Tuesday, October 4, 2011

New Age Cafe

New Age Cafe
595 Station St, Boxhill
(Ph) 9898 7388

We were going out with V before he leaves Melbourne - he said he felt like Honkie food, like baked fusion rice =P - my favourite normally, but we said we didn't want to go to Pacific House again since we went there last week. P then suggested we drive to Boxhill and find a restaurant there. We weren't very hungry - it was the first day of daylight saving so we weren't used to the change yet, and felt too early to be eating dinner anyway in the bright sunlight =P So P drove to Boxhill - it was his first time driving anyone except me =)

We parked at the Centro carpark and had to walk up the driveway out to the street 'cause the shopping centre doors were locked =/ strange that they wouldn't have a more proper way out to the street but anyway..

I was thinking of going to either New Age Cafe or Jade Cafe - I had been to New Age Cafe before with my dad but urbanspoon didn't have a very good rating for it so we were going to just see which one had baked fusion rice - since that's what we drove all the way out here for =P We got to New Age Cafe and saw they had baked fusion rice - we were going to walk to Jade Cafe as well and see what they have on the menu but since it was so cold and windy we couldn't be bothered and just went inside =)


V wanted baked pork chop rice but with cream sauce - so strange pork chop doesn't go with cream sauce it's normally with tomato sauce or onion sauce! there wasn't a baked pork chop rice with cream sauce (as expected =P) but he asked the waiter if he could change the pork chop rice to cream and they said yes lol =P

P wanted a Pork Chop Bun - they don't quite have that, they have Pan Fried Pork Chop Sandwich instead. I told P that it won't be a burger bun but he really wanted it - strange he doesn't normally like pork chops =P Then he wanted a soup - super strange again he never likes soup! He wanted the Cream of Seafood Soup with Baked Puff Pastry and then V decided he wanted to get it as well. I remember I ordered it last time I came here and was yum =) I wanted to get the Baked Pork Chop Rice but we figured since we were getting the Pork Chop Sandwich we shouldn't get pork again - so we decided to get the Baked Chicken Steak with Cheese & Mushrooms on Rice. It was only after the food came that we realised we ordered a cream soup and a creamy sauced rice =__________= well that worked well =P

Milk Tea

V ordered a Milk Tea - made me kinda crave Honky milk tea, but I didn't want to not sleep that night, given  our body clock was stuffed from daylight saving already lol

P's Pan Fried Pork Chop Sandwich $7.50 came first.

Pan Fried Pork Chop Sandwich

This was totally not what we expected lol - we were expecting a piece of pork chop between 2 pieces of white bread, not a foccacia =P funny how they gave us 4 pieces of Pringles lol... Asian chips =P the pork chop was quite juicy but would be nicer if it was more crunchy and more marinade. There was a bit of salad in it, which you normally don't get in traditional Honkie Pork Chop Buns - tasted more Westernized than Honkie but was still yummy =)

V's Baked Pork Chop on Rice with Cream Sauce $9.50 came next.

Baked Pork Chop on Rice with Cream Sauce

So strange to have pork chop with cream sauce - I've never had that combination before =P pork chop goes with tomato sauce!! V liked it though =P the sauce was a tad too salty and he said the pork chop would have been nicer if it had more fat in it - lol I guess pork chop is not meant to be all lean meat.

My Baked Chicken Steak with Cheese & Mushrooms on Rice $9.50 came =D I was getting so hungry - the picture of it was on the cover of the menu and looked delicious!

Baked Chicken Steak with Cheese & Mushroom on Rice

Wow the chicken and mushrooms were swimming in sauce! The chicken steak was tender and soft - was delicious with the creamy cheesy sauce. Think they went a bit overboard with the sauce lol =P would have been nicer if there were more side ingredients instead of just mushrooms - think I said something similar to the baked rice at Pacific House. The serving was quite large and even though P helped me eat a lot of it - I left basically half the rice there and just ate all the chicken and sauce =P baked rice is nicer when they fry the rice with egg first instead of just putting steamed rice in there - it makes the rice tastier and dryer which is good given it is drenched in sauce after it's baked =P

Finally the Cream of Seafood Soup with Baked Puff Pastry $9.50 came - they did say it'd take 20mins =P

Cream of Seafood Soup with Baked Puff Pastry

Comes with a dinner roll with butter inside already =P I dunked my spoon in to break the puff pastry - YUM! The soup is a creamy soup with lots of seafood (fish, mussel, prawn, scallop, crab stick etc) - I know it's most likely frozen seafood but they still gave heaps! was so yummy dunking the bread roll in and soaking the puff pastry up in soup =P Even though this was creamy and the baked rice was a cream sauce - this cream soup had so much more flavour compared to the cream sauce. I remember last time I came here I really liked this soup too =)

Food~
Pan Fried Pork Chop Sandwich - 5/10 - was quite tasty but I didn't think it was very genuine like the ones in Hong Kong in terms of the bread or the flavour of the pork chop

Baked Pork Chop on Rice with Cream Sauce - 4.5/10 - V quite liked it despite the pork not quite meeting his standards =P

Baked Chicken Steak with Cheese & Mushrooms on Rice - 5/10 - was not too bad, would have been nicer if there were more side vegetables and less sauce lol

Cream of Seafood Soup with Baked Puff Pastry - 7/10 - this was the star of the night! was delicious! P and I thought sharing one wasn't quite enough =P but then again, I told him I could make this easily ourselves at home =P

Service~
3.5/10 - not bad for an Asian restaurant, waiters were quiet attentive to fill our water and food came out fairly quickly =P

Atmosphere~
3.5/10 - we got a booth to sit in =D wasn't very full on this Sunday night so didn't feel too crowded or anything =)

Next time we'll try Jade Cafe!

C.
xo

New Age Cafe on Urbanspoon

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26/07/12

Came back here for lunch instead this time. We were actually craving the Cream of Seafood Soup with Baked Puff Pastry but they don't make it before 5.30pm =O So we got the Seafood Chowder instead and P got a Char Kway Teow (炒貴刁).



This was actually really spicy, tastes like Singapore Style Noodles (星洲炒米) with the massive amount of curry powder. Char Kway Teow is just stir fried rice noodles with whatever leftover meat/vegetables the chef feels like putting in it. I'm not a fan of it but prefer Stirfry rice noodles with beef (乾炒牛河) instead - a soy rice noodle stirfry with beef and bean sprouts =)


We got the Baked Pork Chop on Rice with Cream Sauce again forgetting it's not quite authentic Asian but is very westernised and not fantastic.


The Seafood Chowder took forever to come out - what the random crushed up biscuit instead of croutons? Chowder was quite creamy and flavourful, they were quite generous with the seafood compared with the sad one from Jade Cafe. And they actually toasted a bread roll for us and buttered it =) Though if you're planning to dip it in the chowder wouldn't you NOT butter it?


Food~
5/10 - their puff pastry soup is definitely worth coming here for =) Craving!

C.
xo

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