Mr. Ed Cafe

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Mr. Ed Cafe is located along the busy Racecourse Road in Flemington and minutes walk from Newmarket Station. While their offerings for breakfast and lunch may, on first glance, be your typical cafe dishes. On some of them, they do an interesting take on it. For example, their Smoked Salmon comes with sumac rolled eggs or their Baked Eggs comes with leek and chorizo ragu and Persian feta.

What Mr. Ed Cafe calls their ‘Horse’s Feed’ is like your big breakfast, served with poached eggs, taleggio croquette, chorizo, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms. The poached eggs were cooked perfectly, with that golden oozy yolk. While I would have preferred the bacon to be more crispy, it was decent and not overcooked. The chorizo, however, was interestingly sliced horizontally and pan fried. Overall I’d say it’s a decently tasty dish.

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Their Baked Eggs as mentioned before is very interesting, it isn’t your typical tomato based Baked Eggs. Instead, it comes with flatbread and yoghurt, and has like curry or Indian spices with beans and chorizo, and of course eggs. The eggs were a bit over cooked and I found it to be quite rich. However, it’s quite tasty and especially so with the flatbread.

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In addition to their menu, they also have muffins, and croissants if you want something a bit smaller as a meal or as a snack.

Not only do they have a breakfast and lunch menu, but in the evenings Mr. Ed also has a dinner menu which is basically all burgers and sides, and offering wine and beer as well.

Last words

Mr. Ed Cafe serves tasty food and offers something different to the norm.

Mr. Ed Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Mr. Ed Cafe

285 Racecourse Road
Flemington VIC 3031

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Laksa Town

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Laksa Town is one of the newer Malaysian eateries in Glen Waverley. Located on the popular Kingsway, it offers a variety of Laksa options, as well as Nasi Lemak, and serves Claypot dishes and Bak Kut Teh as well with a selection of classic Malaysian drinks like Teh Tarik and Cendol.

Their Claypot Mee Pok which reminds me of a dry Pan Mee with the crispy anchovies, mushrooms, and mince meat with flat noodles. It’s actually quite nice and I’d definitely go for it on a hot day instead of the soupy Pan Mee.

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Their Laksa has a more spice infused broth and not as creamy or rich as you’d find in Laksa King or Chef Lagenda, or even Yong Tofu in Glen Waverley for that matter. It’s not bad by any means, and I think it just comes down to preference. 

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Laksa Town’s Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken had a nice flavour to the curry sauce. A tad spicy but lacked the punch from the sambal that is needed for the Nasi Lemak. The fried egg though is a nice touch.

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Their drinks menu has the typical 3 Layers, Milo Dinosaur and Teh Tarik. On this occasion, we tried their Ribena Lychee Sparkling and the Cendol Special. The Ribena drink was something I haven’t had since I was a kid, but with sparking water and lychees which had a lovely fruitiness to it.

The Cendol was quite nice actually, the Cendol jellies were soft still and had the nice gula melaka syrup flavour. The addition of red beans and grass jelly was nice too.

Last words
Laksa Town does distinguish itself with its extensive variety of claypot dishes but nothing we tried was amazing and I do prefer O’Town in Glen Waverley for good Malaysian food. However, I recommend giving it a try.

Laksa Town Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Laksa Town
109 Kingsway
Glen Waverley VIC 3150

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Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart – Box Hill

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Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart opened in Melbourne Central and Box Hill late 2016 with locations across Asia as well. Their stores only do takeaway, and it’s pretty much a one item store, only offering their cheese tarts for sale, but you can also grab a coffee with your tart too.

The cheese tarts have this amazing texture, it’s so creamy and light but not overwhelmingly cheesy. The buttery shortcrust pastry complements the filling well but I prefer the tart casing to be a bit thinner. Overall, it’s just creamy, cheesy, buttery goodness.

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Last words

While the cheese tarts are honestly pretty darn good, I find the price just a bit too steep and especially so for the size of the tarts.

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart – Box Hill
SP016 1 Main Street
Box Hill VIC 3128

La Burgery

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La Burgery opened its doors last year, replacing Nandos on Whitehorse Road, Box Hill close by to the Box Hill Town Hall. It offers an extensive variety of burgers, with beef, chicken, lamb, fish and vegetarian options as well as wraps and salads if you are not feeling like a burger. They also offer a few sides, like fries (obviously) and onion rings. All their ingredients are locally sourced with their bread and meats delivered daily.

Their Mexicano is served with a free range beef patty, jalapenos, rocket, avocado, cheese, chunky salsa and sour cream and seasoned with habanero spice. The burger is flavourful and fresh, although the beef patty was fairly dry.

The chips we ordered were also a bit disappointing. Not crispy enough and lacking seasoning. A herb seasoning would be great on these fries.

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The Antipasto Bellissimo burger is served with chicken breast, red capsicum, roasted pumpkin, feta cheese, semi-dried tomatoes, basil pesto, rocket and herb aioli. The chicken was more moist, and the basil pesto flavours comes through well. Although, both burger buns were harder than expected.

Last words

There aren’t too many places to grab a burger in Box Hill, apart from fast food joints so La Burger fits nicely into the Box Hill food scene. The burgers weren’t amazing by any means, but they were slightly above average which sometimes, is good enough.

La Burgery Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

La Burgery
5/1031 Whitehorse Road
Box Hill VIC 3128

On It Burgers Abbotsford

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Richmond has recently become more vibrant with the ever increasing amount of apartments being built near the Yarra river and especially so on the traditionally rundown Victoria Street. On It Burgers has two stores, one in Ferntree Gully and the other in Richmond/Abbotsford so their inner city location is conveniently accessible by train and tram.

On It Burgers has around ten burgers to choose from, and for sides you can order onion rings, fries, with dips as extras and variety of milkshake flavours. Being someone that loves trying something a bit different, I ordered the Spicy Chick which is basically deep fried crispy chicken with Sriracha mayo, slaw and lettuce with a black bun. It’s very reminiscent of those KFC burgers but with the added spicy kick. Honestly, there isn’t much excitement from deep fried chicken but the flavours overall work together. On It Burgers also offer burgers with soft shell crab, vegetarian options (mushroom), jalapeno beef, and beef and bacon together, together.

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You can choose Sea Salt or Garlic and Basil as seasoning for your fries. The Garlic and Basil seasoning is nice,  but nothing like my favourite seasoning for fries from Grill’d. 

Last words

On It Burgers don’t reinvent the wheel with their burgers, there’s some interesting fillings but overall it’s your mostly standard burger joint done relatively well.

On It Burgers Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

On It Burgers Abbotsford
349-351 Victoria Street
Abbotsford VIC 3067

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Miss Saigon

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Miss Saigon, a recent entry to the Box Hill food scene, adds to the growing list of Vietnamese eateries in this renowned Chinese food hub. Miss Saigon predominantly offers a wide selection of Pho options, where you can opt for a beef soup option with various beef toppings, and the same with the chicken soup base and chicken toppings but of course there’s always an option for a mix of beef and chicken. They also have Grilled Pork and Grilled Chicken with Pho for something a bit different.

While they only really do offer Pho for a main dish, they do also offer spring rolls (as you do) and rice paper rolls, and quite an extensive list of drink options such as my personal favourite Three Colours dessert/drink, as well as Vietnamese Coffee, Fresh Sugar Cane and Mango Smoothies.

Their Pho is served hot, unlike Indochine which is served very lukewarm. The beef and chicken soup bases aren’t particularly memorable but it has enough flavour to it.

I did quite like the Grilled Pork Pho, but it adds quite a bit of oil to the soup which makes it less appetising. The grilled pork though, had nice flavour.

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The Three Colours drink is basically cendol (green jelly), red bean (bigger variety) and mung bean with ice and coconut milk. Refreshing and not too sweet.

Last words
While, Miss Saigon probably won’t win any awards for authenticity, the Pho is decent enough to be a satisfactory meal.

Miss Saigon Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Miss Saigon
Shop 68B, 1 Main Street
Box Hill Central
Box Hill VIC 3128

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Overseas Seafood Restaurant

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Overseas Seafood Restaurant is a Chinese restaurant located along Springvale Road in Forest Hill serving your typical Chinese main dishes but also serving Yum Cha for lunch. For Yum Cha, they offer a wide selection of Yum Cha dishes like Siu Mai (Pork Dumplings) and Congee.

We found the service to be a bit average, which I guess is the norm in Chinese restaurants and especially so when it gets busy for Yum Cha. Food-wise, the Siu Mai had decent flavour but the congee lacked that slight saltiness.

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Their Prawn filling wrapped in Beancurd skins was quite tasty. Having a bit of bite with the filling and the slightly sweet fried beancurd skin making a nice combination.//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

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The Yam Cake and Lo Bak Go (Steamed Radish Cake) were tasty. The Lo Bak Go just needed to be a bit more crispy, but flavour-wise it was good. It had good radish flavour.
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The Salted Egg Custard steamed buns were sadly overdone. Inside was not runny as it was supposed to be. A disappointment.//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

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The Har Gow (Prawn dumpling) lacked flavour, and required the chilli sauce to add the saltiness to it. Bland.

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The dumplings here had a decently tasting filling. 

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Last words

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Overseas Seafood Restaurant does decent Yum Cha, and honestly around the eastern suburbs it’s difficult to find great Yum Cha so luckily Overseas Seafood Restaurant is above average at the very least.

Overseas Seafood Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Overseas Seafood Restaurant
482 Springvale Road
Forest Hill VIC 3131

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Don Tojo

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Don Tojo is pretty much the Don Don’s of Carlton. Quick, fast and easy Japanese food. The menu isn’t very diverse with a few pork, beef and chicken dishes, curry and noodle soups but they excel in what they do.

The Buta Teriyaki Don is basically slow cooked pork on rice with teriyaki seasoning. I liken it to slices of roast pork with the teriyaki flavouring. It’s quite nice, though the pork I find a bit dry and lacking in vegetables or other accompaniments but it’s cheaper than your typical Asian/Japanese food so it makes sense.

Last words

Cheap, tasty Japanese food.

Don Tojo Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Don Tojo
164 Cardigan Street
Carlton VIC 3053
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Yokozuna

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Yokozuna located in Chadstone Shopping Centre is a Japanese eatery specialising in ramen. Yokozuna has a few different flavoured broths to choose from to go with your ramen such as Tonkotsu, Red Ramen, Vegetable Ramen, and they even had a Black Sesame flavoured broth as an option too. While, Yokozuna specialise in ramen, they also offer bento boxes, rice and udon dishes as well so there’s plenty to choose from.

The Spicy “Red Ramen” with Pork had a lovely spicy broth. You can’t choose how your noodles are cooked unfortunately and the noodles weren’t nearly enough for the price charged.

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Fried Chicken Ramen with sauce (Karaage) had a lovely flavour to it. However, when they first gave us this dish the chicken was to the point of being burnt. While they did replace it with a new batch, that was tender and moist. It’s disappointing that they tried to give us burnt chicken in the first place.

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The Black Ramen is ramen with a black sesame flavoured broth, it has a slight sweetness to it with the aroma and taste of toasted black sesames. Interesting flavour, but one I probably couldn’t eat the whole thing of as I found it oddly rich.

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The Matcha Latte is frothy, but overly milky, not enough green tea flavour and not smooth at all as you can taste the green tea powder while drinking it.

Last words

Yokozuna is unfortunately quite mediocre in all aspects. While there are some positives, there are plenty of better choices for ramen in Melbourne and better choices for food in Chadstone Shopping Centre as well.

Yokozuna Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Yokozuna
Chadstone Shopping Centre, Upper Level
1341 Dandenong Road
Malvern East VIC 3148

Tsujiri

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Getting in on the Soft Serve ice cream popularity is Tsujiri on Swanston Street in the Melbourne CBD.  Tsujiri is a tea brand originating from Japan that excels in all things Matcha/Green Tea. With locations in UK, Canada and Asia, it has now opened in Australia. Tsujiri’s menu offers a wide range of Matcha and Houjicha flavoured drinks, as well as snacks such as cream puffs, swiss rolls and glutinous rice balls.

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Tsujiri’s signature sundae you can order mixed (Matcha and Vanilla), Matcha or just Vanilla and it comes with the glutinous rice ball and sweet potato ball on top, Sakura flavoured wafer, red beans and roasted rice. Tsujiri certainly doesn’t skimp on the flavour of the green tea as it’s stronger than you would have at Rice Workshop or Nene’s Chicken. I also loved the subtle floral notes of the wafer, and the roasted rice for a lovely crunchy texture. The only thing I didn’t like was the price where it’s leaning towards $10 and especially for the price.

Last words
While Tsujiri excels in green tea, its pricing is on the higher end and I question whether it’s worth it even if it’s good.

Tsujiri Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Tsujiri
146 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
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