Hawker Kampong offers up the ultimate where-have-you-been-all-my-life dish
There’s one dish from Hawker Kampong in Port Fairy that delivers the type of easy happiness that chef Matt Dempsey has made it his business to excel in. And it’s $8 very well spent.
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As far as culinary mash-ups go, it’s a beauty.
Straight out of the where-have-you-been-all-my-life files comes the cheesy, charry, salty, garlicky goodness of the grilled cheese and garlic roti at Hawker Kampong.
If there’s a better snack to go with a cold beer on a cool night, I’m yet to make its acquaintance.
This garlic-punchy crunchy flatbread sandwiching melted cheese delivers the type of easy happiness that Port Fairy chef Matt Dempsey has made it his business to excel in. It’s $8 very well spent.
This hawker-style eatery takes over the historic Bank St site that was last rustic Italian restaurant L’Edera and save a lick of paint, a couple of Asian-inspired murals and a few on-theme privacy screens, remains inside as it was.
Dempsey — who is behind Conlan’s Wine Store and the fine-diner Gladioli, also in town
— is in the kitchen turning out a broad pan-Asian menu to those in the bar out front or the handsome dining room out back.
FOOD
Taking the hawker centres of Singapore and Hong Kong as inspiration, Dempsey’s menu features dim sum, spring rolls and samosas before seguing into bigger dishes such as Cantonese fish, stir-fried Hokkien noodles and a range of curries.
Dumplings are an easy win to begin, whether little fried wontons packed with prawn, a terrific siu mai mix that fills pastry parcels plump, or a subtle gingery chicken mince in fat tortelloni shapes that each come two to a serve for $6.
A sweet-sharp dressing elevates the prawn and peanut betel leaf ($6) into a classy two-bite snack, though the duck and shiitake spring rolls ($7) err more to fine but forgettable.
Roasted duck breast is served as a DIY platter ($24) with bean shoots, chopped red chilli, spring onion and coriander to wrap and roll your own pancakes, and while the duck itself was very nice — pink, juicy, full of flavour — the pancakes were served cold and hard, rather than steamed warm and supple.
A tasty take on Hainanese chicken rice ($32) is executed more elegantly, with half a poached chicken served on fragrant rice with a gingery chicken broth to the side, along with garlic, chilli and soy sauces to drizzle across.
DRINK
With a hint of lychee, the Kampong lager brewed to spec is a smashable quencher ($5 a pot) on a short, interesting craft beer list, while on-theme cocktails make the most of the Asian ingredients in the kitchen.
Well-chosen, Vic-leaning wines (thanks to Conlan’s) deliver great drinking in the $10 glass/$50 bottle range.
SERVICE
Welcoming, warm and super-friendly, our waiter handled the big room with ease.
X FACTOR
The front bar has pre-dinner cocktails written all over it, while the supremely comfortable large-backed banquettes are the pick of the dining room seats.
BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
With little bites around $6 and big plates just breaking $30, weekenders will enjoy country prices for big-city smarts.
VERDICT
Hawker Kampong has added a mod-Asian feather into Port Fairy’s already-packed cap of top dining options.
HAWKER KAMPONG
20 Bank St, Port Fairy
5568 3058
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