Hawker Hall

We had our best meal in Melbourne at Hawker Hall. Make a reservation if you can because it gets packed quickly. Luckily we were able to snag the last seats at a communal high top table before their next reservation came in. The interior has lots of brick and is extremely hip. They’re super cautious of allergies, asking at the start of the meal, supplying a color-coded water cup to those who have them, and carefully denoting which menu items are a no-go. The attention to detail and caution was extremely appreciated and shows that they run a tight ship.

The menu is Asian with a modern twist. They’re really about their craft beer selection too. Family style is the name of the game. They’ll course everything out as it’s ready and the dishes are served in small to mid-size shareable portions. Sadly I can’t remember what we ordered (5 months ago) but what I do remember is that everything was delicious!

Really great find on Chapel Street this evening. The food was amazing, the atmosphere very trendy and the service was spot on. But as with everywhere I eat it is the company tonight that made this place a hit. It was their favorite place and I can see why.
The only less than perfect moment was the fried apple pie, since I lived in a apple growing region this dessert just didn’t match up to what I am accustomed to.

We enjoyed dinner at the counter on a very busy night. Service was excellent. Watching the chefs in the open kitchen was amazing. The food was delicious from start to finish. The only reason for not giving 5 stars was the service was slightly off. Had another event to get to and had trouble getting the check delivered and paying the bill quickly due to a seemingly long chat by our waitress with another employee.
Highly recommend these 4 dishes we enjoyed:
*Roti Canai with peanut curry sauce and garlic chana daal
*Prawn

4.5.

Twosheds has been anticipating a visit to Hawker Hall, as it came highly recommended by close friends.  Expectations were high as we had dined at sister restaurant, Chin Chin, on a number of previous occasions.  The high expectations were warranted.  The vibe here is fantastic.  Seriously expensive industrial chic fitout and great low key, old school house and pop music pumps out to a 25-32 something crowd.  Make no mistake, this placed is packed every night for dinner (if you want no queue, come for lunch). The food arrives quickly. And service is fast, attentive, friendly and efficient.

We dined on dumplings to start, which are fusion Asian, as is the case across menu. All the Malaysian, Chinese and pan Asian classics are brought to the fore here. The pork and chive wonton with chilli and black bean were a serious highlight, with the astringent black bean setting off the delicate fat in the pork meat.  Spring rolls are delicately filled and fried with the best ingredients. The throughput of the kitchen, and quality emanating from it, is astounding given the size of the place.  Small details are apparent though such as green chilli in the lovely soy. The char Kway Teow is faithful to its Malaysian roots, but has a special freshness through use of more sprouts which was quite enticing.  

As the food arrived, the music from the DJ spinning discs got better and better (more 80s). Next to arrive were the Malaysian-style chicken skewers. The peanut sauce is more peanut than sauce here: super stuff. I’ll refrain from later dishes but suffice to say, they were as good as the earlier ones.

The Twosheds gang ordered from the “wine off the tap” menu here for drinks, which is great value. We drank a Riesling/Grigio blend and a Pinot, which arrived in carafes.  The wines on the drinks list proper are a bit pricey. You must give this place a try.  

4.5

Hawker Hall is great value for money!

With the DJ pumping tunes, roomy restaurant and attentive, knowledgeable and lovely staff, all that is left to do is to enjoy the food. What a treat it is.

I highly recommend the $66 banquet if you’re hungry, if you struggle to eat large amounts of food, then this is not for you. It’s essentially all you can eat!

The prawn and ginger dumpling with soy and black vinegar caramel and the roti with peanut curry sauce and garlic chana dal are delicious and tender. The nyonya style fried popcorn chicken is one of those highlight dishes that rolls your eyes backwards with excessive head nodding. The roast pork belly with lettuce cups, jalapeños, cucumber and yellow plum sauce impresses, with the pork belly being soft as butter but nailing the crackle. This dish is fun to put together and eat.

The next part is one dish that elevates Hawker to a straight 5-star restaurant. The stir fry wagyu beef and cauliflower with Sichuan pepper, chillies and cashews was amazing! It is rare to find a dish that is this tasty that you start to question how it is done, eyeing off every detail and jumping in excitement. If there is one dish you have at Hawker Hall, this is the one. This dish was accompanied with cucumber, mint and shallot salad with cumin and coconut yoghurt dressing and choi sum with ginger and oyster sauce. Perfect side dishes that take this experience to a new level.

Lastly, the yellow curry egg noodle, beef brisket, peanuts and sate was next. At this point, our stomachs were waving the white flag reluctantly. This dish was sweet, tender and a perfect end to the savory part of the banquet.

Dessert ended with rice pudding, puff rice crumble with spiced pineapple. This was tasty; however, my heart was set on the Milo dinosaur sundae with Milo biscuit. Unfortunately, this was not the case and will be looking forward to treating myself to the sundae on the next visit.

The non-alcoholic drinks are refreshing, so go ahead and choose between the frozen young coconut crush or the lychee soda if you don’t feel like alcohol.

I initially had an issue with my cup that had water which was dirty, but not much else to criticise.

Hawker Hall offer a generous banquet that is hard to beat. The quality of the food vs cost ratio is admirable.