much and even enjoyed the asparagus that came with it. As for me, I went with the pork belly. It was beautiful. Crispy at the top with a thin layer of fat that melts in your mouth followed by very tasty meat. And it also came with prawns on butter sauce which I really loved. Below are photos of the cappuccino I ordered and the food we had at Hardware Societe.


Dinner at Red Hot Wok, Toorak Road, South Yarra - Malaysian Chinese Restaurant

In my article titled Melbourne Food Is Freaking Good Part II (click here to read it), I recommended a restaurant called The Grand Tofu at Newmarket where the cook and waiters were from Perak, Malaysia. This time I was taken to another Malaysian Chinese restaurant called Red Hot Wok in South Yarra and boy, the food was excellent and was truly Malaysian Chinese style cooking. The Teochew steam fish was superb (wish I had some mee-hoon to soak up the soup and that would make it as if I was in heaven that night). And the spare-ribs wrapped in Aluminum foil was served with flames like the ones we get back in Malaysia, too. And they also have salted egg-prawn but this one, their cooking style is slightly different from what I have taken in Malaysia but all the same, it was good. And guess what, I don't really like kangkung-belacan but somehow the vege tasted better at Red Hot Wok, hahaha. Below are some of the photos taken at Red Hot Wok:

Red Hot Wok - Malaysian Chinese Restaurant in South Yarra

Toorak Road, South Yarra, Melbourne

Salted-egg Prawn at Red Hot Wok, South Yarra, Melbourne
Spare-ribs served in Aluminum Foil with Hot Flames
La-la served withYu-Char-Kuay
Crispy Duck - which was good too.

Tofu - nothing special lah, this one.
Authentic Teo chew Style Steam Fish - A Must Order
Who would have thought that we can get really authentic Malaysian Chinese food in Melbourne. The Teochew steam fish was really good and tasted the same like what we get in Malaysia. The Red Hot Wok is going to be one of my favorite restaurants in Melbourne. The only set back is that we have to go look for parking on busy Toorak Road.

Hanaichi QV Square


The Hanaichi Japanese restaurant is located at QV Square, Melbourne Central Business District, and it's right opposite Pappa Rich (which I had nasi lemak as mentioned in my first article on Melbourne food outlets).

You know what, I have walked pass Hanaichi like hundreds of times in my previous visits to Melbourne QV Square but did not check it out. However, this trip to Melbourne in December 2012, I dropped by Hanaichi and was pleasantly surprised that the regular meal portion was huge (for my case) and it was priced freaking reasonable at less than AUD7. I tell you, Hanaichi is my new favorite restaurant in Melbourne and for this trip I ended up having dinner there 3 times!!! You can say that I am now a fan of Hanaichi and a loyal customer. And I call it a Japanese Super Fast Food restaurant because your order will be ready in like 2 minutes!!! The food is ready to be served even faster than my favorite international restaurant - McD.

The sad thing is I did not take a single photo of the meals I had at Hanaichi!!! But, this should not stop you from visiting it and trying it out.

Below is an image taken from Haniachi's website (click here to check out their Menu):


Other Restaurants

My darling wife and me also checked out Don Don on Swanston Street opposite QV Square, which is also another "cheap" Japanese "fast food" restaurant but I still prefer Hanaichi's huge servings and the ambiance any time. Don Don is like really cramped and old. The furniture has paint peeling off and need to be replaced.

My wife's relatives were kind enough to invite us to a Chinese restaurant for dinner located like an hour's drive from Melbourne CBD in Narre Warren and the food there was so so, but the service was really good and the waiters were courteous and considerate. The restaurant was really spacious with not many diners which was good since we could chat without having to shout across the table like in other Chinese restaurants. And what's there for me to complain since I ate for FREE, hahaha. Seriously, my wife's relatives are very generous people and she does have many aunties and cousins in Melbourne, so I guess I am blessed to be married to my wife since I get free makan now and then in Melbourne, more hahahahaha.

We also tried Pacific BBQ at Lonsdale Street opposite QV Square and I did not really like the Char-Siew but the duck was okay. I think the char-siew we get at most hawker stores in Malaysia taste much better.

And the Red Spice Road Thai-Fusion restaurant I mentioned in my earlier article has a new outlet at QV Square :) You must go try out their pork belly.

I we also dropped by Dragon Boat Chinese restaurant in CBD for Yam Cha. We went after 1.30pm and opted for the all you can eat for AUD18 per person. If you wish to go with the all you can eat dim sum, my advise is that you go earlier, i.e. before 1pm, so that you have more more selection.

This year I have visited Melbourne 3 times and I am loving Melbourne more with each visit. With the selection of food we get in Melbourne which fully satisfies my taste buds, I fully agree that it is the most livable city on planet earth :) But the only set back is, I get fatter each time I go to Melbourne :(



On a tight budget and got no idea where to put up a night in Melbourne? Click here to read my article on Melbourne Clean and Affordable Hotel Accommodation for a Single Person or Family of Four. In this article I also have a link to my article on Formule 1 Hotel Melbourne CBD where a room for 3 pax would cost you less than AUD100.

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