After a movie night that a good friend of mine regularly organises, I managed to convince some folks to come and dine with me at the Supper Inn, in Chinatown. It’s cheap, and cheerful (read: no-frills, which suits me just fine), and also open till 2am or so.

It was a bit of a shame having headed out here because I confess that it was a little disappointing on this particular occasion. I remember it being a good deal cheaper and the food being fantastic. A friend from Sydney was with us, and I felt I’d let him down a bit by not taking him to somewhere better.

E got crispy chicken, and D got beef with vegetables. Both serves were large and big enough to share (though on this occasion we chose not to). T and I got hotpots – I chose one with chicken, Chinese sausage and mushrooms, T with salted fish and tofu. I had to wait a good deal longer for mine and everyone else was tucking in to their dishes while I still waited.

I did very much enjoy my steaming hotpot. The shittake mushrooms soaked up the sauce nicely but the chicken was very bony and had a lot of skin. The sauce was lovely to eat with plain steamed rice. T remarked that my hotpot was better than his, though his was less of an ordeal to eat.

Even though it was late at night and not at all crowded, the service was erratic and the staff seemed very distracted. Getting the attention of anyone to take our order or give us the bill was arduous. Amusingly enough, thanks to a wait staff error, we were given extra change. I won’t be going back in a hurry, sadly. Shame to see a cheap Melbourne staple take a bit of a dive – I’m hoping it was just the time we went. 

(Gem)