York Surprise

York Café
338 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
9642 2882
Open lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday
Mains $6 - $8
Take Away available
BYO with $1 corkage per person
Bookings and credit cards accepted

The proliferation of small Asian cafes in the CBD is boggling; wonderful but boggling. Where do you begin? How do you begin? Well, our approach is simple: start where you are, wander no further than you have to, and be open to surprises in unexpected places.

York Café is about at local as it gets for us. It’s a comfortable but unassuming little place, lots of contemporary dark wood furniture and stark white walls with the occasional Chinese pop-out paper art blessing you with good luck. It can feel a bit sterile to begin with, but the attentiveness and welcome of the service staff make up for it. Most importantly, kids are always treated well. It’s an out-of-the-way place, hardly ever crowded but there’s always a steady stream of customers, many of them regulars; it’s obvious from the way they’re greeted and make themselves at home.

York is in its second year now. The folks that run this place are originally from Hong Kong. While the specials board always includes good old Aussie-Chinese stalwarts like sweet and sour pork, this place is far from your typical suburban Chinese. The menu includes a great selection of noodle soups, rice dishes and some great vegetarian options. We especially liked the Hokkien fried noodles, the delicious boneless chicken curries, and the stir fried beef with chilli and garlic sauce. The vegies and other ingredients are fresh, the serving sizes are large and our family of four does well with two to three mains between us. Around $30 does the trick. This is not top-flight stuff, but the people at York care about what they do and it shows. We’ll be back.

Comments

[Geoff Pound]

Alese and Simon,

Congratulations on your delightful new site. I love the photos, the name, the smell and your first contributions. The only problem is that reading it makes me hungry for food, for Melbourne and for a decent coffee. We look forward to learning about the trends in Melburnian cuisine.

Maybe we could commence a sister site: Eat UAE or Eat Emirati! The restaurants we have been to are generally inexpensive. We have tasted Lebanese lots of bread and dips followed by kebabs or mixed meat grills plus salads and sweets. Unfortunately at most eating places, there’s no glass of red to accompany the food. We had Irani food the other night but this was nothing to write about in a celebrated new Blog Site.

One other thing that is very different in this veiled society. People leave their walled homes and travel in their tinted-windowed cars to the restaurant. Women appear in dark garments with head and face coverings and the group normally opts to eat in ‘family rooms’. These are curtained off areas which give privacy but it appears to me that one is not able to enjoy the atmosphere and the ambience which I think is a big part of the experience of eating out.

Eat well,

Geoff Pound

[Ben Holt]

Hey guys

Great site. I really like it. I was waiting for Alese's scathing criticism but it never really appeared.

One idea though. I reckon you should name your photo's so that when I scroll my mouse over them I know what the picture is. That would be cool.

I will add this site to my blog favourites and check often.

Oh yeah, I tried the Thai place in Hardware Lane the other night. I think it's called Onoi La (that's not it but something like that) and it was fantastic. I think you should try it.

Ben