Kerabu — Restaurant in Melbourne

Delicious South East Asian cuisine

We got the last table for four after numerous attempts at making a reservation and were therefore looking forward to the visit with anticipation.

The food was delicious and the service reasonably good given how packed the venue was.

Be warned that the sizes of the dishes are pretty big. Despite our reservations, we ordered an additional dish on the advise of the waiter and found that we had way too much food.

The dishes were tasty and authentic, the highlight of course being the Malay salad that the restaurant was named after. Made with really fresh "greens" and topped off with a nicely balance hot, sweet and sour dressing, their Kerabu was delicious.

The dishes we ordered were reminiscent of the local food found on the border of Malaysia and Thailand which makes sense why a restaurant named after a Malay salad would be list under Thai cuisine.

Kerabu is certainly on our recommended list if you are after good authentic South East...

I'm sad to relate this as this was a standout restaurant for me. I feel sorry for the upstairs staff (1 server) as she was clearly run off her feet. Service was slow to the point of being silly. One entree, one drink and two mains took about an hour and a half - an hour to get a serve of dim sims. They were no standout - not awful but not great. But the saddest part was the flavour of the duck - I had great memories of hot, flavoursome, fresh duck from my last visit (we had been there many times before and always great, but it's been about a year) but we got Luke warm, tired, tasteless, slimy (my wife's description) bird. Also, the only other main- the pad thai noodles were overcooked. Seems to be a pattern for restaurants and it's sad to experience. In case there's any mistake about this, I'm the older guy who gave the lady at the till this very feedback live. I hope you can do better. You were a great restaurant and I hope you can find...

Our party of four went the busy restaurant with a buzzing ambience. The food flavours were great and quite authentic with large portions. We had the fish curry(very flavoursome), beef fillet (ver tender and perfectly cooked), grilled chicken (tasty) and belacan spinach (authentic).

The junior staff were very efficient and polite. However, the big let down was the señior waitress (whom we understand is the owner / manager). We had noticed that some reviewers here have commented on her rudeness and this is completely justified. She was abrupt and dismissive. When we started ordering, she interjected and said "Entree?" - when I said we didn't want any, she visibly frowned and communicated her disapproval on her face for all of us to see, The same again when we said we didn't want any desserts.

A fine restaurant for its food, let down by poor service from this person - I was reluctant to leave a good tip for her.

Not sure if we wish to...