Monday 12 March 2012

Teahouse at Chinatown - 11 Cohen Place, Melbourne

If memory serves me correctly, I think there are three Teahouses in Melbourne, the first in Box Hill, the second Camberwell and the final in the city.

We got there at 6pm on a Wednesday night and the place was fairly empty.  By 8pm it was full.

Teahouse has traditional Shanghai dishes and is well known for its peking duck, like many a good Chinese restaurant.  But it also has some dishes with a difference.

The trio of scallops each had different flavours, one with ginger and a light soy, another with chilli and vermicilli and the final I cannot remember which means it was not that memorable.

The omelet was fluffy with a good punch of crayfish - although my friend corrected the menu and thought it was more like a scrambled egg.

The peking duck was actually very good and meatier than other places.

Sichuan beef was cooked perfectly medium rare with a nice touch of scallions.

But the most interesting for me were the wasabi prawns. I was thinking "this is not gonna taste good" when the waiter recommended them, but to my surprise the buttery wasabi on the crispy prawn was rather delicate and delicious.

As for dessert, I am sorry but I hate all Chinese desserts. A good friend had previously told me that this statement makes me slightly racist, to which I replied "well I pretty much hate all Greek desserts too, does that make me a racist against my own nationality?" Thinking more broadly I hate all Aussie desserts too - the pavlova.

I still tasted the dessert that we shared. My friend summarised it well "the red bean pancake was yuck made tolerable by the banana".

Ambience is maybe a bit less crazy than other Chinese restaurants but still has a good oriental feel.

To conclude, if anyone asks for a good Chinese restaurant in Melbourne, I recommend Teahouse.

7.5/10
Teahouse at Chinatown on Urbanspoon
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