SilkSpoon restaurant review 2025

This cheery Chinese kiosk has gone from zero to lunch time hero in a matter of months, with under $20 meals bound to keep city workers happy.

Star chef Victor Liong is behind Silkspoon in the CBD. Picture: Brendan Beckett

If you can find a proper lunch for under $20 in the city, you’ve done well my friend.

Sad food court sushi aside, it’s hard to nab a nourishing meal.

Cheapish eats were the main city lure come winter, with big ticket chefs doing whatever they could to get people into town.

Shane Delia’s Maha ran at a loss to make $15 ‘Bowls of Goodness’, Thai eatery BKK wok-tossed $15 noodles and Japanese izakaya Robata slapped $19 chicken katsu sandos.

Come summer, it’s reassuring to see chef Victor Liong (Lee Ho Fook, The Lincoln) give more wallet-friendly deals a permanent home at his cheery Chinese canteen, SilkSpoon.

Newsflash: you’ll mostly get change from $20 on food alone.

Lunch bowls, a protein tumbled through rice, salad or noodles, is flat $18 dine-in or $14 takeaway. Eight dumplings, either pan-fried or boiled, are $18.

The duck biryani bowl is no longer on the menu. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Drinks are affordable, too. All beer and glasses of wine hover between $12-14 — and there’s even $3.50 filter coffee.

If the prices don’t sway you, SilkSpoon’s breezy green-and-white umbrella flanked terrace, near Movida Aqui, makes the perfect after work bev spot.

I’m glad to see SilkSpoon come into its own in time, especially after a very memorable for all the wrong reason pre-Christmas visit.

Gone is that puzzling biryani dish bubbling with puffed rice and pink basmati, as are the shabby white compostable crockery this and all other ‘bowls’ were served in.

Instead a clear ‘plastic fantastic’, aesthetically pleasing variety takes its place but still leaves me with the same question.

If there’s table service, why are our meals served in compostable bowls, yet others ceramic?

And I’m still perplexed by all the chicken!

Maybe the biggest takeaway (pardon the pun), after many visits, is what we are willing to compromise for price.

Boiled or pan-fried, the dumplings are always a good idea. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Pre-Christmas, you weren’t getting bang for buck.

The signatures were decent, but the lunch bowls seemed like an afterthought.

Now, as we return to office I’m glad to see the food has levelled up in quality and execution — you’ll pay extra for it, but not much.

In December all bowls were $14 across the board, now they’re $18 (despite being served in plastic) dine-in and $14 for takeaway. I’m not mad about it.

A sumac tickled juicy grilled chicken breast ($18) makes for a clean and healthy lunch tumbled with cos, buckwheat and feta, and is leaps and bounds above the sad grill-branded halloumi salad I ate last year; served fridge cold with undressed leaves and dry chickpeas.

See SilkSpoon is a hybrid restaurant meets grab-and-go grocer — settle in for the arvy or whiz by the compact pantry next to the kitchen to pick up the same four bowls for the go.

Pre-made meals pack the fridge, convenient for the grab-and-go desk lunchers, but a strange experience for those eating in.

There are also more hits than misses these days: the chicken pot pie ($20), a simple curry of potato and meat beneath a flaky roti prata cap was tasty enough and nicely portioned.

Using the roti to dunk or spoon from the pie is clever, easy fun.

And those pan-fried pork and cabbage dumplings ($18)— or boiled mushroom and cabbage — were served piping hot from the pan and nailed the chew to juice ratio (sadly not made in house).

SilkSpoon is here for Melbourne — rain, hail and shine. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Will Shaz and Baz care as much now that their lunch is served in a plastic bowl?

No way, especially now the quality has stepped up, and takeaway is reasonably priced.

Bravo, SilkSpoon for taking a punt in the competitive and cruel casual eats sphere.

After a few necessary tweaks, it’s rightly priced and ready to go the distance as a city lunch stayer.

Pass the dumplings!