Saturday, August 22, 2009

Supper Inn (Melbourne) 09

Looking back to December 2004, more than 450 posts ago, to the very start of this blog Supper Inn shows up as the second restaCheck Spellingurant we reviewed. It has been a landmark Chinese restaurant for over 50 years distinguished by simple efficient service and good, inexpensive food available from 5.00 pm 'till 2.00 am every day. The narrow staircase to the entrance always has a queue of patrons waiting for a seat in the crowded first floor room. They've moved with the times to the extent that they will now take reservations for parties of four or more, they have table cloths and they take credit cards but the food has not changed, as far as I can see, over the thirty years that I have been coming here.
They have a range of congees ($6.5 upwards) a kind of rice soup which may have almost anything added into it for example beef or giblets. There is a special menu for them in English on one side and Chinese on the converse. We had one with roast duck and one with prawns, both excellent with plenty of prawns and duck. After that we had sweet and sour prawns in a well balanced light s & s sauce, a noodle dish, roast duck ($17 a half), a very delicately poached Murray cod in a light ginger sauce and a plate of greens. Every dish as good as anywhere. All that and a passable bottle of red came to $150.
The presentation is ordinary, as are the crockery and cutlery. It's noisy and always crowded. Half the waiters are Chinese Uni students but they are efficient the food is very good and it has a great, bustling atmosphere that transports you to what one imagines it might be like in a busy suburban restaurant in any city in China.

Score: 14.5/20

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