Pacific House - Best Roast Duck in Melbourne

The best roast duck to be had in Melbourne, in my opinion, comes from Pacific House. There's nothing quite as comforting as a warm hot steaming bowl of rice drizzled with the soy drippings from the duck, coupled with the crispy skin and tender duck meat. We headed there on average about once every 1-2 weeks for meals that made us really happy - it's the closest thing to comfort food I can imagine in Melbourne. This duck was from the Richmond outlet - somehow it looks nicer when it's slightly more red.

 Having the chilli oil makes it even more shiok - I could eat this with rice alone.

 

Their diced chicken with tofu and salted fish is pretty tasty too, and is amazing with rice.

The veggies with tofu skin wasn't terribly exciting, but it was functional.

Another round of duck at the South Yarra outlet-  I dare say that even though it tasted almost similar to the Richmond outlet, somehow the one from Richmond makes me a bit happier. Maybe it's the reddish tinge.

We had a feast at South Yarra though, stuffing ourselves silly.

We even ordered the chicken ribs with salted egg - gloriously hot and crispy with each chicken piece coated with salted egg flavour.

Another look close up

The salt and pepper seafood is pretty good too. We usually order the jiu yim you yu - or squid, but decided to try the prawns on a recent visit.

The standout dish has to be the mud crab noodles with ginger and spring onions.

This was the dish that had me raving about Pacific House many years ago....incredibly tasty noodles with super fresh crab would make anyone happy.

Especially with lots of roe.

Best Chinese food in Melbourne! 

http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/food-and-drink/directory/restaurant/pacific-seafood-bbq-house

Dainty Sichuan, South Yarra

A bunch of friends and us went to Dainty Sichuan in South Yarra as I was craving Sichuan food, and we saw that it had really high ratings on Urbanspoon. When we got there, we saw the clientele was 80% Chinese-20% Caucasian, which was a pretty good sign. Had it been the other way round, we would have left. 

There were around 7 people, so we ordered 5 main dishes and 2 starters, which worked out well for us.

The tea tree mushrooms with dried bean curd and vegetables was all right. Not bad, but nothing to crow about. 

The 辣子鸡 was pretty good. I would head back there just for this dish. 

We also had eggplant served with a sweetish spicy sauce, which was fabulous with hot steamed rice especially in the cold weather.

The green beans were pretty boring, but the tofu with preserved egg, spring onions and garlic sauce was really tasty. 

The main star of the evening was this fish that came with all the hot spices on top of the grill. Really tasty, and it was a good serve. 

Everyone was happy - definitely a meal none of us regretted

The bill worked out to just under $30 per person, including drinks. Definitely a place worth going back to, although we all had fiery gastrointestinal tracts and bottoms the following day.

176 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141
(03) 9078 1686

Tung Lok Overload

In recent years, the extended family's choice for a Chinese meal has always been Tung Lok, whether at Orchard Parade, Vivocity or Chinese Swimming Club.  Heck, I even had my (very small) wedding dinners at different Tung Lok restaurants across 2 different weekends, but that's a story for another day and there were no photos of food because (a), I hadn't started blogging yet; and (b) well...I was the bride, dammit.

Admittedly I have no idea what the difference is between Signatures and Classics, but what I do know is that both have pretty good food that we really enjoy. Here's a series of photos taken over the past 6 months from all our meals at Tung Lok.

Roast Peking Duck from Tung Lok at the Chinese Swimming Club - not as good as Da Dong, but a pretty good duck by local standards.

Duck skin wrapped up in little crepes. Mmm. 

Spinach with mustard and sesame sauce

Deep fried whitebait - the Chinese Swimming Club version is definitely very good

 Stir-fried black pepper beef - excellent with white rice

The mixed vegetable dish - this was so-so. 

I think this was deep-fried prawns with salted egg

Curry prawns with fried mantou. A firm favourite with the parents in law. 

The prawns were very fresh, with curry that was thin enough to drink up. 

 This was a special they had that month - roast pork knuckle. The skin was amazing.

Tofu and something (I have no idea) underneath - I remember it being preserved egg, but this certainly doesn't look like preserved egg to me.

Spinach with 3 eggs-  this was decent

Can't recall what this dessert was, but it was quite attractive-looking. Wasn't mine. 

This was mine! Ice cream mango with sago in coconut. A brilliant end to a brilliant meal.

Pulot hitam with coconut ice cream - not mine but at least I got a taste of it. Nice, but ordinary. 

Gui Lin Gao - not sure about the osmanthus in the syrup though. 

At another occasion, we had a 8 course banquet for someone's birthday. This was pan-fried foie gras served peking duck style with beancurd skin...delicious. 

Sharks' fin soup with some weird flaming thing

 Not a bad bowl of soup. 

Lobster with superior stock. 

 Beancurd and sea cucumber

Grilled soy honey pork

Scallop with eefu noodles

Palate cleansers that no one knew where to place

The birthday plate - more impressive with the dry ice effect

Aloe vera with lime sorbet in coconut.

Another occasion at Orchard Parade for the FIL's birthday, just one week after the 8 course banquet - love their siew yoke

The whitebait wasn't as good as Chinese Swimming Club's version

Dongpo Pork, I think it was, with beancurd strips. Tasty. 

Curry prawns made it to the table again. 

Lotus leaf rice with seafood. This was pretty good. 

And - the mango ice cream coconut dessert again. 

http://www.tunglok.com/