Over the last weekend, we caught up with a couple of new friends down from Brisbane. They wanted to try Chin Chin restaurant in Melbourne CBD. We have heard of the restaurant, and also heard people talk about that place, but we have never been there. One of the biggest reason is that the restaurant does not take reservations for small groups. Most of the time we go out to eat could be only the two of us or a small group like this case, and we don’t fancy standing in a queue just to get food, no matter how good you are. We want to reserve a table, turn up at the time of booking and be seated. No fuss, no rush.
As our interstate guests wanted to go to Chin Chin, we figured it would be the time to just suck it up and queue if we had to. So we went! It was a Saturday and we got to the entrance of the restaurant at 12.40pm. Hold on… there is no one at the front. Is it the correct restaurant? We looked around again and at all signage at the front to make sure we are not standing outside another restaurant. Confirming that it was Chin Chin, we opened the doors to walk in. Still, no line! We met with a wait staff who told us that there were no more vacant tables left on the top-level of the restaurant and could either offer us the corner end of the bar (on that level) or downstairs in the basement in a booth. The booth it was!
We got down to the lower level which they have named ‘Go-Go Bar’. I think it is a bar that doubles-up as extra restaurant space for the daytime. The basement space was nice with soft velvety booth seats. It was snug, but it was comfy. The noise level was much lower than the top level, which was a good surprise. I wouldn’t want to be sitting upstairs due to the noise. Won’t want to be screaming over each other while holding a ‘conversation. No screaming contest here.
We ordered a good amount of food and found that each one was really good! To compare, the food was similar to Spice Temple but perhaps better!
Here is what we had. May the drool fest begin!
We give Chin Chin Restaurant (Melbourne) 8.5 out of 10.
Address: 125 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, VIC 3000
Phone: +61 (03) 8663 2000
Website: chinchinrestaurant.com.au
