Orient Kitchen opened their doors just before the end of 2015, increasing the number of Chinese barbecue stores in Canberra to eight (please correct me if I’m wrong). I finally got the chance to have lunch at Orient Kitchen, six months later…

Many people were raving about their barbecue meats, so we ordered a Mixed BBQ Platter (3 choices). You can choose from roast duck, crispy pork belly, barbecue pork (char siu), pork sausage and soy sauce chicken. We went with roast duck, crispy pork belly and char siu. The pork belly was really crispy and had even layers of fat and meat. The roast duck was pretty good and flavourful. The char siu would had been the star of the mixed platter, the meat was really tender and juicy. The surface of the char siu had a thin coating of honey, or maybe it was maltose syrup, either way it gave it a hint of sweetness.

We wanted some veggies but we didn’t want to get plain Chinese broccoli (kailan) with oyster sauce so we ordered X.O green beans. This is wok tossed green beans with minced chicken in a X.O sauce. I’ve had this dish in many Chinese restaurants around Canberra and I had never been disappointed. The same applies here. The minced chicken with the X.O sauce is so moreish that I ended up eating an extra bowl of rice.

When I ordered the Fried Beancurd with Hot Rock Spicy Salt, I had high hopes because at every time I ordered fried beancurd at restaurants, they always end up really crispy. Unfortunately the one I had here was soft and not crispy at all. (It was quite busy when I went and there was only one person working front of house) I’ll give it another go next time I’m there just to make sure.

Sometimes eating rice can be boring. So I ordered a laksa, to be more specific it was a Chicken Laksa. For those who don’t know what laksa is; its a noodle soup with a spicy coconut broth. A lot of places now sell laksa but I find some of them not authentic. To determine whether a laksa is authentic would be in the type of noodles they use. There should be a mix of both Hokkien noodles and rice vermicelli, the broth should have a creamy yet light coconut flavour. I found the one here was a bit weak on flavour and feels watered down.

Growing up eating Chinese barbecue meats, I can easily distinguish the good Chinese barbecue from the bad. Having tried their roasted pork belly, roast duck and char siu then holy trinity of all Chinese barbecue, I can confidently say that they are on my good Chinese barbecue list.

Orient Kitchen

Address: 9/17-19 Briely Street, Weston Creek, 2611

Opening Hours:

Lunch: Everyday 11.30am – 2.30pm

Dinner: Everyday 5pm – 9.30pm

Phone: (02) 6288 3330