“Dessert House” is definitely at the top range of the Very Cheap Eats in Melbourne. In fact, it is one of the most recommended place amongst Asian students (who I have to admit are quite good at finding good value yummy food).
The original Dessert House is located in Mid City Arcade on 200 Bourke St (Shop 18 to be precise). — Picture taken from Pancake Dessert House – Bourke St – Australian Dining Out Reviews – ador – Melbourne Restaurant City – Chinatown Melbourne
It has since branches out to “Dessert House Eatery” on 313 Swanston St, which have the same menu set, classier setting.
The generously portioned main dishes cost under $10 per head. The recommended mains are either Lemon Grass Pork Chop on Rice or Spicy Chicken on Rice – look around when you do visit, I promise you’ll notice these two dishes being consumed. The non-alcoholic drinks (tea, coffee, horlick, barley, grass jelly, lychee, etc) are priced at 2.5 to 4 dollars, with $1 discount when ordered with main, which leaves you about seven bucks to spend on dessert or entree. Seeing that the place is called Dessert House, I would recommend trying out their crepe for dessert. You might want to wait until you have consumed your main though, just to make sure you have room for the additional course. (P.S.: I will have to check about the alcoholic drink availability at my next visit).
Unfortunately, I don’t currently have any picture of their food to be uploaded, so check out the pictures at IronEaters: Dessert House (Swanston St) for now.
Highly recommended for hungry people. Aside from the generous portion, the food is served in a very timely manner too. Even when I queue up behind 2-3 party (which is quite often the case), I generally still get to start eating within 5 minutes of sitting down. The food is also on the yummy side (well – considering the MSG overload, I guess it better be). With all of these qualities, it’s not difficult to understand why this place is always packed and buzzing with chatters.
Note though that I would not suggest this place for when you are catching up with a friend who you haven’t seen for a while or if you are the type who likes to slowly savour your meal. Their quick food service does come with a catch. They are even quicker with cleaning up the plates and issuing the bill. The waiter/waitress (if they can be call that) are borderline rude too at times.
Anyways, in my opinion, it is one of the Very Cheap Eats. It is definitely one of the place that I have been going back and forth to for the past eight years that I live in Melbourne and will continue to visit.