review

Kingfood Roasthouse

• By Optimus Prime Rib

Sister: “Dinner 6pm at Kingfood Roast House. Hubby had a taste and said the roast duck is next level and the roast pork is to die for.”

Shots fired. 

We don’t appreciate shit-talking in this family so my brother-in-law was going to have to pay for all our meals if we were served dishes of cold disappointment. Truth be told , I’d heard from a couple of other informants that this place had something good going on. Are all these people a part of some co-ordinated communist propaganda conspiracy ? Time to find out. 

Everyone who has been in the Galleria  in the CBD knows  that come lunch 6 days a week, half the people in there are eating something from Roast & Noodle 328. Can the long-reigning king of Chinese roast meats in Darwin be usurped by aptly named Kingfood Roast House, across the from Casuarina Square?

Let’s not keep you waiting for the result - this isn’t a recipe website where you need to scroll 5km down the page to get to the recipe only for your browse to crash from too many advertisements. Within the first few bites of the roast duck, our table full of wanna-be Masterchef judges had given their unanimous verdict - we have encountered the best roast duck you can find in Darwin. Flavour, colour, texture, tenderness, juiciness, skin crispiness, duckness - all boxes ticked with top marks. Didn't even need to think hard or debate it.

Stop reading and get over there now so you can see for yourself that I ain’t lying. 

Photos for evidence:

If you’re still here…

The roast pork is equally fabulous, perhaps not to the divine heavenly heights of the duck, but it is definitely top-shelf quality. Not too fatty, plenty of juice and the crackling was a crackin’ without chipping anybody’s teeth.

Hainan chicken rice? Soy braised chicken? Yes, got them too, with the green goddess shallot oil we can’t get enough of.

There’s also an extensive a la carte menu - we got the two dishes we use every time to test a venue for wok hei levels - char kway teow and salty fish fried rice. For me, hands down, number 1 in Darwin for both of those dishes is Fusion Cafe at Jape Homemaker Village. Everyone else in Darwin is playing with crayons and safety scissors in the next league down like pre school children. Kingfood does a very admirable job, however, not enough to topple our anointed champ. I will happily put them second place though. The char kway teow is LOADED with meat and veggies - you won’t go hungry if you order this. The fat flat rice noodles, I suspect come from locally made Kong’s because they break up too easily - the guy has done something with his recipe lately that's ruined it. Aside from that, a very beautiful rendition.

Salty fish fried rice - 9/10 times when a restaurant has this on the menu, they are fibbing about the salty fish part because I can barely taste it. Here, there is no such trouble , quite the opposite - the big chunks of salty fish present mean some spoonfuls can smack your mouth with a salt bomb. If you’re Greek you’ll be McLovin’ it.  Now, we did go back for seconds many days later, and unfortunately, it was terrible. They somehow left out the chicken, the rice was dry and it just lacked any sort of spirit. Interesting.

Wet seafood ho fun - also loaded. Not many fish and scallops were left in the ocean after this was made. Bit too much MSG though, I was thirsty as a camel in a Saharan desert later that night.

No idea why we took so long to try this place out, but it will certainly be added to our rotation. It’s an oddball setup though - take away, cafe/hawker style tables and stools with an Asian grocery at the back.  Perfect for a quick and easy, wallet friendly low-fuss lunch or dinner. To avoid missing out due to selling out, I would recommend going Friday or Saturday night as it looks like they have more meaty goodness prepared on those days.

The King is dead. Long live the King?!

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