Magic Mountain Saloon

Magic mountain, an Asian inspired restaurant that has had mixed reviews, some liking it, some not. So when I had an opportunity to pick a restaurant for dinner Friday night I happily picked Magic Mountain saloon. We arrived to a pumping venue with a DJ setting a great vibe, with a mix of people dining and drinking. We were directed upstairs to be greeted by our waiter who took us to one of the booths. The menu looked awesome and by the looks of it had something for everyone. A friend had highly recommended the beef ribs so we decided to order them as an entrée to share. I ordered the beef cheeks for main and a side of mushrooms. The others in my party ordered the chicken wings, lamb curry and flat noodles. Our ribs arrived promptly and on the surface looked appetising, but once I placed a rib on my plate the reality set in. My first rib was full of jelly like fat with little to no meat on them, which was a pity because the meat that I did have had a great explosion of flavour. Next came our mains, it looked like it wasn’t going to get any better. Whilst the portion was generous the meat was tough and chewy. The sauce was pleasant enough but was lacking a WOW factor.
The chicken wings looked amazing and the sauce packed a punch.
The lamb curry was full of flavour but again the meat was tough. The verdict on the noodle were mixed. I thought it was an interesting dish full of spice but others felt it was over spicy.
Overall the food was a major let down but the venue and service was top notch. Will I return? Probably, as the menu is vast and it can’t be all bad.

Great vibe, delicious food. VERY spicy — so go with people that like this and order a whole bunch of dishes to share. Similar to Chin Chin but not as crazy!
Really enjoyed it.

A great local spot recommended to us by a bartender in Melbourne. This place saved us from starvation the night that we arrived. No restaurant was serving food anymore when we finally checked in and left the hotel around 10:00 pm on a Sunday. We had walked for about 15 minutes passing nothing but fast food still open and were dangerously close to caving in to cheap, greasy food. When we finally found Magic Mountain, the food was very quick to come out and was just what we needed. The bartender helped us pick out a local beer and was very friendly. Very relaxing and enjoyable.

Delicious and unique breakfast menu esp the congee. They don’t hold back on the spice so follow the menu.
Buzzy night time with loud music and great cocktails. Go to the top floor

This is a double rating as I happened to come here twice in one week. First was for late night drinks with coworkers during the week. It was busy but thankfully not crowded. I got served quickly and was a fan of the casual atmosphere and 3 levels.
The second visit was a group dinner where we shared multiple dishes, which was a great deal, considering the prices can be steep. Drinks range from $ 10 for a beer/​wine to $ 20 for specialty cocktail but they are tasty! Service was friendly, however the drinks and food could have been served at a better pace. We got a total of 10 dishes in two courses. This should have been split into 3 or 4 courses so everyone didn’t feel compelled to pile on their plates and then wait 20 minutes between courses.
That said, the food was excellent! Thai fusion with amazing roasted chicken, spicy green chillies with king fish and prawns, perfectly cooked lamb chops, dim sum stuffed goodness, roti bread, fried calamari with sauce, a chilled pumpkin salad and green papaya salad. Divine! Everyone left very full and happy. I would gladly come here again as the food is delicious without the pomp and circumstance.

Very nice place with a cool vibe! Lights are all red which makes the place cosy! Go up to the last floor — there is more room!
Haven’t tried the food but my friends have and apparently it is great!
Great find in melbourne!

Yum! Have been here for breakfast twice now and both times were great. It’s a Thai inspired breakfast and it’s yummy. Coffees are great and so it the service. Very reasonably priced as well. If you’re in Melbourne put this one on your to do list!

Whaaaaaat! This was one of the best and most anticipated restaurant visits I have had all year. The ambience and the overall vibe of Magic Mountain is … well … MAGIC. I went there for my birthday this year and had been hearing good things for months and I was certainly impressed. The neon signs were enough to get me excited but the food was to die for! We gorged ourselves on the chicken curry, lamb shoulder curry and the garlic chive and chilli dumplings and can honestly say I couldn’t have shoved in more if I tried. The food was ¹⁰⁄₁₀ and me, myself as a chilli lover could not get enough of the sticky balsamic sauce that the dumplings were served in! Amazing! Not to mention the killer tracks playing in the background throughout the whole dinner. Loved it.
Would recommend to anyone who loves spice and doesn’t mind dark dining.

This would’ve been rated much, much higher, but service was a definite miss, and the tastiness of the food was a hit and miss.
Went here on Wednesday night, around 7:30 PM. It was busy, though by no means full, and we (a table of 5) were easily able to get a table without a booking. (We were on the 3^rd, and top, floor.)
Service: they were nice. Really nice and friendly. But… just not on the ball, at all. It was things like:
— not enough staff on the top floor
— not giving us menus at all though saying they would, which resulted in us only being able to flag someone for menus maybe 15 minutes after we had taken our seats. Funnily enough, a minute later, our original waitress came over and asked if we were ready to order
— food took ages to arrive. It took a good hour for the appetizers to arrive. Now, by this time, around half the top floor had already cleared out so it seemed like the dinner crowd had mostly gone. Oh well.
— It took maybe another 20 – 30 minutes after we finished our appetizers for the mains to arrive. When clearing our appetizers, the waitress asked, «should I bring out your mains now?» WTF we had been waiting for over an hour and a half at this point. If they have a policy to confirm if a table would like their mains already, maybe be more frequent with visiting the tables?
— Later that night, we’d asked for another bottle of sparkling water, which never arrived til we followed up another 20 minutes later
I don’t know if it was a fluke. Colleagues who had eaten there before said the service wasn’t this bad the last time they were there.
Food, we ordered:
The Good:
— Red Duck, Lychee & Pineapple Curry. This was probably my favorite dish of the night. The flavor of the curry was really good, and I didn’t think I’d enjoy the pineapple in it, but I did.
— Lotus Root, Peanut & Pickled Turnip Tapioca Dumplings. This was amazing. It was soft and beautiful and chewy.
— Chicken & Kaffir Lime, Scotched Egg Tamarind Sauce & Onion Rings. I’ve never had scotched egg before, but I think I’ll start having it now! This was spicy and oh so flavorful.
— Sticky Beef Ribs. I was not a big fan of this, but 2 of my colleagues said it was their favorite dish of the night. It was a bit too sweet for my taste.
— Roti Bread. Yum. We all loved it.
The Bad:
— Kale and crispy pork belly. Sounded promising, but this was SO not crispy. It was the uncrispiest pork belly that I ever had, so much so that there was a large amount of it left at the end of the night. Sad. Everyone loves pork belly. But not this pork belly.
— Grilled Pumpkin, Spiced Cauliflower & Almond Salad. OK, I did not have any, but the consensus around the table was that it was sad. So sad, that it was barely touched.
Also, what is up with the bathrooms?! Freakiest thing ever. I understand if you want to keep the lights low for your restaurant (ambience, y’all) but the bathrooms made me feel like I was in a horror movie.
Would I come back? If my colleagues drag me to eat here again (it’s near our hotel), but I wouldn’t go here on my own or suggesting coming here anytime soon.

I suspect I am past the age now where dark, loud and trendy places filled with thigh-​gapped people fill me with joy.
Run by the same peeps who have Cookie, this fusion Thai place offers decent food in a trendy club space. Visualise lots of steps, a DJ spinning tunes and sleeve tattoos everywhere.
A group of us went recently for a birthday dinner and the food was good. Roti bread, noodles, spicy ribs, cauliflower and pumpkin salad and jasmine rice all hit the spot. I only had mocktails (weak I know) but everyone else seemed to enjoy cocktails and wine list.
I liked it and it was a reasonable price, but for me it was too trendy. Was fighting the urge to stand up and shout «For god’s sake why is it so dark in here?! And turn down the music!»
One could feasibly argue I am not the target audience for this place based on this comment, yes?

Some of the food here is really great. Unfortunately it’s badly influenced by poor (borderline rude) service and high prices for this type of dining.
4 of us shared a huge range of plates, and there were several stand out dishes. The tea cured ocean trout which we could wrap ourselves with betel leaves was well received and delicious. The soft shell crab with eggplant was fantastic but try to order rice at the same time to tame the heat! The less memorable dishes were all still very yummy and consistently of the good standard you would expect from cookie.
So why 3 stars? Our waitress was completely indifferent to us, spilling water on me and menus, walking away before we had completed orders, and generally giving off a vibe that we had offended her in some way.
The other issue is price — this is not an affordable option in this space. A very disappointing dish was the Holy Trinity from the grill. $ 58 will buy you an eye fillet (a very nice one, but still!) 2 prawns and 2 small sausages.
The space is pretty great. Hard to believe what used to be there! I suspect we would have had a totally different experience if our service had been a bit friendlier.

This is one of the best breakfasts Iv had in Melbourne. Be prepared for spice, heat, sweet, sour salty. I ordered the Scotch Egg And Ribs and she ordered the Pork and Sticky Rice…
Everything was so tasty and we shared plates and it was too much food. Amazing flavours, & a warning to steer clear of the birds eye chililis which are strategically placed to the sides for those who can’t handle the heat!
We also ordered some cocktails after brekky and they were also great. Looking forward to more trips back here ASAP

We came here for Sunday brunch. Something different to the usual brunch offerings, this cute place has Asian style food that is tasty and good value. I loved my daikon hash browns with eggplant and mushroom medley, the baked eggs looked great too. For sweet breakfast, the roti looked awesome and I was tempted by the ‘fairy toast’ with condensed milk. I’d come back for sure.

I was hoping to try Magic Mountain Saloon’s lunch menu as I have been here for their brekkie. Unfortunately having an early lunch (11am!) meant they haven’t actually started their lunch menu so had to have brekkie. Not that it mattered– I was impressed with their brekkie last time and there are so many dishes I have yet to try!
First drinks first: This is from their non-​alcoholic selection: we ordered Trendy slacks and Cuban creaming Soda.
I liked the Cuban Creaming Soda although it was a but on the sweet side it was very refreshing.
Trendy Slacks is made with crysanthamum syrup, lemon juice and coconut water. I thought it tasted a bit weird to be honest. It’s a prove that 3 rights can sometimes make a wrong
I have been dying to try the soy milk, coconut pikelets & papaya $ 14.5. This was… Interesting. At first I thought the soy milk is condensed and you are supposed to pour the soy milk onto the pikelets (like maple syrup) but nup, the soy milk is just soy milk… Which the three of us has no idea how to share so I drank it all lol
The coconut pikelets were a bit oily but has a nice flavour and it was great with the papaya.
This was certainly not my favourite brekkie item at Magic Mountain Saloon
Chicken and kaffir lime scotched egg & pork ribs $ 18.5 was amazingly delicious but a word of warning: it has a real kick to it! I loved it but my friend felt it was too spicy! The pork ribs were crazy good with the sticky tamarind sauce
Fat rice noodles w pork & kale gravy was sensational. The pork was flavoursome and tender. My only gripe was the fat rice noodles were a bit clumpy.
Egg, crispy pork and fried rice was good but not super duper special. so much delicious crispy pork though!
You’d think after being there twice and having a few different dishes each time we would have tried almost everything. Not even! I counted and there are still 18 items i haven’t tried yet!
Must. Come. Back. ASAP!

Appalling service, completely disinterested and inefficient staff. Dishes are small and way overpriced. My steak was possible medium rare on average, but when one end is overcooked and the other almost raw it’s not very pleasant. Worst dining experience in years.

From the guys that brought you cookie, revolver and Boney have opened their new venture Magic Mountain Saloon. Have been meaning to try since they opened and I’m glad I don’t have to wait any longer.
Took the team here for a lunch and whilst they were busy they looked after all 14 of us individually and made everyone feel welcomed.
We had a great waitress who was knowledgeable on the menu and help out with the ordering. Everyone was really impressed, however the one comment that I got from a few people was that they didn’t expect it to be chill yet all dishes where. My response is you ordered Thai food.
However me who loves chilli had a delightful time. I ordered the red duck curry with lychee and pineapple, with a side of roti bread. It was delicious, the curry creamy and full of flavour.
I will definitely be back to this joint for food, it was reasonably priced and very welcoming place to go enjoy.

I’ve been to Magic Mountain twice now, or initialised as MMS. Yeah there was the loud music and neon lights Saturday night, a little akin to walking into the deleted scenes from Miami Vice/​backdrop for filming for an 80’s music video video. But strangely enough not in a dorky daggy way. In a walk past and «ooh, what’s that place?» It’s modern and it works. Whilst they may be playing off the vibe of Boney next door, they do it thankfully, without the contrivance of bouncers.
On the second visit, I explored chicken wings mozzarella balls, and again, various tap beers, poured by a very patient bar staff. So what’s left to try? Well apart from 85% of the food menu, the entire cocktails and wine list, not much. Staff are great at service, though the true test of this lies when any place is inundated with swarms of people, and the venue is simply too busy for it’s own good. I haven’t experienced that yet, thankfully, but MMS is likely to experience the sardine effect soon.
What else can I say, this place does the following right.
1. Correct staffing levels.
2. Range, availability, consistency, and options for choice.
3. Clean and maintained everything.
4. Genuine staff, with an informative positive ethos.
5. Regular product training.
6. Money invested into a venue and destination done well.
7. No shortcuts or «let’s go for the cheaper option»
8. Not doing what everyone else is doing.
So if you want to dine/​eat/​drink at a well put together venue, with the right level of investment, that comes together, try MMS. Not everything maybe to your tasting, but in some form, all reviews are skewed to opinion, and are subjective. The music has more of an electronica feel it, so don’t come here if you’re after a stuffy, conservative, middle class place that «Cultured» people seem to revere as fiercely as they do the opera and anything French.

Having only been opened for one week they are still fine tuning the service. Was good though that they recognised this with an apology and free dessert, which will always win my heart.
The food was good, especially the beef ribs.
The atmosphere is very hip however noise was a little on the loud side, but get that this place is skewed towards being more a bar then a restaurant.
We were seated downstairs and had a chance to take a squizz upstairs which looked very cool.
Will be interesting to see how this one evolves.