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Tai Pan
239 Blackburn Rd, Doncaster East
Ph +61 3 9841 9977.
Lately, the quality of city yum cha seems to be a bit lacking, so last Sunday we ventured out to the suburbs with John & Robert for a decent feed.
We’d booked a table at Tai Pan in Doncaster for their morning session. As we got there on time right on 11, everything was already in full swing. As soon as we were seated, we were being offered goodies off a trolley - even before our tea had arrived!
Due to the design of the restaurant, the main eating area at Tai Pan is raised - which is the best spot to get a seat if you can, as the trolleys don’t go downstairs to the small eating area, so down there you rely on waitresses with hand platters walking around.
Even though we were on time, the main area was filling up fast. About 10 minutes later, the place was full.
I think I can safely say we over-indulged just a little, but it’s hard to say no when you have so many different things being offered to you! Here’s what we ordered:
Dau Fu Fa (Tofu Pudding)
Lo Bak Ko (Turnip Cake)
Chicken’s Feet
Congee
Stuffed Eggplant
Ham Shui Kok - 鹽水角 (Pork mince balls)
Fried Chee Cheong Fun (Fried Rice Rolls)
Ginger Prawn Dumplings
Cha Siu So (BBQ Pork Puff Pastries)
Pork Spare Ribs
Prawn Rice Rolls
Prawn & Chive Dumplings
Scallop Dumplings
Prawn Dumplings
Shallot Pancake
Shark Fin Dumplings
Stuffed Beancurd
Yam Balls
Green Tea & Red Bean Jelly
Fruit Balls
A couple of things I didn’t get a photo of were the Egg Tarts, (they’re pretty much the same everywhere) and the Crispy Suckling Pig (A special off the chef’s trolley) which was consumed before I could get the camera out.
The pricing of the yum cha dishes was quite reasonable - the standard, super and deluxe were $3.80, $4.80 and $5.80 respectively. We didn’t get any super-deluxe dishes. One thing to watch out for though are the ’specials’, which can sometimes be quite expensive - we were a bit shocked that the Suckling Pig dish we got cost us $15.00!
10x $3.80 dishes, 10x $4.80 dishes, 5x $5.80 dishes, & 1x $15.00 special. Total bill - $130.00.
Tai Pan also have an extensive dinner menu, if you’re looking for somewhere to get a good meal of an evening. As well as the normal dishes, their Peking Duck (carved in front of you by the head chef) is especially good - something that we’ve ordered a few times and it’s been consistently delicious.
The food was hot (hadn’t been around the block 3x on the trolley), there was a great range to choose from, and it was tasty.
However there were a couple of incidents that annoyed me. Firstly, the service. There’s an 11am session, and a 1pm session. Around 12.15 - 12.30, we’d slowed down on all the mains and were just chatting, waiting for the dessert trolley to make its way around the floor. On no less than 4 occasions, one of the managers asked/tried to get our bill in a ‘hurry up’ attempt to get us out. In the end, I hid the bill under the teapot, and you could tell he was looking to see where it’d gone every time he walked past.
I don’t take kindly to being given the ‘hurry up’, especially when it’s their own fault - one poor girl was making her way around the whole floor with the dessert trolley. The logical thing to do would be to get a few other girls to help her out, no?
Also, the price of a small plate of suckling pig was a bit of a shock - $15? I would have rathered half a Peking Duck for $25. Those things should come with a warning, or a price tag.
Lastly, an occasional click on one of our ads would be much appreciated, it’ll help keep us going. 
What a random coincidence, because I was there that morning, right on the dot of 11 too. I thought I saw someone taking photos..
Left by Mel on August 14th, 2007