Spudbar & Hanaichi at Westfield Doncaster Shopping Centre

619 Doncaster Road, Doncaster 3108
Date visited: 29th September 2012

Been away most of last week for work-related purposes so I hadn't had many eating out opportunities.  Today, we went to the Doncaster Shopping Center - my main intention was to check out the iPhone 5s, since MerlinFan had such a bad experience with getting hers with a plan via Optus.  Why?  

After ordering her iPhone 5 online and having dodgy stuff occurring like her old address appearing on the mailing order instead of her current one (WTF) and wasting hours trying to contact them (through multiple phone calls and Optus not picking up for over half an hour WTFFF) then having them reassure her that they "fixed" the problem and would confirm it via sms within 5 minutes, then hearing no reply all day, having to call them again (after waiting 30 mins again) and being told her delivery address would be changed in 48 hours.  She then checked her tracking order online which said her order was cancelled with no notification from Optus.  So, MerlinFan had to join in the hundreds of dissatisfied customers on their Optus Facebook complaints page (the comments are pretty damn funny!) after which a rep answered and seemed okay but alas, he too promised a confirmation sms 3 days ago which obviously still never happened... >:S

Anyhoo, we stopped by the food court for some lunch.

Pretty lights - reminds me of sea shells =D

Usually I hate reading reviews with different restaurants all lumped into a single post (as I'm lazy and hate wasting time scrolling through lots of reviews of other places before finding what I clicked on the link for), but since all of these places were together at the food court, it makes more sense to put them together.

Spudbar Doncaster
Website

Now I am a potato lover - I don't think you can ever go wrong with them potatoes, whether they be fried, mashed, baked, boiled, stewed... the list goes on.  Obviously, that was where I was headed when I saw Spudbar at the food court.

I had The Festival.  It was a spud with melted butter and tasty cheese, bacon, light sour cream and onions - what's there not to love?  =D

The Festival $7.60

It was a huge serving with generous portions of cheese and bacon and a gigantic glob of cold sour cream.  I couldn't really make out the butter, though.  The potato at the bottom was the best, with the tasty cheese melted over the hot tater.  I was stuffed three quarters through my spud, but I still cleaned up my bowl.


<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1491374/restaurant/Melbourne/Doncaster-Templestowe/Spudbar-Doncaster-Doncaster"><img alt="Spudbar Doncaster on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1491374/biglink.gif" style="border:none;padding:0px;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>

Hanaichi

I know there's a Hanaichi in QV, but MerlinFan and I just never bothered to try it with so many other Japanese food shops everywhere.  Today, MerlinFan had the ramen with chicken.  It basically was egg noodles with grilled Teriyaki chicken, shallots and seaweed.  We agreed that the soup was too mild and watered down.  The egg noodles were soft, and MerlinFan wanted to point out that there was actually only one seaweed XP, but she really enjoyed the chicken - it was sweet with a roasty, smoky taste and there was actually quite an adequate amount of it for something that came in such a simple paper bowl.  

However, to be honest, I don't think I'll bother going to the one at QV as there are better options for ramen in the CBD.

Steaming hot chicken ramen $7.20

<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1649096/restaurant/Melbourne/Doncaster-Templestowe/Hanaichi-Doncaster"><img alt="Hanaichi on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1649096/minilink.gif" style="border:none;padding:0px;width:130px;height:36px" /></a>

Dumpling King 

AS had one of the specials which was tomyum soup.  The soup was spicy and reminiscent of the broth of beef noodles.  Not bad and the portion was huge - she couldn't finish it.

I'm not even going to bother posting what Mum had - she couldn't resist having McDonald's - she ordered the lamb burger but somehow ended up with the Great Angus.  Weird.

Tucking in