Prawn

J Café Restaurant

167 Exhibition St, Melbourne 9650 9877

Soft Shell Crab Sushi burger and Gyoza in a Bento Box

Spicy Raw Tuna Sushi burger and Sashimi in a Bento Box

Salmon Alburi Sushi burger

Ebi Mayo Sushi burger

Yomogi Daifuju (red bean), Black Sesame Daifuku, Green Tea Cream Daifuku, Murasaki Imo Daifuku (purple sweet potato)

Ichigo Daifuku

Overall:

Sushi in the form of a burger? GENIUS. These burgers comprise of various sushi fillings and buns made from sushi rice that are held together with a sheet of seaweed. There are almost 20 different types of burgers to choose from which are made fresh on order. My favourite would have to be the Ebi Mayo Sushi burger (crispy tempura prawn, lettuce, tartare sauce and teriyaki sauce) although every other burger I’ve tried has also been very delicious. There is also the option of getting your Sushi burger in a Bento box which comes with the choice of an entree and miso soup. I found the Bento Boxes to be merely okay so these days I simply order the Sushi burgers by themselves.

For those who are a fan of daifuku (small round glutinous rice cakes that contain a sweet filling), try the Ichigo Daifuku here!

Note that service can sometimes be slow and that prices are cheaper for takeaway Sushi burgers.

Me N Roll

636A Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn 9973 9825

Honeydew Rice Wine

Octopus Roll

Salmon Salad Roll

Spicy Tuna Roll

Prawn Crunch Roll

Thoughts:

Honeydew Rice Wine – sweet and refreshing with the distinctive taste of honeydew = Good

Octopus Roll – octopus mix, roll salad, cucumber and avocado = Not bad

Salmon Salad Roll – salmon, roll salad, cucumber, avocado and onion = Good

Spicy Tuna Roll – tuna mix, cucumber,spring onion and fish roe = Not bad

Prawn Crunch Roll – tempura prawn, roll salad, cucumber, avocado, fish roe and lettuce = Good

Overall:

I don’t buy many restaurant vouchers these days. However what compelled me to buy this particular voucher were the words ‘All-You-Can-Eat Sushi’, and for $29 for two people I was sold! I felt confident that I could eat at least 5 of these sushi rolls without a problem! But it turns out that rice is not your friend when it comes to all-you-can-eat.

The sushi rolls here are freshly made, nicely presented and are quite generous in size. (Note that this voucher limited our selection to what was available on the Roll-B and Roll-C menu only) The staff here are friendly and the decor is very cute. Nonetheless I don’t think I would come here without a voucher or discount of some sort.

Twee’s Hut

Shop 26 343 Little Collins St, Melbourne 9917 2017

Twee’s Soul Bowl (dry)

Classic Pork and Prawn Grenade and Freshly Pressed Juice

Thoughts:

Twee’s Soul Bowl – egg and rice noodles, pork, prawn, quail egg, lettuce, fried shallots, spring onion, coriander and peanuts. There are 2 options with the Soul Bowl: dry (which comes with soup on the side) or soup (which comes with soup already in the bowl). This dish is their very own version of Pad Thai and would have been terrific had they toned down the amount of sweet chilli sauce that was added = Not bad

Classic Pork and Prawn Grenade – essentially a pork and prawn rice paper roll. In addition to the pork and prawn there is vermicelli, cucumber, lettuce, mint leaves, coriander and sesame seeds. This was fresh and tasty but needed more meat = Not bad

Freshly Pressed Juice – I tried the ‘Island Kiss’ which comprised of pineapple, orange and apple juice. I like how the juices here are freshly pressed on order, and that no sugar is added = Good

Overall:

Opened in November last year, this bright and cheery place is run by a husband and wife team who have created a menu inspired by family recipes. What’s great about this place is the location. Situated in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, Twee’s Hut is the perfect place for city workers to drop by for a quick and tasty lunch. I found a few things different about this place compared to other Vietnamese restaurants that I have been to. Firstly, this place is VERY clean (eg. gloves were used when the baguettes were being put together, no sticky tables, no sticky floors), they do not offer any free hot tea, and the way that dining in here works is also different. So when you dine in your name is taken down, you go and find yourself a table, and then your name is called out once your order is ready to be picked up from the counter. Different. Note that the current opening hours are 11am – 3pm.

*Disclaimer: I dined as a guest of Twee’s Hut. All food ratings & review are purely based on my own experiences and how I felt about the service, food and quality at the time of visit.

Shanghai Street Dumplings, Wontons and Noodle

64 La Trobe St, Melbourne 0405 427 910

Boiled pork dumplings

Fried chicken and prawn dumplings

Shanghai fried noodles

Pork dumplings in chilli oil

Thoughts:

Boiled pork dumplings – juicy pork filling with thick dumpling skin (compared to the fried ones which was a bit strange) = Not bad

Fried chicken and prawn dumplings – enjoyable crisp dumplings with plenty of visible prawns pieces = Good

Shanghai fried noodles – thick chewy shanghai noodles with a strong aroma of chinese mushroom = Not bad

Pork dumplings in chilli oil – moderately spicy chilli oil soup that brings out the flavour of the dumplings = Not bad

Overall:

If you are in the mood for dumplings and do not want to line up for ages at Shanghai Street Dumpling on Little Bourke St, then this is the place for you. This sister restaurant of Shanghai Street Dumpling produces food that is fast and cheap, while the service here is slightly below average. I also have to mention that when we tried to order another chicken and prawn dumplings dish, we were told that they had run out! What kind of dumpling place runs out of dumplings? (and this happened around 6:30pm!) On a more positive note, this restaurant does take reservations but just remember that it is cash only.