Happy and Lucky Family

It's tradition among M's family that every time a birthday rolls around, the entire family, numbering 10 or so  people depending on the situation, troop out to a restaurant to enjoy good food and company (and to forget about having to clean up properly). 

Most recently, we ended up at Happy and Lucky Family in Doncaster East for dinner. I had previously been here for a yum cha lunch and had found the food fairly good. It also happens that M's family demands their food quickly, and eat quite fast so pictures are pretty average. I was too busy enjoying myself as well to take good pictures, so I hope the poorer-than-usual quality can be forgiven. 

As usual, it was up to the uncles to order, so I couldn't even steal a glance at the menu. Consequently, I have no idea what was ordered, but I'll give it best shot anyway. The first one is relatively easy, Uncle had a craving for crab, so a life mud-crab was brought over to the table. It looked fairly sleepy, so hopefully the whole death thing didn't hurt. 

Mud Crab with Egg Noodles

In any case, it tasted fresh (surprised?), tender and slightly salty. The egg noodles that accompanied it were tender but not mushy, and were only lightly flavoured, letting the crab shine.

Mud Crab with Egg Noodles

My hands were oily and messy after this, but you've got to sacrifice some elegance to devour shellfish. If anyone knows how to work around this, please share as I could do with the tips.

The remaining dishes were less extravagant, and for the most part, were fairly simple too.

Stir-fried Beef with Broccoli

This tasted how you'd expect - sticky and salty with hints of caramelised onions accompanied by just cooked broccoli. Reminiscent of food-court fare, I wasn't a fan of this dish. I preferred the tofu based dishes, although the others reckoned that they tasted better on previous occasions.

Tofu with Scallops

Based on the conversation around the table, this dish was pretty pricey, and was only good because it contained scallops (rather than because it was well cooked). I love cornstarch-thickened sauce over rice (don't judge me) so I didn't mind this dish at all.

The other tofu dish was rather bland.

Tofu and Mushrooms

At least in my opinion. The flavours weren't particularly strong and it wasn't well presented either. At least it's healthy.

Chinese Broccoli

What can I say? Chinese broccoli is pretty much the same in any Asian restaurant, unless it's done very badly.

Chicken with Bok Choy

Usually I'm a massive fan of chicken, and can easily go through half a roast chicken at a time, but this dish was slightly too bland for me. With just alight dressing of oil, it's probably extremely healthy, but not very tasty. Uncle doesn't like the taste of fat at all, so it's not surprising that this dish was ordered. As for me, bring on more chicken fat any day!

Shredded Meat and Preserved Vegetables

I like this dish quite a lot, and I haven't seen it on many restaurant menus, and indeed, the only similar dish I've come across is a version cooked by my father. With shredded meat and preserved vegetables, you wrap these in little tortilla-like pancake and take a juicy and salty bite. To me, this would have been the best dish that they cooked.

Overall, the food here is decent, and service is extremely fast. Constantly busy, the restaurant popular with local families with the occasional table occupied by those who've had to travel a considerable distance (like M's friends who we ran into during dinner). Come here with the family or a large group of friends (Chinese restaurants like these are usually a no-no for couples) to have a decent meal, and some good times. As the name says, it's all about a Happy & Lucky Family. 

Happy & Lucky Family 

23-25 Andersons Creek Rd, Doncaster East 

Mon 6pm-8pm, Tue 1pm-9pm, Wed-Fri 12pm-2pm & 6pm-9pm, Sat-Sun 11pm - 10pm