Pre-Spiegeltent dinner at Pacific Seafood BBQ House

Pacific Seafood BBQ House
210 Toorak Rd, South Yarra (map)
9826 3838

The other weekend, a group of 17 of us had tickets to see La Clique at the Spiegeltent and we all had dinner together in South Yarra before the show. We dined at the Pacific Seafood BBQ House, the South Yarra chapter of which is on Toorak Road near the train station.

Luckily B had thought to book well in advance, otherwise there's no way 17 of us would have been able to get in, even on a Sunday night. Seeing as I now live between the two, I am a frequenter of both the North Richmond and the South Yarra PSBBQH restaurants - both serve up delicious Cantonese food at terrific value for money given the quality of food on offer, both are always packed full, with slightly chaotic service, and both have bilingual menus on brightly coloured pieces of cardboard, making the walls look like they're decorated with oversized Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags.

We started off simply, with san choi bao. I chose to get one with chicken, as we were getting duck in the very next dish. The san choi bao was rather mild in flavour and wasn't as saucy as they often are in other restaurants, so the lettuce didn't get too soggy.

Next up was Peking duck, served (natch) with a scrumptious Pinot Noir. We got a few ducks given there were 17 of us. The Peking Duck at PSBBQH is excellent - just looking at the photo at the top of this entry makes me drool like a Saint Bernard... that crispy duck skin is so sinful but SO GOOD! :)

Speaking of sinful, the next dish that came out was the charred green string beans with minced pork. This is a favourite dish of mine, even if it was a little on the oily side that Sunday night: what really clinches it for me is the inclusion of tiny little whitebait, to give the dish a salty crunch. Highly recommended!

Playing with the macro setting on my camera... :)

The fish was brought to the table for our inspection prior to it being prepared: we'd chosen a coral trout (but often we get barra instead). We asked for it to be steamed with spring onion, ginger, soy and coriander - it arrived fantastically moist and soft. Just like he always does, C snaffled the flesh from the cheek of the fish - it's his favourite!

The trout after it was deboned. Wish I'd taken a shot of the trout when it was first brought to the table, before it was cooked...

The final dish was filet mignon with black pepper and honey sauce. The meat was very good, but I'm not sure I'll rush back for this one - the sauce wasn't really peppery enough for my tastes. The sugar peas were still slightly crunchy though - very moreish.

I'd already seen La Clique in previous years at the Spiegeltent, but I just adore it (especially David O'Mer, the guy in the bathtub..... mmmm.....) and go along each time they roll into town. Some of the acts change, some stay the same, but the one act that I can only watch through my fingers is the spectacle of Captain Frodo dislocating his shoulders and passing his entire body through the frames of two tennis rackets... watch this youtube clip... if you can....