Movenpick

Movenpick

53A, 1A Main St, Boxhill

(Ph) 9890 6392

I had bought a Groupon voucher - $12.95 for 2 desserts so pretty much half price. Even though it's been a freezing Winter, I love icecream in the cold =D

I had been to the Movenpick at Doncaster multiple times before but was the first time to the Boxhill one - it's much nicer and newer as a separate restaurant instead of the open space in the Doncaster shopping centre.

You can choose between pancakes, waffles, a 6 flavour sampler, sundaes and banana split. We thought we'd get pancakes and waffles =) Then you get to choose 2 ice cream flavours and sauce flavour.

Pancakes with Tiramisu and Creme Brulee with Strawberry Sauce and White chocolate flakes

Waffles with Macadamia and some berry ice cream can't remember the name of it with Chocolate Sauce and Dark chocolate flakes

The waffles were delicious - Belgium waffles <3 Crunchy yet not too battery - the chocolate sauce was a very dark chocolate sauce so went very well with the tangy berry ice cream. The pancakes were alright, nothing too special, I could probably make better pancakes myself - we should have got 2 serves of waffles instead =P

The ice cream is really to die for here - rich creamy and full of flavour, my favourite is the Maple Walnut (which I didn't get this time 'cause I've had it numerous times before) and definitely the Tiramisu =)

Food~
5/10 - a little pricey if not for the voucher, go for the waffles and Maple Walnut if you come! =)

Service~
3/5 - food came very promptly, made me wonder whether the pancakes were premade, pretty sure the waffles are and they just heat them up

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite a nice place to hang out =)

C.
xo

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.

Original Taste of Northern China Cuisine

Original Taste of Northern China Cuisine

930 Whitehorse Rd, Boxhill

(Ph) 9898 8787

This was one of the few Boxhill restaurants in my Cheap Eats Guide so thought we'd go check it out. Very ordinary decor - with the terracotta tile roof decor again! (see Hills BBQ Noodle Shop). P said it really feels like Beijing with the white walls and high ceilings, and waiters with their deep Northern accent =P

The waiter (owner?) was busy talking to some regular customers and kinda didn't serve us/take our orders for a while =/ Though I did take ages to decide - I was going for some normal dumplings since dumplings are meant to be a northern China dish, but then though I should try one of their specialties. This was mentioned in the Cheap Eats Guide so thought I'd try it - Stir-fried threaded pork in sweet soy sauce in Beijing style $14.80

I think they mean shredded pork instead of threaded pork? It was quite bland was seriously just some soy sauce pork on a bed of raw spring onion =/ I saw the waiter take a packet of pancakes which I assume had just come out of the microwave, opened it and put the pancakes on the plate - so they're definitely not freshly made which I guess was expected. They were a bit stuck together but I guess was good they were very thin and uniform.

They don't have many rice dishes here - most of their dishes are proper main dishes and you order rice on the side, so it would have been a massive. P finally settled on one of their very few rice dishes - Basa with batter in sweet and sour sauce with rice $9.80

Looks like sweet and sour pork - I guess it's pretty much the same thing. Though the batter wasn't very good - it should still be crunchy even after drenched in sauce, but it was all soft and soggy =(

Food~
3/10 - maybe we don't know how to appreciate Northern food but I didn't think it was that great here =/

Atmosphere~
2/5 - nothing much

Service~
1/5 - would have been nice if the waiter served everyone equally, or at least serve us first before chatting!

C.
xo

Pho Chu The

Pho Chu The

936 Whitehorse Rd, Boxhill

(Ph) 9890 1688

P loves his Vietnamese food - I decided to be a nice girlfriend and accompany him (slightly reluctantly =P) We were actually going to go to Tan Tan on Carrington Road, but we had walked over to Whitehorse Road for some errands and came across Pho Chu The - decided to eat there instead 'cause we were too lazy to walk back. I found out afterwards there are restaurants with the same name in Richmond and in Fitzroy - I wonder if they're owned by the same people?

It's a relatively new restaurant - the tables are specially made with Vietnamese sceneries and the restaurant name on it, I like that nice touch =) All the tables come equipped with a stack of fold up menus, and a bell - customers tick their orders on the menu paper and press the bell for service. Kind reminds me of China Red but not quite as high tech =P

The menu paper

There's really only Pho here and a few rice and rice noodle dishes, but they don't have alot of the typical Vietnamese dishes like Banh Xeo (Vietnamese crepes) or Banh Beo (steamed rice flour cakes) =( They do have a very extensive drinks menu though - kinda like a bubble tea place.

On the wall there's a TV screen with beautiful pictures of their food dishes though it only flickers between like 5 dishes =P

P of course got Pho Special Beef - he got a large for $12.00 This is him picking the mint leaves off the branches =P

Omg the large is REALLY big =/ It was alright, the broth was not too bad (yes! not too much coriander in it!) but wasn't as flavoursome as it could be. The "Special Beef" didn't have anything special that I liked - no brisket or liver or jelly (blood) - disappointing, though P did like the stomach and other offal bits.

I wasn't that hungry so just decided to get some spring rolls - there are some big posters on the wall of some of their dishes - look now nice these spring rolls look =P

Wasn't quite the same when it came out but was not too bad - some of the spring roll skin broke, they probably premade lots and froze them and the skin cracks when they're defrosting or separating from each other =(

Food~
5/10 - nothing too special here though I am a bit biased against Vietnamese food. I do like that they didn't put much coriander in the soup =P

Service~
3/5 - quick efficient service here

Atmosphere~
4/5 - quite nice here without the dirty old feel of most Asian restaurants

C.
xo

Hills BBQ Noodle Shop

Hills BBQ Noodle Shop

586 Station St, Boxhill

(Ph) 9899 3382

Hills BBQ Noodle Shop is famous for their BBQ meats - I had been here a few times before for takeaway BBQ meats and when I saw it was in the Cheap Eats Guide for ☆☆ I thought I'd pay it a visit again.

Inside is a very authentic Honky atmosphere - look at the Ancient Chinese palace tiling around the kitchen lol

I went for the Roast Duck + Honey Glazed Pork (BBQ pork) on rice - one meat is $8.80, "extra dollar for extra mixed $1.00" - I just love Asian English =P

They were quite generous with the BBQ meats, though was a bit disappointing =( The bbq pork was flavoursome but was quite dry and tough. The duck meat was good but the skin wasn't crisp at all =( It wasn't like we came really late, we came during peak lunch time and it still wasn't good..

For some reason P is always sick when we eat at Boxhill so he wanted congee again - Seafood Combination Congee $9.50

Very generous with big tiger prawns, lots of fish and scallops =) the congee was very flavoursome - it wasn't like they just made white congee and put the seafood in afterwards like how they do it at some places.

Food~
5/10 - I had remembered the BBQ meats to be much better, maybe this was just a bad day =( We saw someone have a plate of beef fried noodles which looked super tasty with crunchy noodles - wouldn't mind trying that next time

Atmosphere~
2/5 - quite loud and rowdy here, but really feels like you're transported to a cafe in Hong Kong!

Service~
3/5 - quick service here

C.
xo

Cha-T

Cha-T

Boxhill Centro Shop 53, Boxhill

(Ph) 9898 8900

After dinner we were so stuffed but just wanted to chill somewhere - what better place than a tea shop! By the window there's a round wooden shelf with lots of intricate ceramic and clay teapots and tea cups.

And inside the shop they sell lots of tea accessories - teapot sets, teas, teacakes.

They also normally sell the "pee pee boy" which they actually sold out of on this day =( But I've got some at my parents home and they are very cool =) They're little figurines made of clay, hollow inside with the only opening being it's pee pee! Chinese people use it to test the temperature of their tea water. Chinese people usually boil water in the morning and put the boiled water in a thermos throughout the day to use for tea etc. This pee pee boy is to test whether the water is still hot enough for tea =) You soak the pee pee boy in cold water for about 5 minutes, and then you pour the hot water over its head. If the water is hot enough for tea, a nice stream of pee pee will come out! The hotter the water, the further the stream goes =) These little clay figurines are actually very popular souvenirs from China these days - not that tourists would use it for this purpose =P

The shop is not that big but it was quite busy on this night.

On the wall there are really pretty paintings =)

There are a few very interesting looking tables and stools - caved from humongous roots of trees, though they're not the most comfortable to sit on =P

Look at the little Buddha carved into the table!

There are normal tables/chairs to sit at too but we choose to sit at one of the tree root tables.

Look at the crazy looking stool - seriously so hard and uncomfortable though =P The surface of all the root tree tables is slanted so all the liquid drains down this tube to a bucket underneath the table.

We ordered a pot of High Mountain Green Tea for $16. There is a whole ceremony that goes with tea drinking. There is a kettle filled with hot water which is constantly boiled sitting on the electric base. They pour the boiling water over the teapot first to warm it up, then they rinse all the tiny teacups with boiling water too - all handled with the chopstick-like forceps.

Then finally pour water in the teapot which already came with the tea leaves.

The teapot is very small - one full pot can only fill our 4 tiny teacups once. The tiny teacups seemed a bit silly at first, 'cause it's really just one sip. But we realised that Chinese people like to drink their tea very hot so if the teacups were bigger half the cup would get cold =P We were constantly refilling our teapot (so they had to constantly change our kettles), sometimes leaving the water in there longer so the tea is stronger. Other times when the tea was cold or dilute, we would pour it onto the table which would drain to the bucket underneath. Quite a fun experience =)

We didn't have anything to eat here, but they do sell some simple snacks like nuts and fried fruits etc so you could easily spend a good few hours here =)

Food~
7/10 - not really food here but anyway, they have teas ranging up to $68 a pot! maybe next time I'll try a more exotic tea =)

Atmosphere~
3/5 - very relaxing environment here, if only the chairs/stools were more comfortable but that's our fault for sitting on the tree stumps =P

Service~
3/5 - the owner came and explained to us some tea traditions and the girls kept coming back to change our kettle with more boiling water =)

C.
xo

Tien Dat

Tien Dat

3 Carrington Rd, Box Hill

(Ph) 9890 9699

Catching up with T and R =) I'm not usually a fan of Vietnamese food but P loves it so T suggested Tien Dat, apparently one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in Melbourne. Cheap Eats Guide gave it a rating of ☆☆☆! They are fully booked, especially on weekends, and do 2 seatings. We were seated at 6.15pm and were told we had to leave by 8.15pm - fair enough.

We started off with Tien Dat Spring Rolls - Regular (pork, shrimp, vegetables & mushrooms). Large serve 5 rolls (lettuce, herbs, vermicelli noodles & sauce) $11.45

Nothing too special, like any normal spring rolls so thought it was a bit on the expensive side. I like how Vietnamese style like to serve it with lettuce and vermicelli - makes spring rolls seem less unhealthy right? Their fish sauce is one of the best I've had though.

Next came the Steam Pancake Rolls (Banh Cuon). We got half serve pork (pork, mushroom & onion) and half serve prawns (prawns & onion)

It's like the Chinese steamed rice noodles except these are drier and served with fish sauce instead. The rice noodles were quite smooth and I like how it's served with garlic chips and bean shoots.

My favourite Vietnamese dish! Vietnamese Crepe (Banh Xeo) - pork, prawns, mung beans, bean shoots and served with lettuce , herbs & sauce $16.30

This was done very well - thin crispy omelette with lots of fillings, the mung bean paste is an interesting filling which went very well with the rest and actually acted like a glue so the stuff didn't all fall out! =P

Next came the Rice Vermicelli (Bun) - served with shredded lettuce, herbs, crushed peanuts and sauce. With grilled Lemongrass Pork $11.30

T mixed it up before I had a chance to photograph it =P Very refreshing dish and was delicious with the fish sauce, but after having fish sauce on every single dish kinda get a bit sick of the flavour =P The grilled lemongrass pork was done really well - one of the highlights of the meal =)

We were getting full already but still had 2 more dishes to come! We totally overordered but anyway =P Spicy Squid (salted & peppered squid) - squid lightly deep-fried, tossed with spices, onions and chilli. Served on a garden salad $17.80

Deep fried squid with some onions and capsicum. This is more like a Chinese dish than Vietnamese if you take the fish sauce out of it.

Last came the Sizzling Dish. Choice of Lemongrass & chilli, sate, hot or sweet chilli with fresh basil, mongolian, mild curry lemongrass & coconut cream, garlic and ginger, black bean or black pepper corn. We decided to go with the Lemongrass with beef $16.30

This was quite ordinary - I couldn't really taste the lemongrass, and I thought usually lemongrass is dry like the lemongrass pork? Was alright, more like a stir fry dish instead of actually cooked on the sizzling plate.

It was 8.05pm by the time we finished our mains and T said they had a really good dessert she wanted us to try (even though we were stuffed!) but the waitress said we had to be out of the restaurant and wouldn't let us order even though we still had 10mins to go. Apparently we were meant to be out by 8pm not 8.15pm, we pleaded her and said the group wasn't even here yet but she just said no =/

Food~
7/10 - was not too bad, my favourite was the Vietnamese Pancake =) Lemongrass pork is also good, the rest were quite ordinary or was more Chinese than Vietnamese.

Atmosphere~
2/5 - quite loud given it was fully packed

Service~
1/5 - food came quite quickly but I didn't like how they made a mistake with the leaving time and wasn't nice about it =/

C.
xo