Neil Perry's expanding restaurant empire in Melbourne relatively recently added an Asian food focussed place at Crown Casino next to Rockpool. Although seemingly predominantly Szechuan-based, the main attraction for me to come here was for the reputation of having a more upmarket and diverse take on yum cha.
As yum cha translates to drink tea, it is expected to have tea with the meal. The standard Cantonese restaurant will vary from providing free standard (usually Jasmine) tea or charging $1-2 per person for this. Some specific tea houses provide tea flowers or leaves generally for $5-7 per pot. Spice Temple charged us $5.5 per person to share one pot of tea. $11 for a pot of tea is quite extortionate. I suppose that comes from having a restaurant in Crown and being known for reputation, expense and more upmarket takes.
- Fried Salt & Pepper Silken Tofu with Spicy Coriander Salad - tofu with lovely flavour and delicate texture with a very spicy chilli sauce (I think the word salad is a bit generous);
- Soy-Baked Fremantle Octopus with Broad Beans - tender octopus, crunchy broad beans, inconspicuous flavour;
- Hot & Numbing Dry Wagyu Beef - fantastic deep salty meat that served the best dish of the lot. Surprisingly not very hot despite the name;
- Crab, Flathead & Spinach Dumplings - thick gelatinous coating a pretty unmemorable filling;
- Cumin Pork Ribs - delicate meat off the bone, great texture but needed a bit more salt to accentuate the cumin;
- Braised & Fried Pork Hock with "Floss" - pieces of crispy pork with skin and fat to chew through the various textures;
- Egg Custard with Crab & XO Sauce - really tasty and chilli sauce lifting a smooth custard with intermittent morsels of crab meat;
- Steamed Scallop Dumplings - quite small dumpling with a watery scallop filling.
Next time I would order the Fried Wagyu Beef. Most of the dishes from the Fried list are worth getting. Avoid the standard dumplings as they cost 2-3 times more than other yum cha restaurants for a smaller dumpling that doesn't taste particularly different nor with finer ingredients. If you are ordering tea to share for two, try specifying it for one - I can't possibly justify on their behalf charging double just to provide an extra cup.
