Garden City's latest revamp has resulted in a decidedly Asian Theme, with a new Asian Supermarket, a Yum Cha restaurant, Lion Dances and also 8 Street. Being the impatient person that I am, of course I had to go as soon as I found 8 Street opened ヾ(=ﾟ･ﾟ=)ﾉ.
For those of you who are wondering, 8 Street is like an Asian food court, not unlike Little Taipei with quite a number of little stalls which you can order from and eat in a communal eating area.
It took me a while to understand what these little things were, to realise that there was a drawing on it to illustrate it was a bin haha. Slow reaction time.
A lot of the communal seating areas available were in park bench style.
There was even a section separate from the rest which was fully set out like you'd see in those period dramas in china, with a little sakura tree on the side and lanterns above you.
There were a mix of overhanging decorations, the birds cages commonly found in Hong Kong, and the red lanterns with words commonly found in Japan, and the remaining plain red lanterns common to China.
Fake wine caskets are found at the door.
Onto the stores that are available:
Teppanyaki Lovers, by the same owners as Kuo at Sunnybank, Nigi Nigi at Central Train Station and Teppanyaki Lovers at Myer Centre, it offers a range of Teppanyaki as found in their Myer branch, but with the addition of drinks and sides that are found in Kuo
Noodle 8, as the name suggests, sells noodles and has a distinctly Malaysian/Singaporean theme to the dishes
Rice town, offers a large range of Chinese rice dishes.
There is no sign here, but from my recollection this is Grill n Bao, which sells the extremely popular steamed buns with filling.
My shaky photo of Gong Cha, a bubble tea joint which has a branch in Elizabeth Arcade, better than EasyWay, but still not as good as my favourite ChaTime.
Burlington BBQ, sells your usual assortment of roasted meats, chicken, duck and pork with the option of rice and noodles. It wasn't open on the day I went.
This is the long awaited Madtongsan V. My friends can't get enough of this place. At the moment it seems to be the only Korean option in 8 Street.
Congee Master, sells mainly congee (rice porrige) with a range of sides. As the Asian equivalent of chicken soup (food eaten when sick), this was a very homely comfort food I looked forward to for quite a long time.
Won Ton Ton, selling dumplings, as described in their name.
Okonomi House sells Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き); a Japanese savory pancake with a variety of different ingredients. Its opened by the same people as Eat Street apparently, so now you dont have to travel as far if you live on the Southside to get yummy Okonomiyaki.
Dim Sum, is operated by the same people as Taste Gallery in Sunnybank, offering an assortment of dumplings, soups and pancakes with a Shanghai flavour.
As I was going around, I collected a large assortment of menus that various stores were handing out.
It took us quite a while, but we finally made decisions on what to order.
We ordered a Assam Laksa from Noodles 8. Assam laksa is different to the usual Curry Laksa, being based on a sour fish soup. It was quite nice, and the soup was distinctive.
The century egg and pork congee was also quite good. I particularly liked the texture of the rice and the generous amount of century egg they put in. I would have enjoyed it more though, if they had ginger as an optional extra rather than mixing it in.
We got a roast chicken rice from Rice Town, the chicken is like the crispy skin chicken that you would normally get at Chinese restaurants. In terms of their rice, it was a bit coarse, it would be better if they could use a bit of better quality rice.
Lastly I ordered a YakiSoba Bento from Teppanyaki Lovers. For the price of $14, the variety provided was very very good. I particularly liked the pork katsu, it was crunchy and juicy. An interesting note, that the rice provided in the bento was of better quality than the rice offered in rice town ٩(●˙▿˙●)۶…⋆ฺ.
Other than what we ordered, they also had a beer garden, which no doubt may readers will also be very interested in.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed my time at 8 Street, they had quite a bit of variety, but were lacking in a few others, such as Taiwanese, Japanese Sushi, ramen and udon (yes I know you can get it outside of 8 Street and bring it in, but it just doesnt seem complete without one. Other than that, its a great place to go when you're with a lot of people who have differing opinions on what to eat. I hope to go back soon and try the other places that I missed this time (๑>ᴗ<๑) .
Price Range: $10 - $20 per person
Taste: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 6/10 - Everything was self serve. There is no table service and not even buzzers to collect your food. All the stores have to shout numbers in hope that you'll hear them.
Environment: 7/10
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