Shark Fin House - Part 2

Shark Fin House

131 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9663 1555

See Shark Fin House for yumcha here..

So it was the much dreaded meeting of our parents - we decided to go to Shark Fin 'cause we needed to go somewhere in the city, and we figured Chinese food will be good 'cause everyone can share the food =) P stupidly booked a table at Shark Fin Inn instead of Shark Fin House initially - I've never been to Shark Fin Inn, I guess 'cause it's further up Little Bourke St I've never ventured up there, but apparently it's not too bad there either.

We booked the table at 7pm for 7 people - my brother hadn't arrived in Melbourne yet =( Me and my parents were running a bit late 'cause it was basically impossible to find a park in the city on a Friday night! Our table was quite small in a darkish corner on Level 1 - the restaurant was PACKED. 'cause P and his parents got there first, the waiters had given us all wine glasses and English banquet menus and Wine Lists lol. When my parents came, we told the waiter to take the wine glasses away and give us normal Chinese menus =P

P's little brother wanted Peking Duck and San Choi Bao so we decided to order a Peking Duck and a second course of Duck San Choi Bao for $3 each instead of getting normal San Choi Bao which was $5 per serve.

The food took SOOO long to come - it was so busy that night and lacking waitress service. Eventually the duck came first.

Even though this guy was a manager (or at least not just a normal waiter as he was in a suit), he was pretty shit at cutting the duck. The pieces were more like roast duck rather than Peking Duck pieces - there was more meat than skin on most of the pieces. He was going to serve them all made up for us but we decided we wanted to make our own pancakes.

Peking Duck

So as you can see, more meat less skin - very non-Peking Duck like. I didn't mind it as I actually like the meat more but that defeats the purpose of ordering Peking Duck. The pancakes were surprisingly tasty though - they must have made them there themselves. And because so many of the pieces were mainly meat, P's brother put a piece of "meat" and a piece of "skin" in each wrap he had, and we were left with many extra pancakes - for once. Mum was commenting how they were very generous with their pancakes here - normally they give like 10 pancakes and charge 50c per extra pancake, but they gave at least 20 pancakes. If only they were as generous with the duck =P

San Choi Bao

The San Choi Bao came all made up - I guess they really do count the number of pieces of lettuce =P It was surprisingly very tasty! There were crunchy bits within the mix - like the crunchy bits you have in congee sometimes =) Our parents reckon they didn't really put much duck in it and mixed mince pork in it 'cause you can barely taste the duck =( So that was a bit disappointing, but if you treat it as a normal San Choi Bao then it was pretty good.

Next came the steamed barramundi.

Steamed Barramundi

Steamed fish is always better at restuarants - the fish was killed only a few minutes before it's steamed so it's super fresh and delicious <3 P and I basically ate the whole fish it was so tasty =P P was teaching his brother how to eat the fish head and eyes - ewww who does that?!

P's mum wanted a claypot or something like that but we ended up deciding a tofu and seafood stir fry dish.

Tofu and seafood stirfry

It doesn't look super tasty but the tofu was so silky and smooth and there was lots of seafood in it - scallops and prawns etc. I'm not a fan of Chinese stir fries where the sauce is 99% corn flour but I guess that's just how they are normally, so I just wipe all the sauce off and eat the actual stuff lol =P

Dad wanted a crispy skin chicken - I think he ordered it 'cause it's quite a Western dish =P

Crispy Skin Chicken

Super crunchy skin but soft meat =) I don't usually dip the chicken in the salt but I did this time, as well as squeeze a few drops of lemon juice on it and it's surprisingly very delicious! P's brother and step-dad really liked this dish =)

Lastly came the Gain Lan with seafood.

Gai Lan with Seafood

Didn't even realise we ordered 2 dishes with seafood in it. The Gai Lan was very fresh and not tough or anything. I can't remember what the sauce was but it was quite strong and I didn't think it was necessary - see, when the stir fry doesn't come in a soup of sauce, they give you extra sauce to dip yourself haha =P

Dad said he wanted to order a plate of BBQ Pork (Cha Siu) and Roast Pork from the beginning, but P's Mum said we should wait and see how much food comes first. We were super full by this stage, but I knew dad really wanted to try their roast meats here so I told him to order a plate of Cha Siu only.

Cha Siu

It took them 15mins+ to get it to us! You'd think it'd be super quick given it's already roasted and everything and all they need to do is chop it! It was super delicious with strips of fat running across the delicious and juicy meat =)

We were stuffed! Apart from the crappy service, and the slightly dodgy Peking Duck, everything was pretty good - I guess it lives up to it's reputation.

8/10

C.
xo