Rapidly coming for the title of Melbourne's home of top-notch Asian cuisine, Box Hill Central has undergone quite the transformation over the past few years. Brimming with restaurants serving up a countless array of cuisines, you won't be short of options.
A quick 20-second walk will take you past decked-out food joints offering Korean fried chicken, hearty ramen, perfectly rolled sushi and flavourful Thai. And that’s just in one section of Box Hill Central—the place just keeps going and going.
On your way to this plethora of restaurants, you simply must walk through Box Hill Central’s Fresh Food Market, a wrap-around collection of stalls smack-dab in the middle of the complex. Here you’ll find fruit and veg that you just can’t get at your local supermarket, varied cuts of meat that are both fresh and cheap, plus numerous Asian supermarkets for all your at-home cooking needs.
To get you started on your Box Hill Central culinary explorations, we've rounded up five must-try dishes for flavour and flare.
Eight Colour Chicken
SamSam Chicken
Head to SamSam’s for lunch and you might not need dinner. The Eight Colour Chicken, including over 25 pieces of wings and bites in total, is plenty for two people and there’s enough variety in there that you won’t tire of grazing even when you can feel yourself slowing down.
Complete with eight variations of Korean fried chicken—sweet chilli, soy and garlic, hot and spicy, soy and mustard, snow cheese, and lemon mayonnaise—each piece of succulent chicken will surprise your taste buds by veering off into unexpected directions. Order during lunch and you’ll also get a complementary bowl of cheese bomb tteokbokki. Keep an eye out for their beer jug deals, too.
DoDee Super Nova
Dodee Paidang
Next door to SamSam’s chicken you’ll find Dodee Paidang, a Thai restaurant serving up oodles of noodles alongside tried-and-tested classics like pad thai, pad see ew—all of the pads.
The chefs at Dodee Paidang cater to all levels of spice tolerance and have kindly indicated how spicy each dish is with little chilli ratings on the sides of the menu. If you love the heat, opt for the DoDee Super Nova—tom yum noodles with a pork-base soup and all the delicious, meaty fixings, which secures one of the hottest ratings (a level seven on the official spice scale).
Milk Tea Ice Cream
La Petite Tour
The ideal place to satisfy your sweet tooth, La Petite Tour’s ice cream flavours have more to them than meets the eye. Opt for a traditional vanilla bean which is as silky as it is smooth, or broaden your horizons with flavours like milk tea or black sesame and matcha. Consider yourself more of a macaron fiend? La Petite Tour has you covered with a rainbow of cookie goodness.
Combination BBQ Set
Maru Korean BBQ
There’s truly no better way to spend time with mates and dates than at a Korean BBQ. It’s the perfect dining experience to spark conversation, as you’re able to get lost in what should be your favourite past-time—transporting various meats and veg onto a sizzling pan. As well as authentic favourites like mandu, kalguksu and Korean cold noodles, we highly recommend ordering one of the BBQ sets from Maru. The combination BBQ set has a little something for everyone, including pork belly, pork jowl, beef strip loin, soy garlic marinated sliced beef belly and garlic spring onion chicken thigh. Drooling.
Tofu Stew
DOOBOO Korean Tofu House
Vegetarians and tofu fans rejoice: DOOBOO serves up a specialty tofu stew that packs a whopping punch. In fact, stew is one of DOOBOO’s many specialties, with the kimchi stew serving as the perfect antidote to Melbourne’s notoriously icy winter. If your stomach is screaming for something non-stew related, you can’t go astray with the kingsize pork schnitzel on rice—who can say no to a schnitzel?
One of the many perks of this food haven is that it’s all packed in one location as a central smorgasbord of shops, cafes and everything in between, so you can genuinely explore for hours (if not days) strolling around Box Hill Central, keeping your stomach stocked and your shopping bags stacked.
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