Asian food centre HWKR changes its offering every three months
WITH a line-up of eateries that changes every few months, new Asian food centre HWKR is ultimate millennial eating hall — custom-made for the easily bored, writes Dan Stock.
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SAY what you like about millennials — flaky snowflakes, precious praise sponges, spoiled screen slaves — but their lust for the experiential new has driven much of our city’s dining boom.
New Asian food centre HWKR is ultimate millennial eating hall; a dining room for the ADD generation. For with a rotating calendar of tenancies that changes every three months, there’s little room for what-to-eat boredom within its coloured neon surrounds.
THAI EATERY GOES COOL FOR THE SUMMER
IS CHIN CHIN STILL WORTH THE WAIT?
It’s a clever concept that makes great sense from both sides of the pass: budding restaurateurs can trial ideas without committing to capital costs and eaters can trial dishes without committing to a restaurant.
That a developer gets ground-floor buzz for their apartment block — in this case the 65-level Eq. Tower up the Queen Vic end of town — makes it a win, win, win.
Opening in Feb and peak-hour packed since then, there’s still a month to get in and try this first lot that includes offerings from two ex-MasterChef contestants.
Reigning champ Diana Chan has opened Chanteen, and though still boasting the winner’s busy diary, was on the pass on two of three visits. She’s offering a mod-take on the Malaysian street food of her youth, but satay skewers at $14 (6pc) and $26 (doz), we’re not in Jalan Alor any more.
They’re quick to hit the table — note you’ll have to find a table first and quote its number when ordering — the sweet, sticky glazed chicken or beef are fine as is, but it’s Diana’s satay sauce that makes them a must. Dark, smoky, thick and complex and with a brilliant lingering heat, it’s a peanut sauce so good an anaphylactic might consider busting out their Epipen.
Good sauce also salvages her Malaysian fried chicken.
While the dark brown nuggets look like the fossilised mementos of a schnauzer’s morning walk, the vibrant burnt orange-coloured sambal belacan mayo is delicious, adding a hint of dried shrimp and garlic depth to the scattering of fragrant fried curry leaves and hot dried chillies atop the crunchy-fried chicken bits on the bone ($9).
The chilli had me reaching for my nicely priced pint of Furphy ($11), one of four Lion beers on tap from the only permanent tenancy, ManyMore. Run by the not-for-profit MAI foundation that donates profits to food- and youth-related charities, that’s every good reason to get stuck into the three-dozen deep whisky list, fruit-forward cocktails including watermelon, chilli and aloe vera shaken with baijiu (a Chinese white spirit), or the short, serviceable wine list.
The other MasterChef alum, Reynold Poernomo, has brought two concepts south from Sydney: his Koi dessert bar and the “Japanese tapas” Monkey Corner. Though he made his name on the show for his sweets, it’s the savoury here that more impressed.
Maybe that’s just because: chicken skin skewers. For $2 a pop, they deliver crunchy, salty, fatty, fried yum.
Only offal fans need apply for the plate of ox tongue, the thin slices of already rich tongue come with a beef fat dressing that a handful of chives can’t cut through ($15).
Better to spend
a dollar more for a satisfying bowl of meaty broth in which slippery, fat udon noodles are topped with three thick slices of pork and a poached egg.
His Insta-famous desserts include the signature Moss ($18), a busy show-off of a plate the centre of which is a chocolate orb filled with exceptional caramel cremeux. I preferred the salty hit to the crumb surrounding a decadent ganache that’s hero with the brown butter mandy ($10).
I’m not sure the first Australian outpost of Hong Kong’s Bread & Beast quite cuts it in burger mad Melbourne — the two “sandwiches” I tried underwhelming at best.
Though generous with brisket, the signature ngau lam was little but meat ($15); Hainanese chicken no better for being served in burger form on overly sweet brioche ($13). Meh.
The biggest surprise is Khao by the Rice Paper Scissors team. Filipino lamb ribs with delicious gnawy bits of roasted meat are great thanks to a fabulous roasted coconut sauce that’s spooned on top along with fresh chilli, cucumber and mint ($15), while two large fillets of Balinese-style barramundi with a buttery ginger sauce can’t be faulted for the generosity, even if the perfectly cooked fish had a slightly musty taste ($16).
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH MELBOURNE’S DRY SUBURBS?
Of the lot, I’d head back to Khao in a flash.
It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s got cool cache; HWKR serves up the Asian millennials’ equivalent to smashed avo on toast. The older generation may scoff, but for the young and the hungry for new, HWKR is a win.
HWKR
137 A’Beckett St, Melbourne CBD
Open: Daily from 7am (Sun-Wed until 11pm; Thur-Sat until 1am)
Go-to dish: Khao’s Filipino lamb ribs at Khao
Score: 13.5/20
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