Eating Out: Red Lantern Chinese BBQ 327 Doncaster Road, North Balwyn, 3104

Ate lunch here with mum yesterday. Since they're extending/expanding one would assume that they are doing quite well which means that they serve decent food. And in my opinion, my assumption was right.

Char Kway Teow $9.50

Full of ingredients, however the only seafood present were these extremely crunchy prawns (with no flavour). Is CKT supposed to have fishcake and lap cheong? Because neither were present. Lots of crunchy beansprouts. Hardly chilli at all. Some egg, some char siu like stuff and little tiny pieces of something which I assumed to be pork fat but didn't taste like it...not sure what they were. Capsicum and carrot were some unusual additions. It was slighty brown but not as dark as what I'm used to seeing. Altogether it tasted pretty nice but not really like char kway teow, tasted a bit like singaporean noodles (星洲炒米) with hor fun(河粉/wide rice noodles) instead of rice vermicelli(米粉).

Roast Duck and Soya Chicken Rice $10.50

Just one selection is $9.00 but I couldn't decide between the two so we got combination. The soya chicken was alright, used to be better. Large pieces of meat, smooth elastic skin with soya sauce flavour. The roast duck on the other hand was surprisingly good. Also large pieces of MEAT, not just bone like some stingy places. The skin was crisp but there was only a thin layer of fat. Good for the health conscious, bad for the fat lovers like me. However encountered the same problem as we did for the take away roast pork last week, the BBQ meats were cold. 20 secs in the microwave won't do any harm right?

Food: 7.5/10 Pretty good, one of the top places around my side of town for Chinese BBQ meats. Extremely generous servings, Mum and I had trouble finishing both plates. A tad on the oily side.

Service: 8/10 No complaints about this. Waitress was nice (she had blue eyelashes o.o) Food came really quickly. And you are left to eat in peace.

Environment: 7.5/10 Contemporary Chinese furnishing. Not sure whether the open kitchen really works. Looks organised but cluttered at the same time. Though the ducks hanging in the kitchen to dry look pretty cool.

Verdict? I'd come back. Since they are so quick and serve decent food. Also it's along the way back from school so it's convenient. 

Look at that skin!

Drooling yet?

Eating Out: Taste East 224 Whitehorse Road Balwyn 3103

Mum decided between here and Yuki's in Malvern for her birthday dinner. Chose this place as it was a lot closer.
You walk in and you know you're in a higher class chinese restaurant. Except for the chinese handwritten sign at the front that says hiring a dishwasher...I should apply =) Anyways it is a relatively small restaurant, one waiter and one waitress. Took a while to receive a menu but excusable. One thing I found annoying was how loud the coffee machine was, using it to fill up teapots constantly really starts to get to you throughout the night.

佛跳墙 Buddha jumps wall (literal translation) $30 per bowl

This is the reason why mum wanted to come here. And I must say it didn't live up to the amazingly high expectations I had. When I heard it was $30 a bowl I thought it must be super super perfect. It wasn't bad but there a lot of things that can be improved on so that the customer feels like the $30 was worth it. Lets start with abalone, flavourless and not chewy enough. If you gave me that in a blind tasting, I wouldn't have guessed abalone. Shark fin was quite large but too crunchy, needed to be cooked a bit more. Sea cucumber was average, it doesn't have much flavour normally. The many special black chicken (like the chicken skin is naturally black) pieces were good however had so many bones I really couldn't be bothered with it. There was a piece of white calamari looking thing that mum ate, not sure what it was. The pork was so stringy I'm not sure whether they should have served it as all the flavour went into the soup. Now comes the actual soup part, not intense enough in my opinion. Soups like this usually have a very rich flavour but I guess it was good that it wasn't too rich. To be honest, for $30 it's just not worth it.

Garlic and black pepper duck $23.80

Dish of the night. It smelt really garlicky and fragrant. The skin was oohhhh sooo crispy!!!! like peking duck skin. A good layer of fat under the skin added that oily goodness =P The duck had massive chunks of meat and little bone so it was really nice. Juicy and gamey and drool worthy. And this was actually quite worth the money unlike that soup. 

Stir Fried Vegetable with Bamboo Pith $20

A very good dish, maybe not outstanding but very good except for the price. The serving size was amazingly small, although good ingredients were used. The sauce was quite intense and coated each vegetable nicely. Bamboo pith has a really cool texture, crunchy but soft and squelchy? 

Stir Fried Garlic Beef $25.80

Quite a good dish. Decent serving size. Good flavours, lots of garlic although it was borderline raw. 3 minor issues with this dish. 1. the beef has been tenderised and as a result had a funny texture. 2. it was way too oily, had a pool of oil on the bottom of the dish. 3. $25.80 is a little too pricey for a plate of beef.

Food: 8/10 One of the better cantonese restaurants. One thing I really liked was how everything was seasoned just right, many chinese restaurants put way too much salt into their dishes, here it is just right, almost slightly underseasoned. The way I like it

Environment: 8/10 Good atmosphere. There daily specials menu board is sooooooooo coool. Only bad point was the noisy coffee machine.

Service: 7/10 The main waiter was very good and experienced. The waitress did not speak much and was a tad clumsy when cleaning up other table's dishes. Scared she was going to smash something. 

Verdict? It is definitely the higher class of chinese dining. Good quality food. Only concern is the price, I can't really say it is worth it but you do get some very good food.