This time I picked out Cafe O-Mai being close to work and her having the day off, while I was off to work in the evening. It has solid rave reviews on Urbanspoon and it has a fusion Vietnamese restaurant. When I was planning this, a lot of friends who lived nearby were saying that it was very nearby and that it was their favourite local location.
I like the layout of this cafe, the tables are very spacious and the the cafe opens up on all sides, flooding the area with sunlight. Its a very brightly lit cafe and the resulting picture quality was amazing.
Despite having the furthest to commute, I was the first person here at about 8am. I was seated and handed some menus before telling the waitress that I was waiting for a few friends. She quickly passed on the message and I wasn't disturbed again until my friends arrived.
Ms Liz, M., and Gill., were the first girls to arrive. We started ordering teas and coffees for ourselves before the other few people arrived. Cafe O-Mai has Toby's Estate coffee.
Gill.,'s cappachino, she really enjoyed it.
These very cute teapot and cups held English Breakfast teas, enough for three cups worth as well as a pitcher of milk. Everyone loved the cups especially Ms Liz, who turned the cup upside to find out they were from IKEA. She was very excited since she's been moving into her new house and buying things like pretty crockery.
I got Vietnamese style iced coffee aka ca phe phin. Its a dark French roast coffee, that is served with/over a glass of ice, with condensed milk at the bottom and a small amount of hot water dripping down. Condensed milk is normally used as the sweetener and instead of milk in Vietnam, as the high humidity and temperature, make milk go off easily. Its a very sweet, strong, rich drink, ideal for a hot, lazy day.
I got Vietnamese pork meatballs with quail eggs, cooked in a tomato sauce with a baguette. I was intrigued by the quail eggs since they are a firm favourite of mine. They tasted exactly like my mum's recipe, which is a very good thing! Although they made theirs a lot larger, my mum's are about 20 cent piece size and these were golf ball sized. They are a soft pork mince, crunchy jicama cubes, onion, garlic and a very savoury and rich tomato sauce that they swim around in. Delicious mopped up with that crusty baguette.
Wondering where the quail eggs are? I had no idea where they were when I recieved this dish, they were inside like little Scotch eggs!
This was Gill's choice, Aunty Five's claypot baked eggs with Vietnamese lemongrass and chilli pork sausage, spring onions, tamarind sauce with sourdough. I really love the tangy sourness of tamarind so when I had a taste of this I really enjoyed it. Gill was a bit befuddled by the flavour combination but she said she loved it as well. My only complaint was that the lemongrass and chilli pork sausage was a bit lacklustre, I'm used to getting better ones when I go to Inala.
Ms L., got granola, she's boring like there. It had puffed wheat, oats, prunes, dried coconut pieces, pepitas, strawberries, a little pitcher of milk and that's about it. She enjoyed it but she said the mix at the Foxy Bean is still better.
Everyone else, Chelle, Ms M for Megababe and Lis., all ordered the same Phat Breakfast consisting of a choice of eggs, fried tomato, sweet potato hash cake, mushrooms, bacon, sourdough, lemongrass and chilli pork sausage and a side of avocado. I got Lis.,'s sourdough chunk since her teeth were still aching from her brace. All of these ladies enjoyed their meal thoroughly, I did notice that the sausage was left behind on almost everyone's plate however. After eating, we then proceeded to make the entire cafe very uncomfortable with our bawdy nurse talk.
Cafe O-Mai
Atmosphere: 9, a beautiful, well lit and tastefully decorated little cafe with wonderful furniture too. It was a busy little place, but a little out of the way so you weren't listening to the roar of the nearby Ipswich main road.
Service: 9, wonderful service. Good communication, cheerful, enthusiastic and very prompt when we called them over. They accidentally made Chelle's flat white as a double shot cappuccino, which they gave us for free.
Food: 8, very solid Vietnamese food. The meatballs are just as good as my mum's.
No comments:
Post a Comment