Review Vip Kitchens - Springvale

We came here a few times and this is the first time that we tried their steamed fish and scallops fried with vegetables. The steamed fish (barramundi) tasted very good - the flesh was soft and smooth and steamed to perfection. The scallops with vegetables had a generous amount of scallops and also tasted fine although the vegetables were a bit overcooked. The place was not crowded and in the current climate, I would prefer it this way. I would recommend this place if you want a meal on the south side of Springvale.

The restaurant is always chosen for the company dinner. The location is excellent with lots of parking behind the restaurant. Have a separate private area away from others, perfect for company or family dinners. Delicious food. The staff are very nice and helpful. The food is served quickly. A restaurant with good value for money.

It's true... their banh canh cua is sooooo tasty with decent chunks of crab portions. Singapore noodles have great smoky taste, missing a bit of curry flavour but still so delicious. 11/10.

Duck on Rice and crispy pork we great super fast service and free tea.

Our regular food shop.. the crab wasn't worth the money and their duck isn't always so nice for me, and when I ask for Chinese broccoli i get a mixed vegetable but hey they still get my 5 stars cause the food quality is always good and they are always friendly and helpful. They can make their 🌶 oil hotter though..😉

It was our first time here. Known for their Banh Canh Cua. This bowl was $25 for 1/4 of a crab. It was delicious. I would travel from the west to the east for this. Taste like how it should.

Great restaurant for both small and large groups as they have a little private area away from everyone else. Been here on a lot of occasions and even for lunch and take away a. Food is delicious, however I did find the mangolion beef a little salty, Peking sauce ribs, special fried rice the kids loved and soft shell crabs are delicious! The staffs are great and helpful. I wish they would put a sign saying slippery floor though, as the last time we were there the floor was extremely slippery.

Authentic Vietnamese and Chinese food. Try the crab noodle soup!

Ordered Banh Canh Cua with extra pork hock, I was charged $3 for it. This is all I received

This is probably the 50th Springvale restaurant that I’ve been to and many of the times, I like to order the same dish to see how it compares amongst other restaurants. The dish that I like is chicken ribs and tomato rice. I have to commend this location for being tip top in their service and bringing out my meal in a speedy fashion. Despite the speed among arrival, the dish was so fresh you could see the exterior coating of the chicken exploding in heat as the oil popped and sizzled. <br/><br/>This had me filled with anticipation but upon my first bite of the chicken, I noticed the flavour of this location was not quite what I was accustomed to as there was a mellow sweetness rather than the savoury umami saltiness that I usually enjoy. The tomato rice was good and had a nice flavour and the complimentary soup that they brought out was one of my favourites. I think the chicken fell a bit short for me to enjoy my experience here but I do think that it is a decent location.<br/><br/>Maybe I will or maybe I won’t be back, only time will tell.

Went for dinner with my siblings, ordered crispy chicken with plain rice, Vietnamese pork chop with rice and sweet and sour pork with rice. The sweet and sour pork with rice was average, pork had a lot of bone, sauce was standard and pineapple wasn’t sweet at all. Service was ok

Decided to come here for lunch. Staff was friendly. Very delicious and tasty food, great for family and friends catchup or special occasions. If your after fresh seafood this is the place to go.

This restaurant has a good selection of Vietnamese and Chinese food which was ok. Their roast duck would probably their signature dish. <br/>Also not the best customer service experience having to wait over 20 mins before having to call over wait staff to come and take our order.

The restaurant was crowded, I went to the toilet and passed the kitchen area, it was quite dirty and messy. Later on when my order came I found a crockroach in my bowl of soup ( Bún riêu). They said sorry to me but they seemed not really care about it, only asked me whether I wanted them to make another one to replace it. I said no. I wanted to throw up. Never come back there again.

I ordered the chilli prawn fried rice. I felt there could have been more flavour. I also sampled some roast duck. It was juicy and the skin was delicious. Overall food was average. Service was also average.

Had the Mud Crab Udon soup and it was amazing! The soup is a bit oily but very flavoursome. Haven't tried anything else on the menu so can't comment on the other dishes

Love the banh canh cua (crab noodles soup) here!! This is the place I go when I'm craving it. XO pipies are good here too 😊👍🏻 ...........

Even after a change of hands this place still boasts its speciality in seafood. They serve up mud crab, lobster and have live fish available for the budding seafood enthusiast. Their other menu items are mediocre but with any place in Springvale you'll need to make your choices based on the restaurants specialty. In saying that you'd definitely wouldn't come here for pho, bun bo hue or even broken rice (com tam). The seafood is of acceptable quality however you're paying a hefty rate for what you get. We ordered the barramundi, combination clay pot and chicken glass noodles. The fish was fresh and delicious but the size was disappointing for $40-$45. Clay pot a underwhelming stir fry in a aluminium vessel and the glass noodles were bland and very lack lustre. I've had crab noodle here in the past which was tasty but haven't tried it since the change of management.

Excellent food at very reasonable prices. We followed the chefs here from their old employers after they left there; that is how much we love these guys cooking! They are always happy to make something not on the menu for us. Fantastic friendly service.<br/>

I like their noodle and crab udon soup, a good place for a family dining, but not a place to quick cheap meal because its quite pricey for the area.

We had takeawy twice while we were in Melbourne.<br/><br/>First time we ordered the Beef & Chinese Broccoli with rice noodles & Sweet &Sour Pork with rice - Both dishes were to tasty and fresh. Would love to eat them again.<br/><br/>On our second take out we ordered Salt and Chilli calamari and Beef stirfry with vegetables and cashew nuts. The calamari was super crunchy and lacked salt and chilli. We added lemon at home and it made it sing. The Beef stirfy was average, but lacked the cashew nuts.<br/><br/>Overall, both experinces were nice. Would go back for a quick meal. The prices were very reasonable.

Banh Canh Cua (mud crab udon noodle soup) was definitely not worth $30! Don't mind the price tag if it was amazing...but was just average at best. Unfortunately as were the other dishes we had this time. <br/><br/>Sad to say that the predecessor, Thanh Lac Vien, understood flavours a lot more. At $25 a bowl (which was still a lot of money back then considering that's 3 bowls of pho in Springvale), it was so spot on it made you come back for more.<br/><br/>Back to VIP Kitchen, nothing experienced was above average standard. Strangely, most things we tasted were underseasoned. IMO, you will be able to get a more VIP experience elsewhere in Springy.<br/><br/>SERVICE: 2/5<br/>Seated quickly and cold water brought to the table. Pretty much after that service was slow! Had to try to wave for their attention for everything as they only had two people serving a busy restaraunt including the roast station and register. <br/>Pet hate when dining is when half the table gets their food and the rest doesn't come until the first lot is nearly finished. Andddd they forget the rice to have with the mains. Oh man! <br/>We were there celebrating a birthday, luckily we were in good spirits and not HANGRY!<br/><br/>FOOD: 2.5/5<br/>Banh Canh Cua: Flavour was okay but lacked depth. It was more like they used a flavoured stock rather than simmer from scratch. Soup was watery. Udon itself was bouncy so we were happy about that. Couple crab legs and crab eggs were especially appreciated by the parents.<br/><br/>Sweet & Sour Chicken + fried rice ($16): Large portion size! Rice had the beautiful wok taste. Batter could've been more crispy...not much crunch to it. Sauce was quite mild in taste, I prefer the more traditonal sweet & sour flavour. Good ratio of chicken & veggies.<br/><br/>Whole flounder with XO sauce + rice ($42): Came out on a platter, was a pretty ginormous sized fish and now thinking back, it may not have been a flounder! If so, way overpriced. The sauce again was bland, needed way more salt and chilli. Even after putting chilli oil and fresh chilli - the kick was more like a nudge. Have had waaaaay better for half the price. <br/><br/>DECOR & AMBIENCE: 2.5/5<br/>Spacious, food pics adorning the walls.<br/><br/>KID FRIENDLY: Yes, high-chair available

Good place to visit if you're willing to try something new. Rice, soup, Pho, beef with black beans, chicken with lemongrass are cooked fresh and great potions. Can get your stomach filled without hurting the wallet, much.

Being a tight with money so every dollar counts paying with any card transaction under $50 incurs a surcharge.... Most places only do it for $20. Will take my cheap self else where.

The menu is huge so you need to be careful what to order. If you order the right thing, then the food is pretty good. God help you if you choose poorly. I don't like the atmosphere but my expectations aren't that high either.

Service was not good. Staff not friendly.<br/>I ordered salt and pepper pork with rice. I got stale pork, the taste was sour and smell bad so I asked the waitress to change me another one. She took my plate and replace the new one without any word. I thought she should apology as serving stale food is kind of serious problem for a restaurant.<br/><br/>Update 14 Dec 2019:<br/>Service is horrible.<br/>Buy take away for $18.6. <br/>I paid by card and they ask for $1 surcharge which is more than 5%. It’s not much but what kind of service is that ? Never come back.

Had lunch here today. Food was fantastic as was the service. We had Fried Dumpling x 2, Sesame Prawns x 2, Pork/Prawn Spring Rolls, Prawn Dumpling Soup, Seafood Fried Rice Noodle, XO Beef Fried Rice and Roast Pork Rice. All this along with 1 coke and 3 corkages only came to a total of $93.00. Excellent value for 5 people. From the moment we walked in to when we left, we were made to feel most welcome. We will definitely be going back for more. Well done VIP Kitchens!

Just dropped by the restaurant after a busy day out on Valentine's Day for a quick and easy dinner. <br/>The place is a bit smaller than I had expected judging from the front of the restaurant and it was starting to get quite busy around dinner.<br/>Ordered vegetarian flat rice noodles which was alright while Le Boy had the fried chicken with tomato rice. Rice was a bit dry but the chicken was good. <br/>What was interesting to note however was that they had an authentic vegetarian noodle stir fry (no chicken stock used) and the fake vegetarian noodle stir fry (where chicken stock is used).

I've given this place a few chances already, but seem to get disappointed each time. The food itself is good, fine relative to other Asian meals but the waiters there seem lost. They've managed to forget my order, give me something completely different, and even overcharge me etc... So, I'm done. If you're planning to try this place, get a hold of an Entertainment Voucher and get yourself 25% off. Hope you have better luck than I did here.

Unfortunately a bit of an average meal. We found the mud crab noodle soup watery and the crab itself didn't look that right. Not very cheap either which doesn't help.

One of the fresh seafood Chinese & Vietnamese restaurant in Springvale. We came here on the weekend and ordered the Pipis in X.O sauce, mud crab noodle with gingers, and Vietnamese mud crab noodles soup. The mud crab noodle soup was very delicious and the crab tasted very fresh! Seafood price was not expensive if we compared to other seafood restaurants in Melbourne. Seafood at this place was fresh. Overall restaurant environment was ok. The service was not very good but it was ok! Some waiters were good and a few was rude with unhappy face when taking customers order, serving food!

...I was pleasantly surprised. The restaurant was largely empty though it was dinner on a Wednesday night, but we didn’t let that deter us. There were a fair few different dishes we could choose on the menu, and it wasn’t restricted which was nice. The entrée we chose was the Pi-Pi in XO Sauce (usually $14.0) which was delicious. The sauce was where the action was at, but I was so surprised at how many pipis were in the dish! They didn’t skimp at all and it was a very filling dish – nice and spicy and full of flavour. I enjoyed eating the pipis in sauce with the extra rice I ordered ($2.0) I wanted to try the Vermicelli with Grilled Pork ($10.5) and I was rewarded with a really fresh, lovely dish. The Grilled pork was perfectly done; the outer had lots of flavour and was well marinated and cooked. The vermicelli was plentiful and the sweet and spicy salad dressing brought the flavours to the front.   I lo

Very Bad and rude customer service..food not all that great. Workers in the restaurant are very rude and are very slow at service. <br/>I had the banh canh cua it is very over price and not that great.<br/>Do not recommend at all.

Don't expect to use your Entertainment book voucher here as for some reason they couldn't except it at the time I went due to some issue with the waitress not having the right access to their system. Of course I only found this out after I've had my meal. <br/><br/>$30 for crab noodle was a bit excessive for a bowl with only a little crab and a few thinly cut slices of pork.<br/><br/>Don't ever order the beef. I ordered the sizzling plate of beef. The beef has been marinaded in bicarbonate soda for so long the beef resembled jelly.<br/><br/>Would not be coming here again.

This place has changed. Ordered takeaway pipis, had a feeling it was gna be less for just an order of pipis so I ordered 2. What did I know... was mainly the shells and the sauce wasn't on point . Worst place, and that'll be the last!

Don't know what happen to this place as I was a regular customer but the last 2 visits the food has been off. First time was the spring rolls. Sour in taste, must have been off... They were nice enough to change it for a fried rice. Next time was the dumpling noodle soup! Yuk!! Again sour! Very disappointed. Won't be back.

So so. I like the herbal duck noodle. Teenage daughter said like the crab noodle. Fat boy did not finish his chicken rice. Wife did not like any of the food.

The meal is super ordinary n it's just at a very average standard but the only thing is, u have to pay a lot more for it. What for? Definitely not the service! Anywhere in Springvale will provide you with the same level of service n similar quality, but cheaper. Don't ever try the crab noodle soup there becoz it can cost as much as $30! Elsewhere can we as cheap as $12-15

Loved the seafood here. Thank you very much for an amazing dinner. We were in Springvale visiting friends and family and thought we'd all go out for some Asian seafood cuisine.<br/><br/>Very fresh crabs and lobsters -- willing to get my hands dirty for some great crustaceans! Your pipis were tasty too -- but you definitely need the chinese doughnuts to go with it for dipping! great idea!<br/><br/>Banana fritters go down a treat too!<br/><br/>Thank you!!

Very very ordinary. Went on a Groupon deal. <br/><br/>Entrees OK. 3 Prawn cutlets, 2 dim sims and dozen mini vegitarian spring rolls. But nothing special really, pre-bought things you can buy at any supermarket<br/><br/>Mains was an over cooked and over fried soft-shell crab which you had to play find the actual crab pieces rather than filter through the deep fried batter. Then came an over cooked Black pepper duck which would've been nice if not for being too oily & greasy and did I say it before - overcooked<br/><br/>Dessert was ice cream and fried banana fritter. Standard staple you can hardly make a mess of<br/><br/>Stomach felt sick for a day after with too much fried, oil and grease<br/><br/>Free glass of house white was undrinkable. Kudos to the owner for managing to get his dog to pee into the glass with precision<br/><br/>Services average, noisy and all in all uninviting

Very expensive and very ordinary food

Pretty good chicken and corn soup and the fried kuay teow is yummy. Neither of my dishes were salty although everyone else complained about there's. Guess I picked the right ones. Service could use some improvement. We were the only ones there and they couldn't get me a fork when I asked (lucky I can eat with chopsticks).

Good Food... average service. I only come here for the food. ... service is average

Terrible service. Food was OK, but since the service was terrible from unhelpful staff....then overall it's a dislike

No service. I've been going to Tan Lac for 3 years every Sunday, and I have noticed a gradual decline in the service. At first I thought it was because the waiters were so used to seeing myself and my 2 companions. Today hit an all time low when my 2 companions received their meals, and though 3 waiters passed our table many times over the 45 minutes we were there, my meal was never brought out. I asked to see the order and it was there, just never cooked. Good bye, you've lost me!

Don't love it don't have it. The basic foods such as broken rice etc is more expensive than the other restaurants in the main Springvale area. Also yes I know you are in Springvale but don't assume an "Asian " looking person speaks Vietnamese! no issues with staff speaking it when the customer has to you! What's with not putting cutlery and tissues on the table ? I think I distracted them from serving people trying to get these!

Don't go to this place for the service appetizers were dry & disapointing we had the pork, which was like a shrivelled prune & cremated to death. The donuts very dry too over rated on the review. The usual fare was average in taste. For mains the sizzle plate beef in xo sauce was delicious we also had the chicken sizzle plate again very tasty rich in flavour yet lite to the palette. Singapore noodles very dry. One thing I did find interesting to note there were only two tables of westerners & service to them seemed tardy also. Will not be going again. It would be a shame to even compare it to Victoria st...

Awesome crab and lobster at very cheap prices. Better than lobster cave.

Likes it!!!. The combination seafood pot was nice! Nice big restaurant with heaps of space. <br/>Don't expect flashy service but I think most people are here for the food and only food. The usual Chinese/Viet flare with the TVs and specials on the wall. If you eat here, remember not to pay for parking if you arrive after 6pm (I made that mistake and then saw the sign that parking is free after hours) @_@<br/>The signature dish mentioned was Mud Crab, I must admit, there was a lot of people ordering it, some had it in a soup noodle, some chose the mud crab fried noodles and I saw some eat it in a claypot. <br/>I think I will give that a try when I get paid more :P

Nom nom.nom...Yummy!. My gosh.... This has to be the biggest secret in Springvale. It's away from the central shopping area and on Springvale Rd near Safeway. My friend took me there and we tried the Mud crab noodles with x.o. Sauce... It is so nice! I wish I could buy a tub of those sauce home. The crab was meaty and tasted fresh. Definitely coming back again!

Saw in the newspapers there is a new chef from hk, so came and tried the mud crab noodles with ginger and spring onion, yummy! Wish they sell the X.O. Chilli sauce in a jar for takeaway !

Spicy Soft Shell Crab AUD25. A tasty crab with a light and crunchy batter. Could have done with a bit more chilli and spring onions in the salt-and-pepper mix though.

Really well priced, friendly staff and fantastic tasting food, brilliant service and definaty a must visit. Very glad I was put onto this place to try!

Good Joint: Rate it!. Crab noodle soup and roast duck noodle soup is really good. I can't believe they wouldn't be full all day with the food they sell. Their malay ice milk tea was way better than the one I had in Glen Waverly. <br/><br/>Could improve in appearance, the place looks a bit dark at night. Just check the price of the crab noodle before you order, it does fluctuate with the market prices ( i gues you pay for what you get). <br/><br/>But overall, I think this would be a place I would go back, especially if I am after genuine food that is not too expensive.

Love the X.O Sauce. The menu had the usuals suspects, such as sweet and sour pork, mongolian beef and lemon chicken, but the waiter recommended the Soft Shell Crabs and Pipi with X.O. Sauce; and I'd say "Goodness " they did that! The X.O sauce was awesome, I can just eat that all by itself with the Chinese donuts. Best soft shell crab I've had in ages. Would recommend!

Great place to eat!. This is a great place to eat dinner or lunch~ they have reasonably priced seafood - I personally love their Phi Phi with XO sauce (approx $15) with Chinese donuts and the Chilli Soft Shell Crab ($25), their other dishes esp the BBQ pork, vermicelli noodles and bitter melon are great too.<br/><br/>They've just recently gone through renovation so the interior is new and modern (don't expect anything fancy though). <br/><br/>Their staff are friendly and helpful too.

Change of chef? really?. I only came back here for dinner because a family friend said that this place has a different chef. Because the first time I went here was a few years back...and I never came back. So hearing that this place changed chef, I came back...<br/><br/>And of course this is the last time, no excuses.<br/><br/>Food:<br/>1. Hot & Sour Soup - too much starch and capsicum. The taste isn't too bad, but I believe that the chef went a bit overboard with the MSG. I was so thirsty after.<br/><br/>2. 3 Abalones (1 for each person because we wanted to try). They overcooked it, making it very chewy and very difficult to chew. Spring onion and ginger was very salty...but with a squeeze of lemon...none too shabby.<br/><br/>3. Prawn dumplings noodle (dry) - Thi Thi Chinese & Vietnamese Restaurant (also in Springvale) is much better and flavorsome.<br/><br/>4. Thick Crab Udon Noodles soup - again, too much starch like the hot and sour soup. The crap was frozen, not fresh. Not good. And I would like to remind anyone who is reading my reviews - that Thi Thi Chinese & Vietnamese Restaurant makes it better.<br/><br/>Good Bye (for good) to Tan Lac Vien.