Tag Archives: western suburbs

Cedar Grill

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422 Melbourne Rd, Newport. Phone: 9391 0563

Mediterranean tucker may not be the first thing that springs to mind when thinking of western suburbs food, but we are nevertheless blessed with some gems of that persuasion.

Specifically, there is a magnificent Turkish joint right in the heart of Footscray, and another almost as good in Flemington.

There’s Greek places as far apart as Williamstown and Moonee Ponds we have yet to explore.

And there’s the Lebanese hub of The Circle in Altona, including a great bakery sure to be the subject of its own CTS write-up before too long.

For all we know, there could be dozens of old-school Italian doings going on behind the facades of pizza shops all over the place.

Still, Mediterranean food – and that of the Middle Eastern kind, in particular – is thin enough on the ground that any possibility is worth exploring.

So it was that we concluded Cedar Grill was worth checking out, an earlier visit by Kenny dating back to the very early days of our decade-long western adventure.

Cedar Grill is like Footscray Best Kebab House, in that its public face as a kebab joint disguises some much more tasty and righteous food proceedings.

In this case, the disguise is even more profound, as Cedar Grill also sells burgers and your typical Aussie pizzas.


Being the reprobate he is, Bennie waves away the far more alluring, tempting, sophisticated, cosmopolitan, nutritious and flavoursome Middle Eastern fare and opts for the $9 combo of burger, chips and a can of soft drink.

Oh well – I guess there’s a degree of hipness in being able to do BOTH. Although he ruined even that silver lining by choosing creaming soda …

He pronounced the burger – with onion, tomato, cheese, bacon – as fine and more than sufficiently filling.

We both thought the chips were very good. Freshly made and crisp, they were salted just right and tasted very fine dipped in the kebab-style garlic and chilli sauces that accompanied my meat/salad/dip platter.

I liked my $11 platter a lot.

The lamb was off the spit, and suitably crunchy and salty.

The pickled turnip – turshi – was earthy, crunchy and redolent of the beetroot used in its production. It was far cry from the recently purchased jar of  turshii – a dull, sad pink, and mushy on the fang – that recently found its way into our home and thence into the garbage bin. Fresh turshi only seems like a rule for life.

For my dip, I wish I’d chosen the humus or something with a little more substance than the yogurt/cucumber number, which tasted fine but was too runny to eat easily with the bread.


I opted for the pita bread over the Turkish option, hoping for the very flat, very dry Lebanese-style pita. Instead, I got the more doughy pita routinely used in making kebabs. Which means it was OK, but either of the other options would have been preferable.

The tabouli was sensational and just the way I like it – moist to the point of wetness, a jolly mix of finely chopped tomato, cucumber, bulgur, parsley and lemon.

I reckon Cedar Grill is worth cultivating. On an earlier visit, I’d seen the vegies for the salads being patiently chopped by hand – as I suspect just about everything here is.

And as we leave, the waitress hinted very strongly that with a bit of luck and an expression of interest, the boss might even come through with some kibbeh and foul.

From Chinese and Greek citizens selling fish and chips in earlier decades through to the present day – just because a shop or cafe or takeaway outlet is selling one kind of food, doesn’t mean the folk concerned are not fully capable of producing something altogether more interesting or funky.

Nor does it mean that they’d not leap at the chance to do so.

Maybe sometimes all it takes is some interest.

For that reason alone, we’ll be returning to Cedar Grill.

That the commercial radio, aircon and traffic whizzing by outside make a racket that makes the experience about as far from fine dining as is possible matters not a bit.

Bennie gets a photography lesson in Newport.

Um, yeah, right: Truth in advertising spotted by Bennie at 7/ll in Newport.

Vanakkam India

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198 Nicholson St, Footscray. Phone: 9687 2233

We warmly recommend Vanakkam India.

However, we also recommend judicious parsing of the menu and consulting the staff.

Vanakkam India is a low-key Indian cafe, neat and tidy and smartly priced, along the same lines as Kitchen Samrat and Indi Hots.

The biryanis – including quite a often a goat number – are popular with the joint’s Indian customers.

But we find them a bit too spicy for us.

Likewise, some of the many curries we’ve tried – mostly just below or just over $10  – have been too highly spiced for us.

We’ve tried a couple of the Indo-Chinese dishes – chicken noodles and chicken fried rice – but found them dull. Maybe the Indo-Chinese appetisers – such as chilli gobi, ginger gobi or chilli baby corn – are where it’s at with that aspect of the menu.

What we do love is the onion baji ($4.95).

To describe this dish as deep-fried onion rings simply does it a grave disservice.

Onion rings are dipped in a besan flour batter, fried, lightly seasoned with finely ground pepper and served with a lemon wedge.

They are pure magic, light and surprisingly grease-free.

Next time, I suspect, when Bennie and I hit this place together, two serves of onion baji will avoid unseemly haste and arguments over the last fragments and crumbs.

This is food to inhale with gusto!

Having come a cropper on some other dishes at Vanakkam India, this place has become our preferred dosa destination.

Usually we opt for the masala dosa ($7.95), or sometimes the chicken tika masala dosa ($8.95), which is the same potato-stuffed pancake laced with chopped pieces of tandoori chook.

The dosas and the side dishes are as good as any in the area, and the service and ambience better than some who do the dosa boogie. So we love Vanakkam India for that alone.

For this Saturday lunch, though, and flying solo, I get a bit more adventurous.

I order the nimmak’aya pappu, which is described as “Spicy tangy lentil finished with lemon juice”.

Besides consisting of yellow split peas, it’s beaut and does have a lemony tang, but the serve seems a little on the modest side for the $8.95 price tag.

I also order the roti masala ($4.95) – “Roti stuffed with curry mashed potato”.

This is a disappointment – mainly because the bread itself is of the same variety as the ones we get from our local IGA, and is thus a bit lifeless and greasy. Maybe at these prices, it’s a bit, ahem, rich to expect everything to made in-house. And, indeed, I have no philosophical objection to the use of store-bought or pre-made products being served in the kinds of eateries we frequent.

But if I’d known, I’d have stuck with out dosa routine!

The potato stuffing is the same mix that does the honours in the dosas – turmeric, curry leaves, mustard seeds, perfect.

So, yes, Vanakkam India has been a bit hit-and-miss for us.

But the menu is long and there’s more to explore – such as the Indian pizzas, which include yara uthappam (“uthappam spread with cooked prawns and special spice mix”) and kaju uthappam (“uthappam topped with special spice mix an cashew nuts”), both $11.95. Or egg masala (“whole boiled eggs combined with rich onion”) for $7.95.

In the meantime the dosas – there are 28 varieties on the menu – are consistently the go.

And the onion baji is among our most very cherished western suburbs dishes.

Vanakkam on Urbanspoon

Heather Dell

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Heather Dell, 7 Anderson St, Yarraville. Phone: 9687 1721

Heather Dell makes one realise how over-used and mis-used the phrase “old school” has become.

Instead of being used to bring credibility to lame pop culture manifestations, it really should be restricted for use when describing joints such as this fabulous Yarraville pie and cake shop.

Heather Dell is the very essence of old-school.

It starts with the signage, frontage and funky old-time wooden screen door.

It continues with the interior – racks of, yes, “old-school” cakes, slices and pies – and the welcome.

It goes on with the vintage mixers and other equipment – none of your new-fangled metrics here!

The vibe continues with a product line that includes neenish tarts, mince pies and much more.

“Old school”, too, are the production methods – Heather Dell’s goodies are made by hand and with a whole lot of love.

*****

Oh, sweetie! Clockwise from top left: Apple turnover, hedgehog, boozy Christmas mince pie, neenish tart, coconut tart, sprinkle biscuit, swiss blueberry tart, swiss lemon tart,  regular mince pie. Centre: Jam slice.

TASTE TEST

Apple turnover: OK, but could’ve done with some more spices.

Hedgehog: Pretty good, but only a little classier than your average hog.

Boozy Christmas mince pie: Fantastically yummy!

Neenish tart: Stuffed with butter cream, this was too rich for Kenny, but Bennie loved it.

Coconut tart: Head of the class! Moist, coconutty and not too sweet. Kenny’s fave.

Sprinkle biscuit: Despite an aversion to hundreds & thousands and the like, Kenny liked this. Two crunchy wafers, plain but good.

Swiss blueberry and lemon tarts: See neenish tart (above).

Regular mince pie: OK, but not a patch on the boozy pie (above).

Jame slice: OK, but a little anonymous in such company.

*****

Then there are the prices – you pay for quality, but the most expensive sweet item at Heather Dell is the vanilla slice ($2.60). Prices for the likes of swiss pineapple and swiss blueberry tarts (both $2.20) and jam slices ($1.90) are significantly below those demanded at more trendy and high-falutin’ bakehouses.

When I bowl up to witness the daily pie-making session, the first thing proprietor Keith says to me is: “We’re old school!”

Indeed.

Heather Dell has been in Keith’s family ever since his maternal grandparents and grand-aunt bought an existing business in 1951.

He says they inherited many of the recipes, which have been somewhat modified over the years. The biggest change is in the use of vegetable shortening. In 1951 and thereabouts it was animal dripping all the way!

Heather Dell produces about 100 of their meaty, hearty pies ($3.80) a day, along with a handful of family pies ($8.90). Mind you, Bennie and I can scarf a family pie in about five minutes flat, so we presume they’re working on a rather narrow definition of “family”.

The meat is brought in from Keith’s butcher and cooked fresh each day. He sniffs dismissively when mentioning those who use “pre-mix meat” in their pies.

Many thanks to Keith, Carol, Millie and Ines for letting me watch them at work. It was a hoot!

Below: Heather Dell’s Pie-Filling Fella Performs His Daily Ritual

La Morenita Latin Cuisine

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67 Berkshire Rd, Sunshine North. Phone: 9311 2911

Update 19/9/11: Review of La Morentia’s new menu here.

I reckon Bennie and I could have spent many years longer without twigging there was a significant Latin American/South American enclave living in the midst of our extended neighbourhood.

But a switch of schools from Footscray to Sunshine removed the veil.

The first sign came on a school day on which the lunch box was not packed, so we resorted to the sandwich shop on the shopping strip adjacent our school. As we waited for our ham and salad roll to be made, I took great interest in the pie heater in the corner. “Hey, Bennie, I reckon those there are empanadas,” said I.

And so they were. We bought a bunch to take home after school, had them for din dins that night  and they were beaut.

As we settled in to the new school routine, we devised a slightly longer route that avoided the franticness of Ballarat Rd for back roads that at least featured a more measured pace and a few trees, along with hundreds of auto repair shops of various stripes, barbed wire and a junk yard dog.

As we were closing in on school one day, tooling along Berkshire Rd, I spied some interesting signage, and said to my food hound buddy: “I’m betting that’s another South American bakery.”

And so it was.

We dropped in that afternoon after school and have been returning ever since on a very regular basis.

Cheese and prawn empanada.

La Morenita (the signs outside actually say Empanadas Las Penas) caters mostly to the local South American community – orders for cakes and catering, along with wine, chorizos, ribs and a variety of cured meats. It also hosts a modest range of  grocery lines.

But there are several attractions for blow-ins such as us, and the place has been steadily fostering lunch-time trade from the hundreds of close-by workplaces.

The big stars for us are the empanadas – flat pastie-like parcels of deliciousness.

We love the beef ($2.50, each of which comes with a little sliver of black olive and another of hard-boiled egg) and the chicken ($2.80). Both oven-baked, these can be had hot and tasty on the premises.

However, we’ve also found they’re great to takeaway and bung in the freezer.

Even better, they provide a cheap and fine way of breaking up the boring routine of work and school lunch boxes – even if the more traditionally minded patrons, we have been led to believe, are somewhat aghast at the idea of eating empanadas cold! Works for us!

Some of the other empanadas – such as the cheese ($1.80) and the prawn and cheese ($3) – are deep fried, no less delicious, but don’t work when unheated.

Also strictly for eating-in are the sandwiches – so gooey with goodness that taking away is simply unthinkable.

My favourite is the churrasco ($5) – steak sandwich with avocado, tomato and mayonnaise (above). The sliced beef is juicy and tasty, the rolls fresh, the whole thing a delight. And certainly a whole lot more appetising than my photo indicates!

Bennie likes the completo ($5) – a South American-style hot dog with the same trimmings.

Unlike the other two South American bakeries in the area, La Morenita doesn’t specialise in cakes and sweets, though the ones we’ve tried have been good. There’s a lot of crunchy pastry and much use of a sticky caramel cream filling.

And even though it’s not really set up as a cafe, we’ve also had many, many lattes and hot chocolates of a pretty good standard.

We love this place and the welcome we get.

You won’t get anything approaching a proper sit-down meal here – there’s no tacos or the like, as found at the newly famous Los Latinos just down the road apiece.

But the empanadas and the sandwiches are unreal!

Closed on Mondays.

Phu Vinh

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93 Hopkins St, Footscray. Phone: 9689 8719

The week’s work is done and it’s time for the serious stuff – Friday lunch is on the agenda.

Not only lunch, though – I also have plans of spending the afternoon making big pots of 1. chicken stock and 2. lentil soup supercharged with a tablespoon of freshly pan-roasted and ground cumin seeds.

So chicken bones, celery, onions and carrots are ALSO on the agenda.

So I head for the Footscray Market.

Look, I may regularly and merrily refer to it as The Market That Doesn’t Allow Cameras, but I’m not so much a goose that I’m going to go elsewhere when it suits me. Especially when the parking is $1.30 for the first hour – or $6 all day if you’re into that. Bargain!

Before the shopping I head straight for Phu Vinh, one of several Vietnamese eateries the adjoin the market on Hopkins St.

I’ve been a regular for many years, but this is my first visit since it’s been done over, freshened up and revamped with a new look and a new, and very much longer, menu.

I’ve always thought Pho Vinh something of just a face in the crowd of busy Hopkins St, and certainly I’ve never seen many folks of the paleface persuasion in there.

Turns out it does have its keen fans – you can read their thoughts (both pre- and post-upgrade) here and here.

Like me, several are a little apprehensive about what Phu Vinh’s new look will have wrought.


In my case, this has become a “single dish restaurant”, so I am only interested in ascertaining that their banh mi bo kho (stewed beef) is still on the menu – and that it’s as fine as ever.

A young staff member reassures me that, yes, it’s still a feature – as is every dish to be had at Phu Vinh Mark 1.

Banh mi bo kho is a little confusing for the name of my fave Phu Vinh dish. Banh mi is also the name given the name of those delicious, crusty rolls filled with various meats, salads and condiments. Googling tells me that bo kho also means beef stew. As far as I have been able to gather, Vietnamese beef stew is served mostly with those bread rolls – especially, it seems, in the US – hence the name used at Phu Vinh. Although, of course, my research is far from definitive.

The bread/stew combo is less familiar to me and my Melbourne haunts – in fact, Phu Vinh is the only place I’ve come across that has it as a feature.

What I find in ordering Vietnamese stewed beef is that it offers a paradoxically endless variety. It seems to depend on how long stewed each particular batch is. Get it relatively new and the carrot pieces, as vital to success as the beef, have still their sharps edges and a bit of bite. Get your stew a little further along in the process, and the carrots get a little blurry and become more of a texture thing.

I’m an equal opportunity stew man – I like it both ways, and all those in between.

Phu Vinh offers its stew four ways – with a bread roll, with egg noodles, with rice noodles, or with both kinds of noodles.

After ordering my lunch ($9), I sit back and have a good look around. I like it – Phu Vinh Mark 2 is a bright, cheerful space in which to spend some time and it’s doing pretty good business on this Friday.


My lunch arrives and all is well with the world!

The carrots are midway between crisp and mush, the beef is meltingly tender and simply falls from the bone, it’s spicy but just so for my tastes. And this banh mi bo kho is notably less fatty than those in other places that boast it, both in Footscray and Sunshine.

The bean sprouts join the raw onion slices topping the stew in providing crunch and the basil leaves provide colour and flavour. This time out, I’ve ordered my stew with rices noodles, and they mix it up in divine fashion with all the other ingredients.

The chilli salt and chilli slices go usused, while the lemon segment gives the dish a lift as I near its completion.

Phu Vinh’s banh mi bo kho just as good as it ever was? The verdict is in: Yes!

Phu Minh Mark 1 offered only a small range of dishes – my beloved stew, spring and rice paper rolls, a few rice dishes and a few more clear soup noodle efforts.

As the staff member cheerfully informed me, all those remain available, but have been joined by a great deal more. They include soup noodle, rice and stir fry options.

That’s not always a great thing, of course.

But I come away with the very strong sense that, in this particular case, a restaurant makeover and menu enlargement have been embarked on with a firm focus on not sacrificing those dishes and qualities that made the place so appealing in the first place.

So I’ll keep on returning to Phu Vinh, and will doubtless attempt to elevate it beyond “single dish restaurant” status.

Hey, I know the little photos that appear on menus at many of my favourite eateries can be misleading.

But the braised duck with egg noodles ($12) looks luscious and worth a try.

Guess I’ll soon find out eh?

Phu Vinh the noodle shop on Urbanspoon

The view from the Footscray Market car park (aka Kenny discovers a new trick of which he didn’t know his camera was capable).

 

 

 


Hien Vuong Pasteur

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pasteur2

144 Hopkins St, Footscray. Phone: 9687 9698

We love our next door neighbour Dulcie.

She’s got a bent sense of humour, is a seasoned traveller and a jazz fan.

But a few weeks ago we were aghast to discover her rich life was unpardonably devoid of one of life’s great experiences – pho!

What a spectacular honour, then, that it fell to Bennie and Kenny to initiate her.

There was never any question that we would go anywhere other than Hien Vuong Pasteur.

This place has gone from being our default pho joint to very much our preferred pho joint.

We started going there because Hung Vuong, just a few doors down the road, had become so wildly popular that tables were hard to come by and the service frequently got a bit mad and sloppy.

Since then Hien Vuong Pasteur has repaid our loyalty many times over.

I’m not about to suggest it’s the best pho in a phocentric neighbourhood.

But it IS right up there, the staff are lovely and it’s never so busy that getting seated becomes an issue.

With pho, surprises are generally not good and predictability a virtue.

Hien Vuong Pasteur’s pho is consistently excellent.

The broth is perfection, be it beef or chicken. The meat is always good and the bean sprouts and basil leaves always fresh.

The sliced beef is lean and tender, and there’s always a fair bit of it that comes to the table pink and still to be cooked in the broth.

What more could you want?

All the usual meat options are available, except pizzle, but we like ours plain.

Like all classy pho joints, Hien Vuong Pasteur has a handful of other dishes available – but why would you order crispy fried chicken with egg noodle soup, stewed beef or broken rice when you can have pho? I guess we DO vary our orders about once or twice a year.

For our Saturday lunch, Bennie and I ordered our regular small size slice beef and sliced chicken ($7.50). For many years, my standard order was medium size, please, but that seems too big for me these days. And who eats a large serve of pho? You don’t see one ordered that often.

Given she was a pho novice, I suggested Dulcie go for the sliced chicken, its broth being less funky and likely more familiar for her. She liked it a lot, although went without the sprouts and herb leaves.

Dulcie even ordered spring rolls to go to have for her dinner that night.

Bonus: On paying, Hien Vuong Pasteur has a lolly jar for the kids.

For a far more authoritative, enjoyable and insightful rundown on Footscray’s amazing Vietnamese eats scene, some serious reading time at the Footscray Food Blog of Ms Baklover is highly recommended. She knows her stuff!

Hien Vuong (Pasteur) on Urbanspoon

pasteur4

 

Olivessence

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Shop 2/277-285 Barkly St, Footscray, Phone: 9687 5202

Each of my visits to Olivessence at its previous incarnation in Victoria St, Seddon, had coincided with the recent purchase of olive oil elsewhere.

For my first to its new digs in the Barkly Theatre apartment building, olive oil is short at home and definitely on the agenda.

First, though, another of life’s essentials – coffee.

And very good it is, too.

Olivessence’s range of olive oil may not seem that grand – but the accent is very much on homegrown quality rather than quantity, with a tasting table set up beside the VOO racks.

The store also stocks a fairly handy range of goodies such as condiments, pastas and so on.


The big change from Victoria St is the addition of a coffee machine, something the in-built apartment-dwelling customers no doubt appreciate to the hilt. In a broader sense, and like Pound Cafe up the road a bit, Olivessence should benefit from a dearth of coffee options in the immediate surrounding neighbourhood.

Food-wise, Olivessence runs to breakfast of the toast and muffins variety.

Lunch comes via a modest list of platters that range from $6 to $20 for two that include a revolving range of olive oils, oilves, cheeses, Turkish bread, dukkah and so on.

The sweets highlight is the presence of  Cavallaro canoli.

And out I go, Glenora Grove VOO firmly clutched under arm and happy in the knowledge of another friendly drop-in coffee spot.

Visit the Olivessence website here.

Pound Cafe

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Whitten Oval, 417 Barkly St, Footscray. Phone: 9680 6300

We may be sports pigs, but AFL is not high on our radar, even if the Western Bulldogs are our nominal team of choice.

We’re more your Melbourne Storm/Melbourne Victory kinda guys.

But we pass the Bulldogs’ headquarters many times each week – sometimes while out on the food hunt, sometimes while hitting the Sims grocery just up the road and sometimes while simply tooling around.

So since a glowing review of Pound Cafe by Ms Baklover at her Footscray Food Blog, it was a matter of sooner rather than later that we’d be visiting the newly revamped HQ.

My, what an asset it is to the neighbourhood – especially in terms of diversity, as for our Monday lunch when the usual round of African/Viet/Indian and the like just simply didn’t appeal.

And with a brand new housing estate rapidly taking shape right next door, you’d think this place will do real well.

At first blush it appears to be a rather cold space wrested from the vestibule of the revamped stand.

But we felt relaxed and welcomed the more time we spent there.

As did a number of customers who came and went as we enjoyed our lunch, all of whom seemed already comfortable with using Pound Cafe as a drop-in, catch-up sort of place. The immediate neighbourhood is light-on for coffee places, so that’s another niche handily filled.

Copies of both Melbourne dailies were available at no cost and – glory be! – there were hand paper towels in the loos.

For our first taste of Pound tucker, we weighed in with two of the three available burgers, Bennie ordering the plain beef ($8) and Kenny the lamb ($9.50). Thankfully, we restricted ourselves to a side order of chips ($1.50) rather than a bowl ($4). There were heaps of them, so the bowl must be huge!

The burgers were pretty good, with Bennie’s beef having the edge thanks to its bacon and tangy sauce. My lamb job was tasty, too, though the advertised Moroccan element seemed elusive and the beetroot chutney lent it a mushy aspect.  In both cases, the bread and trimmings were fine, even if salady bits and pieces not actually in the burgers served only as redundant garnishes.

The chips were crispy and unoily, like we like ’em, but the seasoning – salt and paprika the manager informed me – had a sort of odd baconish flavour. Not bad, but – yes – a little odd.

There were lighter lunch options.

The specials board boasted a $6.50 potato, leek and bacon soup, while the bloke on the table behind us was enjoying what looked like a fine risotto of mushrooms, pesto, spinach and fetta ($11, $15).

Other menu items included a steak sandwich ($10.50) and flathead fillets with beer batter, chips, salad and tartare sauce ($12.50), as well as more snacky items and premade rolls.

A can of that Coca Cola stuff cost $2.70, which seemed pretty steep considering the general tenor of the pricing.

However, whatever our minor quibbles, Pound Cafe is a winner – and who knows? It might make more fervent Bulldogs supporters out of us yet!

Kowloon House

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1A Triholm Ave, Laverton. Phone: 9369 4121

One of my fondest (tastiest) memories of my St Kilda years is of a modest little food shop at the Espy end of Fitzroy St.

Cleopatra’s was basically a takeaway joint, though a couple of tables meant it could just about pass for a restaurant – and that’s precisely how I used it on countless occasions over many years.

The family that ran it was delightful and friendly, and their Lebanese food was stupendously fine – I have particularly mouth-watering recall of the chicken skewers and housemade lemonade.

As that end of Fitzroy St became increasingly cluttered with slick restaurants, Cleopatra’s migrated up the road to full restaurant status opposite the Junction Oval. By then I’d moved west, so visits were few.

And then it was gone.

(If anyone knows if the family concerned is still in the food business, please let me know!)

Cleopatra’s and its fine food had, of course, nothing at all to do with the famed empress or the land she ruled.

The name, I’ve always presumed, signalled an earlier and less sophisticated era of Australian foodiness, when citizens needed to be hit over the head with signposts of the most basic and banal and not necessarily all that accurate kind.

Same deal with Kowloon House in Laverton – likewise, it has little or nothing to do with Kowloon. Although it does trade in fried noodles, laksas and tom yum dishes, it’s another Filipino hot spot.


We’d already checked out Kabayan Filipino Restaurant in Cairnlea, and we’re very much looking forward to the Philippine Fiesta at the Melbourne Showgrounds in a couple of weeks.

So my solo trip to Kowloon House, which I’d spied on my many commutes by train to Geelong, on a typical Melbourne spring day (pelting down with rain) was more by way of tuning up.

It’s a cheerful and welcoming place, and whatever it’s dependence on clientele that prefers other southeast Asian dishes, it’s clearly Filipino at heart – as a bain marie of defiantly funky-looking stew dishes and array of groceries attest.

Once again I was confronted with the choice between bain marie and grilled dishes, opting for tapsilog, a rice-based dish that seems to be a breakfast meal that has come to have wider applications.

I liked it a lot.

The garlic rice was fluffy and flecked with egg. The fried egg was perfect. The marinated beef (I forgot to ask what exactly it was marinated in) was black, tough, chewy, but went real well with the little bowl of soy sauce-laced vinegar provided for dipping. And the little bundle of pickled papaya salad added another touch of piquancy.

It was a meal of happiness but also one of dubious healthiness!

The takeaway/catering menu of Kowloon House lists a revolving cast of daily specials: Tapsilob, halo-halo, pinakbet, sisig, caldareta, chicken adobo, monggo, dinuguan, ginatang langka, medudo, okoy, sinigang na baboy, turon.

Having just finished, ahem, digesting Google/Wikipedia explanations for most of them, I realise my Filpino food journey has a long way to go!

Kowloon House on Urbanspoon

Pho Hien Saigon

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3/284 Hampshire Rd, Sunshine. Phone 9311 9532

Pretty much everybody, I would guess, who cavorts in the playground of western suburbs cheap eats has what I think of “single-dish restaurants” filed away in their mental Rolodexes.

Smack in the middle of Footscray’s Viet enclave, is in an eatery that backs on to the Market That Doesn’t Allow Cameras – it does a perfectly fine non-pho lineup of soup noodles and rice dishes. But that’s never why I hit the place. Nope, I go there for just one reason – the Vietnamese stewed beef. It’s a marvel – beef on the bone always meltingly tender, big chunks of carrot, served with egg or rice noodles – or both. Or served, just for a change, with a crusty bread roll. It’s always excellent but always different – depending on how old any particular batch of stew actually is.

There’s other places in the vicinity that do stewed beef, but none with the consistency or tastiness or restrained degree of fattiness.

Across the road is another Viet place that does a large number of dishes, most of them good, many of the damn fine – but there, one or both of us, inevitably end up ordering the tomato fried rice with diced garlic, or one of the variations thereof.

Both those places are waiting in line to be covered in greater depth in considerthesauce.net …

Right now, though, I want to rave about another “single dish restaurant”.

Sunshine’s Pho Hien Saigon is a straight-up uncompromising pho joint.

Its lineup is precisely what you’d expect – spring rolls, rice paper rolls, a handful of rice dishes and pho, pho and more pho.

The only sign of the unorthodox is the regular Sunday special of the stuffed pancake. I’ve had it a few times, but always find that particular dish turns to a handful of mush no matter where I have it.

I’m quite sure I’ve had pho and rice dishes at Pho Hien Saigon, but all that’s little more than a fading memory.

For it’s been years and years since I’ve ordered anything but the vermicelli.

The vemicelli comes in six flavours – grilled pork, grilled chicken, sugar cane prawn, shredded pork, spring rolls and combination, all $9.50, 50 cents more for the prawns.

I always go for the grilled chicken more commonly served with rice.

Atop the big bowl placed on my table is a big white pillow of vermicelli on which sits many strands of sweetly pickled carrot, spring onion, the crunchiest of chopped peanuts and a delicious slab of grilled chicken thigh.

I tip the entire contents of the bowl of accompanying sauce (fish sauce, garlic, sugar, lemon, chilli and more carrot) on to my meal and commence to mix it up. And – lo! – underneath the vermicelli is more delicious crunchiness in the form of lettuce, bean sprouts, mint and other herbs.

Jumbled all together, this is manifestly a triumph – it’s difficult to think of anything that is more tasty, healthy and affordable all at the same time. Aside from pho!

Pho Hien Saigon vermicelli is bigger, brighter, bitier, more colourful and lip-smkackingly fine than I’ve found anywhere else. Even if on the day I visit to take photos the chicken could have done with a minute or two more on the grill in order to acquire more of a charry barbecue flavour.

And I like visiting Viet central in Sunshine. As yet it doesn’t have the same diversity as Footscray, but the grocery shopping is beaut and at Sunshine Plaza there always seems to be underground parking to be had. It’s in the shade and it’s free. Parking – that’s a big plus.

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Kabayan Filipino Restaurant

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Shop 10/100 Furlong Rd, Cairnlea. Phone: 8390 1346

PLEASE NOTE: More recent review of revamped Kabayan can be found here.

We’ve spied Filipino groceries in Footscray, Braybrook and St Albans, but we’ve never been to the Philippines, and the only Filipino food we’ve seen ready to buy and eat has been that of two stalls in the food hall of the Market That Doesn’t Allow Cameras.

And that food, to cowardly us, has always looked more than a little daunting.

Happily, we had a brief conversation with Adrian of Food Rehab at the Food Bloggers’ Mad Hatter Spring Picnic regarding Filipino food, him telling us that the stuff can sometimes look ugly but taste terrific. He also suggested some dishes for newbies, but I wasn’t on the ball enough to take notes, and gave us the tip on this fascinating eatery out Deer Park way.

We’re happy to have made its acquaintance, and have had some tasty food there, but are still far from convinced we have any sort of handle on Filippino food.

On a weekend lunch, Bennie and I bypass the bain marie and opt for the simple grilled dishes – he ordering the chicken skewers with garlic fried rice ($10.50) and me the pork chop with ditto accompaniment ($9.50).

It’s already been a long day and we’re Very Hungry, so we top up with a couple of segments of Filippino sausage ($1.50 each) and an interesting looking slab of fried eggplant ($5).

Our main dishes are tasty but plain. Bennie’s chicken is beaut – and has a distinct Japanese teriyaki sweetness about it. My two pork chops are a little less tender, but no less toothsome. I suspect the charred rind and fat is meant to be treated as simply part of the meal deal, but I fastidiously set it aside. The rice is OK, but nothing particularly notable.

These two platters are very similar to the meat and rice dishes we find in Viet restaurants, or the Hainan chicken rice and nasi lemak of Malay places, with similar trimmings of cucumber and tomato slices but much less seasoning or spiciness.

Bennie gobbles up the smallish sausage segments, but I find them dull.

In some ways, the eggplant is the star of the day. What I presume is half a large eggplant sliced in half lengthways has been flattened and coated an extremely eggy batter. It all tastes good, and has that delectable smoky tang we associate with eggplant dips of Middle Eastern cuisines. It’s hefty for a side dish – something like a vegetarian steak, in fact – and seems to lend credence to the “ugly but good” theory.

As we amble away quite satisfied, Bennie opines: “That was like Asian food but not really!”

I know what he means.

We would have liked to have known more about the food we were ordering and eating (including the correct Filipino names), but the staff were busy and, perhaps, a little shy or taken aback by our interest. However, whatever our disappointment with our experience here, we are happy to confess it surely has at least as much to do with our ignorance of Filipino food as anything else.

Next time, we’ll revert to bain marie mode. On a previous visit, I’d had a ridiculously oily but otherwise awesome beef stew with spuds and carrot in a sweetish red gravy, and a minced pork concoction with peas and potato. Served with plain rice, the combo cost $9.

On the day of our grilled lunch visit, the bain marie hosts an interesting looking dish of beef tongue with a mushroom sauce, another of beef on the bone in a peanut sauce and a couple of fish dishes.

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Los Latinos

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More recent review here.

128 Mitchell St, Maidstone. Phone: 9318 5289

Bugger it – I hate getting beat by The Age, especially by just a day or so.

But that’s just the way it worked out.

The end of a rugged week of work and school, a Friday full of crap weather, the run home from Sunshine, after-school care and a white-knuckle drive to and from Geelong.

Approaching Ashley St, we pondered our options – home, Cartoon Network and A-League with Chinese delivered; home and then out again to eat (not really an option at given the weather); and then – inspiration! – why, heck, a slight detour and … we could check out the new Latino place we’d heard about.

And failing that, we could opt for the funky Chinese place in Mitchell St that had long been on our “to do” list.

Pulling up outside Los Latinos, we appraised once again the retail strip we had last checked out very early in the year.

The Chinese place was still there, looking just as enigmatic as ever.

So, too, was the Latin American bakery where we’d had empanadas and coffee.

As well, there a cool-looking antique/odds’n’sods shop that seemed well worth a look – on another day.

And right there in the middle was Los Latinos – even early in the evening open and inviting.

Nina Rousseau nailed it good – Los Latinos is, indeed, “a grand addition to the west”.

We left an hour later rete, replete and smiling after a meal of lip-smacking joy.

The menu is not long, but we opted for the dips and corn chips ($6), followed by a serve of pupusas ($10), not wanting to put to big a dent in our wallet.

And then we wrecked that plan by ordering a $3.50 bottle Jarritos guava fizz from Mexico. Oh well …

The corn chips were good and blessedly free of excess salt and ghastly chemicals. The dips – cheese, guacamole and what was described on the menu as “green tomatillo” but was actually, unmistakably red  – looked a touch on the meager side. But they went the distance just fine, and all were tasty.

Despite some familiarity with South and Latin American food, we were unfamiliar with pupusas. They are, it was explained, a righteously popular and ubiquitous staple of El Salvador. The same flour as used in tortilla is made into a dough, then small balls. Into a hole in each ball is inserted the filling – in our case, a combo of cheese, beans and pork. The pupusas are then gently flattened and pan fried.

The results were mucho delicious, amply filling yet light as well. They were served with a tiny jug of salsa and curtido, which turned out to be a spicy, tangy, pickled salad of cabbage and more (I suspect).

At $10 for a serve of four, these constitute a superb and cheap meal for one. But as we were sharing, we were still a little light on.

So we ordered another entree – chorizo and salsa ($6). It was another winner, though we could have used about double the number of small, if very fine, tortillas that were provided to mop up the hot salsa.

One thing this dish did do for me, however, is confirm that my ingrained habit of merely grabbing any old chorizo from the supermarket has got to go. This one had quite distinctive and oh-so-tasty seasoning and flavour. Not all chorizos are created equal, it seems.

The menu also features fajitas ($18.50), tacos ($10.50), tamales ($10), porcion de pollo (fried chicken with onions, coriander and lemon juice, served with rice and tortilla; $12.50), as well as the completo (Latin Hot Dog; $6.50) and nachos ($10).

God bless Los Latinos – it’s helping make what was one a rather bleak backwater into yet another western suburbs foodie hot spot!

You can read Nina Rousseau’s Age review here.

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Safari Restaurant

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159 Union Rd, Ascot Vale. Phone: 9372 7175

Yes, another gem in Union Rd – this one just as tasty, affordable and, in its own mesmerising way, just as exotic as Yemini Restaurant up the road a piece.

Like that joint, Safari Restaurant’s stock in trade is a roll call of meat, veg and carbs.

As such it seems an ideal place for those who find the very idea of tibs, doro wat, injera and other items bought to Melbourne’s inner west by the African diaspora a step too far or just too weird to even contemplate eating.

Describing Safari’s food as “meat and three veg”, though, does it a grave disservice – for this Somalian fare is much, much more delicious than that humble label implies.

Bennie and I have been regular visitors this year, but for my most recent lunch I was joined by my fellow DeadHead Kurt.

There was a little confusion while ordering, so we ended up both getting the $17 meal of lamb (hilib, on the bone, three pieces), rice (barris) and accompaniments.

This was overload for lunch, so it’s helpful to know that there’s a $15 version available, with the rice and meat coming on the same plate, and the same side dishes and vegetables provided.

But even at $17, our lunches fully qualified for a hearty western suburbs cheap eats thumbs up.

You see, at Safari meals come with what, in New Orleans and South Louisiana, is referred to as “lagniappe” – that is, “a little something special”.

In this case, that involves, first up, a long, cool drink – either freshly squeezed orange juice clinking with ice cubes, or a much sweeter and richer milk-based concoction that I personally find too cloying.

Second comes a bowl of soup.

Bowl of soup? That sounds miserable and woefully inaccurate to describe what is clearly the most delicious thing I’ve eaten this year thus far.

It’s a bowl of simple broth, yes – modestly seasoned with a little chili, coriander, lemon pepper and garlic. You may even find a few strands of meat, or the odd slice of carrot.

But at it’s heart this is simply, magnificently Essence Of Lamb As A Work Of Art.

Gosh, it’s good!

On to our main courses – and more magic.

The rice was plain, but brilliant –  seasoned, again with restraint, with garlic and coriander, and cooked in vegetable stock. Worthy of gleeful inhalation.

My three pieces of lamb, one of which was a cutlet, were tender, tasty and wonderfully free of fat and/or gristle  – not always the case with food such as this.

Completing the picture were some good salad greens and a goodly amount of a sensational pan-fried jumble of onion, carrot and capsicum, which was heaven with the rice and generous smears of the tangy chili sauce provided.

As a point of difference, Kurt split his carb order 50/50 between rice and spaghetti. The pasta was OK – but it was just pasta, and certainly not a patch on the divine rice.

After our wonderful lunch, we spent some time chatting to owner Mohamed Shide about his food, the restaurant, its multinational clientele and the story that brought him to Australia and, finally, his own eating shop in Ascot Vale.

It’s a long story that involves war, many years, separation from family and other trials and tribulations – the sort of moving odyssey that is so intrinsic to Australia.

So happy were we with our repast and our conversation with Mohamed that I gaily strolled away without paying. Happily, I also left my wallet on the counter, necessitating my return anyhow.

As I reclaimed my wallet and attempted to pay, Mohamed attempted to wave my money away – unsuccessfully.

Mohamed, my friend, that’s simply not what I’m about.

If by writing this I can can send a few more people through your door, that’ll be all the payment I could wish.

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The Circle Fruit Fiesta

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45-49 The Circle, Altona East. Phone: 9399 1026

We are relatively well serviced in the heart of Yarraville, but gosh I’d love to have an establishment like this right in our back yard.

Like Fresh On Young in Moonee Ponds is a supercharged green grocer and much more of a one-stop shop than your normal fruit and veg joint.

Unlike Fresh On Young, they don’t do meat, but have many other bases covered.

There’s a heap of dry goods – nuts and fruit and pulses and so on.

The pasta section alone looks like it could well challenge the famous aisle of pasta at Mediterranean Wholesalers in Sydney Rd.

The range of fruit and vegetables is fine, the herb section looking specially spiffy.

I bought fat, juicy white raisins and roasted almonds for our porridge/muesli, several packs of Opera Prima pasta for $1.30 each and makings for a big pot of pasta sauce.

The Circle rocks with Lebanese personality.

I also nabbed some fantastic Lebanese pies from the bakery a few doors up – spinach, spinach and cheese, and a particularly toothsome chicken and tomato.

In the other direction, the Lebanese butcher had a variety of snags, with the dark red Lebanese numbers certain to be the target of future exploration.

Far as I could see, though, there’s only one ATM – and it’s a $2.50 job!

On the way in from Blackshaws Rd, I passed Victoria Sweets and wondered, not for the first time, when the place’ll be open when I pass.

Thanks to Ms Baklover at Footscray Food Blog for reminding me about this very cool precinct!

Crumbs Organic Bakehouse

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170 Union Rd, Ascot Vale. Phone: 9375 4777

Knowing a birthday feast at Ebi beckons in the early evening, the familiar Middle Eastern/African meat ‘n’ rice options on Union Rd seem inadvisable.

I spy some scrumptious looking pizza slices in the window of Crumbs – they are calling to me!

The wholemeal base wages war with my knife and fork, but teeths and hands make easy work of it. The caramelised onion, mushhie and olive topping is sensational – sweet and salty and just right. My pizza is even more delicious than it looks.

And at $4, it’s a contender for the Cheap Lunch Hall Of Fame.

Crumbs is a beaut little bakery, done out in comfy style with formica tables and even lace table cloths. They’re not big on hearty or lunches – other than the ever revolving range of pizzas.

But they do a pretty good range of breads.

We like the sourdough and – especially – the fruit loaf.

Unlike some fruit loaves we know, this one is bread with some fruit in it – rather than the other way ’round.

But we like it.

Besides, it pays to have something on hand for breakfast when Bennie gets rolling eyes tired of porridge!

The range of sweeties is grand, ranging from a variety of cookies to brownies and so on. Mind you, a couple of the slices, packed with seeds and nuts, look more like health food than food … if you follow me.

A fine coffee, a peanut butter and chocolate cookie, fruit loaf to go and I’m out the door for $15.50.

Bargain!

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Cevabdzinica/Central Cafe

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Shop 26/1 Princess St, St Albans. Phone: 9310 7444

This business has closed.

Welcome to a taste of Bosnia in St Albans.

I reckon there’s a tendency for those of us who live close to the CBD to consider the term “western suburbs” as referring to – mainly – Footscray, Yarraville, Altona and a few others.

But those, of course, are just the start of Melbourne’s growing west – there’s a whole world out there!

Happily, Bennie’s place on the playing roster of the mighty West Footscray Roosters necessitated, in the winter thankfully now winding up, many trips into far-flung burbs we would never ordinarily visit. What an adventure!

It was one such Sunday outing that I noted Cevabdzinica down for future exploration.

It’s been open since February and is a dazzlingly bright, fluorescently lit place; it’s red and white style is something like classic American diner filtered through an Eastern European sensibility.

It serves snacky food, and not the heartier cabbage rolls, soups and stews that I had been mentally preparing myself for.

Undeterred, I asked for the hamburger combo; when told that was now unavailable, I settled for the grilled chicken with salad and bread ($12).

It was right tasty, too. The thigh meat was sparingly seasoned, juicy and tasty. It was topped with some grilled red capsicum while some salad bits and pieces sat alongside. The longish bread roll on which the meat was served was good, though a bit on the oily side.

We eat so much food that is heavily spiced that it was a pleasure to enjoy something so plain.

Nevertheless, there was little about my meal that spoke of any distinctive Bosnian flavour or characteristics. For that reason alone, I will likely return to sample the “chevaps” which are served five for $8, seven for $10 or 10 for $13 – and presumably with the same trimmings adorning them.

Bureks in meat, cheese and cheese-and-spinach flavours are available for what seems like a steep $6.

A post-lunch amble confirmed that is a neighbourhood that will be the target and many repeat visits.

For example, just around the corners is a place called  Saraj, the signage of which announces the availability of “Balkan food”. This being a Monday, the kitchen was closed, so I didn’t even to get check out the menu – but I did note that a $10 gulas was listed on the specials board. The gents relaxing outside cast suspicious glances in my direction as I came and went.  My tie-dyed Grateul Dead T-shirt might have had something to do with that.

For example, Alfrieda St, a wide thoroughfare packed with so many Vietnamese/Chinese eateries, butchers, fish places, groceries and so on that I’m a little surprised that it isn’t more regularly spoken of in the same breath as Footscray, Richmond and Springvale.

For example, Cafe U&I, a splendidly named mixed bag that is part Asian tucker, part ’70s coffee bar and part pasticceria – and where I had a perfect coffee.

For example, a Chinese seafood/yum cha establishment boasting the great title of Just Good Food. Can’t argue with that!

For example. dozens more groceries worth a look – not just Vietnamese, but also Indian, Filippino and even Pacific Island.

Southern Spice

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4/203 Ballarat Rd (cnr Gordon St), Footscray. Phone: 9317 3811

It was something of a surprise to discover this establishment had been open since 2003, given the hundreds of time we must have driven past it none the wiser.

Doing a blog, it seems, is somewhat akin to getting a new pair of spectacles – you see things differently, better, in more detail.

Anyway, my food-attuned senses went on high alert with the emphasis on “southern” – I had visions dancing in my head of chowing down on exotic specialties from the likes of Madras and Kerala.

Alas, the reality was more prosaic – “southern”, in this case means mostly the familiar lineup of dosa, upma, wada (vada) and idly.

But let us not become too ho-hum.

After all, it was only a few years ago that dosas and the like were a no-show on the western suburbs cheap eats radar. That we have become somewhat spoilt for choice is a cause for celebration rather complacency.


Despite its given address, Southern Spice actually sits on Gordon St, in a strip of shops buffeted by buses and cars. It’s a crisp and clean, with the obligatory Bollywood dance routines bursting forth from a telly up in one corner. The staff and service are friendly.

In order to get across as much of their food as quickly as possible, I fronted for the South Indian buffet ($12) that is featured every Saturday and Sunday for lunch.

It was a thing of advanced yumminess.

Laid out buffet style are dal, cauliflower curry, potato curry, sambar, upma, vada, idly and two kinds of rice. On an adjacent tables sits a big bowl of peanut chutney studded with evil-looking dark red dried chillies.

Dosas and – much to my giddy joy – puris are cooked to order. Oh, bliss!

I managed to resist the buffet tradition of letting my eyes get ahead of my appetite, modestly loading up a stainless steel plate as I waited for my four puris.

Peanut chutney.

It was all bloody delicious. The potato and cauliflower curries looked very similar, but tasted quite different, with the cauliflower having an extra tang. The dal was beaut, too, while the peanut chutney belied its fiery appearance by being a smooth, mildy-spiced, coconutty concoction – sort of like a runny South Indian peanut butter. The upma,  white and cakey and studded with curry leaves and mustard seeds, was a little bland, but fine dipped in the sambar.

The made-for-me puris were superb – and about a grease-free as puris can be.

Southern Spice also has a feature called Biryani Fridays, for $13 and from 6pm, with a lineup that includes chicken, mutton and egg biryanis, chcken fry, raita and so on.

The day before I roadtested the wonderful South Indian buffet, I had a simple thali of goat madras (on the bone), “bhendi” fry (a very dry jumble of peanuts, crispy onion and chewy okra), raita, rice and a single papadam. It was OK, but the spice levels were in Johnny Cash territory – not my thing these days.

A can of that Coca Cola stuff costs a very excellent $1.

Southern Spice is nestled amid a rather drab cluster of shops and eats places, only about half of which are currently operating as businesses of varying kinds. But the area is changing – there’s a Korean BBQ joint across the road that looks just about ready to roll, while a few doors up what was once a fish and chip shop is being gutted. Stay tuned...

Southern Spice is also something of a rarity – a western suburbs cheap eat that has its very own website, a simple but detailed job that can be found here.

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Seddon Fish ‘N’ Chips Shop

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154 Victoria St, Seddon. Phone: 9687 0407

We are fans of the new school of ritzy burger joints, with the Grill’d chain being a favourite.

Of course, if you really want to lash out you can go to a flash restaurant and pay way more than $20 for a burger, but those sorts of extremes seem absurd. And what use is a burger around which you can’t get you hands?

We find the Grill’d burgers and chips real tasty and well worth the price.

Sometimes, though, it’s just right to go down the path of your more orthodox Aussie burger – the kind of thing served up by your local fish and chip/burger establishment.

It’s amazing how different the taste and flavour is from the more American-style offerings of Grill’d and its ilk. It’s almost like a whole different kind of food. Still good, sometimes great, but different.

One of our locals did the job for us.

It’s a bright and clean no-nonsense takeaway shop, with seating available on stools that front the window.

Our order of burgers (cheese and bacon cooked; onion and tomato uncooked), chips and the obligatory can of that Coca Cola stuff cost $17. Doesn’t seem that cheap does it? But the same deal at Grill’d would cost at least $10 more.

The chips were ungreasy and good, but not great. The burgers were a fine example of their kind – not particularly filling, but just perfect for a pre-Grand Final lunch.

Hello Gelo

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15 Anderson St, Yarraville. Phone: 9078 5696

Does ice cream lose the taste factor after a single scoop?

Do tastebuds become so frozen that subsequent scoops become gratuitous?

Is scarfing multiple scoops an exercise in gluttony?

Why aren’t great minds working feverishly on the answers to these important questions?

Actually, while we love our ice cream and gelati, we almost always restrict ourselves to what are generally referred to as baby cones.

Taste issues aside, with gelati we reckon there can be too much of a good thing. I see cones and cups stacked with three or four scoops, and I’m puzzled how people can inhale so much of the sublime stuff.

Our single scoop habit fits specially well with Hello Gelo, as their kids cones tend to be a bit more generous than elsewhere – although it is a variable situation. And their kids cones cost a mere $2.50.

In several years of living in Seddon and Yarraville, we revelled in the wonderland of cheap, funky eating out options on our doorstep.

But it also bugged the hell out of us that a gelati fix required a drive to Williamstown, Sydney Rd or Lygon St. OK, sometimes the drive was fun, but still …

And then came Hello Gelo, now entering its second summer and the owner of which obviously contemplated the same unsatisfactory situation and decided to do something about it.

Hello Gelo does several of the things expected of a gelati joints – hot dogs, sundaes, those little Dutch pancake thingies, coffee, sweeties of various kinds – but when we’re there, we’re strictly on a gelati mission.

We like checking out the new flavours, of which there always seem to be two or three, even on our very regular visits.

Bennie holds dad’s apple pie and his own honeycomb crunch, while our very cool jazz chick neighbour Dulcie works on her blood orange.

The chilli chocolate is a fixture, as are fruity ices such as lemon, lime and blood orange.

We’ve had a few disappointments. The almond, for instance, tasted like plain old vanilla to me.

By contrast, another flavour that could have been too subtle to nail – apple pie – did indeed taste just like apple pie.

Another big plus: Hello Gelo operates a frequent flyer card scheme – buy seven and get one free.

And, yes, the card deal also applies to kids cones.

Excellent!

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Laksa King

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laksa4

 

6-12 Pin Oak Crescent, Flemington. Phone: 9372 6383

The old Laksa King was one of the places that spoke so eloquently of Melbourne food culture.

Not in terms of quality or high-falutin’ style or world renown.

Nope, its place was along the lines of Melbourne food personality – think Pellegrini’s, Stalactites, the bratwurst stall at Vic Market, the Waiters Restaurant and so on.

Unfortunately, Laksa King was also a dumpy old thing, drab and more than a little down at heel.

Moreover, we never ate there because – whatever it might have lacked in sparkle and swish – it was very popular, so whenever we were in the vicinity there always seemed to be a queue of six or more.

The contrast to the new Laksa King – around the corner, and adjacent the train station – could not be greater.

The new place is gorgeous!

It’s big and bright, packed with lovely wooden chairs and tables, and the many black T-shirted and on-the-ball staff scurry around on a polished cement floor while a you-beaut sign adorns the roof..

Given the substantial upgrade, it’s a pleasure to note that Laksa King has nevertheless kept its prices well within the cheap eats realm. Most single person dishes – ranging from Hainanese chicken rice to mee goreng – fall a tick or two either side of $10.

We’ve been twice in the past couple of weeks.

First up was a rather frantic Friday night, with waiting times for our main courses stretching out to about 15 minutes.

We got by in the meantime with a beaut lobak ($6.20), the crunchy bean curd skin encasing minced pork that also had a delightful crunch about it thanks to being studded with carrot and water chestnut. The achar (pickled vegetables, $5.20) was OK, but a little on the bland side.

We regretted our conservative choice of mains.

Bennie let his love of dumplings rule, and while his prawn dumpling noodles were fine – OK stock, OK dumplings, OK noodles – they seemed to lack a little zing.

My roasted chicken rice was lacklustre. The chook was dry, the rice passable, the soup OK and – worst of all – the chilli sauce tame and dull, while its expected partner of an oily ginger/green onion mix did not turn up at all.

Our return visit was made more agreeable by sticking to tried, true and a little more spicy, and by eschewing side dishes and soft drinks – keeping the price tag down to a very excellent $19.70.

The beef curry laksa ($9.20) was a brightly coloured bowl of more tender beef slices than we could eat and mild spiciness. Its highlight was a large and silky eggplant slice of magnificent flavour. I swear I’ll rue the day Bennie decides to dig eggplant!

The curry chicken noodles ($10.20) were also mildly spiced, with plentiful chicken and bok choy sitting on thin egg noodles that at first seemed as though they were going to require the attentions of a knife and fork, so enamoured were they of each other’s company. But there was plenty of gravy, which mixed with the noodles in a fine fashion to become a sort of Malaysian pasta dish.

Still, after two visits we remain underwhelmed.

Given the homely surrounds we mostly inhabit in pursuit of great cheap eats, it’s quite a thrill to send time in  a place that proudly boasts a bit of flash, a bit of a wow factor.

But the food, as we have thus far experienced it, leaves an impression of hedging its bets for the broadest possible reach in terms of customers. Of the four mains and two starters we had in two visits, only the lobak sparkled.

Nothing wrong with that – and the crowds vindicate such a policy. I’ll concede, too, we made rather conservative choices – but there’s not much further you can go on the menu.

But I can’t help but feel we’ll continue to find more fire and passion in the more humble likes of Vy Vy, around the corner on Racecourse Rd.

You can read more reviews of the new Laksa King at Jeroxie and Saint-ism.

Laksa King has been reviewed by The Age.

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