Chong Co Woden January 27 2016

 RATING out of 5 stars:
Ambiance: ***
Taste: **
Value: **
Service; **
Overall : ** 1/2

After a very welcome dose of summer rain, the Canberra evening was cool and fresh - a balmy 17^oC (3.8^oC above the January monthly average).  Could we have picked a better night for dinner at the open-fronted Chong Cho Thai restaurant in Woden?  Clearly most of Canberra didn’t think so because we arrived to find the restaurant very crowded. 

 

Squeezing through the densely packed tables, we headed to the only empty table in the restaurant – a good size one in a back corner.  It seemed a little quieter there - more the level of an “energetic buzz” than “I can’t hear myself think”.  If truth be known, most of the discernible noise may even have been our own lively chatter because as the restaurant started to empty, we didn’t notice it getting any quieter.

Despite (or perhaps because of) this, the restaurant has a pleasant al fresco ambiance.  The service was also efficient and friendly.   It is therefore not surprising that it is a popular lunch time destination for workers in the Woden area. Would it work just as well as a dinner venue?  We were about to find out.

The menu wasn’t particularly extensive.  There were a limited number of traditional Thai dishes in the main menu (such as Pad Thai and green chicken curry) and hints of more modern Thai cuisine in the signature dishes (lamb shank massaman curry and lamb cutlet with chilli and basil).  We chose a mix of dishes from both parts of the menu opting for the salmon green curry and Massaman lamb shank curry from the signature dishes and crispy soft shell crab with tamarind sauce, a mixed seafood lemongrass, duck salad and a cashew nut tofu/vegetarian stir fry from the main menu. 

Both the signature and main menu dishes came out beautifully presented with a modern flourish.  The Massaman curry, for example, had a (vertical) lamb shank surrounded by a sea of curried sauce topped with a decorative coconut swirl (very reminiscent of latte art).  Most of the other dishes featured a colourful side salad and a wonderful array of carved vegetables.  Andrew felt that this approach became formulaic when repeated over a number of dishes.  The decorative elements also took up space on the plate leaving less room for the main component of the dish.  This meant that portion sizes were comparatively small making it difficult to share the dish among a larger group.  The problem was particularly noticeable in the mixed seafood dish where we needed to divide 2 prawns, 2 scallops, 2 calamari and 2 mussels among 7 people – an impossible task. 

 Given the excellence in presentation, we had high expectations of each dish.  However while all the main dishes were reasonably tasty, none were particularly memorable.  The slow cooked lamb (in the Massaman curry) and the salmon (in the green curry) were both perfectly cooked but were swimming in sauces that weren’t particularly interesting.  The sauces used in the cashew nut stir fry and duck salad were less prominent but didn’t seem to do much for either dish.  The cashew nut stir fry sauce was too sweet for the vegetable/tofu ingredients and the rich, creamy coconut dressing in the salad overpowered (rather than complemented) the duck meat.   

Our favourite dish of the night was the crispy soft shell crab which received consistently high marks from everyone. The crab was beautifully cooked in a light and crispy batter and although the sauce was quite sweet (and very similar to the cashew nut stir fry sauce), it matched the dish well.  The other dish that scored well (at least for the guys) was the massaman lamb curry with its tender, fall-off- the- bone meat. 

Our least favourite dish of the night was dessert (I never thought we’d ever say that!).  We chose the sticky rice and banana in a banana leaf but found no banana leaf and hardly any sticky rice.   The small amount of sticky rice in the dish was combined with banana into a bland and gelatinous patty which was then served with a dollop of cream and ice cream.  In terms of taste, texture and presentation, it was disappointing.   

 Although the dessert was expensive ($9.50), the cost of the overall meal was reasonable.  With 6 dishes and 3 shared desserts, we paid $27 per person and there was plenty of food for 7 people (although we did fill up a bit on salad). Overall we thought it was an OK meal but there are better (and better value) Thai restaurants in Canberra.  It also does seem to be more suited to a lunch time crowd and smaller groups (2-4) (where the portion sizes aren’t going to be an issue).   

Dish	Rating (mark/10)							Ranking*
	Andrew	John	Jim	Karen	Megan	Ron	Average
Green Salmon Curry	7.5	6	8	6	6	7	6.75	5
Lamb Shank Massaman	8	8	8	7	5	8	7.3	2
Vegetarian Cashew nut Stir Fry	NR	6	7	7	6	7	6.6	6
Duck Salad	6	6	8	7	8	7	7	Equal 3/4
Crispy Soft shell crab with tamarind sauce	8	7	7	8	8	7	7.5	1
Mixed seafood lemon grass	NR	6	7	7	7	8	7	Equal 3/4
Dessert (banana and sticky rice)	NR	4	5	3	NR	5	4.25	7

*dishes ranked according to average scores

 

China Tea House 16 December 2015 and again 13 January 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After struggling to find a car park near the China Tea House in Erindale, we walked into the restaurant to find it busy and quite noisy – a good sign on a Wednesday night!  According to Jim’s trusty phone app, the noise levels varied from 90-107 Decibels (depending on whether Ron was speaking!). To put that into perspective, 90 decibels is the same noise levels as factory machinery and 107 decibels is the same level as a subway train.  The noise meant that it wouldn’t have been the best restaurant for a romantic dinner but for a small group of 3 looking for good food at a reasonable price, we were in for a real treat.

The best part about the China Tea House is its menu.  Amongst the usual array of Chinese dishes are more innovative dishes with unexpected combinations of flavours with a changing blackboard menu that takes advantage of seasonal produce. Both Ron and Karen’s eyes lit up at the thought of a dish (from the blackboard menu) which had both Prawns and Lychees.  The dish lived up to our expectations – the sweet fresh lychees exploded in your mouth and complemented the prawns in both texture and flavour. 

The black board menu provided the other dish we really enjoyed - a crispy fish with a honey soy sauce.  The fish was freshly fried with a light, crisp outer layer and accompanied by a delicate, not too sweet sauce.  This matched the sweetness and delicateness of the fish beautifully.  The fish also included a lovely combination of quality fresh vegetables (carrot, shredded iceberg lettuce, sugar snap peas). Not only did this added texture to the dish, it mopped up the sauce and cut through its sweetness.  It was a surprisingly smart and well-constructed dish. 

The other two other dishes we ordered were not as good.  The duck pancakes were OK rather than great (the biggest problem was that they fell apart when we tried to eat them).  The stir- fried chicken fillets with almonds in a bird’s nest were disappointing.  There was a problem with the order and it came out much later than the other dishes.  Perhaps the kitchen rushed the dish too much to get it out to us.  They used fried wonton wrappers for the bird’s nest rather than potato straws – the effect was dry and tasteless and it detracted from the rest of the dish.  The chicken fillets themselves were also slightly dry and the sauce was uninteresting. While there was nothing inherently awful about the dish, it was one we wouldn’t recommend to others.

Despite this, overall we thought our meal was so good that we brought back the larger group for our first meal after the Christmas break.  This time there were 5 of us and we opted for 6 mains rather than having an entrée. Not surprisingly, we ordered the prawn and lychee dish again. This was as good as last time and still Ron’s favourite dish of the night.  The other dish we enjoyed last time (the crispy fish dish) seemed to have been changed from our last visit but there was a similar dish which we thought we would try in its place (a Thai style crispy fish with honey and soy sauce).  The Thai dish was very tasty but we did prefer its previous incarnation which had more vegetables and less lime in the sauce. Megan also thought the crust could have been crispier.

The other dishes we ordered were all fantastic - Japanese tofu with mushrooms, Yu Yuang Egg plant, Dry-fried spicy lamb and soft shell crab with spicy salt.  It was difficult to pick a favourite from among them and we didn’t all agree on one.  John and Jim particularly liked the stronger flavours in the dry spicy lamb (reminiscent of a Shantung lamb). Megan and Karen loved the Japanese Tofu. The tofu was beautifully silken in texture with a light, crispy outer layer and was perfectly balanced with an array of different mushrooms (the enoki was particularly nice).   We all also really enjoyed the Yu Yuang Eggplant.  The chilli sauce was wonderfully rich and its flavour was carried beautifully by the delicately textured eggplant. Finally, the soft shell crab was really good (John rated it as his #2 dish). It was a simple dish but done very well - the batter was lovely and light and was not all fatty like many others we’ve had in the past. Megan even commented that it was the best soft shell crab she'd tasted for a while.

So, it ended up being a great start to our year even if Andrew and Kim couldn’t make it.  It was a fantastic meal at a reasonable price ($25 a head) and we certainly had plenty to eat (even without the extra dish!).  Even so we still managed to talk ourselves into going to Goodberry’s to end the night with a dessert sundaes...ah, those guilty pleasures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

China Plate 2 December 2015

 

 

 

 

Wine:

Show Sparkling Shiraz Great Western Vineyard 1990

St Martin Riesling 2015

Megan, Ron, Karen, Jim, John, Kim 

We had Beijing Duck pancakes

Wasabi fillet Steak
eggplant spicy salt
three kinds of mushrooms
fish fillet vietnamese styles
ko po chicken

The duck pancakes were beautiful and meaty.

The rest of the meal was amazing. every mouthful was fabulous, it was a good mix of flavours, great variety, the mushrooms were a bit plain but went well with the oyster sauce.  The aubergine chips were the winner  (as always), the wasabi beef was a fantastic flavour, vietnam fish had a combined  fish sauce and blachan flavour which was concentrated at the bottom of the dish.  The chicken has lots of dried chilles which made it very tasty.

 The usual bunch of federal politicians were stalking us yet again, oh well we just have to put up with it, don't we.

Rocking Ribs, Erindale Wednesday 18 November 2014

Jim, Karen, John, Ron, Kim, Megan (too far for Andrew).  It was Jim's birthday

Wine: Taku: Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough New Zealand 2014

Campbells Limited Release Shiraz Durif 2002

Kim had read a review of this and suggest we go along.

It is a reworking of a another restaurant that had been there that had served New Orleans food which we rather liked.

This one specialises in ribs and burgers and related foods from the south of the US.  We went for two platters, the Missisippi Platter and their "New Orleans Mix" along with some corn bread.

 All was quite nice, the ribs were the winners, along with the fish. The ribs had a nice tender, smokey flavour,  the grilled fish was done beautifully.  The wings were ridiculously hot, we couldn't eat them, the beans and corn muffins good.  The two share plates were enough for the six of us.

Not refined food, hearty, basic, family food, good for a nosh up, not an elegant night out.  The restaurant was not crowded the night we were there so it was not too noisy but would be with a lot of people.  The wait staff were friendly but very casual, almost too casual, forgot about us on a few occasions which was a bit odd especially when we were the only ones there. 

Chang Rai 4 November 2015

 

Chiang Rai, Southern Cross Club Woden

 

Everyone, Kim, Jim, Karen, John, Ron, Andrew, Megan

Wine: Mud House New Zealand Sav Blanc Marlborough 2014

Wirra Wirra Church Block Cab Sav Shiraz Merlot McLaren Vale 2013

 

Spring Rolls
Money bags
Mild mussaman Beef
duck legs with figs and thai spices
red curry chicken
macadamia scallops
fish fillets with chilli, garlic  ginger
mixed veges and beancurd

 The spring rolls were nice and crispy, the money bags weren't quite right, the mince was not moist enough, too dry.

The chicken curry was dry, but had a nice coconut flavour; the duck beautiful, sauce good; scallops nice not sure about the roe but best to taste it with the basil, beancurd nice; massaman a bit sweet and watery; fish tasted like it came out of a packet, dry with a thick skin.

 Overall the food was okay, not outstanding, a bit disappointing really.  Not as nice as the one in Woden Plaza.

Service was good, ambience nice.  It was very quiet as there was only one other table there.

 

Green Bamboo Swinger Hill 9 September 2015

4 attendees

 Entrees

Stuffed Chicken Wings                  Comments:  very delicious

Rice Paper Rolls:                               Comments : nothing out of the ordinary

MainsHoney Prawns:                                 Comments:   fine; not exceptional (Ron); delicious (Andrew)

Sizzling Beef                                       Comments:    fabulous (Ron)

Fih in Hotpot                                    (I did not record a comment, but I seem to recollect the fish dish was quite good)

Vegetarian Stir Fry with Noodles       Comments:  bland (Ron)

Plain Rice 
Wine
Mount Langi Ghira Billi Billi 2006  Shiraz . (From Jim’s cellar I assume).

Comment:  Wow and Wow !!!!   Intense dark berry spicy flavours that exploded on the taste buds from the first sip.

 Ambience

Very quiet and sedate.   Good place to hold a conversation.    There were a number of seated quiet groups of customers.  But the restaurant emptied quickly after our arrival.  The restaurant is worth another visit some time

Mr Wei's 21 October 2015

Wine: Giesen Marlborough Sav Blanc 2014

Grant Burge Barossa RS26 Reserve Shiraz 2006

Megan, Ron, Karen, Andrew, John, Jim

 

We had:

• half a duck comprising duck pancakes and duck with noodles
• master cut eggplant
• pork belly
• combined flavour fish
• lemongrass chicken

 
Ron gave the whole meal 11 out of 12, it was really, really good.  We made a really good choice, couldn't pick our favourite dish.
The chicken was amazingly tender, was it smoked or steamed beforehand, maybe sous-vide, but whatever it was very moist and went well with the lemongrass and garlic flavours.
The fish was deep fried in a batter, was spicy and lovely
The eggplant was also deep fried in a kind of batter, but not too fatty, nice and crunchy.
The duck was to die for, both the pancakes and the noodle dish; the pork was very tender and tasty.  There was quite a lot of fat with it, but that could easily be separated.
The desserts weren't that inspiring, cheesecake and profiteroles, but no great drama, we had eaten enough good food by then to be satisfied.
The menu on the whole is not extensive but what they do they do well. Mr Wei's seems to be underrated for what it is, an inexpensive but very satisfying Asian meal.

 

Megan, Ron and Andrew had just been to Politics in the Pub to see Richard di Natale, Jim had just been to Sydney to see his cousin David in Megadeath.