Minh Tan II

Went for yum Cha on the Sunday.
All dishes freshly made on site delicious. A true yum Cha. If they worked on presentation this would be a Melbourne icon.
Unlike major yum Cha in CBD which use frozen, offsite made items.
Also Best pork bun in Melbourne
Shui Mai amazing
Will be back for seafood

Always hard to choose a place when you find yourself hungry on Victoria. So much choice, so much seemingly similarity between them — sometimes you just have to spin the wheel and pick one at random.
Which is how we found ourselves here for a cheap weekday lunch.
Greeted by a fish tank with live seafood at the door
+ pretty tacky overall décor
+ hand-​written specials pinned to the walls written all in Chinese
+ service almost non-​existent
+ a pretty packed lunch crowd when others we walked by was empty
= all good signs when eating Asian food in Melbourne.
My $ 10 diced beef phở was not a world-​beater but pretty darn good (beef pieces were a little fatty, but that’s usually the way with Chinese influenced places I find). Everyone else was there for the dim sum yum cha, which looked pretty oily but the crowd tells me might be worth trying next time.

So as always like to start a review with something good. They do have BYO and the tables are clean. .. . that’s about as much as I have to say.
Long delay with everything from getting a menu to taking our order. This may be acceptable if the place was busy but it wasn’t.
Food was sporadic with its arrival to the table and we had to remind the staff of some of the meals a they didn’t arrive.
Prices are high and the quality of food didn’t represent this.
If you’re reading this an looking for a place to eat on Vic street, keep walking. There’s plenty of awesome places around.

I dream of a world…
A world where disgusting Chinese food no longer exists…
A world flooded with delicious Cha Siu Baos…
A world where all the Cha Siu Baos were filled with savoury, sweet sauce…
A world where all the pork in the Cha Siu Baos were the best quality and not too fatty…
A world where the wait for these Cha Siu Baos is pretty much 0…
I can just imagine myself now, swimming in a gigantic pool of Cha Siu Baos munching away.
But unfortunately since that cannot happen, I go for the next best thing — Minh Tan II. Get the Cha Siu Baos for takeaway — SUPER cheap and always good quality!

The crab is epic. If you are a fan of crab, this is one place where you can and eat regularly and not have to sacrifice your bank account.
Crunchy and spicy soft-​shelled crab straight out of the wok will hit your plate. It is simply delicious — crispy and sweet it goes down a treat with beer.
The décor may not be up to much, but rest assured that the food is great and the prices right, with mains barely making $ 20.
Classic Vietnamese and Chinese food always hits the spot, so I recommend heading there with a few friends or family and ordering a few things. Peking duck pancakes and deep fried five-​spice squid are on the menu and are so good.
Service is best described as brisk. They don’t mince words or muck around here. If its food you want, you’ll get it. Fast. You may want to try booking, but in my experience I’ve found that they are very accommodating if you stroll in.
If you’re driving consider waiting until after 6.30pm because traffic and ticket restrictions are lifted and you can park on the other side of the road without a fuss.