The Bun Mobile+ Loading Dock Expresso

Aha! Its the Bun Mobile! The Brisbane bloggosphere's and general foodies favourite food van! And probably our only fancy one, come to think of it! Bun Mobiles speciality is an Asian sweet steamed bun with fusion Asian flavours on their burger like buns. They have their three steady buns, pork, chicken and a wagyu beef as well as a daily rotating rostet of burger, normally a savoury one that is a bit more expensive and a dessert one. A huge change from your usual Brisbane food van toting hot chips and cheap coffees haha.

Its actual work if you want Bun Mobile! You have to actually stalk them via their their website here to see where  they are for the day and then be there for the two or so hours they are there. Otherwise you have to wait another few days for them to appear again. They also have a location form or something so you can add your desired location to their list of places to appear in front of.

My Boyfriend and I missed them one evening because we had gone outside to take in his washing and the door had blown shut! This was after I had been home alone all day and had taken four loads of washing out to the line! We didn't have our phones or keys with us, our bags with our wallets were inside his room and none of his room mates were home to let us back in.

What I did. I'm Vader, my Boyfriend is Palpatine?

We tried everything to get back inside! I had locked the front door and the windows were all shut. We tried picking the lock but the wire and bobby pins I found weren't stiff enough to maintain tension on the tumblers. I managed to pry off a window shutter but it was still too far away to get to the door and there was security mesh in the way.

Yeah no levels for us that day. Hey at least the pick didn't snap off

My Boyfriend ended up approaching a stranger on the street and asking to use their mobile to call his landlord. The office for his real estate estimated it would be late afternoon by the time we'd hear from them. We settled ourselves down for a boring afternoon and ended up cuddling outside on the benches. For once, we had nothing to say and ended up nodding off. We were thankfully saved by his house mate coming back from her dental surgery. She was very surprised to see us outside hahaha.

That day we just missed out on lunch when is was at Loading Dock Expresso in West End on Boundary St, just a little way up from where Coles is. Luckily for me it was back there a few days later and I decided wed go back again. It was a scorching hot day and I felt very sorry for the couple in the van pressed right up against the grill that took up almost the entire inside of their van.

They used part of the wall as the support for their desk

As I said earlier, Bun Mobile has three steady buns with daily rotating roster. That day it was a tandoori chicken as well as a sweet Nutella and strawberry bun. My Boyfriend got the tandoori chicken and I got the wagyu beef bun.

Too bad I don't like sweets, cause that sounds fantastic

We were helpfully told that as long as we bought a drink from Loading Dock Expresso, we were free to sit there. I choose an Emma and Tom Go-Fusion juice while he chose an Emma and Tom sparkling cloudy lemon juice drink. I didn't find that flavour particularly memorable but my Boyfriend maintains that is the best lemon drink he has ever had, sweet, sour and without any bitter after taste. It just a shame nowhere really stocks that part of the Tom and Emma brand hahaha.

I found the interior of Loading Dock Expresso quite interesting. Its a very relaxed and friendly sort of place, like someone took over an empty spot and started a coffee shop out of what was nearby. Its a bit dimly lit but I imagine its a nice spot for a quick lunch at work. On the day we went, there were a lot of people there in business casual clothing. Someone was playing a guitar out front and the staff at Loading Dock took it in turns to have a go playing.

So bright and so many people!

Onto the food! It didn't take too long for our food to arrive considering how many orders there were and how there was only the one cook there. Just from a general look, I liked how perfectly the buns resembled fluffy white clouds. They were both stacked quite high and seemed neatly contained. I did find that due to the flimsiness of the bun, it did disintegrate quite quickly in your hands. As well as that, because the buns were so soft and fresh, they stuck constantly to the roof of your mouth when you were eating! You would take a bite, chew and swallow and half of the bun would be plastered to the top of your mouth.

So many ingredients!

Huh, it looks smaller with the top off

So my Boyfriend's one was the tandoori chicken special for the day, with the shaved fennel, cucumber, red onion salad, yoghurt and mint raita and butter lettuce. It was a pretty bland burger despite all those flavoursome ingredients, the chicken was cooked nicely and it looked fantastic, but it was just a plain chicken breast covered in some tandoori sauce. The raita could've been a bit better balanced with some more salt in the yoghurt. My Boyfriend didn't like it for the same reasons and he didn't like the bun at all, ah Asian flavours. He thought it was strange that it was so sweet.

Oooh wagyu beef

Attractive no?

My wagyu beef burger had slow cooked wagyu, butter lettuce, soy pickled shitake mushrooms and red dragon sauce. I liked it much more than the tandoori chicken one but that's not saying much really. My Boyfriend agreed that it was much better in taste and better balanced than his bun, but immediately after he took a bite, I ended up gnawing on a chewy bit of sinew which wasn't pleasant. The pickled shitake were super salty, and I'm not sure if I enjoyed that, I didn't find much of a sour tang at all, and I think that would've helped with balancing the flavours a bit more. Somewhere in the pickling process, the shitake mushrooms also became super chewy, like rehydrated uncooked mushrooms chewy, weird. The red dragon sauce was odd, for some reason I thought from the name that it would be super spicy, but it was more like a chutney by my tastes, just a mildly spicy tomato one. Ah well, I heard that that sauce is so popular, they've started selling it by the bottle!

I'm not sure if I would eat here again, I'm keen to find out what the chicken and pork buns taste like, although a char grilled teriyaki burger doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy. I think its because I dislike chicken breast due to its tendency to dry out and I love a soaked dark meat teriyaki piece, like thigh or drumstick pieces. The pork sounds interesting though, I suppose we'll see what happens in the future.

Loading Dock Expresso

Atmosphere: 7, its nicely designed even if it looks like it spontaneously sprung from nowhere haha. I liked its very relaxed, stop in for a coffee or whatever air. My Boyfriend comments that he likes the street lamps on the inside of the cafe.
Service: 8? Even though we only ever buy drinks here, they are super friendly, smile and wave to everyone they're serving, not just the pair of us in our lovey dovey state. The first time we went here, they offered their recommendations on the drinks and showed us where we could sit a bit away from the business crowd
Food: 0 hahaha who knows! We just buy drinks from this place = P


Bun Mobile
Atmosphere: 8, lovely little food van, very clean, bright and well decorated. Have a look at their table with what looks like ideas for new burgers scratched onto it! Their menus are clear and can be seen without squinting from far away, great for avoiding the crowds ordering already
Service: 8, verrrrry friendly, they greet you with a friendly hello and also wave goodbye and thank you for ordering, buying, eating and leaving once you're done hahaha! This is despite cooking and being super busy in intense Queensland heat! Hats off to them.
Food: 7, yeah, not bad. I should have tried their dessert bun, I bet that would've been fantastic.