New Taipei

273 Swanston Street, Melbourne

Located right in the middle of the Melbourne CBD, New Taipei is one of the newer Asian restaurants in the city. Calling one of the busier intersections in the city it's home, means that it is quite difficult to miss this restaurant, which is how I ended up dining here after a night out.

 Zhajiang noodle $10.80

The zhajiang noodle, or zhajiangmian is a popular dish served in many Chinese restaurants. The dish is usually made with a combination of thick noodles, a sauce comprising of ground pork and soybean paste as well as some other elements. Compared to some of my favourite Asian restaurants, the meat sauce on the noodles was a lot milder than I was used to and could also have done with a little more seasoning.

Pan-fried pork dumpling $6.80

Even though I was quite full at the point, I had to try a serve of their dumplings, as that is one of their main dishes. While they weren't terrible, the dumplings were a bit of a disappointment. The texture of the skin, as well as the filling was a bit different from what I was used to, and there was also a lack of seasoning in the filling, which made the dumpling quite bland. For the price point, there are definitely other restaurants in the CBD with better dumplings for cheaper.

Unfortunately I was quite disappointed by New Taipei. Not only did the food let us down, but the service was also quite slow and the staff were not attentive. With the wealth of Asian restaurants that serve food similar to New Taipei in the city, they will really need to pick up the slack.

Food Rating 6/10

Overall Rating 5.5/10

Punjabi Curry Cafe

87 Jonhston Street, Collingwood

Located on the busy Johnston Street in Collingwood, Punjabi Curry Cafe is a prime example of a restaurant which you should not judge by it's cover. Having driven past Punjabi Curry Cafe many times on my way to the city, the shopfront has never caught my eye, as it is quite cluttered and doesn't really draw much positive attention. However, after seeing the interior of the restaurant and trying the food they had to offer we were pleasantly surprised.

Interior

 Punjabi tandoori platter

The Punjabi tandoori platter was definitely our favourite dish of the night. It was exciting trying all the different flavours from the use of different spices and meats and the aroma definitely got our appetite going. The lamb cutlets were especially worthy of praise, as my friend who usually does not enjoy lamb found them amazing.

 Vegetable platter

The vegetable platter allowed us to try an assortment of their vegetarian entree dishes, such as the samosa, pakora, onion bahji and aloo tikki. The different flavours and textures presented in each of the elements on the dish gave us an insight into their use of spices and ingredients. The texture of each entree on the dish was wildly variant, where some of the large pieces were just a large mass of mush and others were so hard that biting into it hurt my mouth. This would have been less of a problem if the size of the pieces on the dish were reduced.

 Garlic naan

 Butter chicken

The butter chicken at Punjabi Curry Cafe is one of their most popular dishes and I can definitely understand why. The marinated pieces of chicken are cooked in butter, coriander, tomato and ginger to create a dish of tender and flavourful chicken in a smooth and mellow butter sauce.

 Aloo Gosht

The Aloo Gosht was quite similar to the butter chicken in the way that the spices and potatoes combined to make a great base for the dish in terms of flavour and texture. However, the one difference in how the dishes were made was an important one. The Aloo Gosht was a dish which had slow cooked beef as it's main ingredient and although this process made it so the beef was not tough, it still left the beef quite dry and stringy.

Initially we were a little skeptical due to the appearance of the restaurant, but we quickly found that you should not judge a book by it's cover. Although both the restaurant and the staff were quiet during the night and there were a few shortcomings in the dishes we were served, we still definitely enjoyed the food and found it delicious. I would definitely recommend giving Punjabi Curry Cafe a try, whether it be take-away or dine in, as the food is good and set at a reasonable price point.

We were invited by and dined courtesy of Punjabi Curry Cafe.

Food Rating 8.5/10

Overall Rating 7.5/10