Lucky Inn

The first time we went here it was the night of the X Factor finals which Dami Im won. Dad wanted to go out shopping at Yuen's Market, VGirl had to drive him and then she decided to have dinner. She invited me along and I was initially reluctant as there was some big time constraints, we had to get home before 7pm for the X Factor final for Dad, I was poor at the time and had lots of food at home. VGirl agreed to pay for my dinner and so, out we went!

We were walking around trying to find somewhere to eat when I saw their special of salt and pepper mushrooms. I was intrigued and VGirl was keen, so in we went!

This place!

Its this place! Sans Asian family

It looks like your local authentic Chinese takeaway with lots of bilingual chalkboard specials, pictures of food, self serve cutlery and mildly uncomfortable furniture.

Pretty standard interior

They have the usual set up. I highly recommend their garlic and chilli oil sauce, its amazing. They sell it in jam jars at the counter.

Help yourself!

The daily special is available if you buy a full priced main! The time we went it was diced beef and salad, salt and pepper mushroom, crispy chicken or one of two desserts.

This place is a hotel?

Below is their very, very, very extensive menu.

I got a young coconut drink with strips of coconut flesh inside the drink. It was icy cold and quite sweet. It reminded me of that Thai young coconut drink that you can buy in most Asian stores.

Young coconut juice

VGirl got a matcha green tea frappe with red beans. It was a little too bitter for my tastes, but VGirl really enjoyed it.

Matcha!

I got the pork spare ribs in black bean sauce with your choice of crispy egg, ho fan or skinny rice noodles. I picked ho fan for their slippery deliciousness. I really enjoyed this dish, it was deeply savoury from the mashed black bean sauce which coated all the meat and vegetables, the cabbage, carrot, capsicum and onion were all cooked to perfection and the spare rib meat was so tender. I would suggest picking this dish if you don't mind gristle in your food as there was a far bit of it, due to the cut of meat involved, if you like gristle, order away! Towards the end, there was a small puddle of oil, so beware.

Delicious!

This is VGirl's meal of mixed vegetable fried rice. Its a very plain fried rice with egg, broccoli, peas, carrot and onion. She remarked that it was quite bland and plain even by her standards, "as a long time vegetarian." I didn't try too much of the rice, but I had it with the very flavoursome pork ribs and some of that delicious garlic and chilli oil. She managed to split it between herself and Dad.

VGirl was trying to ruin my shot

We were all very impressed when this came out because of how authentic it looked, with it's chopped up jumble of fried garlic, chopped green onion, brown onion and capsicum as well as it's super crunchy slices of king oyster mushroom. The mushrooms themselves didn't have much flavour, just very textually crunchy and slightly bland, there isn't a particularly strong mushroom flavour to these fresh mushrooms at all. The majority of the seasoning is in the topping, so make sure to scoop a little of it up with each mushroom piece.

I went back on a later occasion with my Boyfriend for lunch since he was pining for some laksa. I ordered the minced beef with raw egg and rice. It is an evil looking struggle plate of hand minced beef, peas, straw mushrooms, a thick brown gravy on top of rice with a raw egg plopped on top. Its pretty tasty with that being said, as I said the beef is hand minced so teeny tiny pieces of good quality beef are used and not a beef mince as the name would suggest. The peas were plump and juicy. The egg, once stirred into the hot rice and gravy, thickened up the dish and made it quite rice and shiny. Not for the faint of heart haha, textually it was a touch bland and sloppy due to the ingredients used. I was very full by the time I was halfway finished with this meal.

Order if you dare!

The combination seafood laksa had a mix of flat egg noodles and thin rice noodles, a creamy coconutty soup with a mild building spice, slices of fish tofu, prawns, squid pieces and a few bean sprouts in the mix. The soup was lovely with a rich aroma and creamy mouth feel. I really enjoyed the soup and I liked that it wasn't obviously coconut laced when I looked at it, you could tell when you drank it though. The prawns were sweet and bursty and my Boyfriend really enjoyed his meal.

Combination seafood laksa!

Lucky Inn
Atmosphere: 5, your local authentic Chinese takeway store! Busy with laminated signs, chalkboard specials and flatscreen plasma TVs showing daytime Aussie TV and Chinese cable/dramas.
Service: 10, absolutely wonderful. As I mentioned we were there the night of the X Factor final, we asked if they could swap the TV channel over to the show which they did after some puzzling with the remote. My dad requested tea, and despite it being only a few meters away, the waitress both fetched him some and showed him where to get more if he wanted a refill. We asked for takeaway containers and received them with no charge. The service was extremely prompt with both ordering, placing food and removing plates. I gave them a really large tip for their service which made them quite surprised haha. On the second occasion, they were just as pleasant and quick to help as the first.
Food: 8, tasty, large portions, cheap price and good cooking. I would very gladly go here again for another meal.