[Travel Melbourne] 茶记 HK Cafe Melbourne - HK Cha Chaan Teng

It was that time of the year again! Travel buddies gathered, planned and off we went to Melbourne in Sep 2024. Always grateful to have Hence, Tracy, Ivan and this year, Shermaine!

My first meal in Melbourne for this trip, was at the HK Cafe nearby our accommodation, Mantra on Russell Melbourne. Was super apologetic to Hence, Tracy and Ivan (and also Salina!) who waited for Shermaine and myself to arrive and by the time we were done with check-in, it was already 220pm. Thank you for waiting!

It was just a few minutes walk to the cafe after hotel check-in, so we didn't know it then but eventually we revisited the cafe once more as the menu had other things that we wanted to try.

Loved that their menu is on display outside of the shop, so one could decide what they want to eat even before stepping into the shop. For dining in, one could inform the staff the number of pax and they will look for a table for you. Might need to share table, but thus far, our party of 5 or 6 pax were big enough to warrant a table for ourselves.

There's a QR code on each table and once could view the online menu and place order. Payment is made online as well. Once submitted, the staff will bring out the beverages first and followed promptly with the food orders. At peak hours, some of the dishes may encounter a longer time to be ready. From our experience, all our food were served within 10-15 minutes of ordering.

Fried Spam and Three Eggs Rice @$15.80

Egg Sauce with Shallots and Shrimps Rice @$16.80

Super loved the 3 eggs with spam rice. Just simple soy on top of the eggs with runny yolk, and deliciously oily spam pieces. Yums!

Curry Fishballs (12 pcs) @$14.80

are you a fan?

HK Style French Toast with Maple Syrup @$8.80

there's peanut butter inside the french toast!

Sprite with Sour Plum @$6.80

Red Bean with Ice Cream @$8.80

First time trying the Red Bean with Ice Cream drink and it was better than expected. A dessert-drink and pretty filling!

On second visit, we ordered new things to try.

Spam with Double Eggs with Nissin Noodles Soup @$12.80

Ivan had the Nissin noodles and it took the longest to arrive. We had already finished half of ours when it arrived.

Baked Curry Beef Brisket Rice @$18.80

Satay Beef Rice @$15.80

Baked Pork Chop Rice @$18.80

The baked rice here was a good choice, especially the classic baked pork chop rice with the stringy melted cheese and as attested by Shermaine who was on her way in taking a bite before I stopped her for a photo. Oops!

nice and hot

The curry and satay sauce were of different flavours than what I am used to in Malaysia/Singapore. It is milder for the HK version and satay sauce was just in general, quite different.

But the beef here was nice and tender.

Chu Hou Paste Beef Brisket Noodles Soup @$14.80

my favourite noodles

I was very happy with my bowl of comforting beef brisket noodles soup. Chunks of tender beef with some tendons/fats, springy noodles and warm broth. Satisfied.

The ice-lemon tea can be requested to be sweetened or unsweetened. I prefer sweetened and it was just nice.

ice-lemon tea

All in all, the staff are generally friendly and efficient. We conversed in either Cantonese, English or Mandarin.

If you need additional customization to your dishes, do order and inform the staff at the counter.

茶记 HK Cafe Melbourne

Address: 171 Russell St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Website: http://hkcafe.com.au/

Contact: +61452391282

Business Hours:

Daily 11:30 am–9 pm

[Melbourne 2022] Hills BBQ Noodle Shop @ Box Hill

After our adventurous Great Ocean Road trip, we returned to Melbourne City. As it was late, we looked for a late dinner or early supper place and the group decided on Hills BBQ Noodle Shop as its closing time would be around 2am. 

shopfront

menu

The place feels like an old school Cantonese food shop. We were served hot Chinese tea upon seated.

cheers

Once our orders were taken, the complimentary soup of the day was served to the table. It was dried vegetables soup 菜乾湯. Simple but packed with familiar comforting flavours.

dried vegetable soup

I think probably more old school styled shop does this but nowadays, it had become rare for restaurants to serve complimentary soup.

Who eats crab noodles for supper? Apparently, us. Hahaha!

Ginger Spring Onion Crab Noodles @AUD86 (Market price for crab, AUD8 per serve of noodles)

side view

This place serves live seafood and we did enquire on the market price for the crab which is in accordance to the weight of the crab. The one that we got weighs slightly over a kg but with a claw missing. The wanton noodles are separate orders at AUD8 per piece, so we got 2 noodles for the dish.

bon appetite~

The mud crab was meaty but in overall, the dish tasted milder than I expected. Good but didn't wow. Noodles with the ginger and spring onion gravy topped with spicy chili oil, was pretty yummy.

Deep Fried Big Intestines 炸大肠 @AUD23.80

Our appetiser plate of deep fried intestines is the same price as half a duck. Wow, that's like the priciest intestines I had ever eaten. It was undoubtably good and without any funky smell. Crispy and of a nice glaze on its outside, and tender soft on its insides. Hence, the effort in preparing this dish must have been quite extensive.

The must order, I think should be the roasted duck. We got ourselves half a duck and it was a very good choice. Tender and meaty plus fragrant with the duck oil from the skin.

Roasted Duck (Half) 烧鸭(半)@AUD23.80

When in Melbourne, we eat Barramundi. So, we got a Hong-Kong styled steamed fish as well.

Steamed Barramundi (soy sauce, spring onion) @AUD55

The fish was well steamed, with firm flesh and the simple soy sauce brought out the natural sweetness of the fish. It was a fairly large fish as well and probably weighs around 900gms to a kg.

Hmmm, from a simple supper... I think we overdid ourselves and turned this meal into a late night feast!

We saw that most individuals or couples in the shop, ordered things single pax items like those noodles or rice dishes. Out of curiosity, we ordered one rice dish and one noodle dish to try.

Stir fried Black Bean Beef Rice @AUD15

I must say, the Asian restaurants that we visited thus far, does very well with beef. Tender, juicy and flavourful. However, the bean sauce for the rice dish was a tad too strong for me hence, it was pretty salty.

My recommendation would be, go for the Beef Brisket Noodles Soup. I was actually wowed by this dish! First of all, the meat selection in the bowl was on-point. A combination of chunky fatty and lean parts, and even so, the lean parts were tender and not too chewy. The fatty parts just dissolved straight into the mouth. Soup tasted good with the daikon pieces absorbing the flavours and seemed like it had been boiled adequately.

Beef Brisket Noodles Soup 牛腩面汤 @AUD15

The four of us, finished all of the above. Spent about AUD59 per pax. Payment at the counter, after our meal. Thank you Tracy, Hence and Ivan for sharing the calories!

Hills BBQ Noodle Shop

Address: 586 Station St, Box Hill VIC 3128, Australia

Contact: +61 3 9899 3382

Business Hours:

Mon-Tue: 12pm–11pm

Wed-Sun: 12pm–2am

Master Tang 鄧師傅鳳城面家@ 233 Bukit Batok East Avenue 5

Instead of cafes, we went neighbourhood coffeeshop hopping. A small group of us (Jennifer, Kris, Ivan, Hence, Tiara and myself) ventured off into the (wild wild) west of Bukit Batok, going past Little Guilin (小桂林) and into East Avenue 5 Block 233.

We were there for former Head Chef of Crystal Jade, Master Tang Siu Nam's beef brisket noodles. A soft spoken man at a young age of 86, Master Tang was busy blanching plates after plates of noodles. His wife usually takes the order but she was busy with other things so Master Tang himself will ask the customer what he/she wants. Spoke to him in Cantonese and he smiled. Saw that the stall has congee too, so we got ourselves a bowl of century egg congee to try.

Master Tang works at his own pace but he is systematic. His wife helps to scoop the ingredients onto the noodles that he had prepared.

云吞鸡脚面 (wanton noodles with added chicken feet) @$4.50

牛腩筋面 (beef brisket tendon noodles) @$6

The portions for the beef brisket tendon noodles were generous. Maybe 3 to four chunks of stewed beef and about 3 pieces of those quivering soft tendons. The stew sauce was flavorful yet rather subtle. It was unfortunate that the beef pieces, especially the leaner ones were a tad too tough. Those that had a small later of fats worked best. Preferred the tendons over the brisket.

Liked the green chili pickles too. It gave the noodles a tangy lift. The noodles itself was on a softer side and the overall flavour was pretty rustic.

For me, the must-order from Master Tang would be this dedicated plate of chicken feet noodles. The feet were pretty deceptive-looking but it packed some heat. Would gladly have the entire plate for myself! The skin falls off easily and it was such a joy to suck off the skin and spit out the bones.

鳳爪面 / 鸡脚面(chicken feet noodles) @$4

It is quite rare to see a wanton noodles stall with congee, so we got ourselves a bowl to try. There were two flavours; the century egg version (which we got) and the meatballs with vegetable version which should be interesting.

 皮蛋艘肉粥 (century egg congee) @$4

The texture of the congee was good as I preferred it not to be too overly smooth. Generous portion of ingredients but I did not put in any soy nor sesame oil. Should've added some to lift up the flavours (体味) as Mrs Fong （方太） always said it. I liked watching 方太美食廣場 when I was in my teens.

The flavours of Master Tang's congee is just like those that we eat in Hong Kong restaurants and tasted healthy without any extra condiments except spring onions. Lovely.

Will go back for the chicken feet!