because I can't cook

Chin Chin's at Koto Moon in Carlton North.
Address	647 Rathdowne Street
Opening Times	Mon-Sun  5.30am-11pm
Cuisine	Modern Asian
Visited	20 August 2011
Rating	

Similar to Tom Phat, Chin Chin’s at Koto Moon offered modern Asian cuisine, located in a pretty ‘hip’ area in Melbourne, and was packed on a weekend night!

Fortunately, we were seated upstairs where it was less stuffy and the ambience was cozier. Upstairs, however, we had no access to the dessert menu board (located downstairs) and a limited one to service since their staff would hang around elsewhere most of the time.

Serving a variety of delicious-sounding Asian dishes from Chinese to Thai, it was tough for us to decide on what to have. A few indecisiveness-es later, for entrée I settled with their crispy chicken, chicken and chive dumplings, and roast duck dumplings. The crispy chicken was terrific; served with mandarins, it was a unique combination, and the roast duck dumplings were simply wicked; crisp roast duck wrapped in soft dumpling skins. Again similar to Tom Phat, these Chin Chin’s at Koto Moon’s delectable entrees seemed to be much more impressive than the mains.

Not that the mains were horrible, in fact they were far from it. And I could have been more positive (ie. more objective?) about them if it was not for the fact that we had to wait rather long for them. Our mains, beef takoyaki (chunky chicken bites covered with sweet takoyaki sauce served with rice) and red duck curry (more Malaysian-type curry?), were tasty and well-portioned, but again, nowhere near as striking as the entrees.

They might have forgotten about our mains, they might have an overwhelmingly busy evening. Either way, taking an hour to deliver us our mains was pretty unprofessional despite their apology.

Overall, Chin Chin’s at Koto Moon was not a bad option; not quite ideal yet certainly not bad for a last minute resort as we did not make a dinner reservation anywhere until quite late that night!

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