Sin Vida

I truly thought M&A was dying with the closure of Flaming Olive and the disappearing crowds from Papa Jacks, Mighty Mighty and the almost always empty Nikuya--apparently not as this new place was game enough to open on the back of the closed down Italian restaurant.

We were on our way there to try Gorditas when the skeleton (very unanatomically correct) and gaudily dressed caught our eye, oh hard to miss the mass of graffiti-- they really are playing on the sugar skulls theme.

Don't set your hopes too high-- this place isn't Mamasita's in Melbourne nor do I think it's trying to be. This isn't fine dining by any standards--think westernised mexican food with menus full of tacos, nachos etc all the typical stuff.

We thought we'd be adventurous and go outside the usual tacos and nacho cliches. Maybe we should have stuck with those as seafood marina cooked in tomato sauce (yes thats all that Zarzuela de Mariscos is was not impressive with the tinned tomato taste and half the mussels scrawny or unopened.

Zazuela de Marscos--seafood marinara with tinned tomato

 So you can't go wrong with steak right? Only if its the chewy and full of sinew--you got no hope, even if you add a fried egg on top. What's with the halved roma tomatoes in this place? It really was just half a tomato...

Sin Vida Steao--Steak and Eggs --with Mexican mystery sauce

 To be fair the corn (even with its very messy tail) was tasty and chicken wings had enough spice. And yes definitely order the sangria to wash things down. Don't rely on the Calavera (beef bone soup) for that--- it's just concentrated beef stock.

Elote--Char grilled corn 

Chicken Wings

White Sangria

So what's the verdict for Sin Vida? I wish it well, but the food itself isn't going to help it survive. 

 

Restaurant II

So we finally made it here. Over the past 10 years Brisbane's dining scene has come a long way with increased interest and competition. Business is not as easy as it used to be with many supposed 'fine dining' institutions from years past succumbing to increased competition, a more discerning market, economic pressure and bowing eventually out of the dining scene altogether. Some, suffer a lot worse being relegated to the ranks of 'it used to be good'.

Yet--for those who've stayed, it may well just prove that they deserve to be there--Darwinian evolution of the restaurant scene I suppose. So where does Restaurant II fit?

Menu changing seasonally is a good start. Contemporary, elegant decoration --tick. Service? Well I guess the waitstaff do have lives outside of the restaurant --they're not all sommeliers and don't rely on the wine advice--or lack there of.

Between us hubby and I could sample most of the dishes so we decided to give the degustation a miss. The combination of the dishes on the degustation menu were not dishes that we would order off the a-la carte. And personal peeve of hubby's is when the degustation menu is just all the a-lacarte combined--what's the point? the man asks.

Presentation is tight with all the dishes from the complementary canape (forgot what it was) down to the dessert. Timeliness was not a strong point with many tables (especially those eating degust) waiting well past 30minutes between some courses.

My entree of the Mooloolaba tuna showcased the beauty of all the ingredients in harmony but unfortunately the sinew in the tuna was just difficult to saw through.

Mooloolaba tuna with watermelon

Hubby's pork belly with the layers visible looked enticing and lived up to the presentation in taste--exactly what you'd expect--porky poorness.

Pork Belly entree 

The mains showed generous portions and a 'it is what it is' approach. When my lobster arrived there was a collective 'wow' and delight that yes it is genuinely, no messing about, undisguised lobster. Texture of the flesh was not what I expected-- seemed to be a lot more 'frayed? with a processed food texture' rather than firm and sweet meat expected. In a nutshell--croquets are croquets -- not a fan and should be reserved for a food court. Hubby's duck was cooked wonderfully but in the end he commented 'this is just duck with orange'--yes dear it is, but the meat was cooked nicely.

Duck 

Lobster with Jamon croquettes 

Dessert menu had a few proven crowd pleasers-- fondant, creme brûlée..Meal ended on a high with familiar desserts executed perfectly. Oozy chocolate fondant anyone? Banana had a rich dark caramelised top. Bacon ice cream with creme brûlée?sure , especially when accompanied with a piece of salty crispy bacon. 

Proof in the pudding--oozing chocolate fondant

Free standing creme brulee with bacon ice cream

It's not surprising Restaurant II has managed to stay in the business through the years. Ingredients, reputation, past achievement all helps but the key ingredient to success remains to continuously improve and refine--I for one, hope Restaurant II continues to do that (especially more of the refine).

Pablo

It's hard to be a cafe in New Farm. You have to be:  hip enough to attract the weekend brunch crowd , fit in with the latest food trends (clean eating, paleo, sugar free, dairy free, gluten free), innovative enough to keep the short attention span of a discerning crowd yet offer something traditional and familiar enough for the hip but not so adventurous (in other words traditional food but with trendy ingredients). 

Pablo does most of the above--I say most because I'm not familiar with what the latest food trend is--all I care is if it tastes good, not if it's in fashion. We've been to Pablo before (like most of Brisbane), dropped off our radar for awhile mainly because there were always long queues and the interior can be a bit noisy on a Sunday morning. 

Menu is clever--familiar brunch staples like salads, hotcakes, muesli etc yet a little bit different e.g. gin cured sea trout. I was a bit disappointed when the trout arrived--somehow i expected more fish and where is the avocado? As you eat through the plate, there's more trout than you think and avocado is at the bottom--crises averted. Hubby's staple of smashed avocado has a nice bit of summer feeling injected with the mango salsa and bit different with haloumi rather than feta. 

While the menu is appealing, the specials board probably did too good a job as the dishes on it sounded more hearty and appealing than the fixed menu--maybe thats why everything was sold out. Hint: get there early (ier) to try the specials. 

Hopefully Pablo can continue to come up with specials to spruce up the main menu and keep things interesting, else, as it juggles the many plates and requirements of a competitive environment it risks losing its point of difference and fading into the background of so many other New Farm cafes. 

House gin cured Sea Trout 

Crushed Avocado on Sourdough

Sushi Edo--the next Sushi Train

There can't be anyone who hasn't heard of or tried or seen Sushi Train. One could believe they're indomitable but Sushi Edo is here to take on the task and may just well succeed. 

For those who've been to Sushi Train you'd know of the abundance of mayonnaise and the never ending combination of mayonnaise with everything from fried chicken to avocado to salmon. Menu hasn't changed for a long time and why would there be a need? There was scarcely competition. 

Stumbled upon Sushi Edo in the CBD while going to a Korean place and the fitout with the $3.50 all plates sign pulled us in. We thought we would be in for crappy, chinese imitating japanese style stuff but instead we got Sushi Train style but with more menu items, easier service with the order pad at the table, better prices--and have I mentioned better variety? 

Not that I think Sushi Train is a dying or bad franchise but Sushi Edo really puts up some serious competition offering unique plates such as Uni (sea urchin) and scampi, lotus root chips, octopus salad in addition to your usual train offerings. And there is mayo but just not on everything. Did I mention the $3.50 all plates? 

One of the unique offerings--Uni(sea urchin nigiri)

Scampi Nigir

Aburi Hotate (Grilled scallops) 

Given all the above no wonder they were busy. We also tried the Nundah store the next day (they have a few stores, CBD, Nundah, Sunnybank Plaza) --pretty much the same quality. I don't want to see the demise of Sushi Train but I certainly want to see Sushi Edo stay around. 

P.S they serve alcohol too 

 

Southside Bistro

I honestly wanted to like this place, for one Sunnybank area really lacks bistro/cafe style food and the decor and whole presentation--shopfront and website- was just so like-able and different from everything else in the area. 

For once I thought there's a place that has the whole menu design, online presence and physical presentation sorted--no poorly presented menus, lack of website, bad spelling or grammar etc etc. 

I really wanted to like this place, but there's nothing to like beyond the packaging.  

We tried this on 2 occasions-- once just for dessert and drinks and the 2nd with 2 of our friends for a proper meal. That's how much I wanted to like this place--after a disappointment with the first round, I still comeback. 

The first time hubby and I just ordered the sizzling chocoate brownie for 2--- there's a reason why brownie's aren't really meant to sizzle-- you end up with gluey burnt chocolate sauce which you don't really miss or need on the plate as well as a burnt brownie. For $15--I'm not sure if this is really a dessert for 2. 

sizzling chocolate brownie 

Dinner with our friends was a huge let down--and they aren't picky people. Most delicious thing was the buns from the Mantou bao. So, here's the rest of it:  

• The meat in our friend's Bao came out cold and had to be reheated
• Kim chi  that featured in our friend's main and in my burger was ridiculously sour 
• Char grilled potato was bland and resembled more of boiled potato accidentally burnt in a few areas and I'm not sure what that black stuff is .

  

  Chargrilled (boiled) potato with mystery chutney

  
  
• Escargot dish was a minefield of chunks of raw garlic 

                                               

Escargot

• Char-grilled banana dessert was once again just split banana selectively burned, with streets/home brand ice cream                                         
• Strange batter covering sweet potato fries which as raw and not crispy and the potato inside was still crunchy and borderline raw. 

  

  Wagyu Mantou Bao with sweet potato in mystery batter
  

• French toast --not sure what happened to the nutella--was it diluted? the sauce was not nutella but resembled melted diluted chocolate ice cream  

                                    

Nutella french toast-- Extra filters to make the sauce look half like nutella

And now I'm feeling like I've killed Bambi. On the plus side, the drinks were delicious--highly recommend giving those a try. 

All the ideas are there for the food at Southside Bistro but something went wrong in the execution-- the overall feeling is like someone decided to make a particularly dish and decided to wing it relying purely on tidbits of knowledge. It all seems very amateur and could be forgiven if it was--but a bit of googling will let you know that this is not a first venture into this industry for the owners--which only adds to the disappointment. 

 

Ren Japanese @ Eight Mile Plains

Ren Japanese has a reputation among locals as being pricey for their food-- doesn't necessarily mean it's expensive when you're competing in the Asian suburbs. Quality Japanese is scarce in this area-(note I say scarce, doesn't mean there's none)-I refer to Japanese Restaurants not fusion type, casual sushi places like Sushi Train. 

Did try Ren 1 year or so ago and was abhorred by the price they charged for a piece of Tonkatsu. Ren's direction seems to have changed however with the menu offering dinner 'bento' or value options as opposed to the more westernised menu of $28 for a piece of Tonkatsu with nothing else I had 1 year or so ago. Market forces? 

Fairly typical offerings of sushi, sashimi, nigiri and mainstays of Japanese cuisine. Given it's a week night and just the two of us we ordered a dinner 'bento' each with a hand roll to share. Highly recommending ordering the bentos for value for money and a great way to sample a bit of everything. While the quality is adquate and quantity decent, it's not extra ordinary. Maybe the sashimi when ordered separately will be better but the pieces I had in my bento was sinewy salmon (typical of what you get in food court joints like sushi sushi) and the kingfish and tuna seemed bit 'cooked'.

Special Dinner Bento 

The spider hand roll is a significant disappointment as the soft shell crab was cooked poorly with soggy , pale batter.  Hubby's pork chop was not too dry with flaky crumbs but bit bland. 

Tonkatsu Meal

Spider Roll 

For me, Ren's no longer on the list of 'no -goes' but it will take a lot more to decide if it's worthwhile revisiting.

 

Bungle Bungle, Eight Mile Plains

This place is seriously bad for a diet--fried chicken of varying varieties , rich pieces of Bosam pork belly, large servings, easy parking (in the Runcorn shopping complex opposite Warrigal Square) and worst of all open until midnight most nights.

Great to see the fryers of the old fish and chip shop got put to good use--producing chips which are still 'meh' but delicious flavours of soy and fire Korean fried chicken to name a few. Number of Korean chicken places have opened recently but Bungle Bungle is still our go to place. If you're open to not so flash surroundings and patchy English, stay for their non-takeaway able dishes such as the hot pots. Side dishes not as plentiful or as generous as other places but flavours do feel more original and less 'systematic' compared to the ubiquitous Madgtonsan.

Bosam

Fire and Original Chicken with chips--set for a great night in 

Service is the best to be expected for a place running on shoe string staff and there is minimal effort on the presentation side of things. It's easily forgiven for the reasonable price of the food. Call ahead to order takeaway if not keen to wait because after all there's nothing like eating fried chicken in pyjamas in front of the TV or computer in my opinion.

 

Lennon's Restaurant and Bar @ Next Hotel

One of the revamps of part of Brisbane's Queen St in recent times is the Next hotel (formerly site of the Chifley) -- very noticeable as it's right next to and above the also recent Forever 21. 

Inside the restuarant

Walked past many times and you have to be intrigued by the hanging pendant lamps that seemed to be part of the very new, very industrial meets suburban loft decor through glass windows. Huge improvement to the gold and concrete that was there before. 

Decided to satisfy the curiosity and see if the restaurant offering has improved too--surely they couldn't have let the run down Chinese place stay? 

No Chinese in sight --instead you find Lennon's Restaurant and Bar with it's bar, open kitchen and the pendant lights you see from Queen St Mall. 

This place does the first impression right with the decor but it needs to follow through with the service and food. Surly waitress more intent on slowly punching in her docket to the computer than greeting us--we get you could be busy but at least acknowledge us. 

Seated to our table with a grunt and menus chucked down in front with a 'so and so should be with you soon'. No offers of drinks, not even water and yes we had to hail down a waiter to order. 

Menu is your standard 'modern Australian'--which is a nice way of putting meat and 3 vege and it's modern because you put spices and other not so common stuff on it. 

Entree was a stunner--when it was placed on the table it definitely lifted our spirits-- generous portions of pork belly and octopus and even hubby had to say 'best piece of pork belly he's had this year'--not so oily, nice texture and very flavoursome. 

Pork belly & octopus

Long wait between the entrees and mains--not surprising since when we got our mains they were luke warm. No grill marks on mine or my hubby's steak and it's hard to go past the streak of fat on my steak. Often you go to places where the chef seemed to have squandered an ingredient--in this case I think its the opposite where the chef had to make do with what's there. Meat flavour not up to par, greyish tinge and hey if you got something substandard why should you care about cooking it well. Highlight was the roast garlic on my plate. At least they didn't use the usual leaf mix for the side salad. 

eye fillet 

sirloin steak--note streak of fat

If Lennons wants to extend the clientele beyond the hotel guests who eat there for convenience and ignorance of other choices, food and service need to catch up to the decor. 

Reef Seafood and Sushi

An upmarket fish & chip shop , sushi shop, oyster bar and fish monger all rolled into one--sounds ridiculous right? Somehow it makes sense when you see Reef Seafood and Sushi.

It makes sense when you think about it--walk past display of beautiful fresh produce 'yes that looks delicious i want to eat it' then the 'oh but how do you cook it/I can't be stuffed cooking it' comes into play and then you realise you don't have to cook it you can order it from the restaurant attached. Thirsty? There's a bar with a wine list attached too.

Two downsides to this though:
1) You will pay a premium
2) When there's one place doing everything, it's hard to do all of it very well.

Having the fresh seafood on display seems to project the idea that all the produce used for the restaurant is as fresh as the ones you see in the display cabinet. So naturally you'd be willing to pay a premium with both prices for the western style menu and Japanese menu on the higher side. The oysters however, are a reasonable deal especially when you add a glass of wine.

Both western and Japanese items come out of the kitchen -- when you're trying to do two things you end up either doing one very well and the other not so well, or both being so-so and a touch above mediocre. We've had both the Western and Japanese menus before and Reef falls to the side of doing a just above average job of both. Coming from a family that runs fish and chip shops I can tell you both the chips and how the fish is cooked would not survive in a suburban fish and chip shop. The mussels are not too bad but the chowder resembles watery seafood curry and appears to be the go to dish to dump any left over seafood.

Sushi set 

The Japanese side fares slightly better--mainly as its able to rely on the freshness of the fish of the majority of it's dishes being mostly sashimi. Portions could be more generous and for once I don't mind the side salad too much due to the generous dressing with a sesame oil base.

Personally there's a definite preference towards the Japanese menu, paired with a few oysters as the cooking of the fish and chips is just not great.

chirashi don set

Reef Seafood and Sushi drives home the message of eating 'farm to table' or in this case 'sea to table'--as close as you can get to this kid of idea in Brisbane anyway. If only the cooking part can be as strong as this intended or unintended subliminal message.

Chat Thai Sydney

just looking at the counter makes you hungry

Satay skewers

Took a quick trip to Sydney for a few days and it doesn't matter how busy the schedule is, always try to squeeze in Chat Thai.

This was a first introduction to 'real' Thai food for me and hubby and what an impression it's left. Every single time we go to Sydney we make sure we visit and every time we're back  home we wish there was one in Brisbane.

Sure there's Thai in Brisbane but the range of food on offer, favours, efficiency pales all in comparison to Chat Thai. The closest would be Kinn (another Franchise from Sydney) but even that falls behind on the food.

We always go to the Haymarket Chat Thai, there's always a que--don't worry it moves quite quick. Westfield has less of a line up there's more selection at Haymarket and the flavours seem to be more full on.

Sample everything-- well worth it, and make sure to leave room for desserts--whether it's the Mango or our favourite the fried doughnuts with pandan dipping sauce --well worth the wait for and you'll want to try it after you watch them fry it in front of you while you're waiting to be seated.

That's one way to get your appetite up in the que

So desserts aside, there's plenty to try from char grilled to satay to stir fry. One stand out dish for hubby and myself is the Dtom Saap --the hot and sour soup of braised ribs.  I'm not stranger to spice but first time hubby and I had this there was the ultimate mixture of delicious ness---spicy spicy sour sour very sour  and pain--the sour and chilli just makes you cough and stomach cramp at the same time. (Table next to us of 3 asian girls were doing the same thing)  It was so good we go back for it time and time again. Maybe we've been desensitised or they've modified the recipe but nothing compares to that first time. Still definitely highly recommend this. 

Dtom Saap--make sure to get the spicy one

Try Chat Thai if you haven't already , I know we'll definitely be back again.

 

Seeing what all the fuss is about--Trying out Birdsnest

I've never been keen on trying out restaurants featured on TV--the exception being of course Masterchef where you know, the restaurants and chefs were good before they went on TV, or they are so good and that's why they're on TV.
As for places that are on TV for entertainment --there is generally no interest , particular when you consider that they may be on TV to try and gain publicity for a failing business.

Exception was made this time since it was our friend's 30th birthday and she LOVES reality TV, in particular Hotplate (why? why couldn't she love masterchef) and naturally had to choose Bird's Nest, the winners of the series to try.

Admittedly I haven't watched much of the show--enough to have some reservations of this place. While I loved the food in Japan when I was there, I didn't have yakitori and remain sceptical of how skewers can be interesting or form the basis of a restaurant.

Snippets I did hear regarding Bird's Nest on the few glimpses of the show was that there were:

• chicken skin, liver , artery --other offcuts that I love to eat on offer
• dishes can be one dimensional

Enough said, I'm ok to try it, especially for a friend. 

Arrived, seated all in good time--Sunday night so place was busy but not packed as I was expecting (as a consequence of post tv hype) 

Menu seemed like it was way too much effort to go through and the waitress pretty much rammed the set menus down our throats anyway. Everyone got some sort of set menu, kudos to the staff to remember what went in each set.

To keep it simple: TV was right. Though the skewers came out in good time, they all started to blend in after awhile. The first one was the stand out purely because of the saltiness of the plum sauce. At least menu descriptions were honest:

Grilled rice ball means literally ball of grilled rice.  Fills the stomach because I guess you can't really rely on skewers to do that.

Clearly vegetables are not a priority in this joint.

Ginger  creme caramel dessert was pleasant enough but really good enough to want to have again. Also looks a tad stingy in a mini jam jar right out of those hampers you never want.

Birds nest feels like it has a lot of potential to turn into a place for get togethers, snacks , drinks but not really a place for a full meal. If that's the aim then at least have the staff not pour beers out of the cans in front of the patrons.

plum sauce which is more salt than plum

vegetables=2x slices of zucchini

chicken broth poured over rice

the very honest grilled rice ball--sorry there is only rice

vegetables

creme caramel