Phone: (03) 9899 8558
Cuisine: Chinese
My parents had been talking about this lobster banquet deal for quite some time, so when I finally got back to Melbourne, we decided we would give it a shot.
The deal: $98 for a four person lobster banquet which involved lobster, three dishes and rice.
Shallot and ginger lobster with egg noodles
First up, the lobster was quite fresh and cooked just right. However, the sauce was a bit of a let down. It wasn't nearly as aromatic as I had expected - there was an obvious lack of the strong ginger and shallot flavours that are the champions of the dish. Noodles were just as they should have been.
As for the rest of the dishes, I was too fixated on my lobster to take photos. Not that it matters too much as they were a bit of a let down. I think it started with the poor choice in combination of dishes (the banquet did not offer us any choices, so the dishes were fixed).
The Hainanese chicken, which was supposed to be a key dish of the restaurant, was good but nothing fancy. The chicken was a little on the oversalted side but other than that, was moist and well cooked. The sauces (shallots, and sweet chilli) were quite good accompaniments.
The salt and pepper pork ribs were a completely different story. The batter, whilst light and crispy, was heavily ladened with oil. A sign that the temperature of the oil had not been hot enough to force out all the oil. There was also a distinct lack of flavour. Together this resulted in crispy oily bits batter hanging off some pretty tender but flavourless meat.
Stir fried Chinese broccoli rounded off the meal, Pretty standard but definitely needed after all the oil in the pork dish.
So value-for-money-wise, it was definitely worth it. You don't get cheap lobster all that often, and this was a pretty good deal (we even had leftovers from the dishes). However, if you're looking for quality in what you get, this would not be my first choice.
Overall Impression: 6/10
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