Review - Red House Asian Kitchen

Red House Asian Kitchen
1389 Ferntree Gully Road
Scoresby
Victoria

Cuisine: Asian
Taste Rating: 7.5/10   Value Rating: 7.5/10

Visits:
Sat, 23 Feb 2013
Sat, 23 Mar 2013

Sat, 23 Feb 2013

Red House Asian Kitchen opened on 8 Feb 2013. It is a welcome addition to this shopping strip in Scoresby. Nearby are Cinta Raya Malaysian restaurant and Shirley's Asian Grocery, a good-sized grocery shop. There is parking at the front and the back of the restaurant, or further along the shopping strip.

Front of Red House Asian Kitchen

Red House specialises in Asian-style meats like roast duck, roast pork belly, BBQ pork, soya sauce chicken and marinated cuttlefish.  The menu also has a large variety of dishes, as well as special dishes on the wall written in Mandarin.  

Meat Menu above Counter

Ducks, Pork Belly
Photo courtesy of Daniel from Red House.

Roast Duck

Photo courtesy of Daniel from Red House.

Opening the door as we arrived for dinner, I expected the place to be quiet as it had opened just two weeks ago.  Surprise! The restaurant was bustling with wall to wall diners. While we were there, most of the diners were Asians - this is what most people use to judge the quality of an Asian restaurant. So far so good.

One of the owners, Simon was managing front of house. We were served by friendly and helpful Daniel, who I assumed is the head waiter.  We were told that the chef used to work for one of the upper end restaurants at Crown Entertainment Complex. From the A La Carte menu, we ordered Peking Duck pancakes, Lamb Spring Rolls and Special Fried Rice. From the special dishes on the wall menu, we ordered Lamb Spare Ribs Hotpot, and Yellow Chives with Calamari, Octopus and Vegetables.

The dining area is not huge. The tables are arranged in such a way that you may find yourself zig-zagging if you want to walk from one end to another. There was a good number of waiters working that night. They seemed to do a good job navigating around the tables. The service was good and quick. 

So what was the food like? The Peking Duck is made with roast duck, as is the case with most Chinese restaurants, unless you go to a restaurant that specialises in Peking Duck. Red House specialises in roast duck and I must say the duck tastes nice here - lean juicy meat, with glistening reddish caramel duck skin. For those who like duck fat, there is a sweet layer of duck fat under the skin. I don't like fat so I remove it. The pancakes were assembled in the kitchen, not at the table.

Peking Duck pancakes

The Lamb Spring Rolls were interesting - I have never come across lamb in a spring roll before. The spring roll skin was crispy. The lamb was minced and had a slightly spicy flavour, possibly of cumin. The filling was slightly oily, with a fair bit of juice. The taste was quite nice - it reminded me of lamb souvlaki!  

The Lamb Hot Pot gravy has a nice rich flavour, although it is a bit salty. The lamb is very tender, yet retains its flavour without leaching it into the gravy. It does not have a strong gamey taste, which is how I like it. The only negative for me is that there are thin layers of fat between the meat. I can't stand any fat in meat, however other people will likely find these thin layers of fat add to the character of the dish. This hotpot comes with a side bowl of chilli oil, which tastes similar to that for Shanghai dumplings.

Yellow chives with calamari, octopus strips, snow peas, carrots, celery and button mushrooms. The calamari was tender and the octopus had a nice chewy texture. The flavours are nice. Compared to the other dishes, this was a bit on the pricey side at $25.80  for the ingredients.  The overall look and feel of the dish is messy with small pieces of vegetables overshadowed by the larger pieces . The button mushrooms are out of place in a Chinese dish.

The Special Fried Rice is nice. There is a good amount of egg which I always look for in a fried rice. The prawns are larger than normal for SFR. The BBQ pork is nice. 

Overall, we were happy with the meal and the friendly service. There is a good variety of dishes on the Red House Asian Kitchen menu, better than the average restaurant in the suburbs. We would like to try the other dishes here.

Sat, 23 Mar 2013

We went for a second visit to Red House, this time for lunch. It was a larger group of 16 people. Our two tables were tucked into the back corner. The place was busy. Service was prompt and friendly. The food lived up to expectations, with positive comments from the group. We ordered double serves of each of the following main dishes, and 4 serves of the dessert red bean pancake, as photographed.

 Assorted BBQ Platter (3 choices) of 

Soya Sauce Chicken, BBQ Pork and Roast Duck. 

Assorted BBQ Platter  (another view)

This is a good way to try the roast meats at this place. The duck was nice as before. The soya sauce chicken was good too. As I don't like fatty meat, the BBQ Pork didn't appeal to me as much.

Enoki Mushrooms and Dried Scallops with Spinach.

I liked this vegetable dish.  Nice flavours, nice texture. The spinach was fresh and easy to eat. The enoki and dried scallop provided a nice contrast in texture. 

Pan-fried Pi-pa Beancurd

This minced beancurd dish is good. Nice size, tasty and not obviously oily. Watch out when you bite in as the tofu is piping hot! I don't like the Chinese sausage mixed in with the tofu mince but this is a personal preference as others like this ingredient. Pipa is a Chinese musical instrument. I like how this dish is made by using a Chinese soup spoon to shape the tofu mince into a pipa shape before steaming and frying.

King Prawns (in shell) coated with salted egg yolk.

I liked this prawn dish. The egg yolk batter is tasty. You can order this dish with or without prawn shells. Having tried this with prawn shells on, next time I might try it with prawn shells off, just to see which one I prefer.

Pork Belly with Taro in Hotpot

A nice dish enjoyed by most people at our tables. Again my dislike of fat pork meant I only tried a bit of the lean part of the pork, and more of the yam slices and the rich gravy. 

Red Bean Pancake

Red Bean Pancake (Close up)

We didn't ask how big a serve of red bean pancake was, before ordering four serves. It turned out that each serve was cut into 16 pieces! So we had plenty to share. The pancake is oily but nice. Indulge and feel guilty at the end of the meal!

Oranges to finish the meal

Complimentary oranges at the end of the meal, which is a nice touch from Chinese restaurants. It used to be more common but not many places do this nowadays.  

Front part of the dining room. Lunch is over and the other tables have been reset. 

Menu

Review - Chilli Cafe

Chilli Cafe
168 Russell St
Melbourne

Cuisine: Thai
Taste Rating: 7.5/10   Value Rating: 7.5/10

Latest Visits
Fri, 25th Jan 2013
Fri, 24th Aug 2012

I've been to Chilli Cafe several times over the years.  The latest was with three friends for lunch.

The red curry is the favourite of a couple of friends and that is what they order every visit, without looking at the menu. I like to try different dishes so have to check the menu or the Specials board every time.

On the whole, this is a great place for curries at an affordable price. It is very popular with office workers on their lunch break. The narrow dining area is always full at lunch times, with a queue frequently forming in the middle to order. We make it a point to get here early to get a table.

Fri, 25th Jan 2013

3 Curries and 1 Noodle Dish

Penang Beef Curry

The menu said "Beef cooked in red dry curry & coconut milk". I was expecting a drier rendang type curry. However, there was a fair amount of gravy. The gravy did have the peanutty taste of rendang and was quite nice. The beef slices on top looked a bit dry but on the whole was tender enough. 

Beef Noodles

The menu said "Stir fried noodles topped with mince beef in tomato based sauce". This was a surprise find on the menu. "Beautiful" was the feedback from the friend who ordered this. There was a generous amount of ingredients, including beef slices and not minced beef, and kway teow noodles. The sauce was a tasty tomato sauce-based gravy. The fresh red chillies was a request. I said this was a surprise find for two reasons.  One, it was a tasty noodle dish in a place where we normally order curries. Two, it was very similar to a local dish in Sarawak, Malaysia called "tomato sauce noodles". The only negative feedback was that there was an oily aftertaste, even though the noodles were not oily while eating but this did not spoil the dish.

Red Curry Chicken

The menu said "Chicken cooked in red curry with vegetables". Feedback from friends who have this dish every time. Tasty but today the curry is "saltier than normal". I tried a piece of the chicken and it was tender enough, in a nice red curry sauce.

Always a queue in the middle at lunch times

Fri, 24th Aug 2012

 Chilli Cafe entrance

Specials Board

Order Counter

Add more Spice with Chillies

Red Curry Chicken

Green Curry Seafood

The Queue at lunch time

Review - Kitchen Inn

Fri, 19th Oct 2012 (visit #1)
Sat, 20th Oct 2012 (visit #2)

Kitchen Inn
469 Elizabeth St
Melbourne

Cuisine: Sarawak (Malaysian)
Taste Rating: 7.5/10   Value Rating: 8/10

Kitchen Inn opened on 18th Oct 2012. The cuisine served here is particular to a state in East Malaysia called Sarawak, located on the island of Borneo. Sarawak has a colourful history, being ruled by the White Rajahs in its early years.  Sarawak has rainforest, orang utans, diverse ethnic groups as well as large Chinese and Malay populations. The Kitchen Inn menu has dishes popular in two Sarawakian cities, Kuching the capital of Sarawak, and Sibu. The owners of Kitchen Inn hail from Sibu; there is another Kitchen Inn in Perth, also run by the same family, I've been informed. 

So on to the food at Kitchen Inn. The focus is on dishes of Chinese origin. Kolo Mee and Sarawak Laksa are popular in Kuching, where Hokkien is a common Chinese dialect. Kampua Mee is popular in Sibu, where Foochow is a commonly spoken Chinese dialect. There is also Penang style Fried Kuey Teow, from an island state in West Malaysia.

Fri, 19th Oct 2012 (Visit #1) 

On a glorious Melbourne spring day, I went with two friends for lunch. It was the second day of trading. We were very fortunate as we only waited for about five minutes before a table became available, and we had it to ourselves. A queue formed shortly after and people were waiting for quite a while. There is indoor seating and footpath seating under awnings, and some tables are close enough that they are communal. 

Kitchen Inn

Outdoor Seating

Queue at Lunch time

Interior

 Counter



Mural

We ordered Kolo Mee Special ($11), Sarawak Laksa ($10.90) and Penang Fried Kuey Teow ($8.90).  For the first three days of trading, select free drinks are included with the Kolo Mee and Sarawak Laksa - we had Iced Kopi and Iced Lemon Tea.

The Kolo Mee was good. I am relieved as this is the main reason I came to this restaurant. The noodles sat in a small amount of light sauce for you to mix in - this had the right amount of savouriness and slight sweetness, and was not as oily as would be the case in its country of origin which suits me just fine. What would have lifted the taste even more would be some cut chillies in a vinegar sauce - this is not available but there is a jar of sambal chilli on each table for adding to other dishes.  The noodle texture was good. If they can do a more skinny and curly noodle, this would be sublime! Sitting on top was a generous serve of minced pork which tasted great; the marinade is sweet so those who don't like sweet-tasting meats may not like this. There were also slices of lean char siu (BBQ pork). The Kolo Mee Special comes with 3 medium-sized prawns - this is the only point of difference with the regular Kolo Mee ($8.50). The prawns didn't particularly stand out in taste and it is debatable if the extra $2.50 is worth it. But this is detracting from my enjoyment of the Kolo Mee! If nothing else, I will go back for the Kolo Mee. And I like the traditional looking cockerel bowl that it is served in.

Kolo Mee Special

Cockerel Bowl

The Sarawak Laksa was another reason I came along to try this restaurant. The first impression was good. It had the right scent of Sarawak laksa. But on tucking in, I find the gravy was weaker than I would have liked. It was a generous serve with the gravy filling most of the large bowl. This dish could be tweaked by making the gravy less diluted thereby concentrating the savoury taste. If cost is an issue, there does not need to be so much gravy in the bowl - less is more, i.e., less amount but more concentrated. Interestingly, the gravy on the first visit had a heavier layer of oil on top than the one on the second visit. I always spoon aside the layer of oil in any soups. One thing that jumps out are these ingredients on top - half a hard boiled egg and three generous fried tofu pillows; these are not typical of Sarawak Laksa and are more typical of Curry Laksas such as those found in West Malaysia and Singapore. The noodles were vermicelli noodles.  Other ingredients are prawns and fish cake. Another surprise ingredient is char siu slices (BBQ pork) which are not normally found in Sarawak Laksa. Missing are strips of omelette and chicken which are typically found in this laksa, and a half Asian lime with a dash of sambal belachan. Overall, the taste could be stronger, the serve of noodles/toppings/gravy is generous, the price is reasonable.

Sarawak Laksa

Kolo Mee Special, Sarawak Laksa

Next is the Penang Fried Kuey Teow. There are various spellings for this dish, including Kuay Teow or Kway Teow. The friends I was with really liked this dish and though not from an Asian background, they have tried many Char Kuey Teows (CKTs) over the years. The rice noodle is skinnier than in the usual CKTs. There are good amounts of prawns, fish cake, egg and clams. The chilli heat seemed to be light on the first visit and about medium on the second visit. What I didn't really like is the taste of pork fat in the noodles. Pork lard or fried croutons of pork fat are found in authentic CKTs so the purists wouldn't complain but it is not for me. The Kolo Mee might have pork fat as well in the mixing oil, but I am prepared to ignore this one!

Penang Fried Kuey Teow

The gesture of complimentary iced drinks is appreciated. The Iced Kopi was not bad. But I didn't like the Iced Lemon Tea - it tasted too much like cordial. The Chinese tea is complimentary. Tea was commonly free in Chinese restaurants but in the last few years, many restaurants have started charging for them.

Iced Kopi, Iced Lemon Tea

Place is so new that tea cups still have barcodes on them!

  

As far as I know, Kitchen Inn is the first restaurant to serve Kolo Mee in Melbourne (happy to be corrected on this!). Looking around on both my visits there, many tables had ordered this dish. The other popular dishes were Sarawak Laksa and the Kampua Mee. There are variations of Sarawak Laksa in Melbourne but it is hard to get the same flavours as in its place of origin. For example, Laksa Bar in Melbourne has East Malaysian Laksa - while this is a great dish in its own right, it is not Sarawak Laksa.

The food and drink prices are reasonable. While the Perth prices seem to be cheaper, the Melbourne prices are still not bad. $8.50 for a Kolo Mee is great. The Sarawak Laksa is a large serve, for example. I hear that on being queried why the tofu in the Perth Sarawak Laksa is smaller than the Melbourne Sarawak laksa, the Kitchen Inn owner in Perth replied that the Melbourne people pay more so get bigger tofu. That is funny!

The staff seemed to be doing a good job on the whole, for a business in its first days of trading and coping with a hungry, curious crowd.  These are the dry stats on my first visit (as logged in the timestamps on my photos) which shows we had a good run with the service:

12.20pm  Arrive at Kitchen Inn
12.25pm  Table available
12.30pm  Ordered
12.32pm  Iced Kopi, Iced Lemon Tea served
12.43pm  Sarawak Laksa served
12.47pm  Kolo Mee served
1.02pm    Penang Kuey Teow served 

Sat, 20th Oct 2012  (Visit #2)

I have written heaps now so will just give a quick description of visit #2. This time, there were four of us.  Again, we were fortunate to get a table immediately upon arrival at about 2.20pm, with a short queue forming later. People coming in even though it was late is a good sign for their business. We ordered 2 x Kolo Mee ($8.50), Sarawak Laksa ($10.90), Penang Fried Kuey Teow and Foochow Fried Hand made Noodle - Dry style($8.90). Five dishes for four of us, including two Kolo Mees. You can tell I like the Kolo Mee! This time I ordered the regular one without the prawns. Tastes just as nice as the one I had the day before. The Foochow noodle dish was not bad. Easy to eat, nice sauce, good ingredients. I can't speak for the authenticity but I will be happy to order this again. 

For drinks, we ordered Teh C Special but they were out of this. We also had complimentary Iced Milo and Iced Lemon Tea as part of the opening promotion mentioned earlier. I had the Iced Milo. They ran out of ice for the second Iced Milo but it was chilled so tasted okay.

Kolo Mee



 Sarawak Laksa - gravy has less oil today

Penang Fried Kuey Teow

Foochow Fried Hand made Noodles - Dry style

 The Menu