6 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Four hot new city restaurants with $15 lunch deals to hit in your break
Winter is upon us, but things are heating up in the CBD, where a clutch of new openings is here to help you resist the urge to hibernate. A Sydney-famous Malaysian chef has made his Melbourne debut. There are three wallet-friendly new lunch options for city workers to get around, and two seafood-centric Japanese diners are on their way.
The hottest new restaurant in town
Since opening the wildly popular Ho Jiak in Sydney, now with four locations, Malaysian-born chef Junda Khoo has been sharing the food of his homeland and challenging expectations of what the cuisine can be. Now he's brought the party to Melbourne, with a three-storey Malaysian mega-venue. The cherry on top is rooftop beer hall Ho Liao (Level 2, Rainbow Alley), which Khoo says has been doing between 600 and 700 covers a day since it opened late last month. 'It's been absolutely wild.'
While the menu might read conventionally, Khoo puts his own spin on things. His signature char kwai teow is 'not traditional, not authentic', with more wok hei than you'd expect. The loh bak (five-spice pork rolls) use fatty pork jowl instead of the more common mince and add prawn mousse to the mix. The rendang curry stars braised wagyu shin for extra flavour.
