Food Republik

Food Republik

1 Main St, Boxhill

(Ph) 9898 6669

Food Republik had been open at Boxhill for a while now but everytime I come on the weekend it's packed so hadn't had a chance to try it out. For once we came on a weekday for lunch and there was no line at all =)

It's a Taiwanese style food court in a food court! How ingenious =) There are a few hawker style stores - Crystal Jade Xiao Long Bao, Shihlin Cafe Taiwan Street Snacks, Old Tong Beef Noodles, Taiwan Cafe, Yong He Soya King, Shin Yeh Restaurant, and Toast Box. Plus Dessert Story which is on a separate menu. Food Republik is owned by the same person who manages Taiwan Cafe and Dessert Story at the various other Melbourne locations.

Check out the chefs making dumplings by the window!

You get seated in the middle of the food court and get given the 2 menus, and you write your own orders on a piece of paper on the pad - saves waiter time and saves them taking down the wrong orders. It's got quite a traditional atmosphere with a hawker cart there too (obviously not in use)!

There is also an upstairs area too but it wasn't too busy on this weekday to need to go upstairs.

I wanted to get my usual Xiao Long Bao but it was $10.8 for 8 pieces which I thought was a bit expensive for this type of casual restaurant, and since I wasn't feeling too well, I let P order the food (for once=P). But as we ate we saw lots of other tables had ordered it - ah well I guess next time I will try it!

Since I wasn't feeling too well I got a hot Yong He Soya Milk $2.8

Ahh soothed my tummy, not too sweet =)

P for some reason loves Taiwanese fried chicken so he got the Chicken Drum - fried chicken drumlettes with pepper seasoning, lightly coated in bread crumbs, Our Specialty! (4pcs) $6.0

Exactly like the Taiwan Cafe ones - lots of flavour and crunch, though not as meaty as the The Booth ones.

P never craves dumplings but he did on this day - Pan-fried pork dumplings (12pcs) 

This wasn't as good as I remembered the ones at Taiwan Cafe to be - I liked the crunchy bits around the dumplings but it was like it had been fried for a while so the skin was a bit soft. And they had a lot of chives in the meat which I didn't like =(

P wanted something substantial so wanted the Taiwanese savoury glutinous rice but then realised it's only available before 11am. So he settled for the Beef Wrap - spring onion wrap with soya marinated beef slices garnished with spring onion and plum sauce $9.0

Asian kebab, just like the one at Taiwan Cafe. The wrap pancake was cooked a bit too much so was really crunchy (which I liked!) but the beef bits and cucumber fell out really easily. Surprisingly ridiculously filling!

Food~
5/10 - not too bad, typical Taiwanese food. Will definitely come back for the xiao long bao next time!

Atmosphere~
2/5 - I like how it feels like Asian hawker food, like we're really on the streets!

Service~
1/5 - most of the waiters were quite prompt but there was one who seemed like she felt she was too good to be there =/ and the food took a while for Asian restaurant standards.

C.
xo

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So merely a week later I find myself here again! This time I knew I had to order the Xiao Long Bao =)

Met my high expectations! Thin dumpling skin, lots of delicious broth inside and juicy meat <3

Also got some Fried Pork Buns - was a recommended dish.

But this was a bit disappointing - thick bun and small meat, and it wasn't fried enough so didn't have a crunchy base at all =(

P got the Popcorn Chicken Bento Box - the popcorn chicken was so crunchy! Better than KFC popcorn chicken and more flavoursome =) I like how they give you mince meat on top of the rice - Taiwanese style. The "greens" was a bit lousy though - wombok and frozen peas and corn?!

P also got a HK Style Milk Tea - not too bad but wasn't as strong as I'd like it to be.

Taiwan Cafe

Taiwan Cafe

273 Swanston St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9663 6663

Taiwan Cafe had been open for a few weeks, there was always a line outside, no matter what time of the day it was. One time we walked past at 4pm and there was no line so we decided to go in, but it was "Cash Only" here so we had to go to the ATM to get cash, and by the time we got out there was a line outside already =____=

We had heard mixed responses from this cafe - some people say it's not bad but others say it's too hyped up and not that great at all. Still we knew we had to try it at least once =)

V was in Melbourne for a few days, and we initially wanted to go to Hutong Dumpling Bar but they were booked out for the night and we wanted dumplings so we decided to see if we could get a table at Taiwan Cafe. And tada - we got a table on a weeknight at 6.30pm!

It looks like a very typical Swanston St Asian restaurant, tightly packed tables with 100% Asian students/young adults lol.

We decided to order the "awesome" dishes of the cafe - so all of the dishes below are "awesome", except for the Xiao Long Bao which I decided we had to order 'cause I just love XLBs =)

We started off with Chicken Drum - fried chicken drumettes with pepper seasoning, lightly coated in bread crumbs - 4 pieces for $5.90

Chicken Drum

KFC goodness lol =P The meat is cut off the bone so extra crunchy and extra oily =P Who calls these drumettes?! Aren't they drumLETS?? Actually I just looked it up and it can be called either lol.

P wanted the Taiwanese Style Pork Belly Burger - steam bun filled soya marinated pork belly, pickled bok choy, crushed peanuts and coriander $6.60 - we were reminiscing the delicious one tasted at The Booth! But they had run out for the night - boo =(

So instead, we ordered Beef Wrap - spring onion wrap with soya marinated beef slices garnished with spring onion and plum sauce $9.00

Beef Wrap

It's like an Asian souvlaki - but plum sauce instead of tzatziki, and beef slices instead of lamb =P The beef was marinated and not dry like the meat in a souvlaki - was yum!

V wanted Pan-fried Pork Dumplings - a house specialty - 12 for $9.50

Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings

Looks pretty good! I love it how they fry them all at once and the sauce leaks out and becomes a crunchy base! But it means there's less juice inside the dumplings but was still very moist and the skin was quite thin =)

I got my Xiao Long Bao - steamed juicy pork dumplings - 6 for $7.20

Xiao Long Bao

Which was actually a disappointment. I actually thought they'd be pretty good given they give vinegar with real ginger slices, as opposed to the XLB at Taste Gallery in Brisbane. But each XLB was broken before we even touched it..

So all the juice leaked out - it just tasted like a normal steamed dumpling, nothing special =(

P wanted a rice dish so he got the Black Pepper Pork Chop - grilled pork cutlet dressed with black pepper sauce with onion & seasonal vegetable with rice $9.50

Black Pepper Pork Chop

Looks a bit sad - there was only 2 very thin slices of pork chop and the "seasonal vegetables" was a few pieces of wombok - lame! P was quite disappointed, but I said it didn't look very nice in the picture anyway, though it was meant to be an "awesome" dish =/ Should have ordered the Three Cup Chicken Rice instead - that actually looked nice in the picture =P

Food~
6/10 - the pan-fried dumplings and the beef wrap were good, but the rest were not that great =/

Service~
2/5 - we tried to get their attention for ages to get some serviettes, which they didn't provide - they should really know given we use our hands to eat the chicken drumettes =___=

Atmosphere~
1/5 - very loud and very packed, but it's what you expect on a Swanston St Asian restaurant =P

Now that I've tried it not sure if I'll come back again... maybe when it's not so hyped up and there's actually room to breathe inside lol =P

C.
xo

The Booth

The Booth

612 Station St, Boxhill

(Ph) 9899 7666

On Sunday P randomly said he wanted chinese herbal soup so we decided to go to Boxhill to buy ingredients 'cause the asian shops at the city don't have the stuff we want (they're really crap with such limited selection of asian vegetables!) So we trained there from the city - took like 30mins! Got there and the the shop we were looking for had closed for the day already! Boo =(

We walked around and bought some asian vegetables and decided to meet T and her boyfriend, R,  there for dinner. They suggested going to The Booth since R's Taiwanese and he said this place had quite genuine Taiwanese food.

P ordered the beef noodles - he never wants to try anything new!

Beef noodles

But he didn't like it very much because it came with beef brisket (he doesn't like it =P) and he said the noodles were not that special even though R said they were a Taiwanese specialty!

I wasn't very hungry so I ordered 2 entrees.

Special fried drumlets

I actually was craving KFC the day before so I was dying for some fried chicken! This was very yummy and very greasy =P The drumlets were butterflied and deep fried it in some special seasoning - delicious!

The Pork Belly Bun was famous as I could see from the magazine articles stuck on the wall =P

Pork Belly Bun

This was very interesting! The bun was like a mantou and the pork belly was so soft and tasty with peanut shavings and coriander. I normally don't like anything with coriander in it but this was so delicious I didn't mind the coriander! I've been to Taiwan before and had street food but I don't remember having anything like this. Definitely worth going back for =)

All this was only for $20 - I was happy and my wallet was happy =)

7.5/10

C.
xo