Rice Queen - Melbourne

I stumbled into Rice Queen whilst crossing the road! Very strategic, Rice Queen! How can I resist the mannequin standing outside dressed in cheongsam with...

Been in Melbourne a week. Are everywhere. Maddie is the warmest nicest waitress. Give her a raise. Also, get the fried chicken. Salads are whatever.

I wanna give them 3.5 out of 5 better than a 3, but not quite a 4... ...FINALLY GOT HERE GORGEOUS DIGS.. FABULOUS VIBE.. LOYAL CREW.. NICE DRINKS.....

We went for lunch. It was a nice cheerful place decorated all over the restaurant with bright colourful plastic cherry blossoms, lanterns and beautiful pictures of old Chinese characters. Music was a bit loud. We were all seated just inside the entrance. Not sure why the customers are not spread out over the big restaurant.We ordered the 48 hour cooked spicy beef short rib and salt and pepper squid on glass noodle salad. The rib was delicious and tender and the noodle salad was tasty too but it wasn't a big dish. For dessert we had dark chocolate sorbet served with a dash of Kahlua and frangelico a sprinkle of sesame and a touch of chilli. The sorbet was lovely and very smooth but the touch of chilli was only a thin slice of chilli sitting on top which was more like a decoration. We also had beer which I enjoyed as I found it quite fruity as usually I am not a big fan of beer.

Booked for a family dinner. I called the restaurant a few days before to reserve a table rather than book online. We got there a little early as the family was hungry and the restaurant was empty. We were shown to our "table" which was in fact a thin bar table with stools at the side of the entrance to the restaurant. When I mentioned that I had booked a table and perhaps they could move us to one I was told that was it and the rest of the tables were already booked. Well, it would have been reasonable service to move us to an empty table of which there were many but the surly gent told us that this was the best he could do.That poor service unfortunately set the standard for the night. We had to request surly gent to approach us so we could order drinks before dinner so we figured on that basis it would be quicker to order food at same time.The chicken ribs, pork bites and gyoza were ok but very small serves. The Thai beef salad and tataki were stand outs but portions not enough to feed the family. We decided to head elsewhere for dessert.Overall, very poor service and small servings of average fare. You're better off going elsewhere for good Asian food, service and a comfortable table to sit at. Sorry Rice Queen you obviously don't need to try too hard which will only work so well for you for so long in a very competitive industry. We'll go back to our Asian favourites.