Melbourne CBD – ohdenny

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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Shanghai Street

February 3, 2017 Posted in Asian, China Town, Chinese, MelbourneLeave a comment

Shanghai Street is famously known for their Xiao Long Bao. It’s one of the very popular eateries in Chinatown. While Shanghai Street is known for their Xiao Long Bao, their menu is extensive with a variety of Dim Sum offerings, dumplings, wontons, noodles, rice dishes and soups as well.

Their Xiao Long Bao has an incredibly tasty filling. It’s similar to that off a traditional Chinese dumpling, with the subtle taste of ginger. However, the bun is likened to that of a BBQ Pork Bun, which is light and fluffy. The combination is great, juicy pork filling with the fluffy exterior. Winner.

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Shanghai Street’s fried rice is also very good. It has this very salty taste to but it’s very flavourful.

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The Pork & Prawn Dumplings with a peanut and sesame sauce is quite interesting. A different combination that I’m used to and not entirely sure I like the mix of peanut sauce with dumplings. To be honest, I’d just have the dumplings with the standard vinegar/chilli oil instead. The filling was pretty good though, as it usually is with pork and prawns.

Last words

Shanghai Street excel in dumplings and they’ll have me as a returning customer.

Shanghai Street
146 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
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Tsujiri

December 30, 2016 Posted in Desserts, Food Reviews, Japanese, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

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
146 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
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Ikkoryu Fukuoka

September 9, 2016 Posted in Food Reviews, Japanese, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Ikkoryu Fukuoka is located underground on Russell St in Melbourne’s CBD. Close to Flinders St station, it is one of the many Japanese ramen restaurants around Melbourne so certainly each ramen store has to entice diners somehow. Its menu offerings are similar to Hakata Gensuke and Ramen Bankara where you select your variation of the Tonkotsu broth, and choose from add ons such as sliced pork, seaweed and eggs and you are able to choose how you want your noodles to be cooked, whether that’d be soft, hard or in between . What makes this place a bit more special is that each diner has their own menu to write their choices and you include your name on this as well. So when your meal comes to you it’s on a name basis which I find to be a nice change to what is normally a very methodical ordering process.

Ikkoryu Fukuoka’s Chef selection is their Yuzu Tonkotsu which is green in colour. It’s an interesting broth, you can definitely taste the citric flavour of the Yuzu. I find it quite different to the usual more meatier broths like the standard Tonkotsu or the Miso Tonkotsu and I’m not entirely sure I’d choose it again but I’m glad I tried it anyway.

Warning though, if you do choose the Spicy Tobanjan Tonkotsu and pick level 3, it’s ridiculously spicy and I actually couldn’t eat it all because it was that spicy and I can usually take heat relatively well.

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Their Chips and Wasabi is like those wonton wrappers deep fried with a creamy wasabi dipping on the side. It’s nice and crunchy, and the wasabi taste comes through well so it’s great for wasabi fans.

Last words

Ikkoryu Fukuoka has a premium feel to it, and it is certainly reflected in the pricing as well. Their ramen is decent, but I would have liked a few more broth choices instead of just Tonkotsu.

Ikkoryu Fukuoka
Basement of 27 Russell Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
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ChangGo

May 9, 2014 Posted in Korean, MelbourneLeave a comment

Melbourne is abuzz for ChangGo, one of the many Korean BBQ restaurants that have appeared in our city in recent years. The waits can be excruciatingly long and the waiting system is basically taking a ticket and writing your name down on the list and you just wait around the venue listening for your name to be called out. I guess you must suffer a bit to be able to enjoy their food.

One of ChangGo’s specialties on their menu is their 8 ways marinated Pork Belly which consist of wine, original, ginseng, garlic, herb, curry, miso paste and hot flavoured Pork Belly. For a group of two to three, the amount of pork on offer here seems to suffice. With the Pork Belly, they provide Kim Chi, an assortment of vegetables, and a spicy Seafood soup.

At night, the place can be packed and the staff are definitely challenged in assisting everyone with their cooking. So basically, it’s DIY BBQ.

The Pork Belly they provide you is on the fattier side of pork that I’ve come across but nonetheless the flavours offered are varied. The Garlic, Herb and Hot marinated Pork Belly’s were probably my favourite ones because they were flavourful but let the pork shine too.

The Spicy Seafood soup here is wonderfully tasty and best on a cold winter’s day. Not too spicy but enough to tingle your tastebuds and the soup base is exceptionally satisfying.

Impressions

ChangGo does Korean barbeque well, apart from the overly fatty Pork Belly that is. Flavours are overall tasty and for $60 (for the 8 Ways Pork Belly), I find it great value for money. Once you dine here you can see why the waits during peak times can exceed 30 mins. I’d definitely recommend dining here if you feel like some charred meats.

ChangGo
70 Little La Trobe St
Melbourne VIC 3000

Passionflower

February 7, 2014 Posted in Desserts, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Passionflower is one of those places you come across and ask why is this place so popular. Located on Bourke Street, this little store has quite a following serving Melburnians with sugary Asian influenced delights. Most of their menu is at least $12+ but I guess that is the price you pay for in these dessert boutiques.

Pictured above is Passionflower’s Chocolate Waffles. The waffles are sweet and crunchy. The thickness of the waffles creates this airiness within the waffles and complements the outer crunchiness. With the waffles it comes with two scoops of ice cream (vanilla and chocolate) along with a warm and rich chocolate sauce. The ice cream is nothing to write home about and the chocolate sauce is almost tooth numbingly sweet but you really can’t go wrong with chocolate waffles. Well, apart from the ice cream which was oddly lacking in creaminess.

This dessert (the name forgets me) is one of their iced desserts with sweet red beans, black jelly, strawberries, ice cream and this ridiculously sweet red sugar syrup. I would say this dessert was a letdown, nothing out of the ordinary and for the price (which I believe was like $18) is quite frankly poor value for money. The sugar syrup is unnecessary and the shaved ice isn’t fine enough. It feels like all these separate ingredients are just thrown into this one dessert but nothing tying them together. Disappointment

Impressions

While the waffles were nice, I really can’t say I would ever come back for them. You can easily find better ~~waffles~~ desserts elsewhere in Melbourne. The exorbitant prices are the killer here and without great tasting desserts to back it up, I really can’t see how it’s justified.

Passionflower

Shop 2, 168 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Papparoti

July 11, 2011 Posted in Glen Waverley, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

PappaRoti is a popular franchise/bakery in Malaysia. Probably not as popular as RotiBoy but still these Mexican buns are sold in many shopping centres in Malaysia and now we have a couple of stores down here in Melbourne. The first one I’ve seen to pop up was on Kingsway, Glen Waverley but there is also another one that recently opened on Elizabeth St (Across from Melbourne Central) in the Melbourne CBD.

These buns have a sweet crunchy crust on top, and you can smell these buns baking in the ovens far away. The crust I believe has a coffee taste to it but it’s more delicate. It’s sweet, but that’s a good thing since it stops you from having too many!

Inside they place some butter before they are cooked, so when it’s done. The inside is nice and soft, with a rich butter texture to it. It’s actually quite nice but you definitely can’t have too many.

Compared to RotiBoy’s variety of buns, who sell these buns with butter, cream cheese and blueberry cream cheese, Papparoti only sells this one particular bun with butter. The store in Glen Waverley also sells coffee and ice cream but I haven’t taste tested them yet. I might try their ice cream once this winter finally passes.

Not everyone will like these buns, and for me personally, I’ve had my fair share for the year, but definitely try it because you just might like it!

Their ice-cream selection is actually quite decent. They have the usuals like Rum & Raisin, Strawberry Jam, but then they venture into the Asian favourites like Durian, Black Sesame, Lychee and Red Bean.

I tried Lychee and Black Sesame on my first go, and whilst the Black Sesame was too sweet and lacked the nice bitterness of black sesame, the lychee was an instant favourite. It had an authentic lychee flavour and was smooth and creamy. I haven’t seen many places that sell Lychee ice-cream, and one that tastes good too, so whenever I’m feeling like a cold treat (nearly always) this will be the first place I visit.

PappaRoti

105 Kingsway,
Glen Waverley. VIC

Mon-Thur: 9am-9pm
Fri-Sat: 9am-Late
Sunday: 10am-9pm