Chinger Biang Biang Noodle — Restaurant in Melbourne

I had a very concerning experience with ChingGer Biang Biang (formerly Dolan). The restaurant implements a peculiar policy where they only accept cash on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. If you don’t have cash on these days, they refuse to serve you. This seems like an attempt to avoid taxation by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Additionally, many Chinese "students" work at this restaurant, often unsual aged/ pronunciation. I suspect they are paid in cash to bypass proper wage practices and possibly employing individuals who do not meet work visa requirements.

Given these concerns, I strongly advise against dining at this restaurant. Their practices suggest they are avoiding taxes and exploiting workers by paying them cash and not adhering to legal labor standards.

Cash-Only Policy on Specific Days: The restaurant’s refusal to accept cash on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays is unusual and could indeed be seen as a way to avoid taxation. Businesses are typically required to report all forms of income, and a cash-only policy might be a method to underreport earnings to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Labor Practices: The claim that Chinese students are working overtime, potentially without proper compensation, and that the restaurant may be employing individuals who do not comply with work visa requirements, is concerning. These practices, if true, would be illegal and unethical, as they exploit workers and violate immigration and labor laws.

I suggest ATO' inspection to their...

This should be the kind of place you can go for an efficient and tasty feed when you're hungry and don't want to spend over $20 for a meal, right? This was my (I think fair!) assumption given their vibe and reviews. I like service to be quick and to the point but this was blunt, rude, and quite petty honestly. At first, they promptly came to my table and demanded payment immediately after I ordered via the QR code. I didn't think too much of this at the time despite how abrupt it was, but in hindsight it speaks to how money-focused the owners are, and how little they care about the customer experience. Then they told me that I couldn't buy my dish by itself because it was under $20 and I was paying by card. Not even that I needed to add a 50c surcharge, that I straight up needed to buy something else or I couldn't have that dish because it was too cheap. Being really hungry, I added a $10 dish. When I asked for a takeaway container, considering all the food I now had, the waiter insisted on a 50c cost, and then a 50c surcharge for paying by card. Definitely won't be back here. Stingy owners and service, and absolutely ridiculous to not...

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It's a small cozy joint, usually packed with Chinese students so you know it's legit.

Both their noodles dishes were on point (+ pretty authentic according to my partner). My fav was their signature 3-in-1 Biang Biang Noodles - strong fragrant aroma smacks you right off the start and you see tons of beef, veggies and garlic on top ready to get mixed together. Their thick noodles were perfectly cooked too, al dente texture. With a solid bite, you can taste all the ingredients which was simply delicious to say the least.

But I did feel like the balance was a tad off. Don't quote me on this but I am pretty sure all the ingredients are supposed to come together as one to give you this complexity in flavours - layers of different flavours coming together as one, yk? Felt like the flavours from their braised beef was a bit too overpowering compared to the rest. But this is a small downside, really. It was still pretty delicious overall and the portion size was definitely huge.

Not a huge fan of their lamb buns - a bit dry and pungent lamb scent. Maybe it would've tasted better with some...