Food Reviews – ohdenny

South Society

October 14, 2017 Posted in Australian, Cafe, Food Reviews, Mount Waverley, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

South Society is an all-in-one cafe, bar and eatery, located close to Pinewood Shopping Centre in Mount Waverley. With the amount of new cafes coming up around town, it certainly stands out with its all day breakfast menu, and seasonal menu.

When we dined at South Society we ordered the maple bacon, with avocado and poached eggs. It’s certainly a lovely combination of the sweetness from the maple syrup, the richness from the bacon, creamy avocado and just right poached eggs.

Their Chilli scrambled eggs with goats cheese and olive crumb is an interesting combination. While not being a big fan of olives, it complements the soft and strong flavour of the goats cheese, and the subtle spiciness of the chillies. I wouldn’t say it was amazing by any means, but definitely something different.

Last words

And with the changing of the seasons comes new menu options. Their current menu still has their Smashed avo and bacon but made slightly differently, and their Chilli scramble turning into a Basil Pesto scrambled eggs which sounds like a winning combination. The menu at South Society has it all, baked eggs, burgers, wings, salads, and seafood. So one thing is for certain, is your spoilt for choice.

South Society
435-437 Blackburn Road
Mount Waverley VIC 3149

Lim’s Nyonya Hut

September 7, 2017 Posted in Donvale, Food Reviews, Malaysian, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Lim’s Nyonya Hut is located in Donvale (Update: Has since closed down), in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, offering a variety of Malaysian dishes such as Rendang, Char Kway Teow and Laksa. While they do have a good selection of individual dishes, they also do offer main/sharing dishes like Nyonya Grilled Fish and Curry Chicken.

Their Mee Goreng is served with prawns and topped with lettuce, peanuts and fried shallots. I prefer my Mee Goreng to be a bit drier but flavourwise it wasn’t bad, but not spectacular either. I’d also prefer it to have chicken in it like most other Malaysian restaurants include in theirs.

The Assam Laksa lacked that balance of sweet and sour, and was also lacking in that fish taste for the broth. Again, it wasn’t bad but there’s better Assam Laksa’s around, for instance O’Town (Glen Waverley) and Chef Lagenda (Flemington).

The Char Kway Teow, while it had that lovely wok flavour. Lacked that spicy kick, and the noodles were all stuck together so the flavour doesn’t carry through the dish evenly.

The Ice Teh Tarik had a nice tea flavour to it, although a tad too sweet. I’d also prefer it to have a stronger tea flavour but that’s hard to come by.

The Cendol drink had fresh green jellies, but the ratio of palm sugar syrup and coconut milk was a bit off. It needed a bit more palm sugar flavour. Otherwise it’s just coconut milk!

Last words

Overall, if you’re around this part of town, there isn’t really that many Malaysian restaurants to choose from. I wouldn’t go out of my way to dine here, especially when there’s better Malaysian restaurants around Melbourne.

Lim’s Nyonya Hut
69 Mitcham Road
Donvale VIC 3111

YOMG

August 25, 2017 Posted in American, Australian, Food Reviews, Glen Waverley, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

YOMG has a few stores located in the South and South East of Melbourne, and in Cairns! The Glen Waverley outlet is an immensely popular burger and frozen yoghurt joint that gets packed full of people on most nights.

While most people come for the burgers, YOMG also offer a variety of sides such as fries, wings, chicken bites, and to wash it all down they have milkshakes and of course, the self-serve frozen yoghurt for dessert.

The 12th Hour burger is filled with slow cooked pulled pork, Asian slaw and basil mayo. I loved the flavours, pulled pork is tender, and with the slightly zingy slaw it complements the pork well.

The Bergerk is made with Southern Fried Chicken, cheese, lettuce, tomato and dressed with chipotle mayo. All the ingredients for a great burger.

The Chilli Cheese fries is basically their fries topped with cheese sauce, chilli sauce, shredded cheese and spring onions. The chilli sauce packs a respectable amount of heat, and with melted cheese it’s a real winner.

Last words

YOMG do burgers well, and you can see why it’s so popular. Along with the American style sides and drinks and the frozen yoghurt that can be ordered by weight, or as a cone, it has everything you’d want.

YOMG – Glen Waverley
Ground Floor
65-67 Kingsway
Glen Waverley VIC 3150

Famili Ria

August 11, 2017 Posted in Food Reviews, Indonesian, Restaurant Reviews, Surrey HillsLeave a comment

Famili Ria is a highly rated Indonesian eatery in Surrey Hills. They serve traditional Indonesian dishes such as Bakmie Ayam, Curry Chicken, Grilled Chicken and Nasi Goreng.

The Bakmie Ayam is basically dry egg noodles, with your choice of add ons like chicken, beef balls, wonton, tofu and mushrooms. We ordered the one with chicken and beef balls and it comes with a chicken soup as well. Overall, it was a light and tasty dish.

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Their Ayam Bakar Pedas (Grandma’s Charcoal Grilled Spicy Marinated Chicken with Rice), is pretty good. I liked the charred on the chicken, and the sambal has a nice spiciness to it.

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Famili Ria’s Nasi Kari (Curry Chicken with Rice) was not as great as the others. The curry needed to be a bit more spice to add depth of flavour.

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We also ordered Baso Goreng which is a fried meat ball (chicken and prawn), with a dipping sauce. It had a subtle prawn flavour to it, and thought it was quite interesting. Not sure if I’d order it again though.

Last words

Famili Ria serves a great selection of Indonesian dishes and you can see why it’s so positively rated.

Famili Ria
1115 Riversdale Road
Surrey Hills VIC 3127

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Mama’s Buoi

July 7, 2017 Posted in Chadstone, Food Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, VietnameseLeave a comment

Mama’s Buoi opened in Chadstone Shopping Centre’s new wing. Mama’s Buoi also has stores in Melbourne’s GPO and in Sydney. They offer a diverse selection of Vietnamese dishes, ranging from the traditional Pho to a Vietnamese Coffee Crémé Brûlée, and they also offer a ‘Feed Me’ banquet menu if you can’t decide on what to order.

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Their Special Crab Fried Rice, is actually quite nice with the fragrance and taste of crab, served with a lime dressing on the side. The fried rice itself was a little bit too mushy but overall it was a tasty fried rice, especially with the sunny side up egg.

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The Pork had a lovely charred flavour, it was tender and comes with a fresh Vietnamese salad. The salad here is slightly different to the one served with the Lamb, where I believe this one had more of a subtle chilli seasoning to it.

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The Twice Cooked Marinated Lamb Rack’s were delicious, it’s served with a fresh Vietnamese apple kimchi salad. The lamb was tender and has a nice roasted flavour to it. The salad had that perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty.

Last words

While the food at Mama’s Buoi is pretty good, price-wise I find it leaning towards the pricier side of things. Especially their Pho which comes to $18 a bowl.

Mama’s Buoi
Chadstone Shopping Centre
1341 Dandenong Road
Chadstone VIC 3148

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Little Rogue

June 23, 2017 Posted in Food Reviews, Japanese, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Little Rogue is tucked away in one of Melbourne’s many laneways and it almost seems strange to come from the always crowded Swanston St and find this gem on the relatively quiet Drewery Lane. Little Rogue is famously known for its Matcha Lattes and coffee and there’s usually a selection of small bites sourced from other local suppliers such as donuts from Shortstop or baked goods from Penny for Pound.

Their Matcha lattes is what every person seems to come to Little Rogue for, and rightfully so, because their lattes are fantastic. It’s smooth, frothy and has an amazing bold, slightly bitter green tea flavour. It’s honestly unmatched.

Last words

If you want your Matcha latte fix. This is it.

Little Rogue
12 Drewery Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000

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Bowery to Williamsburg

June 16, 2017 Posted in American, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Bowery to Williamsburg located near Federation Square in Melbourne’s CBD has this New York subway vibe to it from the outset and inside as well. A second store opened along Hardware Lane due to its popularity. In the mornings, you can see the queue go out of the door of this petit venue.

Keeping with its American aesthetic, its food is also reminiscent of New York, specialising in an array of breakfast and lunch bagels, and American style sandwiches with its selection of deli meats and cheese fillings.

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The Reuben is filled with pastrami beef brisket, egg, swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing. It’s an interesting combination and I loved the thin slices of beef and the zingy sauerkraut but the rye was extremely dense and hard and made for a less than satisfying meal.

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Their coffee’s come with a Reese Peanut Butter Cup which is a nice touch. The coffee isn’t anything special but it’s not bad or anything.

Last words

Bowery to Williamsburg has the appeal of American style bagels and decent coffee but is let down by their overly dense (maybe even stale) bagels.

Bowery to Williamsburg
16 Oliver Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000

Miss Korea Kitchen

May 26, 2017 Posted in Camberwell, Food Reviews, Korean, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Miss Korea Kitchen located along Burke Road in Camberwell, serves fresh, healthy and authentic Korean cuisine. They offer the typical Korean dishes such as Korean Fried Chicken, Bulgogi, Bibimbap, Korean BBQ with customers being able to choose their protein (e.g. chicken, beef, pork or veg) with many of their offerings.

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The Japchae at Miss Korea Kitchen is one of the better Japchae’s in Melbourne. It’s closest competitor and reigning champion is Don-Udon‘s flavourful Japchae. Here, the Japchae has that subtle work flavour with fresh vegetables and crispy lotus root on top. The flavour is a bit more subtle overall as compared to Don-Udon’s version but it’s tasty nonetheless. You can order their Japchae with Beef, Pork, Chicken, Tofu, Veg or Seafood which are pretty much all the options you could think of.

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The best Cheese Buldak or Chicken and Cheese Bulgogi Hotplate is CJ Lunch Bar‘s offering. Here, I found the chicken to be overcooked and the seasoning unbalanced with the sauce being overly salty and needing just a bit of sweetness and more depth in flavour to match CJ Lunch Bar’s. The richness of the cheese though, helps complement the spiciness so that’s a definite plus.

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I’m going to again, compare Miss Korea Kitchen’s Stone Pot Bibimbap with Don-Udon (Box Hill) where their Don-Udon has such amazing flavour to it from how they cook each of the components and the addition of the chilli paste. Miss Korea Kitchen’s Bibimbap isn’t bad, each element has flavour to it but it’s definitely not as flavourful as it could be.

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I saw this Mini Patbingsu on the menu, which is basically a Korean version of an Ice Kachang or Japanese Kakigori. Their Patbingsu comes with chopped fruit, red bean, fruit syrup, condensed milk and wafers. For $8 it’s actually quite small and flavour wise it’s quite lacking. The shaved ice is very coarse with not enough condensed milk to add that richness it needs. The whipped cream topping lacks flavour as well so the overall result is a pretty bland and expensive dessert.

Last words

Ignoring the Patbingsu dessert, I found Miss Korea Kitchen to have overall tasty Korean dishes and it’s one of the better ones I’ve been to in Melbourne.

Miss Korea Kitchen

845 Burke Road
Camberwell VIC 3124

Kyoto Cafe

May 19, 2017 Posted in Food Reviews, Japanese, Restaurant Reviews, RingwoodLeave a comment

Located in Eastland’s Town Square, Kyoto Cafe provides a bit of Japanese flavour to Ringwood. Its interior is reminiscent of modern Japanese restaurants with its generous wood panelling all around. It has an open kitchen with kitchen-side dining, and room upstairs as well.

While Kyoto Cafe do offer a few Donburi’s (Rice bowls), they do have a more extensive Yakitori menu, as well as tapas dishes, sushi and bento choices. They also offer a few dessert options, most are displayed at the front of their restaurant which are basically a variety of cakes and cream puffs to choose from.

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One of their bento options comes with fresh sashimi, tempura, chicken katsu and steamed egg with dipping sauces.

The sashimi were sliced into smaller pieces, but tasted quite fresh. The chicken katsu was crispy, and tender, while the tempura was also crisp with a light batter surrounding it and soft inside. There was also this odd vegetable wrap, I wasn’t fond of it and tasted a bit bland.

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The steamed egg wasn’t as soft as I would have liked either and also was a tad under seasoned but still one of the better ones I’ve tried.

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The Japanese Fried Chicken here has this very dark, sticky glaze on it. The chicken was tender and crisp but I wasn’t overly impressed by the flavour of the marinade. Just give me the normal Chicken Karaage.

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To be honest, the main reason for coming to Kyoto Cafe was to try their desserts. The Yuzu cake had an amazingly punchy Yuzu flavour with a soft mouse layer, and a cake base.

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The Green Tea cream puff wasn’t as crunchy as I’d like but it had a great Matcha cream flavour inside that kinda oozed out. The Black Sesame flavoured one is on the list to try!

Last words

The ambience at Kyoto Cafe makes for a great dining experience. The food here, while it may not be amazing, will give you a tasty meal and sometimes that’s all you’re after. The beautiful desserts don’t hurt either.

Kyoto Cafe
Eastland Shopping Centre
Level 3, 175 Maroondah Highway (Town Square)
Ringwood VIC 3134

Manchester Press

May 12, 2017 Posted in American, Australian, Food, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Manchester Press is one of the popular coffee and bagel eateries in Melbourne. Tucked away in one of Melbourne’s laneways, it has an extensive variety of bagel dishes. Their open bagels, an adaption of the typical open faced sandwiches, is also an interesting option for diners. While there are also several options for those not feeling like a bagel like salads and breakfast bowls.

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However, being an eatery known for its bagels you have to try it at least once. The Grilled Chorizo open bagel is served with melted cheese, tomato salsa and a side of pretzels and pickles. I loved the combination of the grilled chorizo with the fresh and tangy salsa, melted cheese and a bit dense bagel. The pretzels are a bit ??? but it adds to the kinda American charm and especially so with the pickle.

Last words

Manchester Press does bagels and it does them well.

Manchester Press
8 Rankins Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000

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