China Bar Doncaster Road — Restaurant in Melbourne

China Bar Doncaster Road at Doncaster Visited on 7/5/2021

I am glad my friend did not read any reviews before he organised a few friends, including me, to have lunch at this restaurant. The special for the day was Hainanese Steamed Chicken Rice HCR.

It is like a Kiosk, similar to that of a stand-alone KFC or Pancake Palour outlet. 8n fact it is next to a Pancake Parlour.

There is ample parkinging at the rear, but it was not very busy when we visited the place.

A ramp leads to the rther unimpressive front entrance. The display of roast ducks and chickens behind a "transparent" shield were just directly facing the front door. Someone should give the shield a good wipe down with degreasing detergent.

The lit up menu was a bit far up behind the counter for my eye-sight, but I do not really have to rely on the display. The lady taking order ould do with a bit of basic training of ustomer service.

After all the negatives being said, I like the interior deco with a vibrant colour scheme, which does not conform to a typical Chinese restaurant style and layout.

Proper HCR dish should consist of a plate of poached yellow skin Chicken pieces, a bowl of rice cooked in Chicken broth and oil, a bowl of chicken broth, and two "sauces". One of them is chopped spring onion with ginger, and the other red chillies with garlic.

It did not take long for the order brought to the table. It may not be 109% authentic, but I am generous enough to score it 4.5 out of 5. The chicken was tender, but not the yellow skin. The reicewaspdrfected cooked, the grains were separated and not sticky. Best of all, the rice was bursting with flavour, with just enough oil and salt blended.

Since I have eaten other dishes, I cannot...

Eaten at food court China Bar's many times and generally food is pretty good and consistent. This is a stand alone China Bar restaurant with a full bar, so you can have a beer, wine etc with your meals. The place is a renovated Pizza Hut building and is bright and cheerful inside. Huge car park around the back shared with the adjacent Pancake parlour. There is disabled parking and a long ramp up to the doorway. Our group was there for a mid week lunch and it was fairly quiet. Staff were very friendly and greeted us with smiles. A reasonable range of dishes in the photo style menu which accurately represented the dishes we ordered. Food was delivered around 10 minutes after we ordered it, and as requested, some of the dishes were delivered one after the other, with the fresh items appearing shortly after the previous dish was finished. Meals we've eaten and can recommend: Combination fried crispy noodle (huge serve, delicious), fried rice, Honey Chicken with fried rice, Wonton Soup, Chicken Curry Laksa (very generous serve, with a nice creamy broth, heaps of noodles, tofu, and chicken), Sweet and Sour Pork, 3 meat noodles, crispy Pork Belly. We've also had the chicken feet, Roast Duck with rice, Beef Wonton soup, and a BBQ pork rice dish. Most serves are REALLY massive, much larger than what I would call an average size. It's not silver service fine dining, but it is excellent value, quick and tasty with a pleasant room with a family friendly ambience. Everything was tasty, delicious and fresh. There are quite a few daily specials from the regular menu for quite a bit cheaper. We paid an average of $16.90 a dish, and if you pay cash, order 3 dishes then one will be free. These specials are cash only...

We were severely disappointed with the food, staff and cost.

It is honestly the most rudest and coldest restaurant I have ever been too. How this restaurant could continue to operate in Doncaster Road, is very hard to comprehend. It appears that because they do not take reservations, only walk ins and open very late, that customers would attend because they offer sit down dinner until very late in the evening.

My friend's chicken was well undercooked and there was constant miscommunication and silence from the staff. They took the same meal back and placed it in the microwave, when in fact is was not the heat, the chicken was pink!

There were cheap tissue boxes on the tables, no napkins, no chopsticks and unclean cutlery stacked I'm serving boxes. None of the food was palatable and it is unthinkable that this restaurant has not been inspected by the health department.

We are the type of people who would never complain, highly respectful and very appreciative of the service and meals.

However, the place was very unclean and you cannot order your meal from the table, but need to queue in order to pre-pay for your food. No QR Codes, none of the staff said hello, offered a smile or were helpful. I would never eat there again.

Severely over priced, fried rice that was tasteless and had only two main vegetables, cauliflower so small, grated carrot and some very small chopped up spring onion. I actually felt quite sick after it. The dumplings were so undercooked and tasted like sticky gelatin and completely transparent.

They do not care about their customers, with very unhealthy practices and honestly should not be allowed to operate under those...