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Loi Loi
364 Victoria St, Richmond
Ph +61 3 9429 7161.
Apologies for the absense of new posts lately - doing an 80 hour work week tends to eat up all the time i’d normally spend on other things.. but anyway, now we’re back!
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of Louis’, David, took us to dinner at Loi Loi, in Richmond.
David is a self-confessed foodie, and describes Loi Loi as one of his regular haunts - so we had some reasonable expectations that we’d have a good meal.
Being a Friday night, getting from one side of the city over to Richmond was no easy feat. We were to meet at 7.00, but by the time I got through the traffic, it was about 7.15.
Parking wasn’t hard to find as Loi Loi is situated sort of down the ‘forgotten end’ of Victoria St (forgotten by me anyway, as i’d never ventured beyond Church St for food).
Upon entering, I found Louis and David already seated near the window, halfway through a bottle of wine. The lighting was a little bit dim, but that only mattered because i’d be taking photos - you could still clearly see your food and your friends. There were plenty of diners, with only one table unoccupied. (The picture above was taken later in the evening, after we’d eaten).
As we were all ravenous, we glanced over the menu looking for something to catch our eyes - David was quite happy to order anything as long as Crispy Calamari was somewhere on the order, so it was up to Louis and I.
After also glancing at the specials board, (which evidently changes daily), we decided on the following:
Crispy Calamari ($14.50)
Chicken Curry ($12.50)
Roti Chanai (Came with the curry, cool!)
Crispy Beef ($12.00)
Seafood with XO Sauce ($17.00)
… and steamed rice ($2 per head).
Whilst we waited for our meal to arrive, it was interesting to see (and smell) the various dishes the other diners had ordered. A short time later it was their turn to savour the aroma of our dishes as they arrived, and we tucked in.
Loi Loi give you your own individually packaged chopsticks (as opposed to picking a pair out of a big container) so there is no need to pour tea onto your napkin and wipe them to make sure they’re clean (am I being too anal retentive?)
Firstly the large plate of Crispy Calamari arrived, (otherwise known as Spicy Squid) and we all dived in. It was certainly decent, but lacked a bit of kick we’d come to expect from dining at other establishments. We prefer a bit more chilli and salt (perhaps when it is tossed/coated prior to serving) as Louis and I found ourselves running our pieces around the plate to gather some extra spice.
Next up was the Chicken Curry which won immediate brownie points for the Roti it came with. Amusingly enough, it tasted better than the curries we had at Golden Orchids and Taste of Malaysia - it lacked that distinct cheap curry powder aftertaste. Not bad.
The Crispy Beef was interesting, but was cut a little bit too thinly - there wasn’t much meat inside the crispy coating. The sweet sauce redeemed it a little bit though, your mouth didn’t feel like you were chewing on a dry biscuit or anything.
Last up was the Seafood with XO Sauce, served on a sizzle plate. And it’s not called a sizzle plate for nothing! I kid you not, this thing was sizzling and spitting for a good 3 minutes at least before we could go near it. I held up my napkin in front of me so I didn’t get any splattering on my shirt, as I was quite proud I hadn’t spilt anything over myself so far.
Antics aside, there was plenty of sauce (even after the sizzle-fest) and the prawns and other seafood were abundant. The taste was well balanced with varying flavours, so it wasn’t like they’d just dumped half a jar of XO sauce over the ingredients.
All up, it was a pretty decent meal that lived up to expectations: especially considering the price. If they moved into the CBD they’d quite reasonably be able to charge another $8 per dish.
One warning though, don’t wear tight jeans, because you’ll want to undo a button or two by the time you’re finished! 
not so anal retentive as being asian.
Left by qsl on October 3rd, 2007