Gingerboy

The first thing you notice when you enter is the aroma coming from the kitchen. A very nice way to get things started.
The room is fairly narrow and the tables tightly packed. The tables are well set with menus on the table and the whole feel is of a hawker joint done very chic and with a fair bit of money behind it. A nice irony
We started with Kingfish marinated in coconut milk. A nice dish, but done a lot better at other places. The cream was quite rich and I suspect not fresh with no real acid kick to cut through it and highlight the fish. The dried chilli and crisp noodle didn't really do much to add to the dish
Chicken and jellyfish salad. OK - now I love the Chinese style salad of this, but Gingerboy's is nothing like it. A large mound of drunken chicken in a nice dressing with a few strands of jellyfish through it. A nice enough salad, but as I was expecting a much more textural salad of crunchy jellyfish, and a piquant dressing, I was pretty disappointed in this.
A note on sizes, as these were dishes of similar price from the same section of the menu but the chicken salad was much larger than a normal entree and the Kingfish a bit smaller than average. Hard to get a handle on
Next, main course. We shared a flash fried whole snapper with yellow bean dressing and a side of corn cakes. The fish, an amazing dish. The fish was beautifully cooked and very fresh for a Monday lunch, but what lifted the dish to another level was the sauce. Perfect for this fish, nicely sour with slices of ginger, chilli and Thai basil and mint. A memorable dish.
The corn cakes, felt to light with not enough substance to them. I prefer them a little more toothsome. Also it was a pretty large side dish which we couldn't finish, maybe 10 cakes in it.
Service was good, everything was taken care of and we were in and out in an hour and a half. Which was good for lunch.
The food was a mixed bag, some just so so and the schnapper dish on a whole other level, and sizes were inconsistant. As it is inspired on hawker joints this is an expensive, Aussie version of them, but pretty enjoyable.
13/20