Red Spice Road (McKillop Street)
27 McKillop Street, Melbourne
03 9603 1601
Asian, Thai, Vietnamese
$$$
Food
- Burmese Pork Curry with Butter Beans
- Pork Belly, Apple Slaw, Chilli Caramel, Black Vinegar
The Good
The curry was aromatic and had decent flavours. However it should be noted that there were more flavours of herbs and spices rather than curry itself. Overall the ingredients within were fresh and was infused nicely with the curry sauce.
The Mediocre
There were bits of pork in the curry that were particularly tough and didn’t have much curry flavour. This made for a pretty mediocre experience despite the decent curry sauce.
The Bad
The pork belly was initially quite nice, however upon further tasting, it is apparent that the inherent flavour of pork was overpowered by the overly sweet sauce, which was supposed to be fish sauce.
Additionally, three of the four pieces of pork belly were very tough, dry and as a result extremely chewy.
The slaw was soaked in the sickly sweet ‘fish sauce’, and the vinegar on the side did very little in terms of cutting through the sweetness or add any value to the overall dish.
The Verdict
I expected a lot more from this ‘award winning’ restaurant. Simply put, it is unacceptable to fuck up the main components of a dish at this price level. And this was repeated in both dishes. Highly disappointing experience.
Would Penguin Eat Again?
Very unlikely. While the flavours were in and of itself unique, the dishes were overall quite mediocre given the major flaws. Definitely does not warrant the price tag.