penang coffee house, hawthorn

I plugged toy camera (an IXUS 55) in to download some photos, only to discover there's photos on there from a month ago! Early in May we adventured over to Hawthorn not, as we usually would, for Plush Pizza, but to try out the noms at the Penang Coffee House on Burwood Road.

I had been really looking forward to this. I'd heard it was cheap, and that there was vegan laksa available, and I am still on my quest for a good restaurant laksa suitable for vegans here in Melbourne. If you have any recs, please share them with me!

Anyway, Penang noms. Oh Penang, love of my heart, with your hawker foods and your strong Hokkien influence and your delicious fun times.

At Penang Coffee House, I found and located the laksa, and refused to share.



It was not that great. I mean, it was a perfectly serviceable noodle soup, but it was a bit bland, and not at all spicy. The noodles, curry and tofu that Danni and Jo shared were much better. The sayor loday had a rich flavour, and the stuffed tofus were fresh and delicious, and the noodles (I think a mee goreng) were tasty but a bit lacking in wok hei.



Despite my laksa disappointment, I would give Penang Coffee House another go; in fact, I plan to order takeaway tomorrow.

ETA: well, I am eating my lunch now, and I just remembered another thing I didn't like about Penang Coffee House: THERE IS PINEAPPLE IN MY NOODLES. I'm out.

Penang Coffee House
549 Burwood Rd
Hawthorn

tak chee house, northbridge

Tak Chee House is all delicious Penang hawker style, from the plastic furniture to the muggy, tiny interior, and the menus using Hokkien and English. The menu is a mixture of hawker rice and noodles favourites; mee goreng, ha mee, kuay teow, rices, etc. My mum was so excited, the first thing she declared was that she'd be ordering ice kachang, and it was massive and allegedly delicious (and she would like to recommend it to all your non-vegan friends on these warm summer days). I would like to recommend the fresh lemon ice tea for these warm summer days, which is vegan and pretty cool (hah!).



D and I decided to order and share a char kuay teow and mee goreng.

The char kuay teow was fantastic! The wok hei was so tasty, and there were lots of fresh vegetables, the noodles were freshly cooked and it was really tasty. Sometimes when you order 'noodle dish x, strict vegetarian' you can get some pretty boring noodles, but this one they replaced all the meat with a multitude of delicious vegetables, and it had a really great flavour. A++ will definitely order again (and my mum was coveting it).



The mee goreng had that classic tomato flavour, and I loved the addition of baby corn. I would probably order this again, it was pretty tasty.

Service was okay, our waitress was a bit bored disaffected youth, but that didn't stop the meals from coming out very quickly, piping hot and prompt. By the time we left there was a queue of people waiting for a free table. Dishes were about ten dollars. Not gluten-free friendly, but you can take your meat eating aunties and parents and whatever and they will love what they have but be jealous of what you have.


Tak Chee House
1364 William St
Northbridge

Closed on Mondays