Best places to eat and drink in Melbourne and Victoria
A humble little restaurant in Box Hill is serving up rarely seen Shaanxi cuisine — which includes the Chinese version of a hamburger that knocks a Big Mac for six. Here are all the places you should eat and drink this weekend.
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FOR CHINESE WITH A DIFFERENCE
This Box Hill restaurant is one of just a handful in Melbourne that specialise in the cuisine of Shaanxi province. Tables are set with bowls, pots of chilli and vinegar and a box of tissues — which you’ll need for the food is bold, robust and spicy.
Once the starting point of the Silk Road, Shaanxi cuisine has a strong Islamic influence so you’ll find lamb and beef in many dishes as well as the more commonly used pork.
Here at Box Hill’s Shaanxi-Style Restaurant, that lamb is served in one of the region’s most popular street foods — roujiamo.
Meaning “meat in bread”, it’s like a Chinese version of a hamburger, with the dense toasted bread filled with cumin-spiced, shredded braised beef mixed with mild green chillies that add a little welcome heat.
For $6, it’s a terrific snack.
Also good to begin are the fried chive dumplings; large, oil-blistered crescents filled with minced pork and chives, finely chopped potato jelly noodles and crumbled egg yolks.
They’re oily, crunchy and very delicious.
Yangrou paomo is arguably the most famous specialty of the cuisine and the version served here is reason alone to visit Box Hill.
An aromatic bowl of shredded flatbread soaked in a mutton broth, it’s served scaldingly hot, the unleavened bread squares plumped by the meaty broth that’s generously topped with mutton slices and further bolstered with thin rice noodles, black fungus and a bit of chopped coriander.
For a cold Melbourne winter’s day or night you can’t go wrong.
Noodles are a key feature across Shaanxi menus, with the thick, wide “biangbiang noodles” the most popular.
This flour-based noodle — which takes its name from the sound the dough makes when hitting the kitchen bench as its being hand-pulled — comes traditionally dressed with garlic, chilli and vinegar but there’s 20-odd variations of noodle dishes to explore.
Dumplings, of course, make an appearance and the suantang shuijiao, or hot and sour soup dumplings, are another must-try specialty.
With fiery chilli oil floating atop the black vinegar-sour chicken soup like a tanker spill, the fumes are cough-tinglingly, eye-burningly powerful.
Underneath the lava-red slick more than a dozen fat velvety soft, handmade pastry parcels are generously filled with a pork chive mix that’s tender and fragrant.
It’s a sweaty, deeply addictive bowl that makes a mess of that tissue box.
No frills, no fuss, Shaanxi-style restaurant is the perfect introduction to a regional cuisine less famous than Cantonese or Sichuan but with as much interest and appeal.
Shaanxi-Style Restaurant, 945 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill
FOR THE BEST OF THE BELLARINE
It’s the local wine bar that welcomes those from afar with a splash of something delicious — maybe a Surf Coast pinot or a Otway riesling.
Having just celebrated its 3rd birthday, the home of all things Geelong wine is a terrific spot to while away a winter’s afternoon. This buzzy cellar door-wine bar provides a comprehensive overview of the cool climate wines produced in the greater Geelong wine region — with big names such as Bannockburn and Scotchmans Hill sharing the stage with little known makers who are making their mark.
The Bellarine’s burgeoning craft beer scene is also well represented, with a fridge full of fine frothies from the likes of Blackmans in Torquay and Geelong’s Bells Brewing.
An extensive by the glass selection bolstered by the huge cellar available to drink in or takeaway. A cabinet full of cheese and hanging charcuterie takes care of snacking with class.
On Little Malop St — Geelong’s convincing answer to Melbourne laneway — Geelong Cellar Door is a win for wine lovers from around the state.
Geelong Cellar Door, 97 Lt Malop St, Geelong. geelongcellardoor.com.au
FOR A FRIDAY NIGHT FEAST
It’s Friday night and the joint is jumping.
Gal pals gossip over cocktails, groups of suits spin the lazy susan and date night duos share the communal table with silver haired foxes. The CBD’s Longrain may well be into its second decade but its pan-generational appeal is as strong as ever thanks to a winning formula of spot-on service, precise and friendly Thai dishes and a well-priced cuisine-matched drinks list.
Our tip: come with a group for the banquet offering is hard to beat. Sweet chewy pork caramel on pineapple gives way to the betel leaf that lead the charge way back when but still remains a two-bite wonder of smoked trout and green papaya.
Sticky nuggets of pork belly — at once chewy and soft and sweetly spiced — share the main stage with a coconut-rich Penang curry in which lamb shanks decadently swim. The crisp-fried whole fish is a non-negotiable must, a dramatically presented fin-to-gill celebration of chilli-salt battered crunch and sweet flesh, it’s a standout.
A well-oiled machine delivering a quiet masterclass in the fundamentals of hospitality, Longrain is fun, funky and still completely fabulous.
Longrain, 40-44 Little Bourke St, Melbourne. longrain.com/melbourne
FOR A BEAUT BRUNCH
Can’t wait for Jerry Mai’s fun and funky Vietnamese beer hall Bia Hoi to open at The Glen next month?
Don’t worry, there’s already more than enough good stuff for hungry-thirsty shoppers to get stuck into at the already opened new Food Gallery, as well as at Cru+, which officially opened at the start of the month in the new fashion wing of the shopping centre.
Kevin Li — of Hawthorn’s Lights in the Attica and the Crux and Co on Albert Park Rd — has added another cool cafe to the set, offering the same knockout cakes and pastries as its CBD sibling including the signature charcoal and salted yolk croissant.
There are stuffed croissants for breakfast and Asian-style salads for lunch and in a move sure to prove popular with decision-phobes the city over, build-your-own boxes feature across the day. Fill a tray with a choose-your-own selection of granola or fruit salad and bolster with toast and pastries or soup to start the day, or take a lunchtime box that features your choice of salad, sandwich and something sweet. On weekends, the High Tea box for two is a decadent way to while away the afternoon.
House blend coffee is by Five Senses, the “Tokyo Train station” aesthetic thanks to EAT architects and those beautiful blooms you see across room? They can be bought for your mum/sweetheart/better half thanks to the Vidda Flowers in store pop up.
Cru+ at The Glen (235 Springvale Rd, Glen Waverley) is open daily. cruplus.com.au
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