Kitchen Inn When My Kitchen’s Out?
Kitchen Inn, another new kid on the block on Elizabeth Street (a couple of shops away from Borek Bakehouse), about 100-150 metres from Queen Victoria Market.
I usually like to see what the restaurants’ patrons are eating (if there’s outdoor seating) before making mental checks to see if that particular restaurant would be committed to my “must try” list.
Kitchen Inn’s Kolo Mee Special (Sarawak Kuching’s 古晋面 with literal translation: dry mixed noodles {干捞面}) with char siew and minced pork, already won my heart when I saw one diner slurping up the noodles greedily. He’s either very hungry or the noodle’s really good. Oh well, the proof is in the pudding and so…
The service was bad maybe because they are new and do not have enough staff to man the place but the staff were friendly and tried their best to cope. Although there’s table service, we had to go inside the shop to place our orders and pay in advance.
The fist dish that came out was the Lor Bak (meat roll – $6) which was passable. We waited and waited some more before the Penang Style Fried Kuey Teow ($8.90) and the Kampua + Special Soup ($8.50 + $4.50) came.
Kampua Special consisted of some Char Siew (BBQ Pork), Siew Yoke (Roast/Crispy Pork Belly) and Prawns. You can choose minced pork or siew yoke for this dish.
This soup came with the Kampua + Special Soup Deal 1. While I love organ meats especially liver, here, the kidney really “stink up” (for lack of better word but quite literally, as it smelled like urine) the soup and tasted horrible! I would rather the chef not use kidneys if they do not know how to clean the organs properly.
I was just telling Ray that this Penang Fried Kuey Teow on my first bite had very good “wok hei” (breath of the wok which is a.k.a. wok thermal radiation) but as soon as Melbourne’s unpredictable weather quickly changed from warm to cold, so did the oil in the fried noodles. My mouth felt heavily coated somehow. Was it MSG or did the physical properties of the cooking oil changed when the food turned cold? I could not and still cannot describe the texture of the cooking oil used. Also, there’s a hint of smell. Maybe I’m sensitive… but you won’t find me in the queue any time soon.
This place has potential. I hope to see good reviews about it soon.
Happy hunting 
l hope one day you will decide to publish your recipes in a book.Thank you for your recent visit.jalal
Thank you for your kind comment, Jalal. Publishing my own cookbook used to be my dream… seems faded as each year passes. I hope you will try the recipes and give me some feedback. Better yet do share with us some your favourite home recipes