Jacqui's Food Fetish

Merivale just keeps on opening winners. This one – Queen Chow. I hadn’t had time to research this place before I went so all I knew (or assumed from the name) is that it was going to be Chinese food. I was pleasantly surprised to find a rather quirky Chinese meets Aussie pub where east meets west – something I can certainly relate to!

It’s located in what used to be the Queen Victoria Hotel in Enmore and it’s a big space. You walk in downstairs to a pretty dark bar area and then upstairs it’s a combination of bar and terrace dining. I was there for lunch so the terrace area was light and bright – I felt like I was in tropical Asia.

It’s pretty easy to navigate the menu – it’s all on one page with headings including Dim Sum, Roast Meats, Rice, Noodles, Vegetables, Meat, Seafood – oh, and the Mud Crab at market price (I was too afraid to ask) gets its own heading. One thing I knew for sure is I had to try some dumplings. Eric Koh is known to be the dumpling meister, opening Mr Wong with Dan Hong – and I’d had some mighty fine dumplings there! Chefs Patrick Friesen and Christopher Hogarth are responsible for the remainder of the menu – which, for me, has all the right words staring back at me – prawns, pippies, XO, duck, kombu, black fungi – you get the idea…

I was dining with a couple of rather conservative ‘honkies’ so I kept the ordering fairly simple. The steamed dim sum platter, the honey glazed BBQ pork spareribs, half a roast duck with plum sauce, and I had to have a stirfry – Cuttlefish, macadamia and garlic chives – I can safely say I haven’t seen that combo before – plus some fried rice.

The dumplings were, as anticipated, spectacular. The roast meats were juicy and oh so tasty. The stirfry was light and simply delicious – as was the rice. And everything looked colourful and screamed ‘eat me!’

No complaints at all – I loved the whole experience. On the way out I noticed the ‘Queen Chow Loves You’ sign – well, the feeling’s definitely mutual.