Secret Kitchen is one of many Chinese restaurants around Melbourne which offer daily yum-cha. One of the things that set Secret Kitchen apart from competing Chinese restaurants is their live seafood aquarium, which is known as the biggest in Melbourne.
Secret Kitchen
Jasmine tea
Eggplant with minced chicken and salted fish hot pot $24.80
Special lamb hotpot
Spiced salt and pepper baby beef ribs $36.80
Pan seared prawn with duck yolk $38.80
The prawn dish was the most lackluster of the dishes we were served that night. The prawns themselves were very tough and overcooked, while the duck yolk was dry and very salty, which was not a very good combination.
Wok tossed pipis with spicy seafood X.O. sauce $28.80
The wok tossed pipis were the first of my two favourite dishes served that night. The pipis were cooked nicely in very flavourful sauce, but the thing that I liked the most about this dish was that the pipis were clean and did not have any grit in them.
BBQ roasted and suckling pig platter $42.80
The BBQ platter was the second of my two favourite dishes of the night. The dish itself was a combination of duck, char siu, BBQ pork and suckling pig, which contained lovely flavour, as well as the pork having amazingly crispy skin.
Stir fried mushrooms in superior soy sauce $28.80
Coconut milk and black glutinous rice cake $8.80
Green tea osmanthus cake $8.80
Banana fritter with ice cream $8.80
Banana and red bean pancake $9.80
As Secret Kitchen is mainly a yum-cha restaurant, the desserts on offer were very similar to those you would find at a yum-cha lunch. My favourites were the green tea osmanthus cake, which had three different layers as well as a very fragrant overall taste and the banana fritter which was fried perfectly with a good amount of ice-cream goodness.
A Chinese feast like this can only really be judged as a whole. Although the meal had its ups and downs, I would say that it was quite pleasant overall. The quality of the food was definitely higher than I would normally find at a large Chinese restaurant, but that is definitely reflected in the pricing of the menu items.
Food Rating 7.5/10
Overall Rating 7.5/10