For years, chef Louis Kuo worked at his parents’ Taiwanese restaurant in Box Hill, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, before branching out on his own. In 2012 he opened Kitchen Republik with his business partner, David Loh – just up the road from the family restaurant.
“Although Mum was proud of me, I think she also saw me as a bit of competition,” Kuo says with a laugh.
If she did, she was right to. Fast forward 11 years, and on a Saturday night Kitchen Republik is positively buzzing. Tables are crammed with families chattering excitedly over Taiwanese Mandopop as young waiters in bandanas deftly deliver trays of sizzling food. Located at the end of the food court at Box Hill Central, the eatery was inspired by Taiwanese night markets, which explains the open kitchen, lanterns, strings of coloured lights and market stall facades.
The extensive menu includes breakfast dishes such as thick toast and congee, noodles, bian dang (lunch boxes, similar to Japanese bento) and shaved ice desserts. Ordering is simple. Each menu item has a number: jot down the numbers of your desired menu items on the supplied notepad. Staff snap it up and make it happen – and fast.
Blink, and before you know, your dishes have landed on the table. There’s your xian dou jiang, a sour and savoury soy milk that’s a popular Taiwanese breakfast. It tastes like a silky tofu soup, and comes topped with spring onion and crunchy slices of youtiao (a kind of Chinese doughnut) that are perfect for dunking.
Blink, and there’s your niu rou juan bing. The beef roll was on the menu at Kuo’s parents’ restaurant, and here it’s an absolute cracker. Slow-braised ginger and soy beef is drizzled with plum sauce and mixed with shredded cucumber, then wrapped in a flaky spring onion pancake and cut on the diagonal to reveal its delightful innards. It is a sweet, salty, crunchy wonder.
Blink, and the dumplings materialise. A plate of five fried sheng jian bao (Shanghainese bun), each filled with juicy minced chicken and a bouncy prawn, with fluffy tops and impeccably bronzed bases. A cute bilingual flag warns: “HOT caution”.
Xiao long bao, pork dumplings with a squirt of broth inside, are glammed up with sleek truffle-flavoured skins. They’re extremely popular, says Kuo. “The Taiwanese versions are smaller than the Shanghai ones, but they still maintain that juiciness. It took our chefs between three and six months to learn how to master these.”
They’ve also mastered niu rou mian (Taiwanese beef noodle soup). The brown broth is deeply savoury and fragrant with star anise and chilli; gravy beef, thin wheat noodles and a jumble of coriander and spring onions complete the picture. It is a faithful, deeply comforting rendition.
An order for the o-a-chian (oyster omelette) accidentally emerges as the prawn omelette instead. (Possibly due to my messy writing. Tip: write your order neatly.) No matter, it’s a happy error. The fluffy eggs are folded through with prawns, of course, as well as stir-fried lettuce, spring onions and a sprinkling of white pepper. But it’s the omelette’s sticky, gelatinous texture that’s worth writing home about. This is Q, the much-loved springy and chewy food texture found in the bubble tea pearls, or well-made fish balls. In the case of the omelette, it’s the addition of tapioca flour that puts the spring in its step.
“It’s thought that in the old days, when times were hard, people used it to bulk out the omelette,” says Kuo. “And then they grew to like it.”
Box Hill has long been a hotspot for many Asian cuisines including Vietnamese, Hong Kong and regional Chinese food. Kitchen Republik is another pin on the map – the floor might be a little sticky and the service can be a bit hectic, but it is without a doubt fun and extremely delicious.
As for Kuo’s mum, she’s retired from the family restaurant. Now that she’s no longer a competitor, she occasionally drops by Kitchen Republik for a meal – and to help out in the kitchen.
Kitchen Republik is located at Box Hill Central, 1 Main Street, Box Hill, Victoria
