Supreme.J Kitchen — Restaurant in Melbourne

I am Chinese. I have eaten so much Chinese food in my life that it is rare that a restaurant makes me rethink what I know about Chinese food. But first, the restaurant.

This is the sister restaurant to Jade Kew. Jade Kew is a more luxurious dining experience, Supreme J is more approachable. The menu items are similar, but not the same. For example, the Supreme J version of "stir fried vegetables with bamboo fungus and conpoy" lacks the conpoy. However, what is the same is the quality of cooking.

This is Hong Kong style Cantonese cuisine, meaning that seasoning is kept light and the natural flavour and texture of the food is what you are meant to experience.

My partner insisted that we should order the "Siew Yok" (crispy skin roast pork). I don't get excited about Siew Yok any more, I know how to make it myself and nearly every Chinese restaurant in town serves it - so I think it's a bit boring. But THIS Siew Yok was amazing, nothing short of perfect. The meat was tender and still juicy. Pick it up and give it a wiggle with your chopsticks and it wiggles (it's not a stiff dried out piece of meat like most other places). It does not rely on the fat from the pork belly to keep it juicy, in fact the fat content of the cut we received was quite low. I can write an entire essay on cooking this dish, but eating this made me rethink everything I thought I knew about making Siew Yok. I mentioned this to the boss on my way out, and I was told "we have a hot oven, you don't have that at home".

The congee here is also different to other places. This is another dish I know how to make (and so does almost every Chinese person), but I haven't had it like this before. It is loaded up with ingredients, much more than other restaurants. The Century egg was kept in large slices, large enough that the yolk didn't seperate from the jelly. I could even see the abundant snowflake crystals on the century egg (an indicator of quality), so I wonder where they get theirs from because I can't buy eggs like that.

The "Teng Jai Jook" (艇仔粥, another type of congee) had fresh roasted peanuts, jellyfish, cuttlefish, ground pork, and roasted duck in it, which is also different to other restaurants. It is a luxury interpretation of a homely congee that was served on boats.

The texture of both congees was smooth and refined, but both were underseasoned. This is typical HK preference but that's what the salt and pepper on the table are for.

The red bean pancake is the same as Jade Kew's. Meaning, this is probably the best red bean pancake in Melbourne.

Also unlike other Chinese restaurants - this one is clean and the staff are actually friendly.

These guys are totally nailing it. Highly...

I recently dined at Supreme.J Kitchen (尚品) on a Saturday night, and I regret to say that the overall experience left much to be desired. Here's a detailed account of my visit:

Upon arrival, we eagerly ordered a variety of dishes, starting with roast meats, which arrived promptly. However, the subsequent dishes were disappointingly delayed. Despite our booking from 5.45 pm to 7 pm, our second fish dish only reached our table by 6.45 pm, even after reminding the staff multiple times.

To add to the frustration, as the dish was finally placed on our table, we were abruptly asked to settle the bill. When we pointed out that we still had 15 minutes left in our reservation, we were informed that the table was needed back at 7 pm, and the suggestion was made to pack the fish in a take-away box.

It's crucial to emphasize that the delays in service were not due to any oversight on our part. Despite our efforts to communicate with the staff, the kitchen struggled to fulfill our orders in a timely manner.

Furthermore, considering our meal exceeded $600 (though that is small change for a lot of the frequent mainland chinese customers), the decision to rush us out and pack one of the more expensive dishes (the fish) into a take-away box was disheartening. While I understand the diverse clientele, it's disappointing to feel the impact of time constraints on the quality of our dining experience.

In conclusion, the recent visit to Supreme.J Kitchen (尚品) left a bitter taste, overshadowed by tardy service and an unfortunate rush to conclude our meal. Despite the restaurant's name, the commitment to a customer-centric approach and a satisfactory dining experience were notably lacking. Luckily, for us, foodie patrons, Melbourne boasts numerous establishments of comparable caliber with more reliable and accommodating service, making it challenging to consider a return to Supreme.J Kitchen (尚品).

Want good roast duck and roast meats? Rock Kung, Glen Waverly (another karen of a place for good HK roasts whereby it's almost the same level of disgraceful and uncouth service as this ( remember HK 1980s?)). Ripples' roast meats are good too and yes , they know how to treat their customers.

Want good cantonese dishes ? Chopsticks delight, new kum den in the cbd will beat this place flat and that's just to name a few.

As observed in previous reviews for this place, there is a templated responses each time they get a negative review. At least...

The worse service I never ever had in a Chinese restaurant. My experience was the same as below reviews written by Gordon Yeong and Jenny C. Staff there rushed customers out without respect. 6 of us went there to have dinner at 5:30pm on Tue, 20/02/2024, two of my friends arrived a bit late, at around 5:45pm, the head waiter told us bluntly that foods to be packed up by 7:15, and they will need the table back, and pushed us to have foods out while we were waiting for other two friends. At 7:08pm, the same waiter urged us to have all foods packed up despite only two tables of people in the whole restaurant, and there was nobody at all waiting for having a table. The most ridiculous thing is my phone rang at the same time, a lady said ' this is supreme Kitchen, your booking is 7:30pm, are you coming?', what a joke! I totally understand the restaurant wants to maximize the business by having two rounds of customers on a busy night, and I would be very happy to stick to my booking period if the restaurant was busy, but on the particular night, the restaurant was nearly empty(again, only two tables of people, including us, nobody was waiting), could the staff there be a bit more customers service oriented considering we spent over $100 per head there. furthermore, foods there were sub standard, not as good as before. I definitely won't go back there again, will not recommend anybody else to go there. Staff there don't see you as a customers, only treat you as a money generator. After all, there are so many good restaurant in Kew, e.g. Nihao Kitchen, Box Hill, K. Ho Contemporary Chinese Cuisine, Phoenix Kitchen, Doncaster and Doncaster East, Glen...