Liyin Rice Roll Master

Shop C2, 555 Lonsdale St
Melbourne, VIC 3000

Liyin Rice Roll Master embodies the epitome of Cantonese comfort food. With a menu dedicated almost exclusively to rice noodle rolls – cheung fun – and congee, the food here is the simple hearty kind that’s ideal for both a quick lunch drop-in, as well as late night supper. Though unfortunately they actually close around 9pm, so there goes my fantasy of ending a night out with rice noodle rolls.

Rating: 12/20 – bit more sauce on the rolls please!
What to order: probably the beef hor fun? it’s their signature and it looked/smelt great, we just didn’t have space for it.

There aren’t your delicate little cheung fun from yum cha; the rolls here are stuffed, and will be good for the best part of a meal. The Tender BPC Steamed Rice Roll ($17.5) is bursting at the seams with sliced beef, roasted pork, and char siu, we well as some much-needed greens. Though delicately translucent, the house-made rice noodles are surprisingly hearty, and do a great job of soaking up the sweet soy sauce.

If you don’t have room for the beef hor fun, the next best thing is the Steamed Rice Roll with Beef and Pickle ($18.5). The mixture of tender marinated beef and tangy pickle is akin to what you get in a stir fry, and is full of delicious savoury flavours.

Of course, it’s not a Cantonese comfort meal without congee, and my choice will always be the Whole Century Egg and Pork Congee ($16.8), which has more egg than its standard counterpart. This unfortunately did not have the silky stickiness you get from a really great slow-cooked congee, but I did enjoy the umami of the chicken stock base, as well as the generous chunks of creamy century egg.