Newmarket Hotel - MELBOURNE

Address: 34 Inkerman St, St Kilda, Melbourne

Cuisine: Spanish Tapas

Mushroom Ratings:

Food: 8.5/10

Value: 5/10

Service: 7/10

Ambiance: 9/10

From the outside, this place looked like a shoddy broken pub, but this was quite deceiving after we walked in. Newmarket offers a range of delicious Spanish tapas at quite a high price range, and a trendy indoor/outdoor seating area.

Pictured: Outdoor seating of Newmarket

Pictured: Soft Shell Crab Taco

Pictured: Prawn Taco

For starter dishes we ordered from a part of the menu called “street food”. We chose a prawn taco (left) and a soft shell crab taco (above). They were as delicious as they look, but for $17 a taco, they came out a lot smaller than initially expected. In three bites, I finished the palm-sized taco, but it was the guacamole sauce that had me craving more. The flavours were strong as they were colourful, and something different to try, even though they were not very filling.

Pictured: Soft Shell Crab Taco

Our second dish (bottom left) was the BBQ Chorizo sausage ($18) with a sweet almond nut sauce. This was devine. The sausage was grilled perfectly with a sweet caramelised taste to it. It coupled perfectly with the sweet almond sauce. I would definitely recommend this! I also chose a side-dish of wild mushrooms (pictured bottom right).

Pictured: BBQ Chorizo Sausage

Pictured: Wild Mushrooms

Pictured: Rib Fillet steak

The main dish for the night was the Rib Fillet steak. The 300g steak was very sweet and full of flavour juices. My only complaint being it was a tiny bit on the chewy side. For a steak, this was very decent and it went very well with the sauce, which had a bit of wasabi flavour (?) to it and went very well with the steak. I would also highly recommend this dish, even though I prefer wagyu at Maha (review coming soon).

Pictured: Sangria

For drinks, there was no question that I chose sangria. As expected it was tropical, sweet, fresh and intoxicating. The prices were quite steep at $17 a glass or $35 a jug, so we chose the jug for better value. Although the Sangria was good, I still prefer the MoVida version slightly better.

All up, the dinner cost $135 for 2 persons.  Some dishes were a bit steep for its sizing but we were full and were not disappointed by the unique culinary skill of the chef. The atmosphere was trendy and not too loud (unlike Movida). The tapas were very flavoursome and unique, but I still prefer the larger range of tapas offered by MoVida. 

Wonton House (Russell St) – MELBOURNE

Address: 181 Russell St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Cuisine: Chinese (Hong Kong style)

Mushroom Ratings:
Food: 8/10

Value: 9/10

Service: 4/10
Ambiance: 5/10 

This place is a cheap and authentic Chinese eatery on Russell St Melbourne. It reminds me of the awesome standard meals you can find in the small café/lunch restaurants all throughout Hong Kong.

For a bit of traditional Chinese nostalgia, Wonton House is my staple place to go. All the dishes are also quite cheap, no more than $20 for a big generous serving of fried chicken. Or even $10 for a smaller serving with rice. This has to be my favourite dish for $10!

Pictured: Spicy fried Chicken spare ribs

Pictured: Special Fried Rice

Next up, Fried Rice.

Fried rice is one of the most simple dishes to make, and normally not even worth noting. But this Special Fried Rice for $10 is definitely worth a mention. It comes out steaming hot and fragrant, with BBQ pork and veggies perfectly cut into small squares. Not too oily or too dry. I can finish this even before the side dishes come out.

The Milk Tea is also the BEST in Melbourne, hands down. And I am quite fussy with the perfection of my milk tea. This is traditional milk tea as it should taste!

Pictured: Milk Tea

Pictured: Veggies in Egg Yolk

For a healthier sharing dish, I enjoyed this one – the mixed vegetables in egg yolk sauce. 

The sauce is smooth and creamy, and is a huge serving enough as a side dish for 4 people, and costing approx. $20.

Wonton House also offers decent standard Yum Cha dishes – Har Gow, Siu Mai, Char Siew Bao. Which sounds like gibberish if you can’t speak Cantonese, but I can assure dumplings are done quite well here. But my favourite dishes are those pictured above.

SERVICE

Food aside, don’t expect too much of the service. They are what you would call 'loud Hong Kong wait-staff', who would shout instructions across the room to another staff. The staff are also generally quite cranky. But for a good cheap lunch or dinner, this place is possibly one of the best Chinese eateries in the Melbourne CBD. Definitely better than any currently down the street of Chinatown!

Word of Caution!

There’s also a second newer Wonton House on Swanston St that opened up a couple of months ago. I find the Swanston St Restaurant a little lacking in food quality. It is the exact same menu, but the Chef is definitely less skilful than the one in Russell St.

MoVida Aqui - MELBOURNE

Address: (MoVida Acqui): Level 1, 500 Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Cuisine: Spanish tapas

Mushroom Ratings:
Food: 9/10

Value: 5/10
Service: 7.5/10
Ambiance: 9/10

Definitely one of my favourites in Melbourne. The Spanish tapas servings are mostly small quantities, packed with big flavour, but this also means, you can try a lot more different types of food in one sitting.

I’ve gone to all three CBD-based MoVida’s in Melbourne. The one I would recommend the most being MoVida Aqui, for its larger tables and casual dining experience. MoVida Bar de Tapas and MoVida Next Door, has a more relaxed bar-like ambiance. However, the quality of food in all three is almost the same.

I’ve been to MoVida a handful of times now, but to be honest, I still don’t remember half the names of the things I order. The menu is written using it’s Spanish dish names, but with English explanations of the ingredients each dish contains. 

One of my favourite dishes I definitely recommend trying is the Bomba balls, they tasted like little potato balls of delight, in a light crispy shell.

My favourite drink would also be the Sangria, sweet, fruity, tangy and loaded with a mixture of red wine, rum and brandy, I don’t think there is any better in Melbourne.

Other notable dishes are the Calimari Sandwich. I’m not a huge fan of calamari, but this sandwich packs in the flavour! Delicious and interesting!

Below is the Cantabrian Anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet. This was very interesting, even though I don't like anchovy. The three very different textures complemented each other perfectly, leaving the tomato sorbet literally melting in your mouth. A must try! 

Below large fresh oysters cooked to your tastes buds. 

Thinly sliced ham. The texture combinations is in one word - amazing. 

Spanish sausage with an amazing sauce (possibly pea?). The sauce makes you crave for more. Much more.

Overall, I would highly recommend MoVida as a foodie destination. Although be warned, eating too many tapas can burn quite a whole in your wallet by the end of the meal. 

Mings Dim Sum (Crown Casino) - MELBOURNE

Address: Crown Casino, Level 1

Cuisine: Chinese

Mushroom Ratings:
Food: 8/10 (for Shanghai Dumplings)

Value: 8/10
Service: 5/10

Ambiance: 6/10

We’ve been to Mings a handful of times now. The prices here are quite decent, at around $5 per tray of dumplings (each tray having the standard serving of 3 dumplings) – which is what you’d expect to find in most Yum Cha places in Chinatown.

1. The location is definitely a bit awkward to get to.

What I did find odd was that you had to actually know this place existed to go there. It is located inside Crown Casino, but hidden upstairs, away from the main restaurants, and shopping outlets. Upstairs, was generally a series of poker tables, which you had to walk past before you get to Mings.

2. Food was good, but the Xiao Long Bao was amazing!

Above: Har Gow (Prawn Dumpling)

We tried most of the dishes on the Yum Cha side of the menu (although there are mains, such as noodles for $10). Most of dumplings were only ok to say the most. But they were quite a good price at $5 each. The Prawn Dumpling (Har Gow) had skin that was soft, it was also over-steamed, and a bit sticky, which led to it falling apart. Bit of a shame, considering the prawn filling is quite nice and juicy.

Above: Siu Mai (Pork Dumpling)

The Pork Dumpling (Siu Mai) was better, but there’s a funny taste to it, it tasted like the skin was pre-bought and not hand made. Makes a big difference if you're picky on your dumplings, but otherwise not bad at all.

The other dish that's quite nice is the Spring Onion Pancake filled with BBQ pork (Cha Siu). Almost like a chinese version of a kebab! 

Above: Spring Onion Pancake

Best Shanghai Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) in Melbourne

However, the golden dish of the menu is the Xiao Long Bao or Shanghai Dumplings. I will come back to Mings just for this dish. It is possibly one of the best Shanghai Dumplings in Melbourne! And I am a Shanghai Dumpling enthusiast. The Xiao Long Bao was mouth-watering! Much better than the overrated reviews for Hu Tong in Chinatown. At Mings, the skin was masterfully thin, the soup inside plentiful and flavoursome, and the pork juicy inside. A must try for any dumpling fan!

Above: Shanghai Dumpling (Xiao Long Bao)

If you have heard of the Taiwanese food chain giant, Din Tai Fung, internationally known for their Xiao Long Bao, then I can tell you the Xiao Long Baos at Mings are almost on par.

3. Surprise… Hair!

As it is a relatively new restaurant, I tried to be more understanding of the slow service. The first time we went to Mings, it was on their opening day, around opening time. It was a little slow with no more than 40% of the tables filled. We waited over 40 min for our first dish. Then our Xiao Long Bao was forgotten altogether. Our Mango pudding also had a hair in it… (extra flavour?), which was later replaced with a cleaner one. But I guess things go wrong on the first day. All was forgiven by the end of the meal, with our stomaches full and happy.

Our second visit, was much more improved. Food was on the table within 15 minutes, and to our relief there was no hairs on our food. We found ourselves returning here a few more times in the last few months. The service itself is always friendly.

Overall

Despite the odd location and initial service experience, Mings is still a good place for the quick and casual dining, especially if you have a mid-night craving for dumplings.