Saturday, November 20, 2010

Vegie Hut

Vegie Hut is one of the Chinese restaurant that served only vegetarian food. They are one of the few Chinese vegetarian restaurant in Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Located in one of the busy suburb of Box Hill, famous for Chinese & Asian restaurants.


Roast Pork & Duck

The "meats" used in the dishes are made out of the bean curds to resemble real meat. It is amazing how they can create ingredients that are so similar to the real thing in texture and taste.


Penang Asam Fish

The "asam" sauce has sourish taste, you can easily finish two bowl of rice with the sauce because it is really appetizing. The fish is created by one of the vegetarian as well, with the sea weed wrapped together as the skin to give the give the fish fishy taste.


The Yam Basket

Yam basket with stir fried prawns, vegetables and cashew nuts was my favorite of the day. The yam basket is actually a yam bowl that is deep fried to create the crispy outer skin and yet maintaining the softness and the moistness of the yam inside. The yam on its own does not have much taste to it, it is the sauce of the stir fried prawns and vegetables that gives the dish a barbecue taste.

My Ratings;

-Environment: 3/4
-Food: 3/4
-Price: 3/4
-Service: 3/4

Vegie Hut:
984 Whitehorse Road,
Box Hill, VIC 3128

03 9898 2287

Vegie Hut Vegetarian on Urbanspoon

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Jalan Alor, Melbourne [Update]

Went to Jalan Alor again today after the last time I visited which was when they were just opened for a week. Took this opportunity to try the other dishes on the menu.

Didn't manage to take any photos of the restaurant for my last post so here are shots of the place!




Honey Kam Quat (left), Special Air Barli with Lemon (hot and cold)

Air Barli which is a barley drink commonly available in Malaysian kopitiams (coffe shops). Jalan Alor's Special Air Barli are boiled fresh everyday with barley instead of premixed solutions and you have a choice of adding in lemon, lime or kam quat (Chinese lime). It is a very refreshing drink whether it is hot or cold.

Honey Kam Quat is also a refreshing drink but a bit sweeter compared with the other two.


Singapore Fried Noodles

Again one of those dishes that I like from this restaurant. Their Singapore Fried Noodles is cooked with tomato paste instead of curry powder like what you can commonly find in other restaurants. Also, Singapore Fried Noodles are suppose to be dry and the one I had was perfect with two huge prawns! The addition of lettuce and bean sprouts adds a crunchy texture and freshness to the dish itself.


Curry Chicken Rice

I've got nothing much to say about this dish as it is rather normal. Maybe some potatoes in the curry would be much nicer.


Kon Loh Ayam Panggang Pan Mee

Tried the Kon Loh Pan Mee today as well which has Ayam Panggang (barbecue chicken). You can taste the difference in texture of the pan mee as the noodles are freshly made by hand in the restaurant. It is just like the difference of freshly made pasta with the commercially made. The mixture of the sauce for the noodles has a well balanced taste of sweetness, saltiness as well as the aroma from the sesame oil.

For the previous post of Jalan Alor, please click here.

My Ratings;

-Environment: 2/4
-Food: 3/4
-Price: 4/4
-Service: 3/4

Jalan Alor:
7/206 Bourke St,
Melourne, VIC 3000

03 9663 1138

Jalan Alor on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Orient Express, Crown

Orient Express is a Sushi Train restaurant located in the Crown Casino, Southbank. They are the very first in to have the double decker sushi train which serves cold and hot dishes. It is indeed a unique concept that is new and fresh.

It is unfortunately not easily noticeable because it is located at a corner on the upper level food court where KFC and McDonalds are. I wouldn't have discovered this place if it is not for the advertisements.



The setting of the restaurant is what you will typically find in a sushi train Japanese restaurant, with the bar seating. Only thing different is the double decker sushi belt, the top being the hot dishes and the bottom for cold dishes. They actually have radiant heaters on the hot sushi belt to keep the dishes warm. It feels really hot if you put your hands into the tube. The sushi belt is like a subway tube that can be opened and closed.



Other than the dishes on the sushi train, there are also about 50 hot dishes that can also be ordered from a list if they are not available on the sushi train. I'm not sure if it's because they are new, but the list of dishes was just a list, it wasn't a proper menu. We had the list on our table for a moment before it was taken away by the waitress to the other customers.

It would have been really helpful if they had a proper menu on every couple of seats so people could just order straight away and anytime. Also, the list of dishes only had the names and prices on it, there were no pictures or descriptions on them which we found rather difficult to figure out what the dishes were. A thumbnail sized photo of every dish they have would be really great to help provide a picture of what we are about to order and eat!


Ebi Sushi


Ebi Tempura Sushi Roll


Agedashi Tofu


Crab Stick Tempura


Salt and Pepper Calamari


I have no idea what is this dish called. It looked good so we just took it off the sushi train. The outer layer is crispy fried rice noodles with cheese and pine nuts as a filling. It has a sourish taste to it which was very odd and not to my liking at all.


Chocolate Mousse

Overall, the food here were not as special or good as I thought it would be. The photos and advertisements looked promising but we were quite disappointed.

Orient Express serves only small dishes and sushi. So if you are going with a group of friends and not everyone fancies sushi, this is not the right place to go to because they do not serve bento boxes or set meals.

My Ratings;

-Environment: 3/4
-Food: 2/4
-Price: 1/4
-Service: 3/4

Orient Express:
8 Whiteman Street,
Southbank, Melbourne, VIC 3006

03 9645 9959


Orient Express on Urbanspoon

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Freycinet Marine Farm

On the way into Freycinet Lodge, or should I say Freycinet National Park, there were a lot of farms along the way selling nice fresh seafood.



Freycinet Marine Farm is on the Freycinet peninsula on Tasmania's East Coast. A cool and clean place designed to welcome everyone to taste their fresh seafood produce.


Baked Scallops


Oyster Kill Patricks

The price of the food are cheap so don't expect anything like what you can get in a posh restaurant. The staff are really friendly, nicely cooked oyster with barbecue and bacon but not the sbut not the scallops I had as they were not cooked through.

I reckon it would be better if the oysters were cooked with the heat from the bottom instead of the top which makes the oysters dry.

My Ratings;

-Environment: 3/4
-Foods: 2/4
-Price: 3/4
-Service: -


1784 Coles Bay Road,
Coles Bay, TAS.

03 62570140