First Look: Nothing Is Over $18 at Victor Liong’s Fast-Casual CBD Canteen, Silk Spoon

Victor Liong wants his new casual CBD spot Silk Spoon to be a convenient extension of the office – somewhere you can go before, during and after work for a coffee, a bite to eat, and even a cocktail.

“I wanted to create a brand people would use more than once a week. Lee Ho Fook [the chef’s acclaimed modern Chinese restaurant] is a venue where even the most regular person comes every two weeks,” he tells Broadsheet.

“Something like this is essentially a corporate amenity. I want people to hang out here, have meetings here – we have cheap coffees for a reason – and then they can stay and have lunch.”

The pint-sized canteen quietly opened last week on an upper-level plaza in the same precinct as Movida Aqui and Rosa’s Canteen. It’s the second quick-service spot Liong’s opened this year – after his Brazilian-Japanese sushi train collab with Con Christopoulos, Bossa Nova Sushi – and is a long way from the high-end dining of Lee Ho Fook.

“When I started Lee Ho Fook it wasn’t supposed to be so serious,” he says. “As it went, it got really serious. Which is cool, because I grew with that restaurant. And I love what it is. But [with these two projects] I thought, ‘What does Melbourne need, and what would be exciting to add to the landscape, right now?’”

He also wanted to expand beyond his repertoire of East Asian cooking, which led him to the Silk Road and the flavours of Central Asia, northern India and the Middle East. Cue signature plates like a pot pie of chicken curry and root vegetables topped with a flaky roti lid; slow-cooked lamb that’s brined and seasoned with cumin, then served with bulgur wheat, pickled vegetables and flatbread; and a version with slow-cooked duck, using the legs leftover from Lee Ho Fook’s Peking duck that are spiced and confited at Silk Spoon.

There are also help-yourself fridges stocked with pre-made rice bowls (with toppings that include ginger poached chicken, as well as crumbed pork) and light salads with heirloom carrots and honey or broccoli, brussels sprouts and edamame. It’s “veg-forward, healthy lunch vibes,” says Liong.

Every item on the opening menu costs between $14 and $18. And you can get a filter coffee for just $3.50. “I did a bit of research in terms of asking all my friends who work in offices what the worst thing about it is.” The resounding answer? The cost of food. “There’s either 7-Eleven [food] at $11 or it’s $20, so I went, ‘Okay, how do I sit between that, and create a brand and experience and a location?’”

The result combines quick-service features like QR codes and pre-packaged meals with a fit-out by Min Chun Tseng (behind Toddy Shop) with green-and-white-striped banquettes, emerald green tiling and bistro wicker chairs, inspired by both Taiwanese and Parisian teahouses.

Liong will eventually offer some teas and “summery, spritzy, smashable” cocktails once the liquor licence is approved, and will soon start serving dinners made up of the signatures plus steamed dumplings and fried snacks including spring rolls and prawn toast.

An indoor retail section (a “quasi-7-Eleven,” says Liong) also includes a selection of condiments, like chilli oil – currently sourced and eventually made in-house – to take home.

Silk Spoon
Upper Ground – North Plaza 6, Shop 1/500 Bourke Street, Melbourne
No phone

Hours:
Mon to Fri 11am–5pm

@silkspoon_