Posts Tagged ‘cheap eats’
May 7, 2009 | 
Author Pacific BBQ & Cafe
213 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 3000
03 9663 9288
I’ve been meaning to blog this place for ages, but it always looks so good that I ate it before I had a chance to take photos. Finally, I was disciplined enough to take a photo first! And what I lovely photo! It makes my mouth water just looking at this. Pacific BBQ place is famous for its roast meat, so if you don’t know what to eat, you must try their Roast & BBQ selection. Mixed roast on dry egg noodles ($11) is a combination of two chinese roast meat (BBQ pork, Roast duck, soya chicken or roast pork) with noodles or rice. I chose dry egg noodles which is heavenly, its texture firm, almost like the ones in Hong Kong. For the roast I chose Roast duck and soya chicken. The roast duck is beautiful, although a bit fatty. The soya chicken tasted nice but the meat is a bit tough, possibly because of the part of the chicken that was on offer. You can specifically ask for chicken maryland thighs for an extra $1.5
I’ve had quite a number of chinese broccoli w/ garlic $15 in different chinese cafes, but most of the vegies are too oily, salty or the vegetable is quite old and tough. This one is not as oily but it’s nothing special, some of the stalks are quite tough.
This is the baked curry beef brisket on rice $12. This is really flavoursome and cheesy- yes, cheesy!! Somehow baked cheese works with beef brisket curry. The beef brisket is very tender, it was so hard for me to have a bit of Hubby’s cos he’s guarding it like a hawk.
The food is good, service and delivery is fast, just make sure that you don’t go there during peak hour as it gets extremely busy! 7/10
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Chatterbox
Shop 18, 235 Bourke St Tivoli Arcade, Melbourne
(03) 9663 2588
It takes a Melbournite in the know, or a Bourke St RMIT student to know how to find this hawker-style Singapore/Malaysian haunt. I’ve been there quite a number of times since Herbie brought me here and have always, always had their legendary Laksa $8.3.
This is probably one of the best Laksa in Melbourne city. I love starting my laksa by smelling and tasting the soup. The soup is fragrant, the broth has the right balance of coconutiness with a slight hint of chilli. I would like a bit more chilli in this and for the soup to be just slightly thicker, but this soup is almost perfect.
The ingrediants are just as yummie- with fish cakes, puffy tofu that absorbs all the flavours of the soup, the succulent chicken, and char siu (BBQ pork). I would like to highlight that Char Siu (BBQ Pork) in Laksa is rare in Melb, and if it does appear in Laksa, it’s normally flavourless, tough and tasted a bit old. But this, THIS particular Char Siu in Chatterbox still retains its Char Siu flavour, it’s tenderness and it’s not just an old piece of Char Siu carelessly chucked into the pot because it’s too stale for anything. Beautiful.
I mentioned previously in my Old Town Kopitian blog that my ideal laksa has to have two types of noodles- as you can probably see in here- two types of noodles, Hokkien and rice, cooked to perfection- that’s what I call a Laksa!
Chatterbox also offers other yummie dishes, such has their Hainanese Chicken rice, Randangs etc which I should really try, it’s just that everytime I come here I kept being pulled back onto the Laksa Wagon 
Chatterbox only open for lunches till early evening, 6 days a week, and lunch times are their peak period. So if you don’t want to wait, make sure you get there before 12! 8/10
Pantheon Cakes
483 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
03 9380 4634
Davo’s a cheap eats man, and I soon learnt from him that cheap doesn’t necessarily means nasty. After taking us to his favourite haunt Tibas for Lebanese, he took us across the road to Patheon Cakes for some yummilicious desserts.
The chocolate mud cake, pictured above is $2.5- the price is unbelievable. The quality of the cake is even more unbelievable. Yes, it’s not the best cake in the world, but it’s certainly cafe standard for half the price! The mud cake is rich, but not overly sweet, just the way I like it.
This chocolate porfiterole $2 is sensational- crispy and fluffy on the outside, with chocolate and hazelnut cream on the inside- it was gooooodddddd. It’s like eating a cheaper and yummier version of Baci!
This blackforest cake (Approx $2.5) is also stunning. Once again not too sweet, the cake was light and fluffy, with real bits of juicy cherries inside. It’s a tad bit creamy for my liking, but that’s blackforrest for you!
Can’t wait to go back there again to try other stuff! 8/10
Tibas
504 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
03 9380 8425
OK, bear with me on this post, because I’ve never had Lebanese before so if I’m a bit vague in what each of the dish are, don’t blame me!!! Whilst I don’t know much about Lebanese cuisine, the food is good- REALLY good and it’s cheap too! Five of us ate there, at $15 each. Let’s have a look at the yummie food I ate:-
5 cheese pie ($1 each) and 2 cheese & spinach pies ($3 each)- they are both soft warm and buttery, stuffed with cheesy goodness. Highly recommended!
As you can see, there’s plenty of salads and plenty of food to go around. Each table was also given a giant packet of Lebanese pita bread. On the left, we’ve got the Mixed Grill $16-Lamb cutlet, chicken & lamb shavings, lamb skewers and Lebanese sausage. Everything was so flavousome and yet all the flavours are different. Admittedly the lamb cutlet is a bit overcooked, but the chicken and lamb shavings are very tender. The lamb skewer is made of lamb mince I think and it’s really yummie. Too bad I don’t have much time to slowly savour the flavours because our friend Inhaler basically inhales all the food in two secs! I was actually quite lucky to be able to take the pics for you, after I finish taking each photo, half the dish is gone!
This is the Manager’s Special $20- same type of meat as the Mixed Grill (the mixed grill was only ordered because we needed to make sure Inhaler is full!) On the right is falafel and trio of dips that comes with the Manager’s special. Dips: Hommus is very subtly flavoured with garlic. Babaghannooj- eggplant flavoured dip has a smokey flavour. Cucumber & yoghurt dip is quite similar to Tzatziki.
The falafel is just a deep fried ball of crunchiness, but also very soft on the inside. The side salad is extremely fresh, and if you are wondering what those florecent pink things are, they are actually really yummie pickled turnips. I wrapped everything inside the pita bread and let all the flavours just mix together- YUMMMMMM
We also ordered 2 grilled quail ($5 each)- very tender and full of flavour- I’ve only had chinese quail before, so this is a new one for me.
Chicken wingssss ($2 each) is my favourite! They are so succulent and beautifully spiced. Too bad there are a few burnt bits there but it does add to the charcoaly flavour.
Although Inhaler had most of the food, we were still bellyfull by the end of the meal. We rolled ourselves off our chairs to have dessert across the road- that’ll be on the next post 
With Tibas, I would certainly recommend as one of the best cheap eats- the decor is OK but the service is quite friendly- I would certainly give this place a 9/10 for this cheap and cheerful Lebanese place. Obviously I can’t wait to try a few more Lebanese places to compare!
Dessert House
313 Swanston St, Melbourne
03 9663 2284
If you want something cheap and quick, it’s hard to go past Dessert House. They don’t just do desserts, actually their main focus is Hong Kong-style cafe dishes, an early, cheap and nasty version of Asian Fusion.
I’ve been there quite a number of times and if you are a gourmet foodie, stop reading now. This is nothing grand, it’s more like a Hong Kong style of junk food. Reliable dishes are the Seafood fried rice with XO sauce, chicken and sweet corn with rice, char keow teow and most of the stir fry noodles.
Unreliable dishes includes this one- deep fried chicken wings with chips, side salad and sweet chilli sauce ($7). I would recommend not to eat the limp salad with gooey salad dressing. I would also recommend not to eat the limp, oily fries. I would further recommend you not to eat the greasy wings that’s no longer (or actually was never) crispy. The sauce is alright though! May I just further add that the oil in which they fry this fries and chicken wings must be old, and they must have fried FISH in it, because this chicken wings and fries tasted like fish?
For my mains I ordered a baked mixed and match rice ($11.30). You may be wondering what mix and match rice is. The concept is simple. It’s like those fashion mag that features 6 key pieces of clothing and you mix and match to get 20 new looks.
Choose 1 meat: Chicken/beef/ pork fillet
Choose 2 sauce: Black pepper/ White/ tomato/Portuguese
Choose 1 carb: Rice/fried rice/ Spaghetti
I chose baked chicken fillet with black pepper & Portuguese sauce on fried rice. The portuguese sauce is quite nice, very creamy with a hint of curry, whilst the black pepper sauce seemed a bit overcooked and turned into a blob of black goo. The chicken fillet is huge and hubby and to eat half of mine. The fried rice underneath is nothing special, just plain rice with oil and bits of egg.
Really, there’s not much expectation that this cafe will serve top notch anything, but if you want a cheap and quick meal, this is a right choice for you.
Thai Culinary
433 Elizabeth St, Melbourne
I was going to brag that I’ve found one of the best Thai delivery around Melb CBD, but alas, at the time of writing this blog I had a so-so delivery from Thai Culinary. Now I’ve eaten there about 5-7 times and they have been mostly impressive, so I will review it in general.
The one thing that impresses me most is when you ask for extra hot- they give you EXTRA HOT and even I had to drown my meal down with soy milk. This is one good Thai restaurant where, whilst it gives you the hot hot chilli kick, it doesn’t lose the beautiful flavours that comes with the Thai culinary territory.
They do pretty generous servings, however, they have been sneakily upping their prices every time we order. Delivery is free of chrage in Melb CBD when the order is $25 or over.
Special recommendations: Thai green curry (chicken) and Stir fry Thai noodles with basil and chilli (Pad Kee Mao).