Kiwi Fish and Chips – 412-442 Victoria Pde (in the Tribeca Apartments), East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

One kilometer away from Melbourne’s CBD you’ll find Tribeca Apartments. Nestled amidst their plaza, strip of cafes and shops is Kiwi Fish and Chips. Surrounded by a lot of people waiting to pick up their orders, we sat eating at their communal dining table (signing the odd autograph or two), when suddenly the attention turned to the counter. Fresh from winning the AFL Grand Final, the Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse stops in to have a chat and pick up some dinner for the family! So apart from the random celebrity siting, Kiwi Fish and Chips offers a traditional fish and chip shop menu including burgers, souvlaki and banana fritters, as well as a range of fresh fish that you can take home and cook if your feeling a little bit “Masterchef”. We ended up ordering the Aussie Beef Burger that includes a traditional sesame-seeded bun, a beef pattie, fried egg, onion, cheese, lettuce and tomato. For an extra dollar you can get the Kiwi Burger that comes with added pineapple and beetroot. For those ex-pat Kiwis out there, they even have Lemon & Paeroa (BYO Southern Comfort of course).

“I found this burger pretty choice ay! The bacon was fantastic and was cooked just right; crispy at the edges but still soft in the middle. I really enjoyed the onions. They reminded me of something you’d find on a good hot dog. The beef pattie was quite peppery and had a rough texture to it. The only thing I would suggest is to have the egg less cooked so it were a bit runny and that they’d add tomato sauce from the get-go. Oh the chups were choice as too!”

“With not much competition and other dining options available I can understand why this place was so busy. The burger was good but there was nothing special about it. The beef on its own was quite tough, but flavour-wise wasn’t noticable in the burger. You’ll definitely need to add ketchup. The banana fritter was amazing!”

“For a Fish’ n’ Chip Shop burger I thought it was pretty good. The beef was well sized and seasoned, onions caramelised to perfection and the bacon held it’s own. Two things that I thought slightly went against it was that there was no tomato sauce, which I found it needed. Even a base amount of sauce would have been a good thing and from there it can be up to the customer to add more if they wanted. The second thing was the lettuce.. a little too much. Chips were pretty good too.”

“The bacon was the first thing that grabbed me. It had just the right amount of crunch and saltiness shining through. The beef was altogether enjoyable and peppery, but I would recommend grabbing some ketchup to add some of that sweet zestiness that the orignal was lacking. My hat (if I were wearing one) goes off to the chefs. So many places tend screw this classic, simple but oversized kind-of-a-burger up. One wonders if there is some competition here for the acclaimed Andrews Hamburgers? Next time we’ll ask Mick.”

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