Footscray: Hao Thong

Vietnamese cuisine, a place I always love to dine at! There's never too much chicken rice in my chicken-loving world. Never!

Fairly short walk from Footscray station. I was told that this was the Melbourne-version of Sydney's Cabramatta. Sorry, but I still like Cabramatta better! :P

As you can see, Hao Thong allows BYO. Good stuff! Say hi to me in the window's reflection! o/

From the front, Hao Phong looks quite average in size, but they also have a dining area at the back. Didn't know until I asked for directions to the restrooms! 

Their extensive menu offers a lot of variety and all dishes are fairly cheap, same-same prices with Sydney's Vietnamese cuisines. Around $10 for Crispy Skin Chicken & Tomato Rice and their pho dishes are around $13. 

When I dine at a Vietnamese restaurant, I ALWAYS and only only eat Crispy Skin Chicken & Tomato Rice, so it's fair to say that I have a lot of crispy-chicken experiences (lol). Reason for being is because my lovely mother could pretty much cook everything else at home. I never eat pho out, and I'll tell you why soon!

Crispy Skin Chicken & Tomato Rice ($11.00)

In Cabramatta, it's Tan Viet Noodle House that has the best Crispy Skin Chicken. Hands down!

I've tried this dish at several other restaurants before, and none of them has ever been on par with Tan Viet's. So munching down this dish [on an empty] stomach was really a surprise for me! Their crispy chicken is probably the closest crispy chicken to Tan Viet's, that I've ever eaten. Beautiful crispy skin over tender, chicken meat. Urgh.. so yum!

Typical orange-coloured tomato rice that's served with these dishes, but unlike other restaurant's I've eaten at.. there's egg in this one. Might want to note that ;) Also served with a small portion of greens.

As much as I love the dish, I don't know why they are not served with dipping fish-sauce. Is it a Melbourne thing? Because mine was served with sweet chilli sauce!

In Sydney, they are always served with dipping fish sauce (nuoc mam cham/pha). The sauce that we dip banh xeo or spring rolls into...? Makes it much tastier than sweet-chilli sauce.. eehm. 

My other 3 friends ordered a bowl of pho each. I won't get into too much details with the pho. I love pho, but pho at restaurants are always full of msg (bot ngot), with obvious tastes of it too (reason why I never ever eat pho at restaurants). 

Hao Thong's pho bowls are not exempted from the list. I had a slight tasting of the soup, and really, all I can taste is the MSG. *shivers*

They ordered different types of pho in "small" ($9.00 each, I think), I'm not too sure which one it is in the photo above, but they said "that there was so much meat!".

Off-topic: Pretty cool that they offered pho is sizes, we don't have that in Sydney!

Overall, good customer service, affordable, nice crispy chicken rice, pho are full of msg (but lots of meat).

Hao Phong
136 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Ph. 9689 8373

On my list to try [next time]: Eehm... crispy chicken rice [again].

Melbourne CBD: Crazy Wings

Yeap. Spent a few days in Melbourne last week, and it was SO good! The place was amazing, and every restaurant just seemed so much more appealing than Sydney's.

Crazy Wings wasn't the first we hit up, however, it was one that made me cry.

Sourced from here >

My girlfriend suggested this place, because of their "crazy wings" challenge. I love spicy food, so sure, np. Off we went as 4 to Crazy Wings!

Yeap, Chinese restaurant. The place is quite small, nothing too fancy. Just your average-lookin' Chinese restaurant. It was kinda messy though. I walked into the restaurants and there were two tables uncleaned. There were other tables to fit 2, so we sat down and waited for the table to be cleaned before menus were handed to us.

The customer service was lovely though. Or maybe I just have a good vibe from the cute Chinese guy who served us. Hahahhahahaa. No, but really! We had a few questions, and he happily answered for us.

My most memorable line from him was, "all of these food are on skewers, so we have chicken, lamb [....] except the fried rice". Hahahaha! ◑.◑

He was also really playful. As I took pics of my food, he decided interrupt my pic with the silly V-sign! So cuuuuuuuuute?! OK. Let's get back to rating the food, before I go off rating him. Haha.

As you can see, all skewers are pretty cheap. Ranges from $1.50~$3. We ordered a bunch of skewers, and a bowl of Yangzhou Style Fried Rice ($8.80) to go hand-in-hand with the skewers.

The Yangzhou Style Fried Rice was poo though. I don't recommend it at all.

The serving size was not bad, shared comfortably between us four. But it was pretty much something I could cook at home. Peas, carrots, corn, shrimps and super oily rice together is not Yangzhou-styled fried rice, I don't think? Because if it is, then Yangzhou-styled fried rice is pretty shit. lol. 

Either way, overly-salty... not nice.

NOW! The skewers!!!! Hmph! We ordered quite a few skewers. About $40 worth of skewers!

There's really no point for me to take photos of each individual skewer. They are just presented on quick and easy-to-eat sticks. Nothing fancy, you wouldn't be able to differentiate them anyways!

Here's a quick round-up though:

• Honey spicy -- Tastes yum, but not spicy. 
• Beef -- Strong spiced taste, a bit like curry. Nice and tender, but a tad oily.
• Garlic -- Basic garlic taste, very flavoured. Very simple.
• Chicken skin -- VERY fatty, but nicely spiced. I'm a bit fearful of its fat, just too much for me. Won't finish this myself, but worth a taste. 
• Ox tongue -- Disappointing. The top pieces were drying, but got better towards the middle. Not as tender as I'd like it though. 
• Chicken spicy -- Spicier than Honey Spicy, but bearable. A bit salty though. 
• Original -- Basic with little spice. No point ordering unless you eat this first since flavours and spices of previous skewers will be lingering in your mouth..
• BBQ Enoki Mushroom -- I personally don't like mushroom, so I didn't like this. My friends thought they were nice though!
• Lamb meat -- Yum!

Besids that, we also ordered their... Crazy Wings ($2.50)! Two skewers, since only myself and another could take on spicy.

Urgh. This was mouth-burning. I teared out small strips to eat slowly, and it was ridiculously spicy. I didn't finish the the skewer, not even a wing. The cute waiter told us that "these crazy wings come with a jug of water too" and handed us a jug. Haha. 

I can see why though. They ARE spicy, but they're not nice. Urgh. They just tasted like... full of sprinkled spices, as you can see from the photos. I was expecting them to be soaked-in chilli (eehm, how to explain?), but it felt like they just rolled these wings in spices. DO YOU GET ME????

You can put these on par with Memphis Wing's "Ass Burner" level of spice doe. 

RANDOM THOUGHT: The toilets of this place is ridic-funny though. They are located upstairs (a fair walk), so as you walk upstairs... you'll see signs that keeps pointing you to the toilets.. Well. As they point, the last sign will say "Toilet?". LOL! It's like... I've been following this sign to find the toilets (like a hunting some sort of treasure) and now the last sign has a question-mark after it?! Or are you asking me where the toilet is?!

Overall, nice and nifty concept, cheap menu, lovely customer service, cute waiter, but the food is only OK.  

Crazy Wings
177 Russell St, Melbourne VIC 2177
Ph. (03) 9663 6555

On my list to try [next time]: Papaya Milk, Pear Juice and more drinks. Same-same skewers.

Cute waiter's rating (hehe): 

Bonnyrigg: Tornados Grill/Smokehouse

Another American eater today, Tornados Smokehouse. Not too far from where I live. Located across McDonalds, next to Crust Pizza and Subway.

There are both outdoor and indoor dining areas available. Both areas are comfortable, and were clean enough to sit!

Their menus are pinned up top and each meal has their own description of contained ingredients. Handy, and sleek.

Order, receive your number and choose a seat. They will call out your number when food's ready. The girl behind the counter on the day was really sweet and friendly. I can't remember what I asked her, but she replied very kindly! Lovely customer service (for the first time).

Again, I was with my sister (food-buddy), so we ordered two meals: Black Tornado (combo) and Hot Hell Dog.

Yam, yam, yam!

Hot Hell Dog ($10.90) contains "hell bbq, cayenne mayo, jalapeno, cheese sauce, bacon strips, onion strings". Also came with cole slaw.... which tasted bad as hell. Seriously. it had such a yucky bitter after-taste. Gah.

My friend told me she LOVED this, reason why I got it, else I would've went for a burger. I don't usually eat hot dogs.

This, is not very well done though. The frankfurt, feels like they've bought it from Woolworths, boiled them (or whatever) and then sliced them. The whole thing was a bit of an overshot. It's just too big for me to eat (small mouth, ahem).

The onion rings were a bit, soggy. The bun was also hard. Overall, another meal that I feel like I could've made at home. Disappointing.


On the other hand, my sister got...

Black Tornado Burger in a combo ($14.90), contains "beef, grilled onion, hell bbq, cayenne mayo, cheese, cheese sauce". The drink, we had to get it ourselves. Only drinks that comes with combos are 300mL cans OR a bottle of water. Get it yourself yo!

OK.

The one word I could describe this burger with is, sickening. Needs some greens. Must order these burgers with lettuce [next time], or else you'll feel totes murican' nomming down one of these. Hehe. I kidz. No stereotypes allowed here!

We shared both the burger and hotdog, and this burger was just, so so so sickening. It really needs some lettuce. However, besides that, I still don't think there's anything special about the two meals. Wouldn't order em' again.


Overall, would visit this place again to try some other meals, but not these two meals. If they don't impress next time, then bye-bye!

Tornados Grill/Smokehouse
Crn Elizabeth Drive & Smithfield Road, Bonnyrigg 2177
Ph. (02) 8786 1887

On my list to try [next time]: American Style Pork Ribs ($24.90/half), Tornados Buffalo Wings ($9.90/6 wings).

Fairfield: The Fishing Chook

Today started early, at 9AM.

For some reason, I woke up feeling like dropping down to The Fishing Chook. Nope, not any of my favourite cheap steak restaurants, or fast food restaurants, but only this particular store.

So, ahead I sailed to Fairfield's Neeta City at 11AM [with my sister]!

(Sorry for the shitty quality pics)

This is the second time I'm eating here! They are just one of the stores at Neeta City's food court, not a restaurant or anything fancy, so I also don't expect too much from them. As long as my food is decent enough to nom, the customer service is on par, then I'd continue to try other shit on their menu.

But no, they're shit. Their food is somewhat below average, matched with average prices, and fucking ridiculous customer service. Fuck.

Last time I ate here, I ordered their "after school special" with the fish. Only $5, which is ridic cheap (not to mention, good for students whom are on a budget).

This time, my sister took a pick at their salad range.

I actually thought their salads looked pretty nice, especially the Caesar Salad. In my head, I thought, "I definitely need to try this next time!".

Too bad, my sister picked their Seafood Salad ($4.50). The salads were priced in small, medium and large boxes. We picked the small box, and god... it is REALLY small. It's one of those thinner, small round plastic containers.

I did try two pieces from the salad, and I didn't think it was nice at all. However, I'm not a fan of seafood salads [to begin with], so I'll let my sister decide the fate for this one (to be fair!). "The flavour is off and there is something that just smells so fishy about this salad. Seafood is supposed to have that smell, I guess.. but I mean "fishy" in a bad way!", she said. Then after three pieces, she threw the whole box away. Fucking waste of $4.50.

OK. We also ordered a burger each!

Ocean Burger with Chips ($11.50), we ordered with battered fish (you can get it grilled or battered). Contains lettuce and tartar. The chips had the tiniest pinch of chicken salt ever. Not kidding.

The burger, tasted okay. I won't lie (although I'm really furious with their customer service). However, I don't think it's really worth the $11.50. The burger alone is $7, and with the tiniest portion of chips, it charges another $4.50. Got scammed.

Their deal: free drink with every meal deal. Yeah. We did receive a free drink. A can of Pepsi. That's not even cool. Fuck.


NEXT!


I ordered a Chook 'n' Caesar ($7). Grilled chicken, parmesan cheese, lettuce with caesar sauce. Ah, how I love my caesar stuff.

Has everything the menu describes. The burger alone was $7, OK price. Just an average chicken burger. The buns were slightly hard though (or dough, geddit?!).


Even after all this crap with the food, I think there's still a part of me that would really love to try their Caesar Salad. Until.....

*after waiting for 7-8 minutes for the last chicken burger*
Sister (in the politest way): Hi. Sorry, can I just ask how long more do I have to wait?
Lady behind the counter: Do you want it raw?

The fuck? Are you serious? Why the fuck would I want my food raw? Do YOU want to pay me $7 so I can make you a raw chicken burger instead?

Actually, all my sister wanted to do was to go away and find a seat, instead of standing around on our fat legs waiting for the burger.

But really, is that an acceptable reply?

Overall, OK food if you are lazy, but any newbie can make these at home. Not to mention, the to-be-prepared chicken/fish won't give you a dose of attitude that'll ruin your day. I guarantee it.

The Fishing Chook
Shop G.29, Neeta Shopping Centre, Fairfield 2165
Ph. (02) 9728 1015

On my list to try [next time]: NEXT TIME? There won't be no next time! -- Eminem