Chong Co, Woden, 6 Mary 2015

Jim, Kim, Ron John.
We had four mixed entrees, Duck Salad, Lamb with Chilli Basil, Salmon Fish Green Curry, and Jasmine Rice.
For dessert Jim had Thai Pumpkin Pudding, and Ron had Deep Fried Icecream with Caramel Sauce.
We were impressed with the entrée, and the duck salad. The lamb dish was quite hot. All courses were very well presented. The service was very good.

Tang Dynasty, Kingston Foreshore 22 April 2015

 

 

Jim, Megan, Kim, Ron, John, Andrew

 

Wine: The Ned Sav Blanc 2014, Waihopai River, Marlborough

Cape Mentelle Zinfancel 2001

 

 

The Tang Dynasty has reopened, including the horses at the front door.  Great to see them back.

And they have an all duck menu, so there was no debate on what to have.

Duck pancakes to start with, decent, huge pieces of duck not, as Ron said "just some died up skin".

The next duck course was noodles, with duck and mushroom.  It had flavours of ginger and sesame all through the noodles.  Maybe there could have been a bit more of the duck perhaps, but otherwise lovely.
The salad was maybe the favourite?  It was mixed with crisp apple and maybe rice wine vinegar, it was refreshing and tasty.
The soup was the let down of the night, it just tasted like boiled duck, quite thin, the least interesting of all the dishes.
And of course, dessert was standard, but yummy.

Tang Dynasty is not your ordinary Chinese, it's a bit more upmarket and the prices reflect that.  But for the extra, we get a pleasant ambience, tables not too close together, noise not an issue, and wait staff who were attentive (including the magic show).  Recommended!!

Kinh Do 8 April 2015

Wine:Katnook Coonawarra Cab Sav 2010:

 Present: Andrew, John, Jim, Kim, Ron

The rice paper rolls were very good, but Jim said they weren't quite as good as in the past.
The curry puffs were also very good, but came out cold.
The favourites for the mains were the lamb with Vietnamese mint and the chicken. The seafood and the beef were still very good.
Dessert was banana fritter and Vietnamese banana cake with coconut cream. The fritter was nothing special, the cake was very nice.

Mings 25 March 2015

Present: Megan, Jim, Karen, John, Andrew, Kim, Ron

Unfortunately I have lost my notes for this dinner, but from memory: great choice of dishes, all fabulous, great night.  The restaurant was full when we arrived with a  few large noisy tables, so usual complaint about the noise.  It won't stop us going there again though, it is one of the group's favourites.

Spicy Ginger 11 March 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had

• duck pancakes
• cumin lamb
• chicken and noodles
• spicy king prawns
• spicy beans
• stir fry pork
• eggplant fritters

Wine: Gallagher 2014 Sauvignon Blanc

Penfolds Bin 28 Cabernet Shiraz

 

Present: Jim, Karen, Ron, John, Kim Megan and Eric

Ron, Megan and Eric had just been to Politics in the Pub nearby, which is why we had chosen this restaurant.

The food was beautiful, very generous serves, the house special (chicken with noodles) was enough for two, the flavour of the chicken went right through the dish.  Kim said it reminded her of a dish her family would cook.  The chillie beans were nice, the lamb lovely and sharp flavour with the cumin and the onion.  The batter on the eggplant was heavy, oily, but without being too bad.  The prawns some of us liked, some didn't.

Red bean pancake for dessert, yum!!!

Overall, it was a good night, service was quick and friendly.  Noise level 77-82 decibels, too loud for us aging boomers.

China Plate Wednesday 4 March 2015

It was just the three of us that night, Megan, Ron and Jim and China Plate on the Wednesday night of a sitting week must be the place to be pollie spotting.  .  As Ron emailed later  "We had a fun dinner last night at China Plate. Quite a representation from the political scene were present. There was a gaggle of journos sharing a table with pollies from both sides of the house of reps. JC and PC were recognised among them. MF from the senate was spotted at another table. The star performer of course was CP with entourage, at a table down the back. His charming act for the evening was to be seen eating his meal from a bowl perched on his rather substantial belly. "

(Ref photo of Jim with two tables of pollies and their acolytes in the background)
Wine: Mc Clay Rod Shiraz, Beechworth 2009

Food: soft shell Crab: a duck dish (forgotten what) and aubergine.

 Apart from all that excitement, we had a beaut meal, with the aubergine chips the highlight as it always is with China Plate.  Always reliably good food, not outstanding but that's why you don't pay top price.  Value for money though excellent, service very prompt and noise level quite okay for us seniors.

Red Hill Tea House

Present: Kim, Jim, John, Andrew, Ron, Megan.  Karen not well.

We talked about the usual stuff, holidays, Kim going to Malaysia/Singapore, politics, new technology.

 
We'd been to Red Hill Tea House about 12 months ago and Ron made a captain's call that we should go again. 
It's one of those small suburban Asian restaurants, so small that you wonder how they manage to stay afloat, but we guessed it was probably the take aways rather than the people at tables.  We left at 9pm and we had been the only ones there for a while.
It's main attraction is that it offers Burmese and Thai as well as Asian, and while it could not be seen as being at the forefront of experimental Asian/fusion/new Australian etc, it's still offers a good range of traditional dishes with a bit of difference.
We had:

Deep fried scallops, nice but not amazing.

Angel prawns, nice and amazing.
Burmese red curry, nice, tasty, not too chilli hot
Pad Thai which some of us thought was the best we'd had for a long time.
Lamb yushiang.
Stirfry veges with beancurd, but ordinary, what we asked for is what we got.
Spicy Crispy fish, voted by some of us as the best dish.

A pleasant evening, all the food was good, you take no risks eating there, noise level was low, ambience pleasant.

 Wine:

Brown Bros Prosecco

You me and the gatepost Shiraz 2008.  Great Southern, Western Australia