This shop has built up a large following for its amazing and highly addictive pastries - the apple strudel is something else not experienced at other patisseries I have been to around Australia. The pastry is light and flaky with a slightly sweet flavor and the filling of custard and apple make it irresistable - just try to eat just one piece and only one! The other pastries such as florentines, eclairs etc all have the same level of quality and taste.

The only thing that detratcts from the whole experience is however the service. The lady at the counter really did not take an interest or care about providing service. We got the feeling that it was a case of you buy or you don't buy from us and however I pack the cakes for you is how you get them. This is despite asking her to help with wrapping the cakes a little more as we were taking these from Perth to Melbourne.
The cakes score a full five star rating, however the poor service brings down the whole experience.

A few other people i spoke to after visiting the place also confirmed this experience - it's almost like the cake shop out of a Seinfeld episode with the soup nazi!

Approximate cost: $18

When this store announced its opening I held my breath. Would it really bring back memories of Malaysian fast food dining like the original stores in Kuala Lumpur at a reasonable price? I thought for a moment that a little part of Malaysian kitsch had arrived in Melbourne!

Well.... unfortunately at the moment the Doncaster branch is going through a massive teething process where things are just not quite right.

I have visited the place since opening three times and unfortunately the overall offering has progressively got worse!

The food is okay, with the traditional Malaysian fare of Roti breads with curry, Brianyi or regular rice with Chicken Curry, Red Chicken or Sambal prawns. It is similar to the original restaurant in Malaysia.

However there are several things that detract from the experience:

- Waiting staff are inexperienced and slow, we have to write on an order form the dishes we want and the waiter will then enter it in on the computer. Unfortunately they entered the wrong dish number so we did not get what we ordered. You will also have some waiting staff visit you with food you never ordered or even takeaway half way through your meal. Keep an eye on your orders carefully because you want to make sure you are not charged for things you do not order!

- The kitchen runs slow, especially during peak lunch or dinner times so it can be up to 1/2 hour wait for your meal or some dishes come quickly but then you wait 1/2 hour for the next one! So some of our diners had almost finished their meal whilst others were hungry and waiting!

- The kitchen had inadequate ventilation so on one visit smoke spread into the dining area. They had to then keep the front door open at night which meant that cold air came rushing in whilst we were dining. Not particularly pleasant.

- There was insufficient seating and we were on some occasions asked to share a table with completely unknown diners or they overcrowded the table so that the dishes overloaded the table.

- The staff have not tried the dishes so when we asked whether something was very spicy or mild they did not know and had to "seek the boss".

- The serving sizes are small by Australian standards and for the price represented only average value for money. It is easy to order two main dishes per person in order to feel full!

- The restaurant on our latest visit (26 April 2012) ran out of many dishes from a menu that is already very limited (there are no beef (except satay), pork or lamb dishes - only chicken and vegetarian). The night before they ran out of rice so no rice dishes!! Our request for curry puff, banana desserts (which is most of the desserts in the menu!), soy bean milk and other items were only advised as unavailable after taking our order and coming back 10 to 15 minutes later to advise that there was nothing left!

The place has only been open for a week, however there is no excuse for inadequately trained staff, running out of food (well, they are a restaurant!!) and poor ventilation.

One can only hope that the place improves rapidly otherwise it will just be a one time experience for most diners!

I have been advised that the city restaurant runs much better and so it may be better to visit the city restaurant whilst this place works out all of its bugs! We do hope that it improves quickly as the original restaurants in KL provide good food at reasonable prices!

Approximate cost: $12

Wanna hang out in a relaxed atmosphere with good food, and a view of the harbour? Then this is the place to take it easy!

We visited for lunch and the service was a bit slow - somehow understaffed and I ended up walking to the bar to self serve our request for drinks from the bartender! However the food was good - barramundi was cooked well - not overly oily batter and the chips were crisp and tasty. Other dishes ordered were salt and pepper squid and crayfish/seafood platters which were enjoyed by all.

We were seated near the water so could watch the ships come in and out of the harbour area and that day was not too cold so the windows were open.

Price wise for the area the food portion and prices are reasonable.

Approximate cost: $30

Got a hankering for seafood? Especially mussels? Well this is the place for you. The mussels are prepared with a variety of sauces to suit your taste and come in a generous size. (Chilli, White wine or Green Thai Curry flavors). Most of the diners that were with us ordered mussels (well, that's what the place is known for!) and found them to be very tasty and well prepared - only one or two per bowl were unopened.

If you're not a fan of mussels there's also a wide range of very fresh and tasty seafood which ranges from fish and chips, prawns, tuna steaks, salmon, and seafood platter. For the meat eaters there are the usual steaks and lamb, however this place is known for it's seafood. There was one dish that was a little rubbery when we visited and that was the octopus, however the salmon was great - not overcooked but not undercooked and went well with the mash.

Price wise it was reasonable at around $30 to $35 for mains and then you need to add sides to bring the average cost of a main course to $40/$55.

On our visit we also had entertainment (a guy playing a guitar and singing) although if you were not crazy on his voice or the songs, it can detract from the experience!!

The restaurant sits out on the water so that during the day you can get a good view of ships passing by and at night a view of the harbour area. Service is friendly and the food arrives in a reasonable time after the order.

Overall a great place to enjoy seafood.

Note: being a visitor from Melbourne, we found prices in WA a little higher than what you would find in Melbourne for similar fare, however for WA the rates are acceptable.

Approximate cost: $45

Finding parts for old appliances that are ultra reliable and from a world that once rewarded quality is often difficult. I have an old Sunbeam Oskar blender that is made in France and has been in the family for over 20 years - not like the models now that come from China! Unfortunately the bowl cracked and I went searching the usual places such as eBay and the internet to try and find a replacement bowl. I was not too crazy on eBay however as the bowls were all used and the majority of sellers were in the USA and shipping a bowl from the USA would not be cheap. Given the age of the model, it was virtually impossible to find and I then decided to phone the manufacturer to see if they could direct me to someone that maybe had some old stock.

One of the people that they directed me to was a business called fix-it-all. Originally the lady who answered the phone, Simone, was unable to find anything that would suit and suggested eBay which I had already checked. So I had a look back on eBay to see if there were any new bowls just in case I missed one. After searching a bit more on the Internet I found a similar unit which had just been discontinued. I wondered if it would work and then called Simone back at Fix it all to see if it would suit. Simone was more than happy to order in a bowl at no cost to me to see if it would fit. As luck would have it, it did fit and I ordered another three as the model that the bowl was meant for is discontinued (always good to have a few spares for great equipment!).

I highly recommend this business if you are looking for spare parts as they don't just answer you with a "no" and hang up like many other businesses did that I called. If they cannot help you themselves they make a few suggestions on where or who may be able to help you. They also go to the trouble to take that one step further to help (in my case ordering in a bowl that may not have even fit!). The service and friendliness of Simone is an asset to the business. If you have a problem finding a part, you can be sure that they will do everything to try and help you find a solution!

The restaurant has been recently moved from its location near Jeff's Shed to a position where the Automatic Cafe used to be. The quality of the food is comparable with a good to very good yum cha place and the variety on offer is okay, however the pricing of baskets and plates are five star prices for about three to four star quality dishes. We had about 12 baskets/plates and the bill came to just under $100. That's pretty pricey for three people. The decor and setting is markedly improved reflecting an new avant garde Chinese restaurant and there's a large fish tank at the front of the restaurant. If you go for the setting, this is probably not a bad place to go. However if you're a real gourmet, it always comes down to the food - as Channel 10's Masterchefs say, it all comes down to taste!

The trolleys have video screens running showing other dishes/baskets on offer. Unfortunately the service is very lacking and we had to continually flag a waitress down to refill the tea, ask for chilli sauce and even the bill! Then there was inflexibility as the waitress serving yum cha on the trolley refused to help us call a service waitress to help with obtaining the bill! As far as yum cha is concerned, the quality is good and we were surprised to find "real" shark fin in the shark fin and har gau dumplings. Taste wise it is almost on par with THE place to go for yum cha which is Taipan in Doncaster East - if you want top notch Yum Cha and are prepared to travel, Taipan is still the preferred place and with better pricing too!

Overall:

The good - nice decor, location, reasonable quality food
The not so good - service is two star, prices are five star - doesn't match food which is three star!

Approximate cost: $8-12

An update to this place. The owners have changed. The fish and chips no longer rate. The last time I purchased from this place - about four weeks ago on a Thursday night they got the order wrong. When we got home (only ten minutes away) the fish was dripping in oil and the chips were soggier than a wet rag. Normally the fish is well drained of oil so that it is crispy batter on the outside and fresh firm fish on the inside. The chips also maintained their crispiness for well over 20 minutes when we used to buy them. It is disappointing that the standard was not maintained. They also forgot the lemon wedges! If anyone knows where the family that used to run the place has gone, post and let us know, we'd be happy to follow them!

Approximate cost: $15

I have been a skiier for over 15 years and using footbed inserts in my ski boots for about 12 years. I had a great pair of cork footbeds and thought that I'd get a replacement as they were about six years old at the time. I noticed through a ski magazine a business called Footpro and how they use the latest techniques including video analysis and computers to determine the correct fit for ski boots. This sounded impressive. I contacted the store to find out details such as experience and whether they use a qualified podiatrist. The reply was that the fitters in past years had been masterfit qualified and a part time podiatrist was at the premises.

I thought ok, let's go give these guys a try. When I got there the owner of the business seemed quite enthusiastic until I started to express some doubt. It became more of frustration from the owner, as I asked more questions and began expressing some doubts about their abilities. Instead of trying to make me more comfortable or being honest and saying that their skills probably weren't able to help a customer like me with problem feet he said that I should take the risk and be more open to trying them out. I ended up thinking well, ok I will give the store a chance (at my expense) to see how things go. This was June 2010. After going through the process of moulding the footbed to my foot and putting it in the boot and testing I found the fitting very tight and advised that there was lots of excessive pressure in parts of the foot that needed adjustment. They tested this on their computer and agreed and made some adjustments. I ended up going back quite a few times during the 2010 year and each time was a bit of a struggle to get them to make the adjustments I needed and was also taken aback after being charged $220 to make a pair of footbeds they wanted to charge more for adjustments (If they had advised me that this was to be the case at the start then at least I knew that it would be more). Originally I sent them an email enquiring about the cost of doing a footbed and they advised it was a flat fee of $220 but failed to mention that there would be other costs for any adjustments.

During the course of numerous visits the owner then suggested cutting off part of the cuff of the boot and also just below where the top of the boot connects to the base and there would be a fee of over $100 to do this. I thought that this was extreme and declined. I ended up skiing with the footbeds as they were shaped that season however it was a bad idea. They had not modified the footbeds sufficiently to fit my boot and my foot and what I thought was a small amount of pain at the end of the season ended up being very severe and required treatment which took over 12 months to recover. Being "expert" fitters this should have never happened and in the three additional visits after the initial fitting that season it should have been right. My previous footbeds never caused such pain or damage to my foot.

In August 2011 I returned to the store as my foot was finally ok to start skiing again. I went there after speaking to three other stores about adjusting my boots. All the stores advised that the only way was to grind down the base of the footbed to give my foot more room and not risk the chance of injury again. They suggested that rather than pay them I should go back to Footpro and ask them to grind down the footbeds as it was really their responsibility. When I returned the owner was quite unhappy to do this saying that he was not going to make his work into a dog of a footbed and proceeded to blame my boots and liners saying that they were too old. (The other stores I went to said that my boots were fine and it would last at least another two years and the liners were worn but it was still ok because they had been worn down to the foot's shape and at worst I could just buy new liners or seek custom liners to go into the boot). The owner advised that the boot and liners were very worn and it was time to get some new boots. The point at this stage is that if they thought my boots were too old then they should NEVER have offered to fit footbeds to them in the first place as I am relying on their expert opinion to fix a problem!

I let him know I visited Footpro as they claimed to be experts in hard to fit feet and if he really could not do it he should have refused to sell me (or anyone else) footbeds in the first place.

(I later thought he should have offered me custom liners if he couldn't do the footbeds properly) After 15 minutes of discussion he finally agreed to grind down some of the sole of the footbed to give my foot some room to try and stop future foot pain. When he returned to refit the footbeds it was still tight and I asked that it be ground down some more. He refused to do this at first and after another 10 minute discussion he finally said that he would grind down some more but that I should get the boot heated and expanded ("punched out" is the technical term). My concern here is that I have already heavily modified boots and did not want to weaken the structure any further. He assured me that this would not cause the boot to crack or damage, but stopped short of saying that if the boot cracked he would give me new boots which would have shown the confidence in what he was going to do. (I said what happens if I ski that weekend and on Monday I come back saying that my boot was cracked??). He advised that for ONE boot there would be a $40 charge to blow it out to give my foot some more room. As I had no time left to visit some one else I relented and agreed to let him punch out the boot. When I tried the boot on I found that it was better and he suggested that I should have the other boot blown out to ensure comfort but it would be a further $40 fee (so $80 just to blow out both boots - which I later found is excessive as most would charge between $25 to $45 for both boots). I declined and left the store. Over the weekend I ended up skiing in them and found them a little better, however there is still some pain. I am very unhappy with the business because every time I visited them they were not comfortable in making the adjustments required and suggested modifications which are not necessary and requiring a lot more fees. If they really backed up what they did then they should have done the modifications on the basis that if I was happy with the work then I would come back and pay for those modifications, or if the footbeds were not right that the modifications should be free of charge or the full fees charged upfront. At the end of the day it is not the money/cost, it is paying for good service and the right fit. My boots cost $600 and I have spent more than $500 now on modifications and footbeds. I do not mind paying if the service and products are right, however in this case damage to my foot and health was caused and lots of visits half way across town from where I live and lots of time was lost. I am still open to the owner of the shop doing something to help fix my boots, however I do not believe that I should be paying any more to them after the cost in time and money and damage to my foot from their "expert" fitting. 

It is interesting to note that he offered me a guarantee of a full refund if I purchased a new set of boots from him and it did not work out. I think that the offer should have applied to the footbeds as it is obvious that it was not working given the amount of pain suffered.

After speaking with another bootfitter on the weekend who makes custom boots and insoles for $1,500 from the USA and worked with a team who had training from the first people there to make custom footbeds in the USA, he said the whole process of fitting troublesome feet is actually quite simple and if the boots I was using was as bad as Footpro suggested they should have refused to provide the footbeds in the first place and simply suggest that I purchase new boots. My ski boots have had about 220 days of skiing and he said after looking at them it could still take another 50+ days easily if a new liner was purchased but it wasn't that necessary as the majority of support comes from the boot shell and the footbed. He also inspected the footbeds and found that there was a very thick area just under the large toe that could be shaved/grinded down to give my foot a little bit more space which would probably alleviate most of the pain experienced over the weekend.

It really disappoints me to give such a low rating however my experience has not been a happy one and it has been a lot of lost time, pain and money! :(

If they do decide to contact me or do something, I will post an update, but I don't expect that this will happen!

Under WOWMO fair play policy they have requested that I do not mention here the alternative stores I have visted to resolve the problem, however I have visited other stores which have since resolved the matter and my experiences will be posted under my id.

Approximate cost: $260

The never ending search for the perfect XLB continues. Or for those that don't know, Xiao Loong Bao, or little dragon dumplings. These small morsels of dim sum have a hidden secret. Add some vinegar, a little ginger, chilli sauce if desired and pop the entire morsel into your mouth to receive an explosion of soup! Then again, if it's too hot, just nibble the top off and suck out the soup. This place is great with ordering as you order from a screen which gives you the status of the dish, whether it's being cooked, at your table or in the order system. Prices are medium to higher for the food, however we found many a dish very well made. Decor's not much and booking is recommended and if you can request the ground floor instead of the basement which is a bit claustrophobic. Overall a good recommended place to go for Northern Chinese food.

Approximate cost: $20

For a great finish to an evening meal, head for Calatrava with their great range of cakes and coffees. Pricing is a bit steep however the quality of the cakes are quite good.

Approximate cost: $8