Minh Xuong

Minh Xuong

209-211 Russel St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9663 2895

We were catching up with the college people - we were meeting up at QV but hadn't decided a place yet. P and I thought we were going to Pacific House 'cause 1. we always do =P and 2. it's right next to QV, and I was kinda craving their Baked Pork Chop Rice. 

But in the end, one of the guys decided to go to Minh Xuong on Russel St. I wonder why this restaurant is called Minh Xuong - it's a Vietnamese translation of 明昌. This restaurant is a "seafood and BBQ restaurant" which you'd think is a Chinese restaurant - if you translate it in Cantonese it would be Ming Cheong, if you translate it in Mandarin it's Ming Chang... hmm? There is actually another Minh Xuong in Richmond with Roast Ducks hanging in the window as well - pretty sure that one is opened by Vietnamese people =P but not sure if the 2 stores are related?

When my parents came down a few months ago, we had a mahjong session at our family friends' place and they told us to come to Minh Xuong to get some BBQ Pork, Roast Pork and some Roast Duck to take to their place. My family friend works in the seafood wholesale industry and is in close contact with most of the restaurants in Melbourne - and they suggested us to come to Minh Xuong out of all the BBQ restaurants in the city so it's gotta be one of the better ones =) And it was DELICIOUS! Even though we took it all the way to their place before we ate it, the Roast Pork skin was still crunchy and not too salty and had good layering of fat and meat. The BBQ Pork was yum as well - though I might be a bit biased 'cause I LOVE BBQ pork =) it had bits of fat and bits of meat too - unlike some places where the BBQ pork is just meat and is really tough. The Roast Duck wasn't as good as the other 2 BBQ meats, but the skin was crispy and was separated by a thin layer of fat to the meat - gotta say it's definitely one of the better BBQ restaurants in Melbourne!

We sat upstairs 'cause we were a group of 9. The kitchen is downstairs and they put the dishes in the food elevator and the light turns on when the food comes up - pretty smart aye?

Food elevator

This time at Minh Xuong, I didn't really feel like a BBQ meat rice dish - P and I had lunch really late so I was not really hungry.

In the end I decided to order a BBQ Pork Chiffon on Rice $10 - I was kinda wanting something with sauce (like Baked Pork Chop Rice from Pacific House =P) so the next best thing on the menu was this, which I thought would be like the Chiffon Rice at A1 with their sweet plum sauce to pour over the omelette.

BBQ Pork Chiffon on Rice

Was a bit disappointed it doesn't come with the pour over sauce here =( Even though their BBQ Pork was tastier than A1's BBQ Pork, the chiffon rice felt like it was missing something.

P got a Char Kway Teow $10 - I keep telling him we should go to Old Town Kopitam Mamak for some genuine Malaysian food and he keeps saying no even though he keeps ordering Malaysian food elsewhere =_______=

Char Kway Teow

They put EVERY SINGLE meat on the universe in it - okay maybe not quite, but seriously they must have put all their leftover meats from other dishes and stir fried it together. There was beef, chicken, BBQ pork, squid... I'm pretty sure you're not meant to have so many types of meat in it =/ I just looked it up on Wikipedia and it says it should be stir fried with prawns and clams traditionally... hmm. Think they over-fried it a little bit, 'cause the bean sprouts are meant to be crunchy but they weren't.

Friends down the table ordered BBQ pork and Roast Duck rice.

Looked so tasty from my end of the table - though the BBQ Pork looked a little bit on the meat side without much fat. The problem with ordering a half portion of Roast Duck is that they can give you either the leg meaty half or the back boney half, which in this case was the leg so that was good, but if they had given the other half you can't really complain. Next time will go for some BBQ meat rice!

5.5/10

C.

xo