Review Number One - Box Hill

Sharing my experience as a warning to others with a nut allergy. I ordered a chicken risotto off door dash. The description was ‘with mushroom, onion, spinach and Parmesan with chicken’. No mention of nuts. I asked for no mushrooms and extra Parmesan. When I got the dish, it was coated in what I thought was cheese so I took a bite and a few seconds later I could feel my throat swelling up. I’m allergic to cashew nuts, pine nuts and pistachios. I called the cafe and was told they had put ‘cashew Parmesan cheese’ as a vegan option - I never indicated I was vegan and am not sure why they didn’t put normal Parmesan instead. The person I spoke to said ‘I assume you wanted a healthy option’ - what???? I’m honestly outraged a mistake like that could be made given the high standards of food safety in Australia. Luckily I am okay but could have been a worse outcome for another allergy sufferer.

What a delight. As many other reviews have said, the food is well presented, tasty & the service is excellent. The venue is clean & modern. It has a cozy atmosphere that makes you want to spend time there and an aroma of “something yummy” cooking greets you as you come through the door. Family run with attention to detail while being attentive. You get an impression that they care. 5 out of 5.

The coffee is just the best! The place has a home-like atmosphere, with attentive and very kind staff. I highly recommend.

The bedside manners here are amazing and everyone there is so fun and nice. The cafe is clean and drinks are amazing, especially the greenies smoothies!

Real score 3.4. We’ve got a buzzy little cafe here in the Kerrimuir shopping centre. It was enjoying good patronage on another sparkling sunny day. That northern light was prominent again and there was barely a breath of wind. This weather can’t last - a chill wind from Antarctica is due soon - so people were out and about. Today suggested the cafe appeals to the older demographic. But, who knows what the weekend brings. I fancied the veggie breakfast which turned out to be large, generous and tasty. I’m not sure how much was made on site - the beans and the hash brown, for example - looked and tasted like bought ones. There were some inconsistencies too. One of the poached eggs was cooked and beautifully runny. The other had a decidedly firm yolk. I’m pretty easy to please though and enjoyed the dish. It was a good size and it was nicely presented and delicious in its own way. I gained an impression that they were either one staff member short or had deliberately lean staffing. The energetic lady who served me seemed run off her feet. Maybe it was the good weather bringing out an unexpected number of people. Who knows. It led to a couple of small mistakes, eg my sparkling water bring delivered late after the meal arrived and then with no glass only a bottle. These were minor things though. I found myself liking the cafe which offers good reasonably priced meals. The service too was happy, amiable and obliging. I’d happily return here.

Great place for a coffee catch up. The place is not too busy on Friday arvo. Have varieties of food if you are hungry. I only ordered a latte, which taste great.

Very good breakfasts, coffees are great and plenty of seating inside and out.

One of the best cafés I've been to! Friendly staff, delicious food and not to mention...generous portion sizes. Definitely try the avo-smash!!

I came here with a large group of friends, had a hard time finding the restaurant initially as it did not seem to have a signboard. <br/><br/>The service is absolutely top-notch for a Chinese restaurant, they were quick and friendly. <br/><br/>The main highlight of the dinner would be the two flavour abalone and snow crab noodles. Everyone that comes here, I would absolutely recommend them giving these a try.

<br/><br/>I’ve been here countless times with my family and we always order some type of fresh fish , crab or lobster . The chef is very skilled and never has the seafood been over cooked , undercooked or under seasoned <br/>Service here is so so , quite happy with it for a traditional Cantonese restaurant

Nice Cantonese food. Good service. Love their free range chicken dishes, very well prepared. Good fried rice dishes too, I love the scollops egg white one in particular. Well priced and good service.

food was ok and quite authentic; decor is average. Most of the staff were friendly, however the guy that I paid my money to did not give my change back, which is simply the rudest gesture I have ever received in a restaurant. Effectively it's theft - a criminal act. My family and I have never been back since.

Came here with groups of friends. Very friendly and attentive staff. Tasty traditional chinese/canton food. Not the cheapest but you get what you paid for (good food and good service).

Very traditional seafood restaurant. This restaurant has two floors. If you visit there in a peaking time, sitting on higher floor is not a wise option. Because the staff may not serve properly. They only go upstairs when they bring with new dishes.

It was relatively quiet for a Friday night when we had dinner here. All night there was only 8 tables. The service was excellent, as they would always refill our tea and change our plates over. We ordered the snow crab that was only special for $138 each, ranging from 2.5-3 pounds, and had it cooked using goose liver sauce. The snow crab turned out less meaty than expected and there wasn't enough goose liver taste.<br/><br/>We also ordered a claypot called "3 cups chicken" from their chef special. The claypot had a lot of chilli and ginger which I didn't like, but my family found the chicken quite tasty. We also had the black pepper wagyu beef, which was tender and well-marinated. The portions were relatively big and was at a reasonable price.<br/><br/>Overall, my family enjoyed the dinner and we would be happy to come back again.

Very good service. Manager was really friendly and attentive. We came here for friends bday. Share 10 dishes and everything was delicious! Would highly recommend.

Found this little gem in Box Hill. It was a pleasant surprise to have found this place. I enjoyed their steamed oysters, xo pipis, jellyfish with chicken and their Mabo tofu dishes. All good quality and not too salty like some of the other chinese restaurants. Decent sizes too. Service is good and attentive. Even have delicious complementary dessert to top it off. Will go back again.

We went there yesterday to celebrate my mother's birthday. Unpleasant experience. The waiters could not answer any question re the wine list and the dishes,and always needed to check with the manager. No free prawn crackers but other tables all had. We ordered the mud crab with noodles along with other dishes. We were expecting they would show us the crab before cooking as they did for other tables. We did not see this happen,then the dish was served. The crab was not fresh as you could tell straight away. Off the dining list.

Unremarkable and overpriced Chinese food carelessly prepared using cheap ingredients. We walked away feeling slightly ripped off. This restaurant gives Chinese food a bad name. Avoid.

This place is packed during lunch hour. Lots of local here as well. I like their complementary soup which is full of favor and it's one of those traditional grandma's recipes. I had a black pepper eye fillet with rice. It's a very good quality meal, beef was tender and tasty, the broccoli was done perfectly. They know how to make happy customers as I observed all other tables were enjoying their food so much as I did.

Great attentive service and the manager was constantly checking on our big group booking to see how was everything was going. The food here is good sized, good quality and taste tradition. I really enjoyed the chicken and jelly fish salad, fried salty egg chicken, crab noodles. The baby abalone was ok lack a little flavour and the special pre order pigeon dish was nice but I still prefer quail.

The fish here is amazing (not surprisingly!) a great place to go for share dishes - we had a whole fish dish, some green beans and a hot spicy pork between five people and it was more than enough - it's on the pricey side but for traditionally prepared and freshly caught (as in, there's a tank by the entrance) seafood this is a good bet.

Located along Carrington Rd, No. 1 Cafe offers tasty noodles and delicious crab. The atmosphere bustles throughout the night, but it is still a pleasant experience. A spot next to the seafood tank will definitely accompany your meal as you taste the exotic flavours the outlet has to offer.

Street style Asian cafe, simple food, a selection of fresh seafood at a fair price and cooked as you like. Not my favorite place to go for a meal but you can usually get in without a wait. <br/><br/>Toodles

However he said that this place is an exception as it's his favourite place to go to have Lobster with noodles. So was this place an exception to his theory? Continue reading to find out!

A passer-by. Wouldn't walk in if you paid me.. Your fish tanks are disgusting, dirty and it is horrible to see fish in such distress. Cruelty +++++

Super super super MAD. My overall impression of this place was so so so bad and I am super upset.<br/><br/>First of all the service was incredibly inadequate even though my expectation was very low judging from the interior of the restaurant. Every staff we encountered was rude and dismissing. We had to continuously ask for our food and drinks however when we got their attention, as difficult as it was, staff did not wait until we finished speaking and would just walk off only to come back empty handed. <br/><br/>We ordered fresh crabs but it was cold, dried and frankly disappointing. We also ordered a claypot which never came and when it did, it was again cold and tasted like it had sat out the back for it to be served. <br/><br/>The worst part was the payment at the end. There is a sign at door indicating acceptance of cards however upon payment we were told an arbitrary amount of $10 extra per kilo for the crab we ordered if we were to pay on card. This information should of been shared before the order was confirmed instead of it being a giant slap in the face at the end.

It was obvious upon arrival that this restaurant had seen better times and is on need of a cosmetic improvement from the entrance, the furniture, the fittings and the upstairs eating area. The service was ok, acceptable, not friendly but efficient; our waitress had a difficulty with local language communications. Apart from all that the food was terrific, verified a tasty and authentic Cantonese style; all dishes looked well presented and fresh. Top marks for the crispy calamari, lobster with noodles and deep fried quail just to name a few. Once you get over the initial visual impression this place really does hit the spot with its food.

Comments. We enjoyed our meals but could the chef considers to put more salt to the dishes to make dishes more tasteful. Not good enough favour. Overall good

Almost Like Hong Kong. After 3 visits to this restaurant, I've seen some good consistency and great food.<br/><br/>My favourite dishes here so far, are Beans in XO Sauce, Hot and Sour Soup, Crab Noodles, THE FRIED FLOUNDER!!!<br/><br/>It's pretty café style and they only accept cash which is a hassle, but on the whole the it's pretty good value for money and the food is pushing top rated for Box Hill as far as I'm concerned.

Cash-only chicken. When the whole 'free range' chicken we ordered arrived at the table, we thought it was a chicken done two ways. One half was moist and lighter in colour and the other was a brownish colour and visibly dry. Obviously they mixed half of yesterday's chicken with a fresh one to make the whole chicken, despite one of the waiters initially denying this when we asked. They did offer to replace it, but I am not crazy enough to send anything back to the kitchen at a Chinese restaurant, who knows that 'extras' you might get!<br/><br/>Then there was a whole dodgy 'cash only' special with this dish. Just because we wanted to pay for our entire meal by credit card , they added an arbitrary $10 to the cost of the chicken. They might not be the only dodgy restaurant trying to entice patrons to pay with cash through discounts, but I just wish it was clearer what were the cash and non-cash prices rather than facing angst when paying.

Very nice. Had a meal herewith group of 20. Food was great. Will definitely go there again.

Service here is terrible. booked a table for 8 didn't get it until 10 mins later. they seemed annoyed that we requested a table.

One of the few Canto places in Box Hill. Great fresh seafood. typically hong kong style. A welcomed change from the northern style places popping up everywhere.

Seafood here is fresh from the tank and cooked and served with all the care fresh seafood needs Brilliant. The crocodile in ginger and shallots was beautifully tender delicately sliced and served with choice broccoli heads steed to perfection. Service was as always efficient polite and charming. Mandarin and grape plate was a nice afterward refresher.

Great example of a Chinese restaurant.. Have eaten at this restaurant many times now. This restaurant is a fine example of the Hong Kong cooking style, with the seafood here being well above average. If your not sure the owner, Norman, is happy to help with menu ideas.