MCKINLY Eatery — Restaurant in Melbourne

My second time trying this gem in Balwyn. First time was for breakfast, during weekdays, so less crowded and easier to get a table. I forgot what I ordered, but I remember it's good 😁 It was their pork belly if I'm not mistaken. Today I came around lunch time, around 2 pm, so approaching their closing hour. As usual, still some people queuing (on waiting list). Luckily (or sadly) I was all by myself so managed to get a spot quickly. Ordering was a breeze, the menu is straightforward, the service was good! This time I ordered the Squid Ink Vongole, probably (CMIIW) one of their bestseller food. Didn't take long for the food to arrived, it was still hot/warm, glistening and looked so tempting. Took a bite and the rest is history (lol ok my bad, too much 😆). Jokes aside, it was good, like "good good" good. Disclaimer, I am no food expert, I just happen to love eating. For me, the spaghetti was spot on, the bisque (soup?) was nice, creamy, savoury, fresh and light. The seafood was good too, tasted fresh and juicy. As per my culinary expertise, I say it felt balance, nothing overpowering anything, each component tastes good, yet all together as a unity it felt balance.. it's enjoyable.. i can eat more and more 😁 Now, I am from Indonesia, I like spicy food. If I am nitpicking and wanted to add things to suit my personal taste, I'll say I'll add a dash of spices and probably a squirt of lemon. But I'd probably ruined the food 😅

Overall, MCKINLY is a nice little eatery in Balwyn, I'll definitely visit again and try their other offerings. Go there and give it a try. Expect waiting lists, particularly on...

My friends and I ordered three pasta dishes and the pork belly benny. There's nothing to fault in terms of food flavours, however, the hygiene standard was questionable and a major disappointment.

We were seated outside and requested for water after being seated for 20 minutes or so, however, the cups given to us had coffee and milk stains and looked like they were not washed properly. Understandably, the wait staff were busy and we were okay with the slower service, however, drinking from a dirty cup / eating from dirty dishes is unacceptable.

Two of the four dishes contained strands of hair in it. Seafood marinara: luckily, we noticed the hair prior to eating and had this brought back to the kitchen and made again. However, this meant that one friend received their food later than everyone else and we could not all enjoy the meal at the same time. Carbonara: we only noticed the hair, 3/4 of the way through the meal as it was mixed in with the pasta sauce. When we brought this to the wait staff's attention and showed them the hair after the meal, their response was "oh okay", without any acknowledgement of the issue and cleared our table.

We felt the feedback we provided to the wait staff weren't taken seriously and are worried that this negligence will continue. This is not an experience you'd expect, after waiting 40 minutes to get a spot in the cafe in the heat, and with a 10% weekend surcharge. We paid for our meal in full at the point of ordering and were not provided a...

Well, let's start with, This place is not a 4.9. The staff cleaning the glasses was smacking these things around so hard the noise was deafening. I almost left. We sat at the window as it was so busy. My wife ordered the big breakfast, nice hot mushrooms, ok sausage, but it had chunks of hard fat in it, great potato cheese bake, good sourdough bread, nice smoked bacon etc but the most important item, the poached eggs were over cooked and solid. Nooooo. I thought I'd try the smashed avocado on sourdough for 18 bucks, and I added 2 poached eggs for an extra 6... well, the bread was dark and seeded (did i get a choice?, not that I recall) it was dry, the crusts were hard as a rock and not enjoyable. Oh, it had alfalfa shoots on top, and I didn't see that on the menu. No thanks. The avocado was barely smashed, and the fetta cheese was chucked over the top. Now, I was expecting the fetta cheese to have been smashed into the avocado. No, I had huge chunks of avo, cheese, etc, and so much avocado it was overwhelming, and over the 2 slices of dry bread made it rather ordinary. The coffee is not too my liking, I don't like AllPress coffee flavour, but they made it well, but it wasn't hot enough and again hard dry poached eggs. It's a sin. The pistachio nuts couldn't be tasted as they were few in whatever the green dust was covering the entire plate.. I should have ordered scrambled eggs. At least that might have been...