Igg restaurant and bar

RNIS was invited here by Healthyintstudents site, who bought them a Groupon to use.

Igg Buffet Restaurant and bar is in Docklands where it is quiet these days except for a few noisy pubs with functions going on.

Here there were not many tables occupied on a Friday evening when they say that you have to book ahead. With booking ahead, I would have thought that there would be more tables occupied. Perhaps it is latest nasty reviews on Zomato that turned people away?

Needless to say the manager was rather nice and friendly. But at 7pm they were cleaning the restaurant with punters still eating there. They should wait until all the punters have left. But they do gift vouchers, so if you want to get someone that Christmas present you can.

Canapes

More canapes

Sushi

Salads

Seaweed salad

Buns

Mini egg tart

Cakes

More cakes

The Groupon that Healthyinternationalstudents bought for us is $58 and it includes the all you can eat buffet and your choice of shiraz or soft drink. The deal said your choice of wine and so I thought "great I'll have a white wine please!".

The salads were pretty good. They were fresh and I enjoyed the pasta salad very much. Same as the olives which were divine.

And seeing as they are a seafood place, the big mussels were a little bit undercooked. It was hard to get all the meat out of the shell as it would not budge. The oysters were good but some sauces to go with the oysters would be right. Oh and also the right wine (not shiraz) would work best with seafood and that is white wine.

The sushi was freshly made and the chef does it and there is a little sushi train that is right next to the salads. I enjoyed the squid nigiri very much. The wagyu was a bit chewy.

The hot foods were really bad. They were lukewarm. But I did enjoy the deep fried bun,

I loved that little piece of cheese and apricots. It was yum.

Then the desserts were the highlight of the evening. I enjoyed the strawberry mousse, mini egg tart and the mini cakes. They were not too sweet for me.

Do buy the Groupon if you love your seafood and I would love to come back to try the crab and the other seafood things. And try another wine.

UMSU's night market and Xian Foods

UMSU have their annual night market and this was the first time that I have been. Here they have 19 food stalls and all of them was really full except for the roti one. The roti was really good and I did not have to wait long. It was $4 for one big piece.

Most of the student stalls have run out of stuff and most of them had no form of queuing. Everyone just grabbed everything. I was a bit frustrated.

UMSU if you are going to run the Night market next year make it not free (at least a $5 charge and the money raised can go to the International couch). If not free have some security around to check the tickets like the MCG.

And all the clubs should make their stall a cashless payment system meaning that people have to go online to buy a crown card (like Taste of Melbourne) or use EFTPOS only.

But the entertainment was still good though. And so were the decorations.

In the end though I went to Xian Foods which is a few blocks down from Melbourne Uni. They specialise in spicy food and handmade noodles. Although the handmade noodles I got were a little bit on the doughy side. The lamb in my noodle soup was good and so was the broth.

But I was so full from both. And the lady that served me did not understand me one bit when I asked her questions.

Oh well there goes another year of night market.

New Taipei restaurant

This restaurant is quite new and its in the place of the old Taiwan cafe. Here they were busy at 2:30pm and couldn't quite seem to handle the rush of customers.

Here they are run by the same people that runs Food Republik in Box Hill. From what I have heard is that the quality of food has gone downhill.

The service was a bit so so. Here the waitress barely smiled and she walked past me five times looking bored. They do have wine and beers but I'm trying to quit and they are carbonated.

You wait for a table and then you order. And then you wait quite a while for your food to come. I waited about 20 minutes for my huge chicken and rice to come. I ordered the Crispy fried chicken which was not too crispy. In fact it was a little bit soggy from all of that oil. But the egg was good. They make it in one of the little egg rings to make it that perfect circle.

For $12.50 it fed me a lot. So much so that I don't need any other food for a while.

The mince was alright- it least they didn't drown the plate of rice and chicken with that prok mince.

Rating: 12/20- just ok. I would like it better if they introduce the Chicken bentos to everyone though via their menu.

Cafe De Taite

Cafe De taite has only just popped in Glenferrie st and its a roast duck shop. Here it is run by Cantonese people. Cantonese people are friendly but this waitress seemed a little bit surly. I'm not sure why. She did not smile one bit and after 3pm I was the only customer there.

The city was evacuated at 1:30pm hence I decided to hang out in Glenferrie until it ended.

The BBQ pork omelette was just ok. The complementary pork and vegetable soup was too salty. The rice had too much soya sauce in it- they could have put that on the side.

The BBQ pork was dry- it was overcooked. It had that dry chewy feeling to it.

The rice was just ok.

In short don't bother about the meals here. I wouldn't mind buying duck to take home seeing as its between $16-$30 depending on what you want and how much you'll eat.

Hokkaido Cheese tart

Hokkaido Cheese tart has just opened in Melbourne Central and recently we went to check out the craze. The first few weeks the place was really hectic as people wanted to find out about these little beauties. But now that there are shops in Chadstone and QV as well as Melbourne Central, there was really no need to go all the way to Melbourne Central.

Here the tart was nice and warm from being freshly baked on site. That's the good thing about coming early in the mornings. When you get them in the afternoon it can be lukewarm and cold from being on the bench for a while. One tart is $3.90 which is expensive for such a sweet tart.

In short try it once and if you like it go back again.

Rice bar and Cafe

Rice bar & cafe is now Dumpling and Shanghai cuisine. This place is on St Kilda road and has been there for many years but no blog posts. I wonder why!

One day whilst running past it I was intrigued. But then I was in a hurry and it wasn't until two days before Christmas.

Here they have all meals under $15. Here I had their tomato and egg with rice. It was supposed to be fried but it was scrambled. It was nice but the very sweet tomato sauce drowned out the flavour. The rice was freshly cooked and was jasmine rice. I was going to have prawn dumplings but they didn't have any.

The wait for takeaway food was really long.

I really did like their $4.50 Spring Onion pancake. Here it was piping hot and very golden.

Do come by to this lovely place when they reopen in the New year. I really hope that Sweet and Sour Fork tries this place out.

Melbourne Dumpling Fest pop up

This was a one night only pop up and it was badly organised. It was in 206 Bourke st where Tim Ho Wan is. The first 200 people to register and vote for their favourite restaurant got a free Lava bun from Tim Ho Wan. This was pretty good.

The one thing that really irked me was that there was no takeaway food on display. Everything you had to ask the restaurants and there were huge lines just for that. There wasn't a lot of chairs to sit down on. Also the crowd of people was just bad. But after 8pm people left and it was fine.

There was a free cooking demonstration done by Dumpling Mania which was all good. We all got to sample some of Dumpling mania's siu mai which was good with the chilli sauce. People had beer but I did not seeing as it was too late.

The chinese mushroom dumplings that I got at Dragon Boat for $5.90 were great. But for that price it was a bit expensive. However the bao with popcorn chicken from Nuoc Charm was bad. It was $6 or 2 for $10 but it was the worst. It reminded me of Roll'd's one from Jam Factory. Here it was just lukewarm and very lacklustre.

If there was a dumpling festival again next year, this should be outside and in a bigger venue such as Fed Square.

Yogi bar

This bar was recommended to me by the Couch.

The bar is just a new bar and is run by the same people who run Jung's downstairs. Here Jungs was busy but Yogi upstairs was quiet until 8pm. Here they are more like a drinks bar with a sharing menu and burgers.

I chose the soft shell burger combo for $18. It was small but moreish and it came with chips, popcorn and soft drink. Actually though all the tables had popcorn but they forgot mine until I reminded them. The soft shell crab burger was good but the bun was a litte bit dry from having been on the bain marie for a while.

I had to wait twenty minutes for the burger and French fries and they did not come out together. For a single burger which costs $14 I expected a much more decent serving. The plate of fried chicken looked huge and it was about $17.

For an extra $4 I got the chips and a Sprite. The chips were your average Mc Donalds chips.

Rating: 13/20- long wait for food and small portions. Well I think I might just come here for drinks and skip the meals. I might go elsewhere for meals.

Sam Sam

Sam Sam is a new Korean eatery which replaced Claypot King. Here they have two levels and a whole lot more seating.

Sam Sam specialises in chicken and value meals and just that. I was disappointed that they didn't have any entrees, just mains. And they didn't have the pork dumplings that you would find in many Korean restaurants and festivals.

Coming in one night after a run I was really hungry. Here they were really busy with the students who love Korean food on a winters night. Here many of the students ordered the fried chicken but I was not in the mood for that. I was in the mood for some bibimbap.

The tofu bibimbap was $13. It was in a bowl but not as big as the one at Oppa. Also there were no appetizers. However the kimchi was free and that was pretty good. There wasn't much rice in there and nor was there any burnt bits. I love eating all the burnt bits. But there was heaps of tofu and egg which is good. The tofu was fried perfectly.

Rating: 14/20- the food came out way too fast. Another minute or two might have worked. A good thing though is that the staff are very friendly.

Snippet: Think Asia

Think Asia is a fast food chain all over Melbourne and it's featured in many shopping centres. The one in Southgate was dirty and their staff were very rude to their customers asking them what they want and not waiting until they find their money. Moreover they do not smile.

I was served by this one rude Asian girl. Here there were meal combos and many people were buying them. I was only interested in the small plates seeing as many of them have sodium and other unwanted calories. I felt like I wasted $9.50 on a small plate with meagre servings. These were vegetarian foods with little protein. They could have added tofu to the mix for both the mixed veggies and noodles. The noodles were lukewarm.

I would not go back there again but would try other places in that vicinity.