Eating Out: Wong's Lucky Bar 旺旺幸运吧 Revisted [921 Whitehorse Road Box Hill, 3128]

Going to try a new format for reviews. I'm pretty sure you're sick of my rambling and my horrible writing style.

Came here for lunch a few weeks ago. It's starting to become one of my favourite places in Box Hill.

Hainanese Chicken Rice $7.50 (I think)

Likes: Comes with everything it should in a decent sized serving. 

The price.

Dislikes: They raised the price in 2011 from $6.90.

Chicken part of the Chicken Rice

This is what I come here for.

Likes: Boneless

That they actually submerged into icy water straight after to make the springy skin.

The soy sauce which isn't too salty.

The garlicky chilli sauce.

The special something in the spring onion sauce. Chicken Powder?

Dislikes: People pinching my chicken because it's good.

Wong's Laksa King $8.80

Likes: Tonnes of chicken and toppings.

Dislikes: Broth, not enough spices in it.

Combination Crispy Fried Noodle $8.90

Likes: Super Crispy Noodles which are NOT burnt.

Variety of toppings

Dislikes: Hard to pull apart and share.

Stir Fried Clams $14something

Not on the menu and some waiters do not know that they have this dish.

Likes: It's hot.

The youtiao (chinese donut) bits in the bottom to soak up the sauce.

Dislikes: Serving portion given price.

Not fresh. 

Some shells did not have any meat in them.

Food: 8/10 Average chinese food. Decent chicken rice.

Service/Environment: 7/10 Cramped and not the cleanest place around. Staff aren't very cheery.

Value: 8.5/10 Chicken rice excellent value. Clams definitely overpriced. Everything else is reasonable.

Accessibility: 9/10 Train, tram and bus. Extremely convenient. Only problem is you might miss it, not a super obvious place. 

Verdict? Read previous post on this place. If I want chicken rice, I will come here for my fix.

The cafe part joined to the restaurant is also part of the restaurant. The milk tea with pearls there is only $3 compared to $3.50 at Bubble Cup. The cup is slightly smaller here I think but seriously all that milk tea isn't good for you anyways. Also a little sweeter with a hint of coffee and stronger tea flavour (for some reason) than Bubble Cup.

Eating Out: Laksa King [12 Pin Oak Cres Flemington, 3031]

This is about a month late. Damn I really need to sit down for a few hours and hardcore blog. Probably have like 10 posts still to write up =S.

So finally went to Laksa King with the boy who is a lucky kiddo and it was like the 3rd time he had visited there that month. 

Unfortunately I wasn't particularly hungry so we decided to just share a laksa and get some dessert.

Combination Laksa $9.2 

Laksa King is indeed laksa king. They have plenty of spices in the broth which is normally other laksa's fail as they only have coconut milk. Saying that the laksa did not lack coconut either, both were in balance. Serving size was good. K仔 said it would be better more chilli.

Ice Kachang $5.9

Not the best as it was almost impossible to eat without it falling everywhere. However it was refreshing and had lots of hidden treasures in the bottom. Can you see K仔 wanting to dig in in the background?

Also to the awesome waiter who offered me a job there, is the offer still available? I couldn't tell whether you were joking or not. I would love to work at Laksa King despite it being on the other side of town. Imagine all the laksa I could have =] 

Food: 9/10 Laksa is probably the best I've tasted in Melb that I can remember of. Ice kachang was so so.

Service/Environment: 9/10 Newly renovated, cheery staff. Not sure about when it's packed. I went at around 2pm weekday.

Value: 9/10 Never match prices in Malaysia but considering the quality. Damn good value.

Verdict? I want to go there NOW just thinking back about it. Midnight snack!! But I doubt they're open. Do visit if you haven't before, even if you live ages away, it is worth it.

Eating Out: Petaling Street [111 Kingsway Glen Waverley, 3150]

Finally have tried all three Petaling Street's. Now I only have the actualy Petaling Street to try/visit. How do you say it by the way? K仔 laughs at me every time I try to say it. Please someone help me?

 Combination Hor Fun 

Pretty good except some noodles were white whilst others were brown from the soy sauce. Also the chicken was a little rubbery and tasteless. 

 Minced Pork and Tofu on Rice

I didn't get to try this on the day was we ordered too much and decided to doggy bag this instead. After reheating this the next day it tasted pretty average, just like what it looks like. 

 Nasi Lemak with Beef Rendang

Having visited Nasi Lemak House the day before there was a bit of a high expectation from this. The rice wasn't as coconutty as hoped but everything else made up for it. Especially the beef rendang, it was not tough at all the curry sauce was so fragrant but spicy. The serving of curry was quite large as well.

Curry Laksa

This was very similar to the one I had at Petaling Street Box Hill. All the ingredients were the same and serving was massive. I found the broth pretty good as there wasn't too much coconut milk in it to make it too rich and also there was just the right amount of fragrance from the spices without it being overpowering. I don't know why but I think the one at box hill was a tiny bit better. I think it's because there was a thicker layer of oil on the top.

Food: 8/10 Some hits and misses. The more authentic malay dishes were better than the chinese ones.

Service/Environment: 8/10 Waitresses were efficient and food did come out quick.

Value: 8.5/10 Serving sizes are quite large and quality is good.

Verdict? Make sure you stick to the Malay dishes if you want some guaranteed good food. Remember they have 3 restaurants for a reason.

Eating Out: Straits Cafe revisted [694 Doncaster Rd Doncaster 3108]

 After the dreaded 3 hour English exam Mum took me to Straits for lunch. Oh boy was it good to eat some comfort food.

Curry Laksa $9.90

It doesn't really look like a curry laksa more like just curry. The noodles were springy. The tofu puffs weren't very soft. The chicken had boney bits which was quite weird and the fish cake was pretty average and thin. I think that was all the laksa had, but don't be misled, there were lots of each topping so you run out of noodles before you do of toppings. However laksa is usually about the broth. I can't say it was a bad broth, it had tonnes of spices and was fragrant but as you can see it didn't contain much coconut milk and hence there wasn't a layer of oil. The coconut milk was really need to cut through all the spices and richness. Also it was quite thick and felt like drinking curry gravy. If you like a spice filled laksa broth, then you would love it.

Nasi Lemak $10.90 I think

Once again they certainly do give you your monies worth. This was the beef rendang one. Everything was there except the sambal which you self serve down the back of the shop I think, or just ask them. Wasn't spectacular but I do like the pickled vegies, not sure what they're called but they soothe your tongue from the chilliness. 

Straits would probably the be the best Malaysian Restaurant in the Doncaster area. I really can't think of any place that does it better for taste. And if you know the area, you know how many Malaysian places are around.

Eating Out: Jalan Alor [7/206 Bourke St Melbourne 3000]

This place is so new that theres still someone out the front doing the final touches....now isn't that supposed to be done before you open? Well it's newly renovated and very modern. Encountered a problem before even entering, there's no front door...you naturally assume that a restaurants door is at the front right? But no, here the front is a window and a gigantic mirror. You enter from the side corner...who would have thought of that first? With no sign or person to direct you? Anyways I think that's enough about a door...I better not get started about having a pot plant on the tiny table...I think that was a first experience too. Not sure whether sitting next to planter boxes with flowers indoors was a first experience either. I guess it makes the meal memorable?

I think they should proof read their menu. Misspelling corkage maybe very minor but when it says "cockage" I think it needs to be fixed. Oh, and the numbers weren't in order but no biggie.

Kari Laksa $9.50

There are two Kari Laksa's on the menu, one is chicken one is prawn, same price, same name...

It came with two types of noodles, 2 large shelled prawns, 2 large mussels, tau pok (beancurd) and slices of fish cake, in my opinion there just wasn't enough to accompany the noodles especially compared to Coconut House's one from two days ago. However this bowl was bigger but I believe the noodle portion was about the same. The soup was pretty good, not too much oil and enough coconut milk. The chilliness was just right. One problem I didn't encounter was trying to figure out how to deshell the prawns and where to put the shells,  luckily the waiter saw me or heard me and quickly gave me a little plate. The prawns actually had a prawn taste which was excellent because prawns at restaurants nowadays are only about texture. Same case with the mussels. Overall a decent laksa.

Nasi Lemak $9.50
Since this was K仔's dish, asked him to review it.

"Was definitely not what I expected. Expected A LOT MORE sambal and expected it to be served with a pandan leaf and like…an omelette thingy. But obviously this place has its own take on what a nasi lemak should be like….and I guess it just wasn’t to my liking. I guess I’m used to eating it in Malaysia so definitely there is more sambal and everything. Granted they did have everything as a nasi lemak is expected to have on a plate….but I guess just not to the right proportions? Love the ikan bilis though and nuts…BEST PART OF THE DISH! Followed by the sambal =D The chicken meat was tough…kinda tasted like it was old chicken meat and they might have just microwaved it or something =S was a bit….EWWWWEY!!! Rice was coconut-ey which was goooooooD!! Love coconut rice!! Yummy lah"

Food: 7.5/10 It's not bad but it's not spectacular. Prices are reasonable.

Service: 7/10 We were seated but not given menus. I'm sure it was just an accident though.

Environment: 7.5/10 It's modern. You sit at wooden tables and wooden stools like you're at the park. There's a pot plant on you're table. However this place is called Jalan Alor....I believe that it's not a park in Malaysia but a street filled with hawker stalls....with no pot plants on the tables. But not a bad environment for a casual date since it's sort of memorable.

Verdict? I would come back again and try some other dishes. China Red is literally next door, their touch screen menu is enticing too though.

Eating IN: Laksa King

After coming home from lunch at Straits my brother came home with takeaway laksa from LAKSA KING. I've been wanting to visit since hearing about it and my bro went with his friends a few months back and rubbed it in my face.

Even the takeaway is presented so neatly. The taste was outstanding, even for a takeaway which had been reheated it was very very good. The broth was full of spices which was balanced out with the coconut. Now I really want to visit Laksa King and actually have a bowl of laksa dine in.

Please may that day come sooner!

Eating Out: Straits Cafe 694 Doncaster Rd Doncaster 3108

Went to Straits cafe for lunch. This place is great as you get to watch the chefs make your meal in the awesome woks.

Hainanese Chicken Rice $10.90 (I think it was $10.90)

I must say a lot better than any chicken rice I've had recently. Msg soup was very yummy...I wonder why. The rice wasn't as chickeny as it could be but rice is good as it is. However the chicken was sooooooo smooth and tender and ohhhh soooo delicious. And it was deboned and portion size was very generous. Thinking about it is making me salivate. The soy sauce was really addictive for some reason, may have something to do with msg and oil. The chilli sauce wasn't chilli unfortunately but did provide a garlicky, sweet and sour hit. 

Assam Laksa $9.90

I've had a bad experience with assam laksa, I feel it is an acquired taste and I can't say I dislike or like it. Feelings are neutral. This assam laksa looked very different to the one I had at Petaling Street last year. Looked a bit sloppy and no exactly the most appealing bowl of noodles in the world. But K仔 slurped it up pretty quickly, whether it was cos it was really yummy or cos he's been craving it for ages or cos he was sooo hungry I'm not sure. 

Food: 8/10 Good honest food, freshly cooked, generous portions. 

Environment: 6/10 The place is cramped, and a tad shabby. 

Service: 8/10 Quick service, leaves you alone to enjoy your meal. 

Verdict? I would come back here again, over and over although they only have a double sided menu. Supposedly they Sar Hor Fun is amazing, must order that next time I'm here which hopefully will be soon.

Eating Out: Ampang Tofu 13 Village Avenue, Doncaster East

Went out for lunch with the family. Couldn't choose where to go. I wanted to go to Straits Cafe but due to the legionnaires disease outbreak like 50m down the road parents refused to go there. Ended up at Ampang Tofu although I wanted to go to Malaya Inn cos we haven't been there for soooooo long meaning about 10 years.

Curry Laksa Chicken $9.00

Used fried tofu instead of tofu puffs. Nothing special about it. A bit of a let down. The broth wasn't spicy and fragrant enough but was quite coconutty. At least it wasn't bad.

Thai Fried Noodles $9.50

Mum ordered this one. Very strong lemongrass and sour flavour. The noodles have soaked up tom yum flavour. I suspect they add tom yum soup to the noodles when this is cooked to soften them and allow them to soak up extra flavour. Quite nice. Could have been spicier though. And I didn't really like the raw shredded lettuce on the top.

Hokkien Mee $9.50

Mum was about to order Stir Fried Beef Rice Noodles but I stopped her and asked whether we could have Hokkien mee instead. I like hokkien mee for it's sauce, so delicious. This was my favourite dish out of the three. However the sauce was quite runny and didn't stick onto the noodles as well as it could have. And there wasn't much seafood or vegies in with the noodles. Just nitpicking, not bad.

Food: 8/10 The food here isn't amazing but it's definitely not bad. It's good but don't expect exceptional food. Presentation could be improved. 

Service: 6/10 The person at the counter could have been a bit friendlier but I guess he is under a lot of stress. Tables were not cleaned for about 5 mins after being SEATED. Bowls had weird brown residue on them, probably from sauce not being cleaned off it properly *shudders*. They need a better dishwasher.

Environment: 7/10 This place is pretty cramped. The place is about the size of the place is a tad bigger than my room. And you can seat about 20-30 people in there I think. Not an ideal environment to dine in. However I do love their massive wallpaper of KL more specifically the Petrona Twin Towers, I would love one of HK in my room.

The verdict? Consistently good food. Although there may be better Malay food around, this is a place you can rely on. I would come back again if I really wanted to but with the choice of Malay restaurants around, this place probably wouldn't be first choice. It you want some decently authentic Malay food QUICK, come here. 

Eating Out: Meals On Jacksons, Jackson Court, Doncaster East

Been wanting to come here for 2 months now, ever since Steph told me it was alright. The name sounds pretty weird (kinda like meals on wheels) but it's far from that. It's actually a little Malaysian and Chinese Restaurant in a local shopping strip/area (Jackson Court). Wasn't particularly busy although many just buy take away as they do have a lunch special.

We ordered 3 dishes to share between the 4 of us.

  Got bored waiting for food so played with the camera.

Curry Laksa $8.80

Not bad. Contained two types of noodles, chicken, char siu, fish cake, tofu puffs, spring onion and fried shallots. The soup was very creamy, in my opinion too creamy and not fragrant/spicy enough. Also it was not chilli enough for my liking.

Ipoh Combination (滑蛋河）$9.80

Very average. Everyone complained there was not enough eggy sauce. My family loves their sauce when it comes to noodles. Also the noodles were really narrow/thin for some reason, I'm used to wide rice noodles for this dish. Didn't taste exceptional because the ingredients weren't as fresh as they could be. 

Combination Fried Noodle $11

Quite disappointed with this one. Dad ordered since it was the most expensive he thought it would be good. It turned out to be pretty much all the stuff in the Ipoh combination just with fried noodles instead and the addition of cauliflower and broccoli. But crispy noodles are nice =)

Should have gone with Hokkien Mee instead =.="

Food: 7/10 it would have really helped if the food was served hot not warm

Service: 7/10 one lady waited all the tables in the restaurant so you can't expect her attention constantly. She does do a very good job though. 

Environment: 7/10 Everything is relatively clean and modern. Surprisingly spacious given the amount of space. Good lighting though.

Verdict? Not too bad. Pretty average. I think the only other malay restaurants around would be Rasa Malaya and Straits Cafe, I can't compare because I haven't been to either for quite some time. I wouldn't mind coming back here to try their curries but I probably wouldn't order what I ate today, there are a lot of other options on the menu. I think I had my hopes up too high for this place. But it's not a bad chinese restaurant, probably one of the better ones around in that price range. 

Update!! New Petaling Street soon to be opened at Box Hill as La Porchetta closed down. I want to try all the Petaling Street restaurants around. So far I've only tried the Glenferrie Rd one, where I found out Assam Laksa is definitely not the dish for me. It's an acquired taste =.=" Also got to try the one at Glen Waverley, except that every time I go down to Glennie, I always end up at my uncles restaurant.

Eating Out: Wong's Lucky Bar 旺旺幸运吧- Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill

Situated in the MIDDLE of the ROAD (in between the traffic light which connects box hill central and 7-eleven, where the tram stop is) is this little Malaysian/Chinese Restaurant. They've been putting a lot of ads in the Chinese newspapers about their $6.90 Hainanese Chicken Rice and "Authentic" Laksa.

Walked in to see WILL PAN on the mounted tv =D Sat down and ordered Hainanese Chicken Rice, Seafood Laksa and Nasi Goreng. Watched Jay's 2007 World Tour Concert whilst waiting. The dishes arrived very quickly and looked quite presentable....but looks aren't everything. Sorry no pics, totally forgot to take pics until everything was half eaten but I'm pretty sure everyone knows what Hainanese Chicken Rice, Laksa and Nasi Goreng looks like.

Hainanese Chicken Rice-I can't say it was exceptional. I would probably give it an alright. The rice was very fragrant, the 6 or so decent sized pieces of boneless chicken could have been "smoother" and I swear the chilli sauce was dyed red.....Overall this dish was like SALT on SALT on more SALT and that was without the soup....

Laksa- Made from quite bland seafood mix and seafood highlighter I have to say I was quite disappointed. I felt the soup base didn't have enough spices and not rich enough. It was a creamier colour than usual. If I were to come here again I wouldn't order the laksa again. But then again what would a honkie girl who hasn't been to Malaysia know about a laksa?

Nasi Goreng- What can you say about fried rice? It was pretty average. I'm not sure what is supposed to be in Nasi Goreng but it can't be brown special fried rice right?

Verdict? To be honest I wouldn't come back again considering all the other choices in Box Hill. Sorry, maybe for their Hainanese Chicken if they decide to go easy on the salt.

Lantau Island and Food Court

Blogging about what happened over a week ago.
That morning we had to wake up super early to take the bus to Lantau Island and meet up with my buddhist nun aunty to visit this place they're redoing. Lantau Island is actually really beautiful, lots of people go hiking there. It feels like a forest, surrounded with mountain ranges in the background. So after spending the morning there we had a vegetarian hotpot with way too much food. Although it was very yummy, however no pics, very hard to take a pic of ALL the food. However we did eat lettuce that was grown next door and it was soo sweet and fresh. After lunch we went down to Tai O which is like the town at the bottom of Lantau Island? Not too sure. But the bus ride down felt like a rollercoaster, so twisty and HK bus drivers are crazy, they go way to fast for buses. After walking around looking at stilt houses we encountered shops that sold this tofu dessert 豆腐花 which is on the things to eat list. I never really liked this dessert growin up and I still don't. It's slices of really silken tofu in some liquid and you either sprinkly over this orange sugar or pour in some special syrup. Normally eaten hot.

My bowl of the tofu dessert with sugar sprinkled on the top. It was really smooth and slippery. You have to eat it with lots of sugar because the tofu is really plain, it's just about the texture.

We then left Tai O for Tung Chung to go SHOPPING. There's this shopping centre in Tung Chung that is just all outlets, like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Esprit. I only managed to get a roxy bag for just under $30 aussie.

So as we shopped till pretty late we decided to eat at the food court as it would take an hour to get back out into the city part of HK.

Pretty big food court, plenty of choices but there is a catch. They pretty much only sell asian food. There's a little shop for each country in Asia. Chinese, Shanghainese, Korean, Taiwanese, Thai, Viet, Malay/Singaporean, Macau and possibly a few others that I've forgotten. And yes each country had a separate shop.

I had no clue what to eat as the choice was overwhelming. In the end I settled for Singaporean Laksa...which happened to be white round noodles not the malay style with two types of noodles (which is what I wanted). Mum added a satay chicken for like $10 or something.

  The satay chicken was pretty average, the chicken wasn't dry and was nicely cooked. The laksa on the other hand was pretty disappointing. The soup was not rich enough and there weren't enough ingredients. I have to go to Malaysia one day and try actual laksa. Oh well, it's hard to find all this for under $7 aussie in Melb though I did see seafood laksa for $7 today at union house at Melb Uni. Very tempted but at 43degrees it was just too hot for it.

To polish off dinner Dad and I went to the dessert shop to pick some desserts. Dad chose Ice Kachang...in HK...in winter??!! I chose the long awaited MANGO PANCAKE!!

Super sweet random Ice Kachang, I learned my lesson, don't eat Malaysian in HK.




Mango Pancake. I didn't take a pic of the inside as I was too busy eating it XD I've waited many many years to eat this again. Wondering what it is? Its mango pieces with about an inch of whipped cream on top all wrapped in a super thin crepe like pancake which is chewy. DELICIOUSSSS. MUST EAT in HK although it can be pretty expensive. Around HK$20 at Honeymoon Dessert. This dessert shop had it for HK$15

A great end to an amazing day away from the busy city streets of HK.