Ocean King

Aragorn was the kind of noble character you’d love to have rule. Fair, courageous, wise and ruggedly good looking (Viggo Mortensen’s portrayal superb). This Ocean King dictates you in a different way, your local Chinese restaurant serving yum cha to supper til 2am. Yum cha is decent here, a good selection of dim sum.

Better is dinner, the menu littered with a variety of Chinese and Cantonese choices. One night, we tried the herb pork chops, simply prepared in a heavy soy/rosemary marinade and pan fried. Taste of the sea was the Chinese water spinach steamed with salty egg and 1000 year old egg. Soft slices of stir fried beef in a thick wasabi paste were an unusual but pleasant discovery. Those horseradish vapours provide sting and clears the nasal passages. Scallop and vegetables standard, stir fried with spring oil and garlic as was the chicken mushroom hotpot.

Another notch is raised at around 10pm when the supper menu becomes available (congee, soup noodles, fried noodles and rice), making this place the perfect foil for a night out where you chew the fat and food til late. Pick up some roast meat, the duck here extremely flavoured and spiced. Recommend the roast pork and bean curd on fried rice (W has a monopoly on this), its hot pot equivalent, black bean beef on crispy fried noodles and the spicy salt squid. And most of the chef’s specials. To rule, versatility and the ability to meet the people’s demands at any time of day is required. Ocean King delivers.

3 / 5 yums!

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Where? 69-71 Kingsway, Glen Waverley

What? Yum cha, average $17 per person, Average mains $16-20, Average Supper - $10

Left to Right : dim sum, herb pork chops, Chinese water spinach, Wasabi beef, Scallops and vegetables, Chicken Hotpot, Roast pork and bean curd rice, Squid with spicy salt, Black bean beef on crispy fried noodles, Roast duck, Fried rice, Roast pork and bean curd hotpot, won ton noodle soup