Its website describes itself as follows: Makan is a Balinese escape in the heart of Melbourne, where the flavours of the food are a direct reflection of the spirited personalties in the kitchen!
What a gem in a hidden alley in Melbourne. The Balinese food was delicious and well worth the discovery. I highly recommend this place for its pork shank, which consisted of a super crispy skin, pork meat falling off the bone (with the bone on the plate) and a delicious broth and soup. It was well worth the spend and definitely worth a repeat visit.
Look out for the brightly lit sign in an alley in Little Collins Street. Don’t bother trying to find a way from Collins Street to this restaurant as you will just get confused.
The menu consists a delicious assortment of Indonesian and Balinese dishes. We asked the waitress for her recommendations and we weren’t disappointed. She recommended a small plate and two larger plates for the two of us.
For the small plate, we helped ourselves grilled quail with cheese, coriander, lime labna, apple, fennel salad and a delicious coating of spicy sauce ($17). The quail was so well cooked through.
We had the Mie goreng with chicken, cabbage, carrot slices, prawn crackers and a friend egg (S17.5). The mie goreng was a fantastic infusion of flavors. I loved the soft texture of the noodles against the crispy shallots and prawn crackers.
The star of the night was the pork shank with sambal and a ‘bumby genep broth’ (soup) ($30). The crispy skin, the pork falling of the bone, the sambal sauce and broth were a magical combination. I just loved eating the crackling skin and tender soft pork. The pork just melted in the mouth. We were told to combine the pork, sambal and broth together for a different taste. Not sure if it quite works, but each individual component were impressive. So highly recommend the pork shank.
To find this place, you need to be on Little Collins Street and you will need to go down an alley past the pop-culture store. It’s located in 360 Collins St Melbourne 3000, but don’t come to it via Collins Street as you will need to go around the block to get this to hidden gem.
Makan does dinner from 5.30pm to 10pm and is open Monday to Saturday (lunch) and Wednesday to Saturday (dinner).
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