Jackie's On Vincent — Restaurant in Victoria

Due to decent reviews on Google Maps, we ventured here on our first day in Daylesford. The service was polite and quick, but the food was totally weird.

Jackies menu told stories of how Jackie Chen the chef used to work for the Hutong group and various other mid tier Chinese restaurants in Melbourne. Combined with the $15-$30 per dish menu pricing I assumed I was in for a treat and not just a takeaway shop. I ordered Chicken Skewers, Chicken Dumplings, Mongolian Beef, Szechuan Lightly Battered Calamari.

Chicken Skewers (0/5). i expected something like satay skewers or charred viet/xinjiang style grill bbq skewers. What came out was 2 skewers of breast meat that was not browned at all. It could’ve been microwaved. This is definitely not worth $14. I wouldnt even pay a kid $4 to pan fry this chicken breast at home. This is send back to kitchen level, Gordons Kitchen Nightmare fail dish. Please consider changing this item description in the menu.

Chicken Dumplings (3/5). First thing that struck me was how weird these dumplings looked. The skin was very thin and torn in many areas, it wasnt like any dumpling I have ever had. In addition it was sitting on a bed of mix salad greens, slowly steaming the leaves. The chicken filling was delicious and the skin was quite crispy even though it looked soggy almost like tofu skin. This dish is tolerable if it was priced $12. For a dumpling dish like this to be over $15, it better be on par with Hutong level.

Mongolian Beef (2/5): Had 4 whole pieces that resembled a normal mongolian beef dish. All other pieces of beef were like mince size. Flavouring is weird (maybe tailored to westerners. Beef might have beef sliced too thinly or marinated for too long.

Calamari (4/5): Good control of timing and temperature. The calamari was tender inside and crispy outside - I enjoyed this dish. There is nothing sichuan about this though, just some spice powder (not sichuan). Sichuan is 麻辣 not paprika.

Overall, I think the chef on the day couldve cooked well, maybe he was nearing his break time and wanted to quickly finish these dishes. We did see him resting while having our meal.

For future customers, stick to simple takeaway dishes such as fried rice/noodles and avoid the sit down chinese restaurant dishes. If you are a tourist in Daylesford, check out my other review of Taj Mahal Indian restaurant - it really exceeded my expectations and fully deserve the 4.5*+ rating on Google reviews and...

Went there due to unusually high rating, and I prepared myself for disappointment... little did I know all my expectations would be exceeded in the worst way possible.

I ordered 3 things, and as each plate came onto the table, my palm came closer to my face.

For starters, the Asian Greens with garlic oyster butter, couldn’t see green from all the cabbage, and I couldn’t taste the garlic, oyster or butter, which I think I was thankful for, at least for the lack of butter.

Then came Jackie’s Fried Rice, and for a special fried rice, it sure wasn’t very special. It was very bland for starters, and once again our views were shrouded with cabbage, and uncle roger would have been very very sad, rice was too moist and some parts glooped together. Please go on YouTube and watch instructional video from uncle Roger.

And lastly for the piece du resistance, the “pan-fried’ ‘Hand-made’’ “pork” dumplings. When the plate came too the table I wasn’t sure if this was pan or deep fried. The dumplings looked like the frozen Korean dumplings I got at the Asian grocer and skin was not intact on most of them and innards burnt, upon picking up the dumplings it would start falling apart. And once biting down on the dumpling, I felt that the skin was too wet, almost if they steamed it before they fried. And no sure if I’m just too traumatised by this stage but the pork dumplings tasted of beef and celery and upon enquiring the waiter, it had to be confirmed by the boss lady who confirmed very self-assuredly it was pork without ever looking in our direction.

So, here I am deep in doubt and possibly still distressed by trauma of the dumplings, leaving my first review on my google account, and a well deserved 1...

Objectively horrible experience. Visiting town, saw the reviews and it seemed nice. Got seated next to another couple near the fireplace. Within 2mins of being seated we and the other couple were bumped from our seats for a group of 16 that rolled in with no booking (confirmed by server). Mentioned to the server it’s ok but gave her a word that I hope to be served before the big group as we were in first and only wanted 2 mains.

Well, after being moved we waited, waited, lo and behold the group of 16, despite no booking, gets served all of their meals one after the other. We were served our skewers entree, which bad service aside, was still average, not marinated, just some dry chicken breast with a basic peanut sauce.

After waiting, locking eyes with the front of house lady a couple of times and the server (the young server was lovely) we still didn’t get our food as the large group kept getting theirs.

I’m unsure if it matters but the large group were of similar ethnicity to the restaurant operators. I hope that wasn’t the issue!

In the end, I was frustrated with being bumped from our seats and then abandoned for a large group, so my friend and I got up and left, cancelling our mains. You don’t treat customers like that!

Uploaded invoice so there’s no claim of a fake review.

If you go here I hope your experience is...