Colourful Yunnan is an old place actually, at least been on the map for a long time before it got more well known among the general public. Before that, it was pretty much a student lunch go-to place. I remember the story of it all started years ago on Flinders lane in this two-story space with narrow entry. Honestly, don’t think I would love going there now with a pram :).
Their main focus has always been on “cross-bridge rice noodle soup”. This noodle soup with its rich flavour and super hot temperature. It can cook your raw fish on the spot type of hot!
The success of Colourful Yunnan has made it all the way to other central locations in Melbourne. Particularly areas nearby schools and universities. The Colourful Yunnan venue I will be reviewing here is the one based in Hawthorn. It is located at a busy spot on Glenferrie road near many colleges and schools.
Apart from its super sturdy and heavy front door, its new home is superbly decorated, spacious, bright, neat and welcoming. For my little ones, its also a quite interesting place as there’s a little indoor pond where little Zonni was trying to spot any fish. Plus, a giant beautiful peacock was standing at the entrance to welcome all the guests.
If you go with a pram, they have enough place to allocate it. So do not worry about bringing babies here, they’re definitely welcome here. Colourful Yunnan continues doing what they’re good at, AKA cross-bridge rice noodle, neither change of its old authentic flavour, nor the quantity of it.
Colourful Yunnan | The Food
Unless you’re truly hungry, try to order just the noodles, no other dishes, no matter how attractive they are. One full bowl of noodle, I’m done with the night. However, easier said than done, we did order a few more dishes for the little ones (pretty proper excuse). What I love about their new menu is that they use clear pictures to advise on every dish if its baby-friendly, instead of having a separate baby menu. this makes it easier for you to order dishes to be shared by every family member.
My smart hubby was hungry, so we ordered two cross-bridge noodles, one spicy shredded chicken, one simmered rice with potato, bacon and peas.
The cross bridge noodles are very light, but rich flavoured, and come with many little dishes to be put into the soup. You can be sure the nutrition is balanced.
The chicken was finely shredded and mixed with bean sprouts and their home-made chilly oil sauce. It has a lot of kick, especially strong chilli and garlic flavour, so make sure you’re a fan of both, otherwise, be aware!
The simmered rice series has a few options, and we chose the one with potato, beacon and peas, since our girls love them all and quite easy to digest, but at the end, we ate quite a bit.
One thing to pay attention to, is quite a few dishes are not available for take-away, because of the super high temperature. So do check from the staff before you consider that as an option. However, if you order to eat there and take away till it gets cold, no one would advise otherwise.
Bear in mind, if you go here in Hawthorn during the weekend to make a booking first or just go there early before 7 if it’s a last-minute decision, which was our case anyway.
Have fun trying something new with your little ones and hope you love Colourful Yunnan! I know we did.
