The place isn't aesthetically the nicest local spot for a Chinese/Vietnamese bite around this side of town, feels very casual, a little dark, located on the always busy-Burke road, and the acoustics make it seem like there's a crowd yelling when there was only a few other full tables chatting modestly, but our general rule with Asian food in Melbourne is to not give a stuff about any of that as long as the food delivers. It does.
The hefty menu (literally, it seems to be laminated with lead) is complimented with a large array of specials scribbled all over the walls, which keeps things interesting.
They were trialing a chicken satay roti, which we've found at only a few other places ever, so that was a must order. At those other places this dish is as it sounds - chicken from a satay skewer wrapped in roti- but here they've made it into a wrap with some salad. Very nice, but a heads up that it's very filling for an entree!
We also had the pork dumplings which were nicely done, the calamari which was close to perfectly cooked, and the lamb curry which was mild on spice but very tasty nonetheless.
We got chastised for not being able to finish it all from the cheeky wait-staff, but was all in good fun. Our first visit there but the rest of those eating in seemed to be regulars who the staff were all familiar with, which always tells you a lot about a place. read more