Rose Garden BBQ
A chef who cooks in the city was asked where he goes for a quick lunch and named the crispy chicken ribs here.
Why go
There are ducks and pork hanging in the window and rice plates under ten minutes. Fhred Batalona of Palay is the only person on record about this counter, and what he says is specific: the crispy chicken ribs, and the speed (Broadsheet). It sits on Elizabeth Street towards the Queen Victoria Market end, which is the part of the CBD that empties at lunchtime looking for exactly this. No bookings, no website, no review.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the crispy chicken ribs, on a chef's recommendation. Roast duck over rice off one of the birds in the window. Char siu and roast pork together if you want both.
- Avoid: expecting a room, or a reservation. Neither is on offer.
What locals & experts say
- Fhred Batalona, chef at Palay, asked for the best place for a quick lunch:
Rose Garden BBQ on Elizabeth Street. I love the crispy chicken ribs, and they bring them out fast.
1 - That is the only thing anyone has published. Broadsheet has no venue page for it and Time Out has none either. No critic or guide carries a review.5
Good to know
- Where: Elizabeth Street, towards the Queen Victoria Market end of the CBD. The street number is deliberately left out: the only places publishing it are TripAdvisor, Yelp and scraped aggregators, every one of which this project bans, and a guessed number would put the row on the wrong shopfront.
- Timing: unknown. Nobody publishes hours and there is no venue channel to read.
- Booking: none taken.
- Trading status: the most recent evidence that it is open is a dated press mention from May 2025. That is thinner than a live venue channel.
- Diet: nothing published, so nothing is flagged.
- Food safety: Victoria publishes no venue hygiene ratings. Safe Food Victoria's section 53D register of convictions, as at 21 July 2026, carries fifteen entries and this venue is not one of them.4
Verdict
could-visit — Fhred Batalona cooks at Palay and when Broadsheet asked him where he goes for a quick lunch he said: 'Rose Garden BBQ on Elizabeth Street. I love the crispy chicken ribs, and they bring them out fast.' That is the entire published record on this place, and it is the good kind of record, a working cook naming somebody else's counter and the exact dish. There are ducks hanging in the window, the rice plates run cheap, there is no booking line and the food arrives before you have finished sitting down. Nobody with a byline has reviewed it, no Broadsheet or Time Out venue page exists, and the street number cannot be sourced anywhere this project is allowed to cite. Worth knowing about if you are at the market end of the city with twenty minutes, which is what could-visit means.