Joji's Noodle Bar at MHCC

After years of operating quietly from his hole in the wall under the Civic Centre on the Suva foreshore Joji finally decided it was time to expand the empire.

First, there was a tentative foray into new territory during Fiji Showcase. Judging by the lines, the hungry masses approved.

Joji pondered this validation of his culinary authority, and then went to see a man about an empty space in the MHCC food court.

And now Joji's Noodle Bar has a stall at the top of the escalators on the 2nd floor of MHCC. Judging by the lines during lunch hour, the hungry masses still approve.

As the name indicates, this place is all about noodles. Dalo is available with some dishes, but there is no rice available here.

Where there's noodle, there's soup. Combination long and short, Asian beef stew, chicken noodle, fish balls.

This is the combination long and short soup: chicken, beef, fish balls, wantons, your choice of noodles, in an peppery broth. There is no pork in the soup (or on the menu). They've also swapped out the usual Chinese cabbage with lettuce. This doesn't bother me, but Kania Tiko considers it to be an unforgivable deviation from the norm.

Takeaway soups are well packed.

Almost everything on the menu is cooked to order. The staple chow mein and chilli chicken dishes (with noodles of course) are cooked in bulk, but never more than is needed to keep the line moving.

New to the menu is the 'Hot, Sweet and Sour Noodles'. The proprietor describes it as being 'like a noodle salad.'

A brilliant combination of noodles and vegetables with a hot, tangy sauce holding it all together! This dish then evolved a little, and offered a choice of chicken or beef in the dish. It has since been removed from the display menu, but I am assured that they will prepare it on request.

The menu is priced a little higher than the original Joji's. This, in addition to the lack of rice and the introduction of soup, means they're not competing with their original shop. To that end, the MHCC outlet has also dropped the small serve.

Not content with the move to MHCC, they've also opened a bakery in the food court that serves up a variety of cakes, pastries and breads under the banner of Joji's Temptation ... but that is for another review.

For adding soup to the usual Joji's options, and a hot, sweet & sour noodle salad that rises above the usual takeaway offerings, a thumbs-up.

In Summary

Joji's Noodle Bar

MHCC Food Court, Level 2, MH City Centre, sandwiched between Thompson St, Renwick Rd, and Nabukalou Creek.

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sun: 9:00am - 9:00pm

Spend:

$6 - $7 per person

Rating:

Thumbs-up

Joji's at Fiji Showcase

The annual abomination that is Fiji Showcase has rolled around again. The entry fee to the exhibition has gone up ($3.50 this year), the clown hasn't changed, and the same old exhibitors are touting their wares from the floor.

The "food" offerings aren't particularly inspiring this year either, though I do note and applaud the general effort to keep the number of BBQ stalls in check.

But ... Joji's was there! Yes, that Joji's. The Showcase Joji's is a special chicken-only version of the original from under the Civic Centre. $5 for the 'medium' serve, $6 for the large: in all the usual chicken combinations: chop suey, chowmein, chilli, fried rice and blackbean.

On that note, here's our first Lunch in Suva video special: 'Son of Joji' showing us how they make Chilli Chicken in 2 minutes 40 seconds flat.



Truly, the force is strong with this one: fire, wok and chicken do his bidding.

There are a couple of other stalls that bear mention:

There is a new entrant in the hot-dog category offering a "German frankfurter with sauerkraut". The frankfurter didn't look, taste or speak German (in fact it looked and tasted remarkably like the Foods Pacific 'dog being sold a few stalls down), but the sauerkraut was definitely sauerkraut. At $3.50, this is probably not a valid justification for a trip to Showcase ... but it may help redeem the visit if you were there for other reasons.

Also, worth a mention is the FRIEND's Fiji stall: I'm a fan of their excellent tamarind chutney, and supply of the big bottles is a little irregular in the supermarkets; so get yourself a stash straight from the source.

Most of the other food stalls can be ignored: Wish Bone, Curry House, KFC, et al can be got from their usual locations without paying the $3.50 Showcase tax.

Oh! And someone is selling cans of V for $2.50 each ... that's the cheapest I've seen it in a while.

Hop Hing Cafe

Hop Hing sits opposite the beer factory in Walu bay. It plies a regular trade with the brewery, warehouse, oil, and wharf workers in the area. They serve up your typical pseudo-chinese food, plus the usual morning tea items (cake, buns, tinned meat etc.)

We tried two fairly representative items on the menu, first the combination short soup.
Kania Tiko is somewhat of a connoisseur of the Combination Short Soup. It has diced chicken, roast pork and red pork (but no beef strangely enough). The broth is superior to that of Mrs. Yangs, and doesn't need chillying up (but I chilly it up anyway out of force of habit). My main objection is the paucity of vegetables, all we have a couple of carrots and small handful of cabbage. Its the lack of veges and vege-variety that prevent this from challenging Hot & Spicy's position at the top of the totem pole of Suva's Combination Short Soups. At $9 its only 50 cents cheaper than Hot & Spicy, so it can't really compete on the price-performance curve either.

This is chicken chow-mein. Its stir-fried chicken, cabbage, carrots, and onions with noodles. You've all eaten this before so there is no point in me crapping on about it. It is hot and freshly cooked and costs $6.

This is the menu. If you can read it, then I congratulate you. If you can't go to Walu bay and read the real one.

The following video has absolutely nothing to do this review. I just think it would be cool to have a robot bartender in ones house, and also I want to send a big "Fuck You" to the Associated Press, for this display of stupidity.

In Summary

Hop Hing

Foster Rd, Walu Bay, Suva

Opening Hours:

Monday - Saturday: 7am - 5pm

Spend

$4.00 - $9.00 per person

Central Cuisine

Having been told marvellous things about Central Cuisine by the gang at the water cooler, Kania Tiko and I felt moved to verify some of the claims of excellence being thrown about.

Central Cuisine certainly is central, so central there is usually a substantial line trying to reach the counter, comprising lunchers from every office building in a one-block radius (read 'half of down town Suva')

The overhead menu board boasts a range superior to anything we have seen on an overhead board anywhere else in Suva ... which is quite a feat when you realise that every single dish on the board is laid out in one of the many food warmers lining the counter.

Your order is handled efficiently: "Rice or noodles?" ... "Which dish?" ... "A drink?" ... and you are handed your tray and shuttled toward the cashier to hand over money within 30 seconds of having hit the counter.

Being desirous of trying as much of the range as possible, we both ordered combo-deals, which involve a quartered tray, a serving of starch, 2 selections from the menu and a bowl of soup.

Chicken in black-bean, fried red pork, noodles.

Braised beef, chilli chicken, rice, chicken sweet corn soup.

Whilst there is much to be admired in the logistics applied by Central Cuisine in getting everything on their menu into a warmer, this McDonald's style approach to lunchtime fast-food does not translate into a good meal.

The dishes tasted mass-produced: the difference between meat dishes of the same type being nearly impossible to distinguish. We suspect the chilli chicken and the chicken-in-blackbean may have started off in the same wok before being finished with different sauces.

The starch was a little on the cold side, and the noodles were oily and slightly singed.

The soup was enjoyable, but certainly nothing to write home about.

Now if fast service is the stick by which you measure your meals, by all means give Central Cuisine your custom.

The fact that Central Cuisine has recently expanded and taken over the operation of the busy Southern Cross cafeteria in USP and dishes out more of the same (and cheaper) to the student population, does their logistics much credit. However, it also confirms that they have become the McDonald's of Chinese in Suva: homogeneous, and predictable.

Too much has been lost in the mass-produced approach; and that earns Central Cuisine's lunch menu a thumbs down from Lunch in Suva.

Note: Central Cuisine has opened a lunch buffet. We have not had the opportunity to try it yet, so please let us know if you have.

In Summary

Central Cuisine

Suva Central

Opening Hours:

?

Spend:

$5.50 - $8.80 per person

Verdict:

Thumbs-down

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Hot & Spicy Kitchen

Food courts are generally depressing places to eat, but Hot & Spicy Kitchen makes the Dolphin's Food Court worth visiting. I often wonder why they are stuck in the food court: they deserve a restaurant of their own.

If you're in a rush, or the sort of person that likes--God forbid--to order pre-cooked food from the warmer, then go elsewhere. This little Chinese food outlet comes into its own when you order from the menu ... and it has a menu that rivals most of the established restaurants in town for variety.

Soups start at $3.50 a serve (a good sized serve too). Besides the usual Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup, they have several others, including my favourite flu medication: Szechuan Hot & Sour Chicken Soup. They also make a very decent Combination Short Soup (and the usual variations on the theme).

The rest of the menu is divided roughly into:

• Chicken
• Beef
• Pork
• Vegetarian/Tofu

with separate sections for the Fu-Yung (omelettes) and Fried Rice. Each section is extensive and goes well beyond the usual chowmein and chopsuey options. There is also a board with seasonal or special items.

I'm a fan of the Szechuan Chicken and Ma-po Tofu (chicken or pork). The Lemon Chicken is also worth a try. Something called "Chicken, Mushroom, Veg" on the menu (pictured above) is probably my pick for the healthiest lunch in town. If you're absolutely rolling in cash and have a yearning for seafood, the Chilli Prawn Inferno lives up to it's billing.

I've always been impressed by the size of Hot & Spicy serves. Your order gets a takeaway container to itself and the rice gets a separate little bag. This accomplishes two things: it keeps food with a good sauce/gravy from soaking into the rice and becoming a sticky mess, and, it means you get to apportion the starch as you see fit.

Hot & Spicy is the only Chinese take-away place in Suva that does not have a 'half-serve', however, they more than make up for this by honouring special cooking requests: an acquaintance who is allergic to pork regularly orders combination fried rice--without the pork (pictured below); and they will happily vary the spiciness of dishes if you ask.

Dolphin's is a crowded place at lunch time so it's worth your while to pick up a menu from them next time you swing past, and keep it on your desk. They'll accept phone orders, which means you can call your choice in ahead and avoid the lines and the wait.

Hot & Spicy stays open 'til 9pm, so it's a favourite when I'm late leaving the office and don't feel like cooking.

You can either eat in the food court, or ask for take-way.

In Summary

Hot & Spicy Kitchen

Dolphin's Foodcourt, FNPF Place, Loftus St

Opening Hours:

8am - 9pm, 7 days a week

Spend:

$3.50 - $14 per person

Verdict:

Thumbs-up

Joji's AKA Hole-in-the-wall

Joji's was once a cocky young upstart, but now is a grand old man of the of the Suva lunch scene. It is insanely popular amongst the office crowd and students.

Without an official name for most of its history but called amongst other things "Civic centre", "Jackie Chan", "Hole-in-the-wall", Joji's has finally made it official by adopting their most popular moniker. Its now proudly displayed on top of their new menu board.

While the new menu board must of cost the proprietors a bit, it was almost certainly a complete waste of money. I have never seen anyone look at it. Ever. In taking the snapshot I am now believed to be the first non-Mormon to actually read a single word on the menuboard in the 21st Century.

The food is a series of greasy stir fries, your meal is ordered by selecting from the following parameters:

• Meat: Chicken, Beef, Pork, Red (Char Siu) Pork, Fish, Vegetarian, Combination (Chicken, Beef, Red Pork)
  
• Style: Chop Suey, Fried, Fried Rice, Black Bean, Long Soup, Chilli, Oyster Sauce, Omlette, Cashew Nut, Curry
  
• Carb: Rice, Noodles, Cassava
• Size: Half serve or full serve
  

Thus a typical order is Chicken Chop Suey with Rice (Chicken fried up with chinese cabbage, onions, and frozen mixed vegetables on hot rice) or Fried Beef with Noodles (Beef stir fried with onions and mixed veg on noodles). The main difference between Chop Suey and "Fried" seems to be that fried has no cabbage and a bit more meat, and the only difference between "Fried" and "Chilli" is that chilli has, well, chilli in it. And so on and so forth with "Black Bean" and "Oyster Sauce".

Joji's main gimmick is the open kitchen thing. You order something and the guy cooks it. Thus the food is hot and fresh and you know the guy isn't throwing rats and/or meat dust into your food.

However they cheat a bit, and some of the more popular orders are cooked ahead for the lunch rush so they can be dished out faster. These are usually the chicken chop suey, the red pork chop suey, the combination chop suey, and the fried chicken. The smart thing to do is to wait to see whats just been cooked and order that, your food will be fast and hot. Avoid anything that you didn't see it come out of the wok.

I don't recommend anything in particular, but I can point out the configurations that I don't like:

• Meat: Beef (tough and tasteless), Fish (25% of being dodgy smelling)
• Styles:
  • Fried, Oyster Sauce, Black Bean, Chilli - we all need to be good children and eat our greens
  • Curry and Cashew nut - never seen anyone order it, so it must be crap
  • long soup - soup needs to boil for a while, and they are not using pre-made stock, just water, so what you get is a watery mess
• Size: Full (its just to much for me to eat)

There is a small eat-in area but most choose to take away. Your takeaway gets packed in your garden variety polyurethane packaging, usually to be consumed at office or seawall (an extra $0.10 for a plastic spoon).

I particularly recommend the food before and after a night of drinking (alchohol or kava). It has the right amount of grease to coat your stomach, and sufficiently heavy to give that base that you need. These properties are also very useful on the day after this sort of debauchery.

In Summary

Joji's

Civic Centre, Suva

Opening Hours:

Buggered if I know, but alway open for lunch on Mondays through Saturdays. Not sure about public holidays.

Spend

$4 - $6 per person

Verdict

Thumbs-up (don't eat it too often though, can get tiresome)