August 29, 2018 by Davin Lee

Tao’s Restaurant

Tao’s Restaurant is an Asian fusion restaurant located at Bulleen. A great suburb, but I mainly come to Bulleen when I need to fix Helen’s watch. I got her a vintage Omega many years ago, and it’s been nothing but trouble! An Omega watchmaker works from Bulleen, so you could say I know my way around the area by now. Well anyway back to Tao’s Restaurant, these guys were one of the original pioneers of Asian fusion. They were doing Asian fusion before it was cool. Unfortunately time may have caught up with them and it feels as though they’ve been left behind. Over the years, the quality of their food has been on a slow and steady decline…

Helen and I used to love coming to Tao’s on special occasions because they represented a great value to quality ratio. To this day, I still don’t think their prices are too bad, if only they had kept the same quality as the good old days. We came on a weekday which was $48pp for a set menu. It came with a starter, entree, main and even a glass of wine. Normally the price is $78 and you’d get a soup and dessert too, minus the wine. Our last experience wasn’t the best, but we thought we’d give them another chance.

The starter had always been an opportunity for Tao’s to show off their delicacies. On this occasion we got an oyster shot, an oyster in the shell with scallop trims and some Edamame beans. The oyster shot was nice, it was refreshing and a great palate cleanser. The oyster in the shell wasn’t as enjoyable. For whatever reason, there was a lot of onion in there, and that overpowered the oyster. Instead of tasting the sweetness of the oyster, I was tasting the sweetness of the onion! And the Edamame beans… what the hell happened there!?! Was this a classic case of cost cutting? I found it comical that this was presented as one of the starters!

For the entree I got the sashimi, whilst Helen got the pork belly Shabu Shabu. The sashimi was high quality, clean and fresh. The inclusion of the abalone was a pleasant surprise, I guess this made up for the pitiful Edamame beans in the starter. Helen’s pork belly on the other hand was overcooked and tough, total opposite of what you’d expect pork belly to be. My main was probably the most uninspiring of all the courses. My porterhouse came out on a hot stone, which was on a bed of rocks. Presentation was on point, but that was the only positive. I had enough sauce for two steaks, but even then the steak was extremely bland. It tasted like sauce from a packet which had been poured over an unseasoned steak. To add insult to injury, it was also very chewy, and hard to swallow.

Like a Chinese wedding banquet, they always finish off with a fried rice. This fried rice had always been consistent in the past, so I was eager to finish on a high note! To my disappointment even the fried rice was a let down this time. That full flavour, dry scallop punch was missing, hell even the salt was missing! It was closer to the end of plain rice as opposed to fried rice.

I know I’ve been a bit critical in this review, but it’s only because I know what Tao’s Restaurant was capable of in the past. It’s disappointing to them relegated to our mediocre/will not visit again category. I think there’s other similarly priced Asian fusion restaurants these days that offer better quality food, and for this reason, I am unable to pass on my recommendation.

Tao’s Restaurant
Approx $80 AUD per person
Address: 201 Bulleen Rd, Bulleen VIC 3105
Phone: +61 3 9852 0777
Website: http://silk2.org/taos/

June 17, 2018 by Helen Le

Khao by HWKR

I’m generally the one that least craves for Asian food when we go out. It might have to do with the fact that I’ve grown up eating rice my whole life and so when we do head out to eat, I always feel like Western cuisines. I guess it doesn’t explain why Davin still has his cravings every now and then though!

But on this cold night when we were warmly invited by HWKR to try out their new Winter menu, the menu items listed for Khao by HWKR looked appetising indeed for Asian fusion.

The first dish we ordered was the Balinese-style barramundi with jimbaran spiced butter sauce, pickled cucumber, sambal and jasmine rice. We were delighted to see that the fish wasn’t fried but baked, and served on a banana leaf – because everything tastes better when it’s served on a banana leaf!

Anyway we dug into this dish and it was SO good! The lovely spiced butter sauce was subtle but you could taste the heat from it. The fish was cooked to perfection and that sambal! It’s probably one of the best I’ve had. I kept scooping more of that hot sauce onto the fish and rice. The pickled cucumber was very lightly pickled and provided the right coolness you needed to a beautifully well rounded and spicy dish!

The second dish we ordered was the Filipino roasted lamb ribs which came with burnt coconut sauce, pickled cucumber, toasted coconut and jasmine rice. The meat from the ribs literally just fell off the bone. I remember picking up one of the ribs with my hand and before I could do anything the lamb had just fallen onto my plate. It was so tender and soft. The burnt coconut sauce complimented it so well. It wasn’t too overpowering and was more like it’s equal friend in providing the perfect combination of flavours.

In the end we didn’t even know which dish was better. They both provided a burst of spice and flavours that made it so easy to scoff up with the jasmine rice. We couldn’t fault the dishes at all and we will certainly be thinking about this place on another cold night when we feel like something warm and appetising.

Khao by HWKR
Approx $20 AUD per person
Address: 137 A’Beckett St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone: +61 3 9018 7135
Website: www.hwkr.com.au

December 23, 2015May 6, 2018 by Davin Lee

Jimmy and the Wolf Head East

Helen and I were invited to a ‘Beergustation’ dinner at Orient East. This event was named Jimmy and the Wolf Head East. The event consists of an eight course dinner with beer pairings from two breweries, Wolf of the Willows & Brewcult. Their marketing team emailed us and asked if we wanted to come. Even though we’re not huge beer drinkers, we were happy to attend!

(Note: this event was not sponsored, so we did have to pay $65 per person just like everyone else).

Orient East is attached to a hotel. Now restaurants attached to flashy hotels are quite a big thing in Asia and Europe. They are seen as more prestigious and generally offer decent food. Unfortunately in Australia, restaurants attached to nice hotels don’t seem to have the same stigma. We were eager to see if Orient East fell into this same category.

We got there and I must say things weren’t off to a good start at all. They didn’t have our booking! How they can offer us an invitation but not even have our names on the booking is mind boggling. Later they told us that they outsource their marketing to a third party company so there must have been some communication breakdown. All is forgiven as everyone makes mistakes and they did provide good service.

When we were finally settled, we waited a few more minutes for others to join us in the event and we were off! There was a sheet of all the dishes and beers for the night. The menu looked very appetizing indeed and we were mildly excited. I won’t go through all the courses in detail as I don’t want to bore you, however I will make a mention of some of the dishes we really enjoyed.

I was initially a bit concerned as I was worried that since it was Asian fusion and a beer event, that they would tailor the food more towards Caucasians. The fact that they served ox tongue as the second course definitely proved otherwise whilst also earning my respect. This is a very brave dish to serve, and shows that they are willing to venture out to what most would consider ‘the norm’. It certainly tasted better than it looked. The ox tongue was soft and succulent, flavours were spot on. I haven’t had some good ox tongue in a while, this dish was well executed. Other stand out dishes include the golden sand chicken wings and the lamb ribs.

Ox tongue with miso mushroom and black pepper praline

Lamb ribs – Szechuan rub and 5-spice shaobing biscuit

They certainly left the best dish to last though! The dessert was a doughnut with salted duck egg yolk custard. We saw this on the menu and was thinking to ourselves that the ingredients sound like a recipe for disaster. After we took our first bite, Helen and I just looked at each other with our eyes wide open! This could possibly be one of the best desserts we’ve ever had. It’s funny cause we’ve eaten at numerous hatted and Michelin star restaurants overseas, but we were blown away by this dessert because it’s seriously right up there. It had a tinge of saltiness and wasn’t overly sweet at all. It had a golden crispy outer layer and piping hot egg custard oozing out from the inside. My only regret was that the waitress said that all these dishes were a one off for this special event, therefore I am saddened by the fact that I will never get to eat this dessert again. I really wanted to take mum here to try it too.

Beers were spectacular. These craft beers are certainly different from the mainstream stuff. Hearing the guys from Brewcult talk about each of their beers so passionately was a great experience. They explained what tastes to look for and even serving temperatures. Even though we are both primarily wine and whiskey drinkers, we really enjoyed the beers. They were also extremely generous with the portions.

If any of you guys were wanting to taste some nice Asian fusion food, I’d highly recommend Orient East. Even though you won’t get to order the same dishes we had for this event, I’m sure they’ll produce high quality foods for their normal dinner seatings. Alternatively keep an eye out for their next food event and we may even see you there!

Orient East
Approx $40 AUD per person

Website: http://www.orienteast.com.au/
Address: 348 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3004
Phone:+61 3 9685 2900