Categories
Chinese

Noodle & Dumplings Chain – Kingsford NSW Restaurant Review

My visit to Noodle & Dumplings Chain in Kingsford wasn’t the worst meal I’ve had in Kingsford (that honour would go to Chinese Dumpling and Noodle Restaurant, located next door), but also very far from the best.

Kingsford’s reputation for good, value-for-money Chinese food stems from its position as one of Sydney’s few “college towns”, with a population consisting largely of Chinese international students as well as price-conscious local students. It is unfortunate, therefore, that Noodle & Dumpling Chain did not live up to the hype set by its neighbours.

The Shengjian Bao (6 for $9.80) were not bad. While I would rate them below other restaurants both near and far in terms of their soup content, they were one of the most passable dishes of the meal.

The Xiao Long Bao (8 for $10.80) were also okay, though really nothing special. I think what you’re really paying for here is not having to break out the steamer at home and steam your own very similar Asian-grocery bought frozen XLBs. Quite cheap, but otherwise nothing to write home about.

I don’t think anyone who orders Shandong Chicken expects to get this brought to their table. An easy recommendation to avoid.

The Battered Egg Combination Rice Noodle ($14.80) is large and well priced, though I wasn’t a fan of the flavours, and thought that it relied too heavily on seafood extender over meat.

COMMENTS
I wasn’t impressed by Noodle & Dumplings Chain, though looking at the prices I wonder how much of that is due to the sheer volume and quality of Chinese food I’ve been lucky enough to eat since my uni days. While I wouldn’t come back, I could see how Noodle & Dumplings Chain would be a reasonable place to eat for a struggling uni student.

Noodle & Dumplings Chain
321 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032

Categories
Chinese

Canton 煮意 – Eastwood NSW Restaurant Review

I have no recollection of the first and second times I ate at Canton in Eastwood (according to Google they were 12/12/2015 and 10/12/2016), but let me tell you about the third.

We ate at Canton, one of Eastwood’s two Hong Kong style cafes, following an off-day teaching session on intracranial pressure management. With a narrow facade but surprisingly deep interior, Canton’s fitout boasts clever acoustic design, with my colleague KSEL pointing out that background noise was at a very minor din despite the restaurant being at full capacity, facilitating easy conversation at our table.

The half roast duck ($18.80) was perfectly adequate, if tepid in temperature. The skin was pleasantly crispy, with well developed musculature of the bird providing meaty bites. I also enjoyed the non-standard dipping sauce, which paired well with the duck with its mild sweetness and tanginess. Despite these good qualities I wish that the duck had not been served at room temperature, as a little bit of warmth can go a long way in opening up flavours and diffusing aromas.

Canton’s roasted pork belly ($18.80) was pretty good, if unusually fatty. Similar to the duck, the skin of the pig had a good crispiness to it, with the rest of the meat and fat melting easily into the mouth. I liked that this pork belly was not too oversalted and therefore more suitable to eat without rice compared to Parramatta competitor Sun Ming. I just wish it weren’t so fatty (but understand it’s a give and take).

The Special Noodles with Soup ($14.80), optioned with braised beef brisket and curry fish balls was quite good. The beef brisket was tasty, soft and tender, and I appreciated the inclusion of tendon along with it. The fish balls seemed like they were just a touch above the usual supermarket freezer stuff, though I wonder if I’ve just been cheaping out at Tong Li. They even gave us five fish balls between the five of us, though I don’t know if this was by accident or by design. An overall good noodle dish which would make a nice solo lunch.

I’ve been craving Hong Kong style claypot rice ever since watching this Goldthread YouTube video, and this was my time to finally have some. We chose the Cantonese Hot Pot Rice with Cured Meat & Chinese Sausage ($16.80). Whilst the rice was good with its crispy edges, I unfortunately thought that the salty toppings and addition of the traditional soy sauce on top made this too salty a dish. I’d probably have this again with some different toppings (love me some lap cheong though), and less of the soy sauce on top.

The Baked Pork Chop with tomato sauce and rice ($16.80) was really good. A generous serving of pork chop, with lots of cheese and mild flavoured housemade tomato sauce. The last time I had Hong Kong style baked rice was back in 2015 in Box Hill, Victoria, and I think this was much better than that time.

I wasn’t a big fan of the curry-flavoured Moroccan Chicken Wings (5 for $7.30), but KSEL liked it so much he ordered it twice in one week.

VERDICT
There aren’t that many Hong Kong cafes out there, and I’m a big fan of this one. Can recommend a visit.

CANTON 煮意 Eastwood
127 Rowe St, Eastwood NSW 2122
(02) 9874 2226

Diners: JW, KSEL, ACHT, KS, MJC

Categories
Modern Australian

Lover – Windsor VIC Restaurant Review

It was tricky finding a table anywhere at no notice on our first night in Melbourne, and Lover on Chapel St (the same street where I accidentally bit my partner’s finger at a hot dog restaurant, the now closed Massive Wieners, in 2017) was essentially one of our only options.

I had this meal in a par-cooked state having been awake the previous 36 hours working an intensive care night shift, travelling interstate and sleep-watching through an Aaron Chen comedy gig (my apologies to Mr Chen who, if his set is to believed, lives in the same inner-South-West suburb as me), so I can’t make any real promises about the reproducibility of my findings, and your mileage may vary depending on your level of consciousness.

These fried sweet corn ($10) riblets were great and well priced. The corn was buttery, moist, and well flavoured with lime and chilli, with the chipotle mayo was a good dip pairing. I have only good thoughts about this.

The albacore tuna skewers ($12) were less fantastic, though I think that may be due to the raw fish used rather than any fault of the restaurant itself. I found the albacore tuna to have an unfortunately starchy quality, which perhaps betrays my preference for bluefin in all uses of the fish. The sauce was however sweet and good.

These beef rump skewers ($14) were quite good. The meat was both juicy and tender with minimal charring on the outside, and the apple salad was crisp, fresh, and delicious. The red sauce that this was served alongside was very spicy and fruity, and while it was nice I would’ve been equally happy without it (this opinion may have been different if I had had more than one skewer to myself).

This is the beef crudo ($24) with cured egg yolk and masa. The beef of this beef was cut into huge chunks, which made it a bit weird as I felt like I had to work hard and chew to be rewarded with the flavour inside (which was good). The masa corn chips were very good, extremely thick and well flavoured. They had top tier structural integrity, with crispiness that lasted throughout the duration of the dish, and even though they were designed as a vessel for the meat, they clearly transcended this simple task.

This barramundi ($38) that’s since left the menu was our only main and final course of the night. This was a relatively large piece of barramundi, pan-seared in the traditional sense with a too-hard crispy skin that I thought detracted from the experience. That said, I very much enjoyed the flavour of the cream that the fish was served upon, as well as that of the fried streaks of allium with their strong umami taste and the combination of these flavours with the fish’s flesh. The leek I felt was a bit overplayed, used as a vegetable rather than a condiment, and I feel that all but the world’s greatest leek fans would feel too leaked out by the end of this dish.

This is either the Call Me Maybe ($24) or Melony ($22). I don’t know. I don’t really drink any more.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Pretty good, honestly. Some things were better than others, and by the time this is published all of the things I didn’t like have fallen off their menu and replaced by unknowns, while the things that I liked have remained. Perhaps the next iteration will be even better!

Lover
60 Chapel St, Windsor VIC 3181
(03) 9510 6655

Categories
Middle Eastern

CK Kebab – Westmead NSW Restaurant Review

Service is fast and friendly. Kebabs are well priced, well flavoured, and sauced – much better than other local alternatives.

Their spinach and cheese gozleme ($13.50) is also good.

COMMENTS
The opening hours (essentially Monday-Sunday 0900-2030/2100) could be a bit better. I think they must open so early because they also serve coffee, but I wish they would close a bit later so that we could get their kebabs delivered to work on a night shift rather than settle for inferior alternatives. As it stands, CK Kebab is a good option for the nocturnist who occasionally visits the adjacent Coles to buy snacks for his nursing colleagues before his shift.

CK Kebab
29-33 Darcy Rd, Westmead NSW 2145
(02) 8677 7708

Categories
Bakery Vietnamese

Xcel Roll & Bowl – Parramatta NSW Restaurant Review

My favourite Western Sydney pork roll of childhood was at Red Light Bakery in the now-demolished Wentworthville Mall. There was something truly special about the soft, non-hard bread that never hurt my delicate teenage mouth that I have not been able to find anywhere else. I was saddened to find, on my return to living in Wentworthville after a ten year absence that the Mall and its bakery had been levelled to make way for a new apartment block. Enter Xcel Roll.

Xcel Roll, branch name of Mascot favourite Hong Ham, delivers the goods to a seldom-matched level of perfection. On offer are banh mi with a variety of fillings, though early risers should note that their crackling roast pork roll is not available in the early hours of the morning. While you may expect to line up down the street for a banh mi at the Mascot mothership, Xcel Roll’s Parramatta branch seems not to have won the fame of its family members. The wait is short and the service is fast and sweet.

The Classic Pork Roll. What is there to say about a banh mi that so nearly approaches perfection? The salad is plentiful, the carrots are tangy but not soggy. The pate and lard are adequately proportioned. The birds eye chillis are hot as they should be. The meaty fillings are your standard trio, and most importantly of all, the bread is crunchy without causing unnecessary oral trauma. This is the gold standard.

The Roast Pork Roll ($8.50) is as good as their cold pork roll. The roast pork is accompanied by pork skin, warm and crunchy and fatty. This mixes well with the sauces, ultimately producing a more creamy mouthfeel than their standard cold meat pork roll. Again a very good roll.

SIDE NOTE
Since this review was first written Xcel Roll Parramatta has moved around the corner from 52 Macquarie St to 42 George St, and gone up a weight class from being a tiny hole in the wall bakery to now a small hole in the wall restaurant, offering basic pho and rice bowls atop it’s standard banh mi offering.

$12 makes for an unfortunately somewhat basic Beef Pho. While I thought that the provided chilli sauce was particularly good, shortcomings of this particular bowl included the somewhat basic tasting broth as well as the fully cooked through beef, with no rare option available. In my opinion I would always choose to spend the extra $2 for a special beef pho from Pho Master across the road.

While I was disappointed by Xcel Roll and Bowl’s beef pho, their Chicken Pho ($12) was actually quite good. The soup had a more complex flavour, and in this case the bowl did not suffer from the lack of rare meat, as you’d certainly want your chicken cooked all the way through. Other positive aspects of both this bowl of pho and the beef one are that they is served piping hot, and remained hot until I got home to be able to eat them, as well as the perfect sizing of the bowl, bean sprouts, and Thai basil, which meant that there was no juggling required between different bowls.

VERDICT
The success of nearby Destination Roll on Church St suggests to me that Xcel Roll has a ways to go with their marketing. Small hot bread shops essentially survive on word of mouth, and I hope that this review will help to bolster Xcel Roll’s place in Parramatta’s collective consciousness.

It’s good/5

Xcel Roll Parramatta
42 George St, Parramatta NSW 2150
0431 300 806

Xcel Roll Auburn
The Bell Tower, Unit 23/191 Parramatta Rd, Auburn NSW 2144