Salero Kito

Actually this restaurant is the nearest halal restaurant from my flat. It only takes 6 minutes by walk to reach Salero Kito which is located in 21-23 Waverley Road, Malvern East,just accross Building H Monash University Caulfield Campus.

This restaurant serves Indonesian halal foods. Though it provides special menu like sate padang (beef) and ayam pop (chicken), but I love the foods the kitchen hand serves in the cabinet next to the door like beef Rendang, tempe mendoan (soy bean cake), kikil (beef),
and sayur daun singkong (cassava leaves). My favourites are the tempe mendoan and kikil.
They are sooo delicious. Tempe mendoan tastes salty whilst kikil is a spicy one. However, I
prefer ordering a portion of steamed rice with 3 dishes cause I will get a box of free Teh
Kotak as a special treat to a member of PPIA (Indonesian students association in Australia) :D

If it is your first experience of Indonesian West Sumatran cuisine, it is considerably good to open the website http://www.salerokito.com.au/ first so you may get ample description about what kind of foods sold here cause the cuisine is quite special. Unlike other Indonesian foods which have a combination of salty and sweet, it is well-known for the extremely hot and spicy (they use pepper and chilly alot) taste.

Another interesting fact is that the price is not expensive. For a portion of steamed rice with 3 dishes, I only have to pay $9.50. Fantastic, isn't it? No wonder students love this restaurant so much.

All of all, it is a must to visit Salero Kito when you have a time to visit Melbourne. I usually take my friends coming from Canberra and Brisbane even Jakarta here as I reckon it is the best West Sumatran restaurant in Melbourne. And they love it.

Old Town Kopi Tiam Mamak

This Malaysian halal foods restaurant is located in QV, a shopping center standing beside The State Library of Victoria,in the Corner Russell Street-Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD. It serves the customers Malaysian mamak foods and beverages like roti canai,satay, nasi biryani, fried banana, es cendol, and tea tarikh.

It is a pretty convenient restaurant. The interior design is nice, the staffs keep the restaurant clean, the service is relatively fast, and the ambiance is good as it is warm inside and they let the big television always on to entertain the customers. Beside, you can also get a bottle of water for free if you don't feel like drinking special beverages here.

Last time I went here, I ordered a bowl of beef noodle soup. The
taste was good. It was a mix of boiled soft Chinese noodle, meat balls, and beef. However, it was a very big portion. I guess I should inform you that in general, this restaurant loves to give the customers a big portion of foods, but small portion of hot drink. I ordered a cup of hot tea tarikh as well and the cup was sooo small. I guess, the size was only a half of the normal tea cup. So, it is recommended not to eat anything before you go here and to order cold beverages (it has bigger portion) or take a bottle of free water for your drink.

Though the foods are served in big portion, the price is not expensive. It is a pleasure to find that Indonesian and Malaysian restaurants tends to apply reasonable price, isn't it :) In this restaurant, the price of foods is around $10-15 while it is about $4-10 for the drinks and afters.

Ghin Thai -Another Halal Yummy Spot-

Ghin Thai is a Thai foods restaurant located in Noble Park, Victoria, Australia. This is one of the restaurant I would like to recommend people to try. The foods are halal and so yum, the price is OK (not cheap, not expensive. Just OK), and the interior design is cool.

I went there with my hubby and best mate last Friday night. It took about 30 minutes from my flat (Malvern East) to reach the restaurant by car. As long as the journey, I browsed the website of the restaurant (www.ghinthai.com.au) to give me initial consideration about the foods. As a result, I directly ordered a portion of Pad Thai just after we stepped into the restaurant. It is a portion of stir fried rice noodles mixed with chicken (you may choose: chicken, beef, or seafoods) and spiced in South East Asian style. If you come from Indonesia, like me, you will love it as its taste is quite similar with the Kwe Tiau you may find in the roadside foodstalls.

In the same occasion, my hubby ordered a portion of whattheycall Crying Tiger, a portion of marinated beef poured by blackpepper and Thai hot sauce, and my best mate Nia ordered Thailand’s most popular soup: Tom Yam. I tasted those foods as well, and now I think Ghin Thai deserves to be scored 80 over 100 in term of foods. They are all delicious. Soooo delicious.

However, if I may make a suggestion for Ghin Thai management, I’d like them to open a new branch in Melbourne CBD as it is quite hard to find halal Thai foods around there.