Wonton House Secret Kitchen, Glen Waverley

It’s pretty hard being a secret when your restaurant is smack bang in the middle of Century City walk where you can enjoy crab and be in line for the 9:15 movie session of Bridesmaids. Yes it’s a very open restaurant, where you and your table’s moves and reaction are part of the advertising.



Crab – a meaty specimen, done in the standard ginger and spring onion sauce.



Steamed free range Chicken



Scallops & stir-fried asparagus



Steamed roasted pork with yam and sweet potato, braised to a tender mash.



Kang Kung

The food won’t be so different to the other Chinese restaurants in Glen Waverley, but you will have prime position for a boysenberry choc top.

3 / 5 yums!
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Where? Century City Walk, 285-287 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley, VIC
What? Dishes around $20

Gami Chicken & Beer, Melbourne

The new simple night out presented by Korean styled fried chicken and a keg load of booze. Supported by other classics done well, and some not so classic.



Original fried chicken in it’s own secret recipe of herbs and spices. It’s crispiness as if excessively dabbed with blotting paper, dehydrated and sun baked. Love it.



50/50 plate of flavoured fried chicken with a sweet chilli, and sweet ginger soy sauces.



Beer washes it all down, and makes you forget about the arteries closing over. And about your mum.



Seafood or Kim-chi pancakes - Dense, but pillowy soft with a bit of spring.



Chicken Gizzards – for the initiated.



Simply fried corn and cheese – intense, and probably definitely for the initiated.



Fried Dumplings – rip into the chewy blistered casing.

Putting a new K in KFC.

4.5 / 5 yums!
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Where? 100 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, VIC
What? Plates of chicken around $25-30, rest $10-15, Kegs $30ish

Spice Temple, Melbourne

I was premature in Sydney. In Melbourne I just wanted it to last all night long…

With the success Mr Perry has had lately with his contemporary Rockpool empire you could easily forget that he has a Chinese tongue that has tasted Mongolian beef and probably dismissed as offensive, even for a Chinese Crested-Chihuahua.

You might as well close your eyes in a restaurant setting more suitable for a seedy adult cinema. But visuals are not needed as Mr Perry paints the flavours of China with woks, pots and pans for your eager palate.



Go the banquet if you have at least four, which in a word is delicious.








Mr Perry is ah McCain. You’ve done it again.

4 / 5 yums!
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Where? Crown Entertainment Complex, 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank, VIC
What? Banquet around $90

Tan Lac Vien, Springvale

So we headed away from the St Johns and Windsor Ave part of Springvale and I immediately wanted to reach for a GPS for redirection to the pho and three colour drink that I’m used to.



But the hard pull of a pippies dish with fried Chinese doughnut to soak up the spring onion and chilli spicy gravy was way too good to pass up.



Give the mapo tofu a miss though.



Stir-fry chicken with lemongrass.



Spicy salt and pepper pork ribs: the onion, chilli and garlic garnish will make the tongue tingle. Scrape with rice.

Drop a pin on the map for deliciousness.

3.5 / 5 yums!
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Where? Shop 2, 310 Springvale Rd, Springvale, VIC
What? Dishes $10-15

Baked In, South Melbourne

Pizzas that are somewhere between the old Pizza Hut pan fried and traditional thin crust with toppings that adequately cover the crisp bread base.



Chicken Avocado



Special

3 / 5 yums!
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Where? 187 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, VIC
What? Medium $16, Large $20

Cornershop, Yarraville

Besides the distance to the city and attractive property investment, this smart café would be right up there as a reason for me to move to Yarraville. That’s because I’m a fatty.



Coffee - it’s good, not too light but not strong either.



Baked eggs with smoked trout, potato, dill – healthy can taste good.



Spanish braised beans with paprika on sourdough with chorizo – needs the smoky charred sausage to lift the tomato based sauce.



Spiced braised meatballs with grilled Turkish and parmesan – never fail choice.

I can’t afford to live in the suburb, but I could easily live in this Cornershop.

4 / 5 yums!
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Where? 11 Ballarat Street, Yarraville, VIC
What? Around $15