Kam Fook: Dinner

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

Having loved the yum cha at this place, we decided to give it a shot for dinner. And it was so worth it!

Table setting

Sliced pork and jellyfish

A very simple classic dish, the sliced pork was well marinated and cooked just right. The meaty part was salty and the rind was chewy but not tough, more like a stiff jelly. The jellyfish had a slightly weird taste that showed it hadn't been marinated enough. The sauce was nice and tangy, with a bit of a kick from the chilli. I really liked the presentation - they managed to make a simple dish look pretty interesting!

San Dong Chicken - chicken with shredded nori and crushed cashews

Strange things happened with this dish. The menu stated it as "shredded chicken [in some sauce] with cucumber and crushed cashuts (sic - they meant cashews)" but when it arrived, the chicken wasn't shredded, instead it was de-boned and portioned. And then, instead of cucumber, it was covered in shredded nori flakes. The cashews were there though, and the meat was definitely chicken. When we asked for the menu again to double check, there was no other dish that matched the description of ours! The waiter later confirmed for us that it was the correct dish and that it has always been done in this way. TRANSLATION FAIL!

In any case, the dish was delicious. The chicken was well-marinated and tender, with a nice crispy skin. It could have been left to crisp just a little bit longer, but it still tasted excellent. The nori flakes was something I've never had on chicken and it gave it quite an interesting flavour. The cashews were just cashews, partially c

Deep fried mushrooms stuffed with prawn mince with a salty egg yolk and fish roe sauce

Hands down the best dish of the night! There was so much work put into these tiny mushrooms. When reading the menu, I envisaged a pile of giant mushrooms, stuffed then rolled in egg yolk batter and then deep fried, and certainly not what it turned out to be! Firstly the mushrooms were soft and aromatic. The prawn mince inside wasn't exactly fresh prawn, more like prawn and flour mixed together, but was quite tasty and matched the texture of the mushrooms well. There were some tasty bits of salty egg yolk mixed with fish roe clinging to the mushooms, and floating around in the sauce. Personally, I would have liked to see more of the egg yolk/fish roe combination, as weird as it sounds. And even the brocolli was nice, and I'm not a fan of brocolli!

Fortune cookies!

An interesting way to end the meal - we're used to some sort of sweet soup and a plate of fruit from most other places.

Atmosphere: spacious and classy - table cloths and fancy table settings

Service: absolutely perfect - the waiters and waitresses were incredibly polite and friendly (especially for a Chinese restaurant inside a shopping centre) and the food came out in a rather timely fashion

Price: pretty decent value for money. We paid $76 for the meal, which included rice and tea for 4 people. That's not even $20 a person!

Overall Impression: 9.5/10