Cho Gao - Chicken Pancakes

Location: Level 3, Melbourne Central
Link: www.chogao.com.au/
Cuisine: Thai, Vietnamese, Asian, Fusion
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Both a bar and a restaurant, we headed to Cho Gao for Mel's welcome back dinner and drinks.

Chicken pancakes with salted duck egg, spring onions and dipping sauce $18.00

The pancake wrappers

The chicken

Spring onions, salted duck egg and dipping sauce

The pancakes were refreshing and very different. When ordering, I had imagined the pancakes to be more like Japanese okonomiyaki or even Pancake Parlour-like, but it was neither. Instead, it was a modern take on traditional Peking Duck, with all the ingredients separated for you to put together before eating. The chicken was tasty and pretty well-marinated. The duck egg wasn't quite as salted as expected, and was a little odd at the outset, but as it turned out, it worked really well with the chicken and the condiments. The dipping sauce was rather strong, so I chose to put it inside the pancake before eating. Beautiful! Am definitely coming back another time for this!

Dessert platter - chocolate mousse, berry jelly, ice cream, banana fritter, lemon and coconut cheesecake, creamed rice

Close-up of the mousse

We've become quite a fan of desserts, and these desserts were pretty amazing. Splitting it four ways was pretty hard though...especially with the mousse and creamed rice. Not normally a fan of rice in desserts, the creamed rice wasn't all that bad, just a little on the rich side. The banana fritters were a hit with the ice-cream. The jelly had a hint of champagne in it and tasted quite light and fruity. The cheesecake was a little on the odd side though, as the lemon and coconut didnt not seem all that agreeable to me. But as all things chocolate generally do, the mousse topped the list!

Overall Impression: