It's Time for Thai, Kingsford

It's Time for Thai is one of the many casual restaurants on Anzac Parade - except slightly nicer than the myriad of Chinese takeaways in the area, with its funky multi-coloured lights and wooden benches. Having eaten lunch at this restaurant various times throughout the past few months, I can definitely say that it fills up quickly but also has quite a high turnover of customers (though be forewarned that the timing of dish delivery is hit and miss).

As with a lot of other 'Thai' restaurants, there is a tendency for the food to be made sweeter to accommodate the local palate. It's Time for Thai is no exception. The pricing of the lunch specials, however, is excellent, resulting in value for money where everything chicken and beef is $10, lamb is $13, and... well... the list goes on.

The lunch menu

When ordering one of their curry or soup dishes, you can choose between rice or roti canai. I've had both their green and red curries, which taste pretty much the same - they're both milky and sweet. The massaman curry is full of potato and meat (beef, in my case), has a fair bit of sweetness, but is also quite spicy. The roti canai is dense but flaky, and, despite being quite small in diameter, is quite filling as they give you two pieces of it (though I'm a fairly small eater).

Beef massaman curry with roti ($10)

I've also tried their noodles stir fried in chilli and basil sauce. Not limited to just rice, you can request both rice noodles and egg noodles! The portions are generous, with plenty of meat and vegetables. The flavour isn't bad and it makes a satisfying lunch.

Beef chilli and basil sauce egg noodles ($11)

Other dishes:

Chicken pad thai ($10)

Crispy chicken with rice + fried egg ($12)

Chicken pad kee mao ($10)

Overall: Value for money

Chinese Dumpling and Noodle House, Kingsford

I'd heard from a few people that there are a couple of fabulous dumpling eateries in Kingsford, and that the Chinese Dumpling and Noodle House ('CDNH') was one of them - that, in fact, Kylie Kwong recommended eating there. Just like the other Asian eateries around the area, CDNH is extremely casual and pretty much like your local Chinese takeaway shop. The portions are generous, the prices very low, and the flavours a bit hit and miss. CDNH's facade itself is pretty inconspicuous, blending in amongst its competitors, so look out for the big red sign.

Facade

The waitresses' grasp of English is limited (I've experienced a mix-up of our order), but their service is polite and attentive. If you go there at lunch time on a quiet day, you'll probably see the staff (cooks included) laying out a banquet for themselves and chatting amicably.

Interior

The dumpling prices range from $4.50 to $11, depending on the type of dumpling and the portion. If you're looking for big portions, the boiled and steamed dumplings are the way to go - with plates of 14 - 16 dumplings for $8 - $10. Personally, I'm not a big fan of their dumplings. There's something lacking in taste - the fillings seem to consist of the same meat (despite ordering dumplings with different fillings) and they lack salt, consequently making them taste quite bland. On the plus side, they seem to add very little or no MSG, since I don't feel thirsty after each visit.

Menu - dumpling section

 I'll commence my dish-by-dish break down with the pan-fried three fresh delicacies dumplings. The filling is firm, quite patty-like, and somewhat dry - unlike other Shanghainese dumplings that I've had, there is no hot soup stock inside to tantalise the tongue. The dumpling skin is thin, soft and resembles boiled wonton skin. I would have preferred a more caramelised bottom - as you can see, they aren't very golden brown. As mentioned before, it lacks flavour, but it tastes and feels homemade.

Pan fried three fresh delicacies dumplings [pork, prawn, egg] x 12 ($9.50)

We tried one of their steamed dumpling dishes with a chicken filling, and apart from the limp texture of the dumpling skin, it was pretty much identical to the pan fried dumplings above. We suspected they got our order wrong, but we didn't know for sure.

Steamed dumplings [Northern style/ chicken] x 7 ($4.80)

Surprisingly, the pan fried bun tasted significantly better than the other dumplings. - probably because they contained more salt than the previous two. There was no soup inside (again), but the bottoms were a bit more toasted.

Pan fried bun x 6 ($8.00)

 I've also tried a few of their noodles. Their black pepper noodles with capsicum and onion are outstanding, particularly if you choose to have them with udon noodles (as opposed to rice noodles). There's a choice between beef and chicken, and both meats are cooked well - tender and succulent.

Stir fried udon noodle with beef in black pepper ($8.80)

Stir fried udon noodle with chicken in black pepper ($8.80)

I've also tried their Hokkien noodles with beef, which tastes similar to the black pepper noodles. Though tasty, the black pepper noodles are still the best.

Stir fried Hokkien noodles with beef ($8.80)

In summary:
- Cheap
- If you must have dumplings, eat the pan fried buns
- The black pepper noodles are recommended

Sedap Rasa, Kingsford

This particular post will be fairly short, as this one involved a quick one dish meal. A few weeks ago, I was strolling along Anzac Parade looking for somewhere to have lunch, and I came upon Sedap Rasa with its giant sign advertising its lunch specials - $8.50 for a plate of rice and 3 side dishes ($7.50 if you flash them your student card). Apologies for the particularly bad photos!

Street view

  Lunch there is done cafeteria-style, with ordering carried out through gesturing at the dishes of choice, the entire selection being stored in the bain maries.

Interior

I'll commence with the rice. To be quite frank, it was terribly stale. Dry and hard in places, it was very much like several days' old leftover rice. It didn't have the same texture as undercooked rice has, which lends greater weight to my suspicions.

Toppings:

1. Deep fried poached egg with chilli - pretty tasty.

2. Curry chicken -  they gave me a bony part of the chicken, which meant that the lesser amount of meat was balanced off with the moist texture of what meat there was. The curry was tasty and milder than the other two toppings.

3. Chopped beans with potato and sambal chilli - the beans tasted surprisingly fresh and the potato complemented it pretty well.

In summary: Bad rice. Pretty good toppings. Though cheap, there are heaps of better places to eat along Anzac Pde though.