My Personal Ramen Tour - Chapter 23…read more Not bad for Aussie ramen. On a whim while wandering the streets we saw ramen and my sleep deprived brain thought that would be the perfect pick me up on our first day on the ground. Located in a weird alley, off the side of a weird indoor-ish shopping area, the menu seemed up to par with what you'd expect at a typical ramen spot. I opted for the tonkotsu set with gyoza. http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/gCsioN-8bVK08SVYHZi4iQ?select=Sm_up8ZybMmQWz7ToKYlRw#SG9oCgMi1R0w7_b4G_xWqQ Overall it was okay. The broth didn't have the richness and fattiness of great pork bone broth and the noodles were a tad overcooked, leaving them not chewy enough. But it was refreshing to have after 16 hours of travel.

Far down the food alley that runs alongside the GPO and Myer is the wonderful Ramen Ya…read more With their small menu, there isn't much in the way of choice, but the dishes on offer are all delicious, hearty and cheap. If $10 for a bowl of hot ramen noodles isn't cheap enough for you, come between 3pm and 5pm and get the dish for $7 - still the same huge portion, still hot and yummy. Oh, and there'll be no hassle about getting a seat; it's nice and quiet at this time. I ordered my $7 bowl of minced chicken ramen, and though it was on the salty side, it was extremely satisfying and warmed me up after walking around the city on a cold, wet day. Their selection of three chillis on each table certainly helped the warming process. Drinks of of the usual soft drink and Asian drink variety, but there are also a couple of brands of bottled beers available.

Always looking for "new" places to try, I found this little gem yesterday, and tried it for dinner…read moretonight. It's in a good location with plenty of street parking and while there's not a lot of curb appeal, it sounded good, so thought we'd give it a go. The interior is a little odd; quite a mish mosh of decor. But it smelled good inside, so we were eager to see what the food was like. They took our order promptly, and were accommodating with requests. The food came out in good time, which was more impressive since they were doing a few take out orders. The entrees were nice. Generic chicken spring rolls and chicken curry puffs. They were really nice and would probably order again. For my main, I had the chicken fried rice and though it was really nothing to look at (presentation left much to be desired) the food was very good. The kitchen honoured our requests for changes to the dishes, and the mains also came out in reasonable timing. From a pricing point of view, I think it was very reasonable. Mains were in the mid teens, and on a par with other small Thai restaurants. Overall ... would I come back again? If I was in the area, I'd definitely come back again. There wasn't anything really bad about it here at all. Considering it's almost a 30 minute drive from home to it, I'd be more inclined to try elsewhere first. But if you find yourself in Sandringham and want a good Thai meal, give this a try for sure.

A great friendly Thai restaurant with excellent service and delicious food. All the Thai classic…read moredishes and very attentive staff.

One of the better Hongky style "tea" "restaurants" I've been to recently. Situated opposite…read moreholmesglen and it's frequently a lot by students.. our favourite here is the deep fried soft shell crab and the congee. Will definitely return to try other items on the menu... flavours are quite authentic.. to add to that hongky authenticity... on the way out paying the bill by card we ask for a receipt. Only to be loudly yelled back at us "it's in front of you" . We wanted the credit card receipt.. "I can't give you that now, have to wait for the machine!" I just smiled and patiently waited... haha yep oh how I miss Hong Kong service sometimes :)

Quick efficient economical and tasty food. Especially recommend their double steamed rice…read morecombinations with chicken mushroom sausage etc ... Takes a little longer but well worth it. The dumplings in soup also good. Our fav local Chinese place.

Stumbled across Lanzhou Beef Noodle while we were walking home from exploring CBD Melbourne one…read morenight. Located a block from the AirBnb we were staying at, there was one on either side of the street! We checked out the menu and though noodle soup sounded delish for a windy/cool evening so we dropped in and grabbed a table. You order at the counter, there's not very many options, but you do get to choose the thickness of your hand-pulled fresh noodles! I saw some sides in the glass case as well, but the Signature Beef Noodle Soup is where it's at! I got mine with the "thicker noodles" which is like a rice noodle and was not disappointed. The broth was clear and flavorful, the beef was tender and the noodles tasted fresh and handmade. They were cooked perfectly and everything about this bowl was noodles was on point and fantastic. Why can't they have more places like this in the states?! Fresh high quality ingredients with amazing flavors. They don't specialize in a lot but what they do specialize in is the best of what they have to offer! I want another bowl as we speak and wasn't opposed to coming back here another night while we were in town. So many good eats to choose from though, so I never got the chance. The Spicy Beef Noodle Soup has a sichuan peppercorn spice to it, so if you don't like the tongue numbing sensation of peppercorns, stay clear cause there is a lot of it in that bowl! We got 2 bowls for "take-away", as the Australians would say, or "to-go" in the states and they packed it nicely for us in very sustainable plastic containers. The noodles and broth were kept separate so that you can mix and enjoy when you get home! They do charge extra for take-out and for to-go containers though, especially when you dine-in and don't finish! Seems to be the norm in Australia to pay extra for take-away containers, so don't be alarmed. Delicious beef noodle soup and I would definitely recommend this place and come back, if I ever get the chance!

Super fast service and pretty cheap for the big portion size. Most importantly, they serve so…read morequick! Like within 5 min! My parents got the beef noodle soup and I got the tomato egg noodles. I recommend the beef noodle soup. My absolute favorite part of this place is that you get to pick out of 6+? types of noodles that vary in thickness and cut, I find that very refreshing!

One of the really best Sri Lankan restaurants, you don't find restaurants this good often. Price is…read moreone step towards the middle higher end and food full of flavor. Haven't tried everything for this restaurant yet, however Lamb madras curry is definitely a whackbang of garlic and spices. Honestly not a big fan of Indian food, however this restaurant is something special that can lurk me into it with the food smell spreading across the street. Service is really great, polite and efficient.

Decent food, friendly staff and good set of vegetarian options. Visited couple of times during a…read morebusiness trip and was able to try few different types of dishes

WOW, JUST WOW...The Best Chinese food in Melbourne. This was our first visit to Ruyi and it was…read morejust down right fantastic. We had a reservation and arrived on time. We received a warm welcome, by I think the owner. As we sat and looked around the place was lovely and classy. We sat pretty close to the bar and were able to watch the bartender make magic. I had Szechuan Mule and it was so pretty I didn't want to drink it. It was soooo good. It was made with a Szechuan infused vodka. We ordered a mixture of appetizers and they were perfect. Honestly we wanted to order everything. We settled on the Peking Duck Cones, the Wonton in Chili Oil, and the Szechuan-spiced Eggplant Batons. - Peking Duck Cones (pancakes)(2 pieces) were some of the best we have had. They seemed lighter, duck had a great flavor with less fat than most, and a perfect crisp to the duck skin. Loved the little dots of hoison placed on the plate. - Chili Wonton (6 pieces) consisting of pork and shiitake mushrooms, arrived in a bowl soaking in a Sichuan Garlic Chili vinaigrette sauce. Again, some of the best we have had. Much better than previous ones we have had in Melbourne. - Szechuan-Spiced Eggplant Batons - arrived beautifully presented. And like none we have ever had. They were actually big slices of eggplant that had been fried and tossed with shallots and a coconut peanut powder. Interesting and delicious. All of the food was wonderful. Everything had their own modern touch added which only enhanced each taste. Service was great. Recommend you make a reservation well in advance. We had to adjust our schedule and eat at an early time to get into this wonderful little restaurant. Highly recommend and will definitely return when we return to Melbourne.

When you think Chinese you normally think 70's interior, bad lighting, fish tanks, Lazy Susans &…read morechairs that you once had in high school, but when you walk into Ruyi you are confronted with soft colours, clean lines, wood and smiling staff. Already I was happy to be here. We were shown to my table with my partner and right away you know you are on to a good thing when you have a wine list in front of you, we were offered water as we sat. I love to know what I am eating before I choose my wine so our lovely waiter went off and grab us some menus. As the waiter explained how the menu is designed for sharing; she asked if anyone on the table had allergies. Now I am a foodtard (have allergies) so having a venue that understands that this is a common thing is refreshing. The menu look so good it was very hard to choose what to eat... Dumplings, soft shell crab, scallops, whole snapper, wagyu - so much to choose from. We started with dumplings; crab & pork dumplings, vegetarian dumplings & the wonton dumplings in chilli sauce. They were perfect. A thin skin which you could see the filling through. The dumplings are made fresh to order. You can see the chef making them behind the bar. They have a well balanced wine list which has European wines, Australian & New Zealand. There is plenty by the glass is you want as well. Next we had soft shell crab, peking duck cone & scallops and again amazing the flavors were well balanced, good texture booked beautiful. For mains we had the whole snapper two ways which is a piece of art amazing it's a MUST have!! But don't forget the truffled +9 wagyu oyster blade served with mushrooms & asparagus. Mmm my mouth is watering thing about it.. But it didn't stop there even though I could not fit in dessert I just could say no to banana fritters, my partner had the chocolate spring rolls with coconut ice cream. Lets just say he didn't give me any!! I am looking forward t my next visit they informed me that they have an express menu too...

"...FRIENDS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.. BUT, WE FOUND THE CURRIES - BELOW AVERAGE.. SORRY GUYS..!"…read more I'd heard about TO SA BIANG, Greville Road, Prahran from friends - When I saw the Groupon Deal, I jumped at it immediately... The Mixed Entree Platter was delish - 4 pcs each - all home-made - loved their Sweet Chilli and Peanut Sauces... Both the Padang Beef Curry and the Green Chicken Curry had lovely flavour, but the cook was definitely very mean with the Vegetables and Meats - I'd describe the 2 dishes as watery - and with nil substance... The steamed Red Rice was nice... That was it for food - Not quite the '6 course banquet' it was sold as... but anyway... I'd bought a 4 person voucher but only 3 of us turned up [luckily the other, a big appetite, couldn't make it.. sorry, mate..] - We ordered another 3 bowls of rice to finish off the sauce left in the curry bowls - We weren't anywhere near full, and would'v really liked to have had a look at the menu, but staff made it pretty obvious they wanted to close - We decided we better leave... I must mention that the complimentary glasses of Red Wine came from a good bottle - I'd say a decent Cab Sav - smooth and full-bodied... Cost: -Groupon Voucher for 4 - $75 -Extra 3 small Steamed White Rice and 1 Lemonade - $12 Not good value - I've had much better take-away Thai food for half that price, including a bottle-shop bought, very drinkable Sth Aussie Red... So sorry, I loved the space and had high hopes, but I really do got to "tell it as I experienced it..." Visited on Saturday 23 Jan 2016 for dinner.

Poor customer service. The staff basically ignored us when we came in, didn't even direct us to…read moreseats and just waited for us to call them for the orders. The food was average, and we thought it was just heated up in a microwave because only the top portion was hot. Totally opposite their advertisement of "every meal is freshly cooked one by one." Wouldn't recommend to friends.

So much to unpack here ... There were four of us for dinner and they seated us at a strange table…read morefor six, and so we were kind of spaced out too much. They gave us only two menus for the four of us which was annoying. The soup came out first and the other three of us had to wait so much longer for our entrees to come out. They too came out staggered, and since the chicken ribs came out SO late, they were still eating them as their main meal came out. I hate that. Cutlery was practically thrown at us. No class or care. Didn't find any of the staff warm or friendly at all, sadly. The one redeeming feature is that the food is nice. Is it the best Chinese food I've ever eaten? No. But it would scratch an itch if you're craving it. Also, just pray that if you order the Sweet and Sour Chicken like I did, that it's not drowning in sauce, as the batter then goes soggy and the cutlery gets sticky and sauce ends up on the table. Sadly, I wouldn't return here. There was no warmth, atmosphere or anything inviting, and some dishes were dirty. Yes, the food is ok, and reasonably priced, but there are so many other places one could go to. Sorry, but just being honest.

In support of a friend who is currently researching for a business concept involving dumplings, my…read morehusband and I have visited a LOT of dumpling / dim sum / yum cha venues. To put this into perspective, next week we're travelling to asia to do just that. Anyhow, I digress. The point is we get through a lot of steamed (and fried) parcels of deliciousness. Ripples in Bentleigh (not the other Ripples which I'm lead to believe is less than fabulous) is rather tremendous. Take a look at the pictures I've uploaded and you'll see how fresh everything is. This is now amongst our new favourites in Melbourne. So why only four stars? Well... the debate at our table came to the conclusion that you can't give a place 5 stars when you've only been once. Surely at least a star should be reserved for consistency. Anyone can have a great experience once. It's really not my thing, but I'll also say this - Ripples is extremely child friendly.