Mr Stonebowl - Burwood

For me personally, I feel like things in clay pots are a little different and tastier than just a normal plate, but to be honest, I think that might be placebo. I've been to this place several times now, and their food has been consistently good for me. Their portion sizes may look small but the food is surprisingly filling. Tonight when I went, I just wanted a light dinner so I could have room for more food later on. I ordered a beer braised duck, and pork ribs with pineapple sauce, along with some white rice to eat it all with. The duck was a little too salty for my taste, and I found I had to eat it with large mouthfuls of rice to help counteract that saltiness. But the meat was cooked beautifully, very tender, and full of flavour without loosing any of that gamey taste that duck meat has. I think it's cooked in a bit of herbs too maybe, as it had a very faint herbal undertone, a bit like herbal duck soups. I didn't like the skin though, I don't like skin to begin with unless it's been fried, and this one is stewed, so it's got that rubbery slimey texture I hate. The pork ribs were delicious, they were just perfect, and fall-of-the-bone tender. You could just break of pieces of the meat with no effort. There are rather large chunks of fat though, but that can't be helped I think, although it was very easy to pick the meat off the fat. But if you don't mind fat, and you think it makes the meat taste better, I think you'd love this, as the fat is cooked very thoroughly and looks like it'll just melt in your mouth. Service here is very efficient and quite friendly, although the place does fill up very quickly so either come early or be prepared to wait. My bill for two, including drinks, usually comes to about $40-$50, so it's pretty average on prices. TIP: you can also get take away here, so if you live close by, it might be better to get take away than to wait for a table, as the wait can be quite long.

For me personally, I feel like things in clay pots are a little different and tastier than just a normal plate, but to be honest, I think that might be placebo. I've been to this place several times now, and their food has been consistently good for me. Their portion sizes may look small but the food is surprisingly filling. Tonight when I went, I just wanted a light dinner so I could have room for more food later on. I ordered a beer braised duck, and pork ribs with pineapple sauce, along with some white rice to eat it all with. The duck was a little too salty for my taste, and I found I had to eat it with large mouthfuls of rice to help counteract that saltiness. But the meat was cooked beautifully, very tender, and full of flavour without loosing any of that gamey taste that duck meat has. I think it's cooked in a bit of herbs too maybe, as it had a very faint herbal undertone, a bit like herbal duck soups. I didn't like the skin though, I don't like skin to... read more

Went in a group of 4 and ordered 4 dishes. We liked the squid ink rice with prawn and the seafood mushroom tofu dish. The vegetable dish and the calamari with salted egg yolk dishes were average. There will probably always be a queue so go early to minimise wait time.

Considering there was always a massive line there, I was expecting something much more. It wasn't bad but it was definitely not '1hr-wait' great.

Okay, I get the queues now. I'd been wanting to try Mr Stonebowl for some time but the queues had admittedly been a deterrent. I figured they would eventually die down, but they haven't thus far. So when one of my foodie mates suggested dinner there, it was now or never. Our party of four dined mid week. The place was packed as usual, but then, it's not a particularly large restaurant. And as usual, there was a queue to get in. But they know how to turn a table; not even ten minutes after being seated, food was being served to the table. It's a pretty efficient system; while you're waiting outside for your table, peruse the menu and check the items you want which you hand over to the hostess before being taken to your table. My favourite dishes of the evening were the garlic prawns with squid ink rice and deep fried eggplant in bread crumbs and garlic sauce. Both were unlike anything I'd ever tasted before and were uniquely presented dishes. There was also Singapore style barramundi, Peking style shredded pork with pancakes, cucumber and shallots, pan fried pork buns, and piggy sweet dessert buns. Service was attentive throughout the evening, with water glasses topped up without asking, and empty plates cleared.