mao's, fitzroy: chinese with style

With the warm hues, the wooden decor, the teapot collection and the coquettish French music playing languidly in the background, Mao's just exudes old-fashioned charm with a modern touch. I don't go to Mao's as often as I do other places in Fitzroy, but only because it's slightly more upmarket than my usual haunts so it's relegated to the occasional treat. Not that they're that expensive, I consider their prices mid-range. A shared meal with friends here, not including drinks, usually comes to around $20 or so. I also consider their food pretty darn delicious. I grew up eating a fair amount of Chinese food and I can tell you, this is good Chinese food right here.

mao's interior

On Sunday, I went with the usual suspects, Simon and Kelvin. This is Kelvin's first time at Mao's, so Simon and I took charge of the ordering.

The spicy calamari is a favourite entree of ours. Crispy on the outside, succulent on the inside. Then there's the vinegary dressing at the bottom of the bowl, which we happily mop up with the salad leaves for a cool end to a hot dish.

spicy calamari

We also always seem to find our way to the Hunan style pork. I have loudly declared my love for fatty pork on this blog time and time again, because it is truly luscious when done well, and it is done extremely well here indeed. Just look at it!

hunan style pork

The waitress mentioned an off-the-menu steamed wild barramundi special, so we decided to try it. This was nice enough, though we noted that it doesn't quite have that disintegrate-in-your-mouth silkiness that you can get with some really excellent steamed fish. Still, no significant complaints.

steamed wild barramundi, an off-the-menu special

At this point, after having shared one entree, two mains and five little bowls of rice amongst the three of us, we decided to have a look at the dessert menu, but nothing really caught our eye, so thus ended another lovely dinner at Mao's.