Camberwell – ohdenny

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

Il Birrificio

December 16, 2016 Posted in Camberwell, Food Reviews, Italian, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

While looking for Italian restaurants in the east side of Melbourne, I came across Il Birrificio. Located on Toorak Road in Camberwell, its far away from the hustle and bustle around Camberwell Station as this little gem is actually quite close to Burwood. What Ill Birrificio does well is its Wood Fire pizzas but their pastas, starters and desserts aren’t neglected either.

Their Salsiccia & Scamorza pizza was very tasty. I loved the cheesy topping with the meat and the fresh tomato base on a thin, crisp crust.

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Il Birrificio has a few specials, on the night we dined they had the Fettuccine Gamberi which has this zingy lemon taste to it, with the fresh thyme flavour coming through.

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While an Antipasti board isn’t what I would typically order, the cold meats with the rosemary and sea salt focaccia made for a pretty good starter.

I am not certain if they always have the Grapefruit beer on offer, but I do recommend trying it if you have not had something like this before. I loved the grapefruit flavour, and while the combination might be a bit odd on first looks it’s actually one of my favourite fruity beers.

The Biramisu is another winner from Il Birrificio. The beer flavour comes through well, and it’s not too rich or sweet. A great twist on the classic tiramisu.

Last words
This hidden gem has fantastic Italian dishes on offer in a very chilled environment.

Il Birrificio
1385 Toorak Road
Camberwell VIC 3124

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Masak Ku

February 20, 2015 Posted in Camberwell, Food Reviews, Malaysian, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Masak Ku is situated just minutes away from Camberwell train station and on the busy Burke Road. Masak Ku in Malay is translated to as “cooked by” if you’re curious. Masak Ku serves Malaysian cuisine with influences from Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisines as Malaysian dishes usually are in one way or another. It’s not your typical Malaysian restaurant as the ambiance and quality of the food caters towards a more upper market demographic but if the food is great, sometimes forking out that bit extra is worth it.

Masak Ku’s Chicken Satay’s are cooked to perfection, tender but cooked all the way through. They could have been a bit more generous with the satay sauce on the other hand and I prefer a bit more nuttiness to the sauce which I found to be lacking in oomph.

One of the specials that wasn’t on the menu was the Soft shell Crab which had an amazing combination of flavours. Sweet, spicy, salty and with all that crispiness. One of the highlights for me.

The Kelantan Chicken I found to be cooked well, the chicken was tender but the sauce didn’t impress. I liken it to the typical Soy Chicken that you may find in a BBQ Pork/Duck/Chicken Chinese restaurants.

The Nyonya Vegetable Curry was also one of my favourites, the curry had enough spiciness and with the softened vegetables it makes for a delicious meal.

Masak Ku’s Sambal Fish seemed promising on the menu, but overall I found it lacked flavour. Fish was cooked well, but the marinade used just wasn’t absorbed by the fish.

Here they make their own Ice-Cream, and they have a few choices to select from. Such as Chocolate and Chilli Ice-Cream and Durian. The Ice-Cream here whilst flavourwise was fantastic, the ice-cream itself was particular ice-y, and not smooth and creamy as it should be.

Their Lychee Ice-Cream with jelly was quite nice, the ice-cream smoother than the scoops we tried before it. However, still I found the Ice-Cream to be not as smooth as I would have liked.

Impressions
The food and service at Masak Ku is great overall, with some exceptions. I find it hard to justify coming here regularly as I wasn’t overly impressed with the dishes. Whilst the had great flavour to them, I can probably find as good as tasting dishes in other Malaysian restaurants for half the price. However, if price isn’t an issue and you want to try some Malaysian cuisine in or around Camberwell, Masak Ku will scratch your itch.

Highlights
Soft shell crab, Nyonya Vegetable Curry

Italy 1

October 25, 2013 Posted in Camberwell, Food Reviews, Italian, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Before coming to Italy 1 on Bourke Road, Camberwell, I checked out the reviews for it on Urbanspoon and it was very mixed. Having that in mind, my overall experience with Italy 1 is good, it definitely is on the upper scale of your dining experience ($$$) but I found the food here to be mostly fantastic bar a few.

As an entree we ordered the Mussels it is cooked with a tomato sugo and seasoned with garlic and tomatoes (mainly). The staff mentioned the mussels here are of a higher quality and so that’s why the mussels are tinier than in most places. The mussels were indeed lovely and fresh and I really couldn’t get enough of the slightly salty, spicy tomato sauce that is flavoured with mussels.

Italy 1’s Baked Scallops were a bit of a downer, the scallops were tiny comparatively to the shell it comes in with the cheesy crust on top being mostly too crusty to gel well with the soft scallop. The scallop was very tasty I must admit but for the price, I don’t believe it’s worth it.

Onto the mains, the Roast Duck with greens was fantastic. The duck was perfectly cooked, and melts in your mouth with all the juices. The sauce that accompanies it, is interesting. I couldn’t quite put my finger on the ingredients sued but it went well with the duck and salad.

The “Rotolo” (hand rolled egg pasta) filled with Spinach and Ricotta, baked and served with burnt sage butter was absolutely divine. You certainly can’t have too much of this because it’s so damn rich with cheese, but the flavours of the ricotta and spinach are bursting out, and the cheesiness of it mixes so well. The baked pasta is crispy and almost pastry like, like a quiche but slightly delicate inside. Yummy

The Duck Ragu with Sage and Pancetta Risotto wasn’t too great to be honest. Overly salty, either from the cheese or duck and slightly under seasoned. It lacked any real distinct flavours but the duck was very tender which is a plus along with the risotto itself cooked al dente.

The Linguine Marinara with mussels, clams, prawns, scallops, fish and seasoned with chilli, parsley and garlic was another winner at Italy 1. The linguine was cooked perfectly (there wasn’t enough!) but I guess the centre pieces of the dish are the seafood so that’s understandable. Seafood overall were fresh and tasty and seasoned well. Really lovely.

For dessert we ordered Tiramisu. Very light but creamy and chocolatey, and with just enough liqueur to keep it moist. Distinct and defined layers. I do prefer Tiramisu to be slightly chilled and although it was served room temperature, it was delicious.

I believe the desserts change slightly on their specials board, but when we dined there the gelato selection was Raspberry, Goat’s Milk and Cassata with crunchy caramel shards. For a sweet treat, the Raspberry gelato was bursting full of raspberry flavour (and slightly sour). I’m finding it that I actually prefer cream based ice cream as opposed to water based simply because the water based varieties are simply much too sweet but on this occasion it wasn’t too bad (it was the sweetest of the three)

The Cassata flavour I believe is based on the cassata cake dessert which is a sponge cake moistened with fruit juices or liqueur, ricotta cheese, cream and candied peel. This was definitely an interesting flavour, and mixed with it were I believe some candied fruit pieces. I’ve never tried this before but would definitely order it again. Tasty

The goat’s milk on first taste was slightly odd because I’ve never tried an ice cream that was just milk but after my initial shock I really enjoyed it. It was milky (of course) and creamy and not too sweet. Probably the best of the three actually.

Impressions

As mentioned in my opening paragraph, some of the dishes weren’t as good as others but overall I found it to be a very satisfying experience and the staff here are lovely too. Great food, nice ambience on a Saturday night. Price might be an issue for some but it’s good for a night out once in a while.

Italy 1
823 Burke Rd
Camberwell VIC 3124