Hakata Gensuke - Hawthorn

If you read my blog often, you will know that I really like eating ramen. It's one of those comfort food that is quick, easy and relatively affordable. I have found myself going to Hakata more and more often in the recent months. Unlike it's sister store in the city, the wait time here is a lot more reasonable and with parking being less of an issue, it is just an easy place for me to hang out with the girls or Miss P.

My favorite ramen to get here is the Black Tonkotsu, besides Japan, I have barely come across this so it's my usual when I come here. I love the rich soup and how it's enriched with a garlic and black sesame favour to make the body of the soup even more flavorsome. With the noodles, there is an option of hardness which to me is something I consider only 'serious raman' places would offer. When I pick normal here, it is the perfect balance of softness without being too chewy. The char siu is not too thick, and together with the soup it has the intense flavour but not to a point it's too salty to stomach. I also like to add bamboo shoots and a soft boiled egg in mine. The soft boil egg need to be marinated and just runny on the inside. Out of all my visits here, the egg has always been perfect.

D tends to opt for a more spicy ramen so he got the Aka Tonkotsu. This one is a special to Hawthorn only. It is a spicy cod roe in a tonkotsu soup base. It's a nice amount of spice without sending you into tears and breathing fire. Again it came with char siu, black fungus and

Gyoza is what I consider little pockets of goodness. It it that side dish in a Japanese restaurant that is full of taste. I find that the gyoza in Hawthorn is better than their sister store in the city. The one in the city is sometimes too dry, where it's never the case in Hawthorn. With some gyoza sauce, it's like a little party on my taste buds

Chicken garage came in a side dish portion. The chicken was perfectly succulent, it was seasoned with just the right of favour and fried just right. I find a lot of places struggle to get garage right, as it's always either too soggy or too dry, Hakata is one of the few places that find that good balance of crisp, fried bitey texture while retaining the chicken's moisture and juice.

Overall 17/20 great ramen, great broth. I think this is my current favourite ramen shop to visit in Melbourne right now. It's an all round great offering, love the fact I don't need to wait in line and it always hits the spot. Staff is friendly and the atmosphere makes it a good place to eat and have a chat with friends. It isn't bursting to the seams with people. Good food plus good service and great place to meet a friend. Two thumbs up for me!

 

Bawa

After being away in Europe for a full month, I was very eager to brunch. I was fortunate that the second day I was back, was Cup Day, so it gave me the perfect excuse to find my favourite brunch buddy.

It felt that being away for a month, the brunch scene in Melbourne had changed a bit and there are heaps of new cafes to try. K took me to Bawa located on Burwood rd in Hawthorn. It was a slick modern cafe, it had a chilled and neat atmosphere, perfect for K and I to catch up

To overcome my jetlag I was quick to order a almond milk latte and K got her usual flat white. I normally go with soy but they ran out, so almond milk was the best alternative. The coffee was good but it didn't have a strong aroma, it was light roast. They also offered options for cold coffee, think I will try it next time I am visit.

As we can both never decide on 1 thing, we got 2 things to share. As our usual routine, we opted for 1 sweet, 1 savory.

For the sweet we got the chia pudding, this was served with blueberries, mango, passionfruit, coconut and pistachio. It was finished with rosewater to give it a beautiful fragrant. A very light breakfast, good for those to want a sweet, light start to their day.

For the savory I picked the avocado, feta with creamed corn on toast. This was finished with hazelnut crumbs and lime. I added in a poach egg for a bit of extra protein. I really enjoyed this, this is one of the best feta avocado toast I have eaten in awhile. The addition of creamed corn added just a tad of sweetness and the hazelnut and lime finish was brilliant. I absolutely loved this dish.

Over 16/20 a strong contender and a great addition to the Hawthorn choice of eateries. Staff gave excellent service and was highly attentive. The menu has a great selection does a nice spin on a lot of classic brunch dishes. Since the brains of Three Bags Full, Pillar of Salt, Dukes are behind this, I can't wait to see the next version of the menu. I get the feeling that great things are about to come out of this place.

 

Axil Coffee Roasters

Axil is located on Burwood Road in Hawthorn (near the corner of Glenferrie Road).  It's one of those gems l discovered when I was working in the area. In a big warehouse conversion space, it's got that cool, hip vibe. This place is bursting with people every time I visit, so don't be too surprised if you need to wait 15 minutes or so for a table.

D and I came here for a quick bite for our usual brunch routine on the weekend. We had our drinks order taken as soon we an sat down. To change things up a little and an attempt to be more healthy, D opted for water and l got fresh orange juice.

For the main show, D got the potato hash. This came with a big Portobello mushroom, poached egg, truffle sauce, crispy fried parmesan wafer and finished with porcini salt. This is the perfect dish for any mushroom lover; the truffle aroma is intense and paired with the poached egg over the potato hash it created the balance of hearty and potato goodness.

I went with the red velvet pancakes. The fluffy pancakes came surrounded by cream cheese ganache, raspberries and a big scoop of black sesame ice cream. This was a good change up from the usual brunch hotcake/pancake option of chocolate or berry assortment. l particularly like the black sesame ice cream, it wasn't too sweet and played off the red velvet flavors nicely.

Overall 16/20 this is one of my favorite places to visit in the area. It has great food, service and atmosphere. Although I didn't review it this time, l highly recommend their coffee and tomato cheese toasties.

Sardi

 On a lazy Sunday when D and I decided to  to brunch and got Miss P to come along with us too. Since Bear was back in Sydney, we got CB to come along as well. Sardi was the pick since it was kinda in a middle ground for us (well not really for me, but I really wanted to try it).

CB bought the pup along the lucky for us, the people at Sardi were nice enough to put a table outside so pup could come with us.

We were handed a menu with lots of choice, I would usually get a soy latte but I spotted matcha latte on the menu and just had to try that (CB was in the same boat), Miss P got the latte. Neither were mindblowing.

Miss P has previously been here with Bear and said great things about the fried chicken burger. Her and D both picked the chicken burger for this visit. The chicken burger came with cabbage slaw, pickles and a side of sweet potato chips. We agreed that the chicken burger was one of the best  chicken burgers we have tasted. The flakey batter on the tasty chicken breast and the slaw cut through the heaviness nicely. It got a bit messy to eat but it was so tasty, the mess was worth it.

CB had difficulty deciding but in the end she decided on the superfood breakfast bowl. This came with loaded with green goodness, asparagus, avocado, poached egg, almond dukkah and buckhinis. It was dressed with lemon and parsley. This had a fresh healthy taste but added crunch to it. Great for any friends who are health geeks, personally I think it needed some salmon or bacon...... mmmmm bacon.......

I was the definition of a pig, I ordered 2 things, mainly because when my first dish came out, it looked small and I had food envy looking at D and Miss P's burger. My first dish was the breaky board. I have recently taking a liking to ordering breaky boards, as they offer a variety for indecisive people like myself. Sardi's breaky board came with mini croissant with rhubarb jam, granola, corn fritter with smashed avocado. This was suppose to come with a coffee as well but I never got it and they charged for the other 3 coffees that we ordered. This was the most disappointing dish out of everything we ordered for the day. The croissant and corn fritters was quite ordinary. I asked for soy instead of full cream milk and it took them ages to get it for me. I had to remind them, and it came when I almost finished the whole dish.

The other dish I ordered was the wild mushroom ragout. This was a creamy mushroom served on sour dough with kale, parmesan and poached eggs. It really didn't need the poached eggs, on it's own it would have been enough, it was very filling and reminded me of a mushroom risotto for breakfast but instead of rice it was with bread. I found it very enjoyable.

Overall 15.5/20 With the exception of being charged for a coffee I never got, it was an overall good place to catch up with friends. most of the food was dished up nicely.

Little Temper

Located on Burwood Rd, near St James Park, it is one of those places that you can easily drive by and not notice. It is a cosy, new cafe that caters for the local with good coffee and a  brunch menu.

I only discovered this place, because TK comes here for coffee every day, and has been raving on and on about their coffee. He was correct too.... the owner is more than happy to make the coffee to your liking and generally doesn't disappoint.

The ricotta hotcakes were serve with a raspberry compote, mascarpone and mint. The hotcakes were creamy with an evident ricotta taste. There was a very generous amount of blueberries, this made TK very happy. The berry flavours with creamy mascarpone was a perfect combination on the hotcakes. I just wish there was another hotcake on the plate.

Their avocado toast deserves a mention. It differs from your typical plain avocado and fetta on toast. This has corn/tomato salsa and chilli laced through the avocado and fetta to give it more texture and a small kick from the chilli. One of the better avocado toast that I have tasted in the last few years. However it did feel slightly incomplete without a poached egg (yes, I am greedy).


Overall 14/20. As a new kid on the Melbourne cafe scene, I was very impress with the food plated up. I would be keen to go back and try other things on their menu.

Omah's Malaysian Cuisine

Located on Burwood road towards the Glenferrie road corner, this is a cute local Malaysian place that offers chilli crab. Yes, Chilli crab! If you have ever been to Singapore, had chilli crab, came back to Australia craving the same thing and failed to find it... this is really good news!

We had a groupon which offered us a 5 course and we added a chilli crab on the side.

As an entree we started with soft shell crab, duck sang choy bao and roti with peanut sauce. The soft shell crab was generous with seasoning, almost too generous in my opinion but no one else on the table didn't seem to mind. The curry powder on the chilli crab was new to me, I didn't mind it but I still think I prefer Japanese styled fried soft shell crab.

The duck sang choy bao has an abundance of sauce in it. The duck was tender and cooked just right. Sadly they were too heavy handed with the salt.

The roti with peanut sauce was nothing special, it wasn't freshly made roti.

We got buttered chicken, chilli prawn and balachan beans, as our main. The butter chicken was a lovely surprise, it was deep fried with a creamy buttery twist to it. I was expecting something more of a curry butter chicken and it was nothing as I imagined. I kept going back for more.

Chilli prawns had an amazing sauce with tanginess of tomato sweetness and chilli burst. The sauce had egg whites laced in for extra smoothness. The was prawn infused with flavour.

Balachan beans had great prawn fragrant in it, sadly the beans were too soft and overcooked for my liking. Still it's a good dish

Finally it came time for the chilli crab. We got one crab to share between four people which was enough given how much else we ordered, it was just right. The sauce in that crab was unbelievebly good, it taste sweet and tangy at first, then the spiciness hits you after. The crab meat was sweet and fresh, went together beautifully with the sauce. I just wish they would offer a noodle base option. That sauce with noodles would have been perfect. The sauce was so good, D got a container to take away the remaining sauce.

For dessert there was pandan sago (hot or cold) and mango pudding. 

The pandan sago was in a not too sweet coconut milk with gula malaka in it.

The mango pudding was smooth and cream in flavour, but nothing amazing about it.

As drinks, the boys went with beer, K and I got Teh Tarik and we found the size difference between the hot and cold to be quite funny.

Overall, 13.5/20. The food in general was alright. The crab was the highlight. Service levels could be better, wasn't attentive on a quiet night. Felt we got a bit of the "oh that table is using a groupon" vibe. The waitress forgot our crab order, took ages to get us our drinks and looked very lost. Another waitress just appeared lazy to me. In general, feels like the waiting staff could do with more training and dedication to their roles.

Maru Meru

I found this little surprise one lunch time. Located near Hawthorn station, it's a little Japanese shop (by a mother/daughter team) that specialises in Japanese street food.

As I was there by myself I had to visit it twice for this review to get a better notion of what they offer. On the first visit, I got their okonomiyaki. Unlike other Japanese restaurants and take away stores, Maru Meru offered a wide range of flavours for your okonomiyaki. They also do it in a lunch special option where it's drink + okonomiyaki for $10. I opted for the pork with a calpico (just to channel that inner fob). The actual dish is quite large in size. I did struggle to finish it, after half way in I was already really full. The exterior was nice and crispy and the inside was still moist. I found it a tad too sweet at times due to the amount of sauce, but I think that's more a personal preference. I would have preferred more vegetable and less batter but overall the flavours were great and enough to make me want a second visit.

Second visit I got the yaki soba and takoyaki. I am a big takoyaki fan, so when I saw them I had to try them. They had a range of flavours ranging from traditional to mochi and cheese for the takoyaki, but I didn't feel very adventurous and just went with the original octopus. I noticed that the size of the takoyaki was bigger than places like Shuyun and  Mr Ramen San. When I took a bite I was so glad to find a big piece of octopus in the centre and it was delicious. Not just full of batter, but bits of ginger and tempura. It was very soft so it didn't hold together as well, as soon as I took a bit it kind of fell apart but the flavour made up for it.

The yaki soba also came in a $10 combo, I went with the pork yaki soba and it didn't disappoint. Generous size, with heaps of meat and vegetables.

They also do crepes but I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet.

I think I found my new favourite lunch spot. I give them a 17/20

Ajisen Ramen - Hawthorn

Being in the area and having a Entertainment book voucher, this seemed like a good place to hit up for lunch. Before going in, I read a few reviews and I was a bit concerned as most of the reviews talked about their bad service and also not accepting the ET book vouchers. This got me worried, as I had only suggested this place to my friend because of the voucher.

When we walked in, we were greeted with a very friendly waitress and the entire place was very neat, clean and tidy. As we were using the voucher, the only thing not valid on the menu was the combo, which I think was fair enough.

I got the Buta Kararage Ramen which was deep fried pork strips with cabbage, egg, black fungus and I added corn to it as well. This would normally also have a bit of greenery, but I don't like spring onions so I always order it without this. The pork strips were surprisingly nice, it wasn't too oily and the inside was still juicy. The broth isn't as thick as places such as Little Ramen Bar and Kokoro Ramen but the flavour was still strong and not bad for a chain ramen store.


My friend got the Gyoza Ramen. The gyoza pieces were juicy and had a bit of crunch; the filling had a higher vegetable to meat ratio compared to the typical gyoza you get but it was still a nice gyoza especially for a soup noodle. The noodles were al dente so just as I like it and able to soak up the soup flavour.

As a side, there was also the soft shell crab. This was nothing extraordinary, but I hardly ever say no to deep fried soft shell crab.

It was a stinking hot day so the green tea ice cream spider went down very fast and very well. I want to try to make this at home - now I just need to get my hands on some green tea ice cream!

Overall I would come back to this place. It does aim to be a student food/fast noodle venue so don't go expecting top service and fine dining, but it does hit the spot for ramen cravings. 13/20!

Tao Tao House

So I came across this one as I heard the chef is ex-Flower Drum. With a family birthday dinner due, I used the opportunity to try it out.

When we walked into the restaurant, the first thing that we noticed was this is a Asian restaurant that is frequent by non Asian diners. We were the only table of Asian within the restaurant but it didn't really bother us too much as long as the service and quality of food made it worth while.

To start we ordered the soft shelled crab, when this came to our table it was actually after our mains... and it just looked like a big mess on a plate. The crab wasn't seasoned very well so it was purely relying on the crab's natural flavours but there was so much batter on the crab, that it was hard to taste anything else. I think if there was less batter it would have been a lot better.

We ordered a crispy skin chicken but what arrived at our table wasn't actually a chicken but more a spatchcock. It was divided into 8 pieces and there was 10 of us at dinner. It would have been nice if we were informed beforehand by the waitress. Besides the small portion (and the fact it was a spatchcock and not a chicken) the skin was nice and crispy, which the meat was still tender. There was a good balance of the skin being not too oily but also not dry.

Next was the Yee Mien, which is basically a simple stir fried noodle with mushrooms and chives. It wasn't too oily or salty and the noodles were soft without being soggy. It was a nice dish but nothing spectacular.

Mapo tofu was also on the menu. I'm not expert on mapo tofu but this one was just very very spicy and also very sweet. I didn't mind the sweetness too much but I know normally you don't get that in Mapo tofu. The tofu bits were silky and soft.

Spicy eggplant pot, in Chinese it's actually translate more to 'fish fragrant eggplant' as originated from a village in China that had fishing as a primary trade. It's generally spicy from spicy bean paste and depending who is making it sometimes peppercorn too. The one at Tao Tao was not too spicy but more just very very sweet...... The eggplant was braised nicely and there was a generous amount of mince meat and garlic. I think if not for the sweetness it won't have been too bad.

We also ordered, stir fried beans, salt and pepper fish, sweet and sour pork but none of them are really worth talking about.

Overall I found the food to be no different to an average Chinese restaurant you'll find in Box Hill or the city but at a higher price. I think the service was horrid, we were ignored while the waitress was busy giving hugs and kisses to another diner nearby. Between the spatchcock and soft shell crab there was a 30 minute wait. I've read about how great this place is for yum cha, so maybe it's good for yum cha only? If you are accustomed to Chinese food I would not recommend you come here. I just have to say I left feeling very disappointed.

Mr Ramen San

Located on Glenferrie Road in Hawthorn, it's one of those shops that you can easily walk pass and  not notice it. When you walk in, you are greeted with a simple and friendly atmosphere. Nothing fancy about this place but still the sense of Japanese.

We started with a few things to share, we got the takoyaki, potato salad, renkon chips and gyoza. Takoyaki has a special place in my heart and I almost always have to try it whenever I see it on the menu. The takoyaki at Mr Ramen San came with a very generous heap of bonito. The takoyaki was just right in texture, not too soft nor dry. The sauce though was a bit too sweet, but the stickiness was still pretty spot on. Nice takoyaki, not my favourite but I won't mind a second serving. 
The potato salad... well it's a potato salad. Pretty standard and nothing extraordinary but I guess if you like potato salad then you might like this one too?
The renkon chips was the plate my hand keep going back to. Great chispy texture and just that added bit of sweetness compared to normal potato chips. The gyoza again was no stand out, it's better than a lot of other gyoza I've had but the filling was just a bit too salty. However it was fried perfectly without the excessive oily finish, that's always a plus in my books.

For our main, my friend and I both got the charshu ramen, only mine was spicy tokontsu as I love that extra kick. The pork bone flavour was quite evident in the soup, even though the soup was not very thick. The ramen was nice and had that 'bouncy' texture. The charshu was nice and soft. The only downside for me is, this just had nothing spectactular about it. The ingredients were quite simple so I was really expecting some stand out flavours. I mean it was still a very good bowl of ramen, but just not one that I would crave for (yes, I am a bit weird and occasionally I will crave a good bowl of ramen). The soft boiled egg deserves a mention for having the right softness. There is nothing I hate more than a overcooked soft boiled egg.

Overall 13/20, it's good ramen place at a decent price. It aims to be the local ramen shop and if that's the standard it's aiming for then, it does do well. If I was in the area again, I would go again, but it's not something I would go out of my way to eat.