Hawker Hall

Hawker Hall is the newest addition to the Chris Lucas' family of Asian fusion restaurant. This is Lucas' take on Malaysian and Singaporean street food. I saw it pop up at the night noodle market a few months ago and ever since it's been sitting on my "to visit" list for awhile...... and I finally reached it!

I decided to ditch D and instead have a girls night out with my long time friend P.  She is full of energy and loves a good time, and I love good food, so Hawker Hall was the perfect placefor us. P got there around 6pm on a Friday and managed to get a table at the kitchen bench, I arrived later ataround 6.30pm, and as I was entering I could hear people being told of a 1-2 hour wait before they could get a seat. So my advice? Go there early or be prepared to wait a long time!

To start we ordered the Prawn and Ginger Dumpling. This was served with soy and black vinegar caramel. It's the Lucas version of the classic Har Gow. I was surprised with the texture of the prawn filling, it wasn't mushy as I expected. It was soft but not too soft, and had some bounce.

Second was the Gado Gado. This is a classic in my mind, each time I visit a Malaysian restaurant with mum, she is guaranteed to order it. Bean sprouts, fried tofu, coriander, egg and sweet potato served with a satay peanut sauce. The sweet potato is not something I see in Gado Gado often, but I quite enjoyed it. It did make the flavour more modern compared to the classic potato you normally get.

Third was Mee Goreng. Besides Indomee, I seldom eat/order Mee Goreng; it's one of those dishes that just never really grew on me. However P wanted to try it and I was prepared to step out of my comfort zone. This came with a generous amount of prawns, pork, squid, cherry tomato and bok choy. Served with hokkien noodles and sambal sauce, it had a nice kick to it. It was not as oily as I expected. Based on the other dishes we ordered I found that it worked quite well. I found myself putting more on my plate than I expected. Good choice P!

Finally we got to dessert. P told me she had decided to quit sugar so I decided to soldier on without her. I ordered the Many Treasure Jelly to cap off my meal. It came as colourful layers of red and green. The layers contained coconut, pineapple, lychee and hibiscus. It was quite sweet, but given the spiciness in the Mee Goreng previously, I didn't mind it too much. Any other time and it would have been too sweet for my liking.

Overall great ambiance and service. P mentioned to me that while she was waiting for me, the wait staff made sure she was looked after and made recommendations to her. The food also stuck to its roots but also that touch of modern Melbourne in it. Another Chris Lucas success!