#7 BBQ Seafood House (5/240 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Steph, Mark R, Penny, Andrew

Am I in the twilight zone or is this place a replica of Pacific BBQ House four doors down? “Only someone who has eaten at every restaurant would make a comment like that,” says Mark in his first week of Chopstick Chowdown Challenge. The strung-up ducks in the front window are there, as is the wall covered in coloured papers with specials. But here we don’t have to wait for a table.

Even the font on the menu looks the same. I do a double take – is it the same menu? However a count down to 27 yields a different item. This week it is vegetarian corn soup, which we begin with, dividing out a small bowl between the five of us in spirit of communal eating. It immediately makes me think of Japan and the addiction that grew there with hot corn soup in a can out of a vending machine. Delicious in a snow storm in Kyoto but is unlikely to ever get a 10 out 10 in Melbourne restaurant.

Next are the plump spring rolls. I take a quick survey of the filling to notice shredded carrot, celery, cabbage and shitake mushroom amongst other ingredients. There is also the bonus of two sweet dipping sauces.

The tea tastes different and Steph suggest a hint of liquorice root. We end up working our way through quite a few pots of it.

Peking duck is becoming our backup staple at Chinese BBQ restaurants and those of us who participated in the Pacific BBQ House have problems shaking the memories of that divine peking duck. My first piece is a little thin on and a bit dry. Penny complains about her pancake falling apart, fatty duck and the lack of hoisin sauce by the time she has finished eating her spring roll with chopsticks. Still there is something about the combination of flavours and textures in peking duck that has me tasting it long after we leave the restaurant.

From the specials board we choose the deep fried oysters with special sauce and sautéed scallops with garlic stem. I love natural oysters and I’ve had Chinese fried oysters at yum cha before that left disillusioned at how the majestic oyster can be ruined. However at Seafood BBQ House the deep fried oysters are a pleasant surprise. Very tender (some suggesting they taste more like scallops than oysters) they had a mild flavour of the sea inside a perfectly fried shell with a touch of gently sweet sauce. Plus at $19 a dozen, a bargain. So good in fact that all five of us did ‘scissors, paper, rock’ over who got the last two.

The scallops come amongst a pile of green stalks that none of us had had before. The garlic stem was like a cross between spring onion and the stalks of Chinese broccoli. A subtle taste of garlic plus a sprinkling of carrot, mushroom and baby sweet corn in the dish. The scallops were perfectly cooked with a touch of sweetness.

We supplement all this with fried rice, which comes with unexpected pile of prawns on top (prawns, not shrimp) and has a great smoky flavour to it. I suppose it should in a BBQ restaurant... Though I find myself looking around for soy sauce and am suddenly struck the complete lack of condiments on the table.

By the time we have finished the restaurant is full. Maybe people are later eaters at BBQ Seafood House. The similarities with Pacific BBQ House are inescapable however lack of divine peking duck aside, I found BBQ Seafood House more even across the board and felt sated. Penny was just happy that nothing was gelatinous.

Ratings
Spring rolls 7.4/10
#27 (vegetarian corn soup) 7/10
Peking duck 7.2/10
Special (deep fried oyster with special sauce) 8.6/10
Special (sautéed scallops with garlic stem) 7/10

Average cost per person: $20

#6 Thanh Phong (7/240 Victoria Street)

Attendees: Beata, Steph, Imogene

A heat wave has hit Melbourne. On a balmy evening it is perfect weather for a Vietnamese feast. After two weeks of Chinese restaurants, I am missing pho. At 7/240 we have another non-descript establishment with laminated tables (brown this time) and hard chairs.

For some reason this week turns into speed Chopstick Chowdown Challenge. We are in and out of there with full bellies in all of 20 minutes. Hello food, nice to meet you, you’re lookin’ alright this evening, let me devour you…next!

Everyone seems to be ordering Vietnamese pancakes and it is listed under the house specialities so we go with it. A crisp yellow pancake is folded over a mish-mash of chopped up seafood and loads of bean shoots giving it a crunchy texture. There is nothing holding it together and I feel like it could have benefited with some sauce. We make good use of the condiments to add flavour.

In order to cover our bases we get the dim sims off the specials board and they go alright with their crispy fried outsides.

Number 27 is broken rice with shredded pork and pork chop. I have my doubts about this but it is actually pretty good. The broken rice has a certain charm to it and the pork chop is lean, not too dry and has a Vietnamese flavour to it (is that a hint of lemongrass I can taste?).

The pho is pretty standard but lacks the chopped red chilli which usually accompanies it. Instead we have a massive pile of lettuce and bean shoots, which everyone seems to be getting no matter what they order.

I don’t know if it something in the food or the hot weather but we all nearly lose it in fits of laughter when Imogene tries to use a small pile of rice as a serviette. Imogene laughs so hard she is hyper-ventilating, which just makes us laugh harder. Can it also account for Imogene’s comment “I’m thirsty, I’m going to chew on this”, as she picks up a piece of iceberg lettuce?

Inoffensive, nothing outstanding but on the whole tasty. As Steph says at the end, “I feel this is very much a 7 restaurant” and I totally agree.

Ratings
Rice paper rolls 7.5/10
Beef pho 6.5/10
#27 (Broken rice with shredded pork and pork chop) 6.5/10
Daily special (Fried dim sims) 6.8/10
Vietnamese pancake with seafood 7/10

#5 Pacific BBQ Seafood House (8/240 Victoria Street)

Attendees: Beata, Emma, Penny, Andrew

For the first time in the Chopstick Chowdown Challenge there is no room in the inn. Twenty minutes is given as the approximated time and we decide to wait. This place is obviously popular so the food must be good. Pacific BBQ Seafood House is one of those places where the front window is a graveyard for BBQ ducks and pork strung up on hooks. Tantalising. As we loiter out the front we can watch the chef with a cleaver chopping up whole ducks at such as speed that we worry about his fingertips.

People are crowded just inside in the doorway, waiting for both table and take-away food. Andrew goes inside to check on our table and is convinced a family has swooped in on our table while his back was turned. The waiter tries to move them but they are refusing. It’s a dog eat dog world when it comes to getting tables at Pacific House.

Never fear, within two minutes there is a table for us. When I say a table, I mean part of a table because everything is jammed-packed in here but it adds to the communal eating atmosphere.

I am dazzled by the fluoro signs covering the walls like a grand collection of flags. On these flags in black marker are both Chinese and English characters announcing different dishes.

As soon as we sit down small bowls of soup are placed before us. Excellent…we have food before we even have a menu! Getting a menu (or the waiting staff’s attention) is a little more difficult.

In the meantime I watch the folks around us, the vast majority of whom are of Asian descent. As a large bowl of saucy BBQed squares (pork? tofu?) lands on the table beside us, a granny attacks it with gusto, making swift movements with her chopsticks. She can’t get the garnish off quickly enough, lest it contaminated the food (assumedly).

There are no dumplings on the menu so we substitute spring rolls. They are crispy and plump and come with bright red dipping sauce. No complaints there. Number 27 (as a count down the menu ascertains) is vegetarian san choi bow. It has a pleasant BBQ flavour to it but as Penny says “it is missing something.” “Meat?” suggests Andrew. Alas there is no bacon in the steamed rice either.

As the girl next to me says, the Peking duck is “divine”. Succulent slivers of duck and spring onion in thin floury pancakes with a tangy hoisin sauce. Top stuff!

Off the wall we choose king prawn with king oyster mushrooms. Although the prawns are juicy, the gelatinous sauce lacks flavour and the wafer thin slices of mushroom may as well be tofu. Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce at $16 a serving is outrageous, especially as it is hard and stalky and the oyster sauce had slid off into wateriness.

I think this is one of those restaurants where you need to point to the table next to you and say “we’ll have one of those” because whatever the regulars were ordering looked the best. Or just stick to anything barbequed (like the delicious duck that beckons from the front window) as the restaurant’s name suggests.


Ratings
Spring rolls 7.6/10
Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce 5.1/10
# 27 (vegetarian san choi bow) 7.1/10
Daily special (King prawns with king oyster mushrooms) 6.3/10
Peking duck 8.8/10

Cost per person $25