Cafe Chez Joe — Restaurant in Victoria

There wasn’t much restaurants open for dinner at Metung, but I was excited to try this place because of the reviews. Owner is very friendly, although the young girl waiter could be more proactive. She was not greeting or seating us for a bit whilst doing something else behind the counter (we were the only people there). Inside has nice, cozy decor with nice arts on the wall.

Menu looks very interesting, mix of Indonesian, Western and Middle Eastern foods. Tried their lamb satay and lamb yellow curry. Whilst the lamb was generous amount and cooked beautifully, I was disappointed with the veggies, as the menu said it comes with gado-gado. However it was more like steamed chunks of veggies with peanut sauce on the side. Peanut sauce was ok, but steamed veggies were quite tough (cooked only a little bit, which is probably just personal preference, but I would like it slightly softer). But yes to call it gado-gado is just way too loose interpretation. Gado-gado has a lot of things in it and veggies are sliced much smaller. The lamb curry was not bad, but same as me, he was also disappointed with the steamed veggies that were not seasoned. Cheesecake was fine. So in general this place could be much better if they do more things to...

French name yet Indonesian, Middle Eastern, Italian, Greek options. 'International Fusion' means combining cuisines on a plate. 'Fusion' is not offering a meal from random countries. Felt like a 'before' episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. The beef Rendang was delicious. Authentic. "Large" soup serving was small. Tasted like a good quality tinned/packet soup. Looked inexperienced in hospitality. Coffee was atrocious. Decor was mish mash. Dessert $13 for bulla ice cream and a rubbery warm cheesecake. Went here as there was no where else to go. Could see they were trying hard but need guidance from people with experience in the industry....

Owner took order for gluten free meal and asked “coeliac?” Which we confirmed, yet delivered a dish with wheat noodles. When asked to confirm that the noodles were gluten free, she did not understand that egg noodles with wheat were not gluten free. Considering the last place that carelessly fed me these noodles took 6 months of my life, I was understandably frustrated by the fact that she was claiming it was coeliac safe when she didn’t know how to even make it gluten free. If you have food allergies, go elsewhere. She was willing to make the same dish again with glass noodles. Here’s hoping I don’t regret eating it for the next...