Ho Liao

Level 2, Rainbow Alley
Melbourne, VIC 3000
https://www.holiao.com.au/

I’m saying it now: Ho Jiak is good, but Ho Liao is better. Sure, the more up-market sibling does some fun and innovative fusion things (would recommend the Mud Crab Caesar Salad with Indomee Dressing), but when we’re talking pure deliciousness, it’s hard to beat Ho Liao. Just like the original Ho Jiak in Sydney, Ho Liao is all about traditional Malaysian food made with quality ingredients, served in a bustling, high-energy environment. The flavours are bold and vibrant, designed to be shared joyously between friends and family. It captures the essence of communal Asian dining, and I absolutely adore it.

Rating: 15.5/20 – peak malaysian.
Good to know: you can get most of their rice and noodles as a half-serve. perfect for small yet greedy groups.
But why are the photos so bad? We got the last walk-in spot, which was right next to the bathroom (not a problem), dim (problem), and overlooked by a giant red neon sign (really big problem).

The Loh Bak ($18) is as good as I remember, the fatty pork jowl wrapped in a five-spice infused tofu sheet and fried to a crisp. The only down side, it’s about 40% of the size of when I last ordered it in 2020.

I will leap buildings for anything salted duck egg, and the Salted Duck Egg Squid ($35) was phenomenal. Covered in generous amounts of buttery duck egg yolk, the squid is moreishly salty-sweet, slightly crisp, and very decadent. Oh yes I did pick up every single crumb.

But the hit of the night was the Char Siu Beef Ribs Claypot Rice ($36, half serve). I’m used to pork being the meat of choice, but the well-marbled beef worked remarkably – succulent and tender, and infused with aromatic five-spice.

To balance out the richness, Kiam Hu Taugeh ($20) provides freshness and crunch. But bland, this is not. The sprouts were scorched with smoky wok hei, and a deep umami courtesy of the shiitake and salted fish.

To wrap things up, the classic Ice Kacang ($13) is the obvious choice. So I actually have a gripe about this – the ice is too finely shaven, which meant that the palm sugar and rose water syrups were not able to permeate through to the mound of ice to the centre, leaving bits of it disappointingly bland. But otherwise, it’s all good – the toppings were generous and varied, with my favourites being the chewy palm seeds, as well as the sweet creamed corn.