Miss Chu
He Says
Miss Chu, the self-proclaimed Queen of Rice Paper Rolls, has (a while ago now) opened up a Melbourne outpost on Exhibition Street. Apart from Trunk Dinner (I know, I know, it’s on THE LIST), and the Telstra Telephone Exchange, this end of the city has about as much appeal as a closed suburban shopping centre carpark. Regardless, Margie and I decided to venture up for some cheeky Monday evening dinner.
The interior of the tuckshop is very spartan, with most of the tables being made up of tiny little wooden blocks; the dark interior makes it looks more like a bar than a restaurant. On each table/cube, there is a little pad of paper menus, where you fill out your order using the supplied pencil. It’s all very neat and efficient.
She says
This is another post in our series of dinners in the city that take no more than 45 minutes. We’ve been to Miss Chu a few times now and it strikes a good balance between speed and quality. Miss Chu is an import from Sydney and seems to be doing very well for herself. The tuckshop in Melbourne is always busy and there are an increasing number of outposts popping up through Sydney. I hope that one day there might be another a little closer in to the CBD here (although their delivery service on electric bikes does go some way to bridging the distance gap).
The fit out is fun. I really like the little tables with wood topped milk crates as chairs (although according to Gerard they’re uncomfortably low for taller people to sit at, being a little vertically challenged at barely 160cm I hadn’t noticed). The long bar down the side of the semi-open kitchen is an entertaining – if a little hectic! – place to sit and watch meals being dished up at lightning speed.
We Ate
We filled out a cute order form and chose a number of little things to share.
We started with the BBQ Pork Buns ($2.20 each). We’re both a little obsessed with pork buns, these aren’t the best I’ve ever had but they certainly made me a happy vegemite.
We also ordered two serves of dumplings, firstly the Shanghai Pork Dumpling ($6 for 3). These are very tasty but at $2 a dumpling (as opposed to something closer to 50c a piece at our normal dumpling haunts like Shanghai Street and North East China Family) they’re hitting the premium end of the dumpling market. I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re the highlight.
We also had the Asian Vegetables with garlic chive Steamed Dumplings ($6 for 3). Again they were good, but probably not great value at $2 a piece.
Miss Chu advertises itself as the ‘queen of rice paper rolls’ so we were looking forward to the Roast Duck & banana flower rice paper rolls ($8 for 2). The duck was really delicious (if a little sparse). We’ll definitely have these again.
We also shared a Satay Chicken Vermicelli salad ($13). These salads (and the pho) are probably the most substantial items on the menu, I’d be happy with one of these as a meal on its own. We’ve also previously had the lemongrass beef which I probably prefer but Gerard finds a bit too spicy for his white-ness.
In the end…
I like Miss Chu, the food is tasty, affordable, and the service is efficient. The only let down is the location is a little out of the way.
