Ringwood – ohdenny

Pacos Tacos – Eastland

June 9, 2017 Posted in Mexican, Ringwood1 Comment

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Pacos Tacos in Eastland’s Town Square is their second store in Melbourne, with their first located on Bourke Street in the CBD. However, their Eastland store has a slightly different menu with a smaller focus on cocktails and sharing dishes and a larger focus on main meals and entrees but both stores offering their range of tacos options.

Their Enchilada comes with BBQ chicken, brown rice, red mole, cheese, sour cream, and jalapenos. It’s quite a decent feed, and the combination of ingredients makes for a tasty enchilada. It just needed a few more jalapenos to make it pop.

Pacos Tacos’ Croquetas are basically deep fried sweet corn and pickled jalapeno croquettes with a chipotle sauce. I loved these crunchy croquetas and would happily just eat a few of these and some nachos.

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Their Burritos comes with your choice of chicken, beef or pork with brown rice, black beans, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, jalapenos and a chipotle dressing. I didn’t find the burrito to be anything special, it was nice but again needed some heat to it because it was lacking in a bit of flavour.

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The Pollo Frito (aka chicken wings) with a citrus and corn coating with hot sauce. These chicken wings were crispy and moist, and the hot sauce is a nice accompaniment to the wings.

Last words

Pacos Tacos in Eastland doesn’t really wow, but it does offer a good selection of Mexican dishes.

Pacos Tacos
Town Square, Eastland Shopping Centre
R07/171-175 Maroondah Hwy
Ringwood VIC 3134

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

Huxtaburger Eastland

December 2, 2016 Posted in American, Australian, Food Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, RingwoodLeave a comment

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Eastland Shopping Centre’s new Town Square is a lovely space for restaurants and the Sunday market as well. Eastland managed to persuade popular burger joint Huxtaburger to open up a new eatery east of Melbourne. Now with five outlets around Melbourne, Huxtaburger offers American style burgers, snacks and drinks.

The Clair Burger has one huge piece of southern style fried chicken, plus jalapeno mayo and coleslaw with a sweet bun. It’s quite a tasty burger, I loved the spicy kick from the mayo and I love the flavour from the coleslaw with the crunchy and moist chicken. Though for the price, it is on the small side of things.

The Chipotle seasoned chips are an interesting take on the standard fries. It’s not for the spice-averse though because it is has quite a kick to it. I’d say it has a bit too much seasoning, even for me who loves spicy things.

Last words

Huxtaburger does burgers and fries well but it doesn’t offer value for money.

Huxtaburger – Eastland
R03 Town Square, Eastland
171-175 Maroondah Highway
Ringwood VIC 3134

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