[Melbourne 2022] Ling Nan Restaurant 国利酒家 @ Lonsdale St

Was there for supper after our Harry Potter show at Princess Theatre. The show was from 7pm to 1030pm, and we walked from Spring St to Lonsdale St thereafter.

The restaurant was surprisingly bustling with activities. We got a table and observed what the rest were having. Porridge looked good, as well as clams.

Clams cooked in XO Sauce

Our order arrived within minutes. Chef must have mad wok skills here! The clams tasted good and it was pretty spicy!

We discovered that the porridge here comes in 2 sizes. Small or large. The staff informed us that small has 2 servings while large will yield around 6 serves. We decided to go with small, and was amused when the youtiao 油条 (fried cruellers) is of a large plate.

Chinese Donut

Beef Porridge

Am happy with the beef porridge. Well cooked grains, flavourful, smooth and enjoyable with tender beef slices. Yums! To elevate the porridge, simply drizzle a bit of the XO sauce from the clams dish. Double yums!

We had a plate of morning glory as well done ala stir fried with fermented beancurd sauce. But beware as there was plenty of cut chilies thrown in there as well. Fiery!

tofu with salted fish

The tofu with salted fish dish was good with rice. Every bite makes you want to take another and another...

The best dish for the night, was deep fried pork spare ribs with salt and chili. Tender meat fried till golden brown, seasoned perfectly and just lips smacking good.

Deep Fried Pork Spare Ribs with Salt and Chilies

Service staff was efficient and they were helpful in clearing off the bowl with clam shells, even without us asking. Our tea was also regularly topped up.

Busy place, nice staff and good food. We spent around AUD150 for our supper. We were there for only 45 minutes...  Payment at the counter, after your meal.

Ling Nan Restaurant 国利酒家

Address: 207 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Contact: +61 435 954 828

Business Hours:

Closed on Tues.

Mon - Sun:  5pm–1:30am

[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

[Melbourne 2022] Moons Licensed Espresso Bar @ Lorne (On Our Way to Twelve Apostles - The Great Ocean Road Trip)

It was the day of the Great Ocean Road drive adventure and it'll take us an approximate of about 4 hours if we drove all the way from Mornington Peninsula. Took the Sorrento-Portsea ferry to Queenscliff with our car so that we get a head-start to the Great Ocean Road drive. This cuts down our driving time to just under 2 hours. The ferry costs about AUD117 per car with 1 driver and 3 passengers. There was an online discount of AUD5.

The morning ferry ride was nice, with awesome views. We made a late lunch stop at Lorne before going all the way to Twelve Apostles.

Moons Espresso Bar

Reached Lorne at about 1pm and, I was quite hungry since our breakfast was kinda early at 9am on the ferry.  Chose the outdoor seats to enjoy the cold weather. Opted for a mocha and we decided to order brunch things from this cafe.

Mocha by Coffee Supreme @AUD5 (regular)

The mocha here was good. With latte art and thick foam. In fact, they had the thickest foam I've ever had from a mocha.

thicc

For food, we ordered the Bacon, Avo and Eggs, and some flatbreads. The visuals for these were impeccable!

Bacon, Avo and Eggs @AUD26

flowy eggs ftw

While I was awed by the visuals of the Bacon, Avo and Eggs, I realised that the pide had better flavours!

Reuben @AUD17

When I first saw the Reuben, my thoughts were "This doesn't look like a Reuben!". Like, the Reuben's that I had before, their pastrami doesn't look like the ones served at Moons. The version here looked more like a ham sandwich. But once I had this in my mouth, oh wow... it was like an explosion of flavours. The combination of sauerkraut, dijonaise sauce, pickles, cheese and pastrami, everything in there was just great. Tasty food, I like.

B&E @AUD16.50

The next flatbread we had was another Bacon and Egg (B&E). Hahaa! A sunny side up here instead of poached. Salty bacon, cheese and egg. What's there not to like?

yummy bacon and eggs pide

The staff at Moons were friendly and nice. Thank you for the awesome food, good coffee and clean washroom.

We walked a bit around the area after satisfying our tummies and there's a Selfie Lane, that's aptly named as it looked like the backdrop for a... selfie, what else! Hahaa!

Selfie Lane

nature came to visit

Moons Licensed Espresso Bar

Address: 108 Mountjoy Parade, Lorne VIC 3232, Australia

Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moons-Licensed-Espresso-Bar/151388288234772

Business Hours:

Daily: 7AM–2:30PM

[Melbourne 2022] Kitchen 8 Hastings @ Salmon Street

We were done with sightseeing for the day and was looking for a lunch place. We would also be doing some meat shopping for a grilled dinner later on. Therefore, Tracy and Hence Googled and found Kitchen 8 Hastings. From the name itself, am not sure what food it serves.

shopfront

menu

Seems like this place serves Cambodian/Chinese/Vietnamese home-style foods. Ahh, I've never had Cambodian food before.

We were there pretty late at 1.30pm, so we placed our orders quickly. I'll be having a bite from what the rest ordered. Because I don't think I can finish a whole bowl of pho on my own plus am not sure how big a serve would be at this place.

pot of tea (jasmine) @AUD3.50

The food was served pretty quickly after ordering. There weren't a lot of other customers at that late hour as well.

Beef Pho with sliced beef and beef balls @AUD14.50

a squeeze of lemon and let's eat

let's eat!

There's nothing more comforting on a cool day than a hot bowl of hearty pho. Granted the soup here didn't have enough depth, it was still nice to satisfy the hungry tummies. The noodles were cooked just right, as it was not too soft nor too hard.

Prawn Rice Paper Rolls @AUD7.50 (2 rolls)

The paper rolls were served with peanut sauce so that was interesting. Clean tasting on its own, so I had a bite of it with the chili sauce (sweet vinaigrette) served with the Crispy Chicken Red Rice dish.

Crispy Chicken with Red Rice @AUD14.50

Is the red rice from the tomato sauce used? But then, it doesn't have a strong tomato-ey taste. Hmm, it tasted like fried rice without any particular aromatics in it. The chicken was well fried and tasted good with the chili sauce.

Matt's Special (Spicy Hot) @AUD17.50

Ivan had the Matt's Special which had beef and wanton dumplings in it. I must say, the dumplings were good. It was plump and meaty. The soup for the special, wasn't that spicy actually. Tasted similar  to the beef pho soup with dashes of chili oil.

I asked the owner, like who is this mysterious Matt in the menu. Turns out, these dishes were frequently requested off the menu by their regulars, so much so that it appeared in the menu with the guest name! Hahaa, I see. Nice to know such information. =)

Kitchen 8 Hastings

Address: 8/145 Salmon St, Hastings VIC 3915, Australia

Website: https://www.facebook.com/Kitchen8Hastings

Business Hours:

Closed on Sat.

Sun: 9.30am to 2.30pm

Mon-Wed: 10.00am to 3.00pm

Thu-Fri: 10am–2:30pm, 4–7pm

[Melbourne 2022] Pt. Leo Estate @ Mornington Peninsula

We popped by this winery on a wet rainy day. We had breakfast at Peninsula Pantry, then went up to Arthur's Seat to view some sceneries before making our way to Pt. Leo Estate for some wine.

First impression of Pt. Leo Estate, is that it is huge. Love the space.

iconic doorway

King Bottle Tree

We headed to the Cellar Door to sample some wine. Opted for the Premium Wine Tasting for the 4 of us.

Premium Wine Tasting @ AUD20 per pax

view from my seat

METHODÉ TRADITIONNELLE SPARKLING 2018 @AUD76 per bottle

citrus aromas with bready hints of brioche 

First drink was a blend of Pinot Noir, Clone and Chardonnay. Refreshing and sparkly. Just what we needed.

drink two at one go to compare its taste

Next we had the two Chardonnay's; Chardonnay 2018 and Reserve Chardonnay 2019. Were informed to compare its taste, and thus to sip it one after the other. Not sure why, but after having these two...I thought I had tasted cheese. It was supposed to be curd-like lemon creaminess.

Next, we had the Pinot Noir. Yay!

Pinot Noir 2018

Medium bodied and tasted of ripe berries. Just my type of drink. 

cheers~

We bought a bottle of Pinot Noir after that, and had AUD10 discounted off the bottle price. We also bought the tickets to the Sculpture Park to do a bit of walking and photo taking after all the wine. The Sculpture Park is an outdoor gallery within 330 acres of landscaped grounds.

let's go

map of the sculpture park

hope it doesn't rain

Luke 2008 (Cragg’s Rational Beings series)

benches around the park to rest your feet

Big Boy 2016 (Zadok Ben-David)

Big Boy 2016

Laura 2013 (Jaume Plensa)

travelling buddies

DRUMMER 1996 (Barry Flanagan)

perspective on sculpture's size

Share 2020 (KAWS)

It was a nice outing to Pt. Leo Estate. The stroll in the park was nice and luckily, it did not rain while we were outdoors.

Pt. Leo Estate

Address: 3649 Frankston - Flinders Rd, Merricks VIC 3916, Australia

Website: https://www.ptleoestate.com.au/

Business Hours:

Mon-Fri: 11am–5pm

Sat-Sun:  11am–9:30pm