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 - Aloi Na!

Monday, 27th Feb 2012


Aloi Na
61 Hardware Lane 
Melbourne

Cuisine: Thai, Asian


Taste Rating: 7/10   Value Rating: 7/10

It was a drizzly and humid day with a maximum temperature of 30 deg C. High humidity is not the norm in Melbourne where summers are very hot but tend to be dry. We were in Hardware Lane  looking for a place to have lunch.

Hardware Lane has a stretch of restaurants which sit shoulder to shoulder. Most of the restaurants here have outdoor as well as indoor dining.  A common sight is  city workers lunching under the outdoor umbrellas or awnings. Several restaurants have spruikers in the lane touting for business from pedestrians.

We walked down Hardware Lane and popped our heads into a few restaurants while trying to pick a restaurant. For some reason, most of the restaurants were uncomfortably hot inside. Were they caught unawares with the hot humid weather or did the air-conditioning in Hardware Lane break down en masse? 

We finally decided on Aloi Na, for no particular reason. The restaurant was stifling inside so we picked a table under the outside umbrellas. The wait staff were dressed in black uniforms and seemed lethargic, presumably due to the heat. Our waiter had sweat running down his face! Overall service was slow, especially when it came time to pay as no one could be found at the cash register and after waiting a long time, I finally had to go and look for someone to take our payment. Was it because it was a Monday? Our waiter, however, was helpful enough when required during the meal.

The menu consists of Thai dishes but also has Indonesian, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian and Chinese dishes. There is the risk of an identity crisis with too diverse a range in a small menu. Or it could be a good attempt to please as many people as possible!

We ordered  Lamb Lemongrass with Jasmine Rice and Thai Fried Rice with Chicken.

The Lamb Lemongrass was tasty. The sauce had a medium chilli hotness. The lemongrass flavour was too subtle, however. You could only taste the lemongrass if you actually bit into a piece of the lemongrass. 

The Thai Fried Rice was not savoury enough for a Thai dish. There were big slices of chicken which were good. However, the vegetables were cut too chunky for a fried rice, with big pieces of carrots. You could get away with slices of meat but big crunchy pieces of vegetables sit oddly in a fried rice. The slices of cucumber and tomatoes as garnishes at the side were okay.

Overall, the dishes we ordered would be more suited to someone looking for a more Westernised taste. So while the prices were not overly expensive for a restaurant meal, you would feel let down if you were after a more authentic Thai taste. To be fair, we have tried only two dishes and the menu does have other Thai dishes. Then there are the dishes from other countries, as well, if that is your preference.

Hardware Lane

Aloi Na!

Lunch Menu

Page 1

Page 2

Lamb Lemongrass with Jasmine Rice

Thai Fried Rice with Chicken

Window looking into Aloi Na!



Review - Rock The Wok

Tuesday, 17th July 2012


Rock The Wok
Shop TG08,
Goldsbrough Lane,
Melbourne

Cuisine: Thai


Taste Rating: 7.5/10   Value Rating: 7.5/10

Last Tuesday, we went to Roll'd. Today we had lunch two doors away at Rock The Wok. It was before 12.30pm when we arrived. The queue at Roll'd was stretching out the door. The queue at RTW was shorter and that was the deciding factor.

I had been to RTW some months ago and remember ordering the Pad Thai Noodle. It wasn't a memorable dish! However, I decided to give RTW another go. This time I went for the ABC option (see photo). A is choose your main ingredient - chicken, beef, tofu, veggies or seafood. B is choose your rice or noodle type - steamed rice, fried rice, Hokkien noodles, flat rice noodles or thin egg noodles. C is choose your flavours - including basil & chilli, green curry, panang curry, tom yum, satay or sweet & sour (see photo for complete list). Oh, and you can specify the level of spiciness - mild, medium, hot or no chilli at all. There are also gluten free options.

We ordered two dishes. Chicken, Steamed Rice, Green Curry, mild spiciness. Beef, Flat Rice Noodles, Basil & Chilli, medium spiciness.

The seating was typical of this eating strip. Outdoor table on the footpath outside the shop. Today, I felt the cold air more than last Tuesday. It was windy and for some reason, the overhead heating didn't seem to be warm at all.

So what was the food like? The green curry gravy was delicously creamy with coconut milk or cream. The chicken was boneless thigh meat which was not my favourite as I prefer breast fillet strips or tenderloin, but it is quite common in traditional Asian curries to use the different cuts of chicken, even with the bone left in which makes it extra nutritious. No complaints about the vegetables in the green curry - green beans, carrot strips, broccoli and still crunchy red and green capsicum.  In a nice touch, there were also cubes of pumpkin which went very well with the creamy green curry gravy. 

The beef noodles had a nice blend of flavours, including a touch of fish sauce (I believe). The medium level chilli added a nice spiciness. The flat rice noodles make it more of a Thai dish than the Hokkien or thin egg noodles would have. I liked the thinly sliced lean beef, and there was a generous amount of this.

Overall, I won't call these dishes authentic Thai food. It is fast food which will appeal to the middle ground somewhere between the Western palate and the Asian palate. You can use the 3 Step customisation process to design your meal to be more Western or Asian! There are other dishes in the non-customable section of the menu which I have yet to try and these do seem more authentic Thai.

ABC of  Ordering

- Customise your Meal

 Other dishes on the Menu

Dining on the Footpath

Chicken Green Curry

Beef Rice Noodles