Heroes is the new karaoke bar in town (by the Fancy Hanks crew) which is also a Malaysian/Singapore hawker style restaurant with a rooftop bar. There are three levels of exciting and we like them in this order: eat your meal, down some cocktails, then sing your little heart out.
The décor is predominantly red and very busy with decorations, Chinese dragons, lanterns, old posters of Asian bands. There’s a lot going on which creates an eclectic and amusing atmosphere.
They have some dangerously delicious cocktails. Loved thier ‘Straight outta Singapore’ which is their twist on a Singapore sling and the ‘Float on’ is like a New York sour with tequilla, smoked lychee, vanilla and a shiraz float. Amazing.
The chicken satay skewers are one of the most popular dishes. Tender chicken, covered in peanutty satay sauce, on a stick - easy to eat, a classic.
They have a variety of things on skewers and duck hearts is one of them. Offal is not my fave thing in life but I tried this and I’ve gotta say they were actually really tasty. The charred charcoal flavour compliments the meat and eliminates that offaly taste which was good for me.
They also had some Szechuan lamb skewers which had a nice spicy cumin flavours. They had vego skewers too, ones with charcoal roasted eggplant and ones with swiss brown mushrooms.
If you wanted more offal after that duck heart, they had smoked beef tongue. It was sliced super thin and served simply with spring onions and chilli oil. The offal flavour was more prominent in this dish.
The BBQ chicken wings were a winner. They were BBQed to perfection and were juicy on the inside. The chilli vinegar and squeeze of fresh lime over the top made them even better.
The Szechuan brisket was heavenly. They smoke the meat over at Fancy Hanks and bring it over. The smokey, meaty flavours remind you of Fancy Hanks and the beef just melts in your mouth. It was mixed in with snake beans, pickled radish and a creamy smoked garlic puree. We had some white jasmine rice on the side with pickled cucumber salad and chilli pineapple pieces which were a lovely compliment to the other dishes.
The charred lettuce was BBQed and topped with a sticky mushroom sauce.
The ember roasted butternut pumpkin was beautiful topped with pumpkin seeds and miso seasoning.
We ended on the sambal fish which was one of my faves. It had an intense sambal, fermented shrimp flavour, the flesh of the fish flaked apart beautifully and the fresh lime gave it a bit of zing.
It was a fun night with awesome cocktails, great company and lots of tasty share plates of food, hawker-style.
To get to Heroes you need to walk through Nitro Lab (ice-cream shop) and use the elevator at the back to go upstairs.
I heart Heroes!
Olives x
Heroes
Address: 188 Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Website: heroesbar.com.au
Phone: (03) 8639 0630
Trading hours: Tue-Wed: 4pm-11pm, Thu: 4pm-12am, Fri-Sat: 12pm-12am, Sun: 12pm-10pm, Mon: closed
