Kam Fook - Yum Cha

Location: Level 2, Westfield Shoppingtown, Doncaster
Link: www.kamfook.com.au
Cuisine: Chinese, Yum Cha

Having quite enjoyed ourselves the last time we had Yum Cha at Kam Fook, we decided to go there again for Father's Day lunch. I've also thrown in some photos from the last time we went.

Fancy little teapot for soy sauce

Prawn dumplings

The prawn dumplings are a staple to any yum cha meal, and these were probably the best dish of the day. The filling was tasty and had the right amount of the flavour. The pastry was slightly thicker than usual, but it didn't play too much of an impact on the overall texture.

Eel and glutinous rice parcels

The parcel consisted of a layer of glutinous rice and a slice of eel over the top. Not a fan of eel, I only tried some of the rice inside. The rice on the edge was a little crispy and tasted quite nice, the rice closer to the centre of the parcel was softer and tasted too much like eel for me to enjoy.

Shark fin dumplings

Fried stuffed capsicum and eggplant

Double mushroom in glutinous rice dumpling

This was one of my least favourite dishes - the glutinous rice wrapper just did not taste right, and it broke eaily, emptying out all the contents. The filling itself was not all that special either - it was merely filled wiht some corn kernels, two types of chopped mushrooms and some random other bits and pieces. Never getting this one again!

Vegetarian dried bean curd roll

These were again rather average, the bean curd was slightly tougher than expected, and the fillings again quite bland.

Century egg and pork congee

This one was very well done. The serving was bigger than you get at most other yum cha places. There was plenty of century egg (and you should all be less intimidated by it after Poh's dish on Masterchef) and not too much of the meat. The crunchy bits (like asian croutons) were quite nice and helped to break up the texture a little. Could have done with a little more salt and pepper, but on the whole was very enjoyable.

Marinated beef tendons

Not everyone's cup of tea, but these tendons were done extremely well. We didn't find a single piece that was too overcooked or too tough to eat. The sauce was very nice - sticky, salty and slighlty spicy too.

Prawn rice noodle roll

This was pretty good but not as good as expected. The prawns were nice and big, the rice noodle roll well cooked through and soft. The only problem was that the sauce. It wasn't completely off track, but it lacked a very obvious sweetness compared to the all the other restaurants I've had this dish at. My conclusion is merely that either used the wrong soy sauce, or didn't add enough sugar to it.

Shredded duck and preserved vegetables dumpling

This glutinous rice dumpling also disappointed, mostly due to the wrapper, but also that the filling was pretty tasteless. The duck meat was somewhat crumbly, dry and bland, and even the preserved vegetables did not add any extra flavour or moisture.

Tofu with sweet ginger syrup

One of my favourite desserts, and it was done extremely well. The tofu was cooked just right, so that it was soft enough to break easily but strong enough to hold itself together when not disturbed. The syrup was perfect - neither too much nor too little of the sugar or ginger. Left a very nice sweet and tangy taste in the mouth after eating it. Awesome way to end a meal!

The service was quite good, the waiters were attentive and quick responders. Well, all except one waitress who made the mistake of telling us that the deep fried calamari was deep fried white bait fish instead. Upon pointing out her mistake to her, she proceeded to tell us that it was calamari (well yes, that is what we just told you!) and asked if we still wanted it (if we did, we wouldn't have bothered pointing it out to you would we?). We had to repeat our request for her to take the dish away and remove the marking from the order sheet. I think she avoided outrtable for the rest of the meal.

I just love the set up of the restaurant. The tables are nicely spaced out, the chairs are all wooden and a little traditional looking, but huge! There are also a couple of private function rooms which can be joined together or split up as needed.

We will be back one day to try out the dinner menu.

Overall Impression: 8.5/10