China Red is a restaurant in Bourke St, Melbourne CBD, modest in size but providing a bit of a wow factor with their touch screen wall mounted ordering system. Each meal is sent instantaneously, the next thing you'll know is that someone's popping over to drop off a dish you've just selected.
I hope I didn't have to say that they serve Chinese cuisine, but there I've said, to remove all shadow of doubt! And when you're out dining in a Chinese restaurant, there are a couple of familiar dishes that you can't help but order. I personally like sampling the hot and sour soup, which I think is a good gauge if a Chinese restaurant is kick ass awesome or not - if their hot and sour soup fails to impress, then it's like not getting the basics right . Well, at least that's what I think.
Anyway, so their hot and sour soup wasn't very bad, but one dish that caught our eye is the Fish Fillet in Hot Oil. It had an image of 2 chilis beside the name on the menu, denoting how hot it is. It was immediately ordered.
Now this one is really not for the weak. Even the seasoned tongue (hah!) might get singed with this dish. The heat builds up different dimensions without invoking pain, and is heightened by the whole and ground szechuan peppers infused in the oil. In case the red things floating in the photo above didn't catch your eye, it's mostly whole and slightly crushed dried red chilis, and they are not just for decoration! The ladle is almost a 'sievelike', with holes in it so that you literally just fish for the fish, as you really wouldn't want to ladle the 'chili' soup on to your bowl. The bean sprouts had a bit of crunch and the lightly floured fillet of fish was soft and tender A bowl of rice is a must. And a couple of napkins to wipe away the sweat. And a Yanjing beer (they have some, it's pretty good and easy to drink - I wanted to take a photo of the beer bottle but after pouring it on to the glass the waitress immediately scurried off!)
We also got some xiao long bao - dumplings with soup inside. They weren't 'heavenly' but tasty enough. Perhaps I am just biased and loyal to the xiao long bao from Din Tai Fung. I would have to say though that the highlight of the night is the house chili sauce - which was really spectacular. It made everything taste great. I could've taken the bottle home!
tap tap tap
I hope I didn't have to say that they serve Chinese cuisine, but there I've said, to remove all shadow of doubt! And when you're out dining in a Chinese restaurant, there are a couple of familiar dishes that you can't help but order. I personally like sampling the hot and sour soup, which I think is a good gauge if a Chinese restaurant is kick ass awesome or not - if their hot and sour soup fails to impress, then it's like not getting the basics right . Well, at least that's what I think.
Anyway, so their hot and sour soup wasn't very bad, but one dish that caught our eye is the Fish Fillet in Hot Oil. It had an image of 2 chilis beside the name on the menu, denoting how hot it is. It was immediately ordered.
Fish Fillet in Hot Oil
Now this one is really not for the weak. Even the seasoned tongue (hah!) might get singed with this dish. The heat builds up different dimensions without invoking pain, and is heightened by the whole and ground szechuan peppers infused in the oil. In case the red things floating in the photo above didn't catch your eye, it's mostly whole and slightly crushed dried red chilis, and they are not just for decoration! The ladle is almost a 'sievelike', with holes in it so that you literally just fish for the fish, as you really wouldn't want to ladle the 'chili' soup on to your bowl. The bean sprouts had a bit of crunch and the lightly floured fillet of fish was soft and tender A bowl of rice is a must. And a couple of napkins to wipe away the sweat. And a Yanjing beer (they have some, it's pretty good and easy to drink - I wanted to take a photo of the beer bottle but after pouring it on to the glass the waitress immediately scurried off!)
We also got some xiao long bao - dumplings with soup inside. They weren't 'heavenly' but tasty enough. Perhaps I am just biased and loyal to the xiao long bao from Din Tai Fung. I would have to say though that the highlight of the night is the house chili sauce - which was really spectacular. It made everything taste great. I could've taken the bottle home!
yum
Service was quick, but sometimes too quick that arms appear to swoop from all directions to take plates and glasses away. Dishes seem reasonably priced for the serving size. Might be worth coming back some other time as I noticed they served pork intestines :D
** apologies the photos are from my blackberry. i think the resolution is not too bad for a camera on a phone, but compared to other photos, it does look a bit off, doesn't it :)
Do they do a laksa? I'll have to give this a try as it's quite close to work.
ReplyDeleteYummmmm :) Welcome back to blogosphere!
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