Mu'ooz Eritrian Restaurant

What is it about Moorooka and hard to find restaurants? It took us two attempts to find this place because Mu'ooz has an upstairs expresso bar as well. We approached the casually chatting trio inside, asked for a menu and they redirected us to the real Mu'ooz downstairs.

As we were walking down the stairwell, another group of people asked if we were looking for Mu'ooz and said it was only a little further down the corridor.

It's hidden away in a little corner.

Don't trust their online menus by the way, more than half of the dishes aren't on the actual restaurant menu. Its a shame because I really wanted to try some of the dishes on their online menu. What I really like about the share platters in Mu'ooz is that you can pick and choose what you want from their menu to be on their share platter. The portions appear much bigger as well and you can easily deduce what dish is what when it arrives.

Mains mostly

Desserts, entrees and salads

The interior of the shop is interesting, the furniture is quite plain but there is a lot of interesting details like the artwork decorating the walls and the little alcove where they have a traditional setting for coffee making.

So many cups!

Some of the artwork on display

There were candles everywhere

We ordered these sambusa sig'ha, as our entree. They remind me of samosas, oddly enough? They're a golden brown triangle filled with a mildly spicy minced beef filling. The dipping sauce, silsie, is a tomato based sauce that later appeared in Jubi's mushroom wot, it's consistency is of a thick chunky sauce like you'd use for a pasta. It had a very interesting combination of spices and I'd really enjoy a jar of this stuff to use on sandwiches and things, very rich tomato flavour with a good spice.

Here is an interior shot, it seems to have bits of onion and carrot in there as far as I'm aware.

I ordered the beef zighni, a spicy curry flavoured with berbere, onion, garlic, tomato and tasame. I like the extra little scroll of injera that was piled on the side of the plate, it made it much easier to dip in the food. I found the holes in here to be a bit larger than in Yeshi Buna and the injera to be a lot sourer and thicker too. The beef zighni was good, but nothing particular special. I would not order this again.

On the other hand, I got Jubi to order the kantisha over the duba, basically mushroom stew over pumpkin stew. I hate pumpkin, so I heavily influenced her towards mushroom. It was an utterly delicious stew made out of white mushrooms, capsicum, berbere, onions, garlic and tomato. The sauce tasted to me a lot like the dipping sauce from our entree. There was no side salad with this despite what the menu says and of course, injera. I mostly ate Jubi's and was trying heavily to get her to swap dinners with me. I failed.

We decided to be authentic and order the traditional coffee too. You have it at the end of your meal and have a bit of a chat while you're drinking it. It's made out of a very, very strong ground coffee, I read somewhere that outside of a restaurant setting, the coffee is roasted and ground in front of you, then poured for all the guests in one continuous stream so the coffee grounds don't settle in a cup. The teapot used is called a jebena and it doesn't support its own weight, wobbling alarmingly from side to side when I tried to put it down on the table.

Jubi and I, rarely drink coffee and this coffee is very intense. We initially hated it due to the very intense expresso like taste, with a pronounced sourness and earthiness of flavour. After the end of the first cup, it wasn't so bad. By the second cup, we were praising it's merits, likening it the fine juice of a sour cherry drink and by the third drink, we cycled through conversation topics at the speed of light. We were buzzing so hard, when I got home and was talking to my Boyfriend, he asked me to repeat every sentence because I was speaking so fast. Everything was hilarious and it was like the world was extremely clear and sharply focused. That coffee is good stuff.

Mu'Ooz Eritrean Restaurant
Atmosphere: 6, tucked away, alternatively a bit dimly lit and brightly lit depending on where you were sitting. We initially were sat down besides a column before I asked to move into better light for photo taking purposes.
Service: 6, the food did take a while coming to us with no explanation either. There were not many waitresses around very often and I have no idea how we would've notified them if we had any concerns. We got our food though and the lady at the cash register was very cheerful, if a bit new to her job.
Food: 8, very good. The kantisha was amazing. I'd go here again to try some of the other vegetarian fare for sure.

 

Esher St Deli and Cafe

My God, Esher St Deli, I have been told about this place by more people than I've ever been told to go somewhere. Liz., Ms M for Megababe, Chelle and very loyal Jubi have all sung the praises of this place, calling it the cutest fucking place every with amazing, amazing food. The last three times I went out for breakfast with Jubi, we were supposed to go here but ended up going somewhere else last second.

To date, I think Jubi has been here AT LEAST six times since its been opened. She absolutely loves their muesli which changes day by day and they use a Farmer Joes mix, that she buys by the bucket load. Sometimes, I think a drug addiction would be cheaper considering how much they sell that stuff for.

Esher St Cafe and Deli!

They really should add an extra bit to their name, but Esher St Cafe, Deli and Plant Shop doesn't quite have the same ring to it. It's not so much gifts as random fruit plants, Bunnings eat your heart out. Pretty much every decoration here can be bought and taken home.

The sign is very noticeable

All these succulents are on sale out the front.

Pretty little things

Here are the outside tables, all very mismatched. I'm not sure I like the height of it all, since it could be a little close and bending down so far could be a pain.

Tables +_+

This is their lovely front entrance. Soon you can see all the food they have on display and all the fancy foodie stuff they have to lure you in.

I kept taking photos like a madman

They have a ladder strung up with lights. It seems like its the latest thing for cafes to buy something interesting and string it up with lights haha.

Not sure if this is upside down or what

This is their coffee machine with teas, museli, some organic fruit and cocoa visible.

There is a nice cogwheel sculpture next to the door

This is their backyard! They have a ton of extra tables at the back for you to sit at, although we chose to sit in the cafe itself due to lighting and the variety of things to look at while we waited.

It had a very nice breeze the day we went

Here are lots of different blueberry plants, all available for purchase! Lavender too, I'm not sure if this is the edible variety but considering the rest of the plants here, it might be.

Blue things

Here are some herbs, succulents and citrus plants! Also available for purchase!

So many things

These are papaya plants from memory, they were on the back staircase.

Red and yellow ones

Here is a shelf full of preserves, crackers, dip mixes and other interesting things. I bought one of the packet dip mixes seen here, it was a wild herb and dill one. I still haven't tried it but I'm looking forward to seeing how it tastes.

+_+ so many things I want

Here are a collection of oils, spices, drinks, whole salt, pepper and random GF snacks. There is also a fridge full of award winning deli meats, pates, cultured butter, cheeses and yoghurts that I didn't take a photo of as well. I was very tempted by the Pepe Saya cultured butter but didn't have any good bread to eat it with.

I want all the things

They have a refridgerated display of sandwiches and cakes that was still enticing for us when we had finished our meals and were deciding on what to buy.

Those sandwiches look tasty

This is the main table where we sat. This seems to be where most of the gifts are kept! There is a lot of jewellery, hand creams, assorted small furniture and crockery around us.

So much stuff

This is our table. I just liked that they reused the jars from this place and let you try some of the stuff for free. The pesto mayo jar actually held brown sugar, although that little blue container beside it held some Italian seasoning, rock salt, black peppercorns and a dried herb mixture. I cracked some of it onto my poached eggs and it was quite tasty, I was too lazy to identify what the herb mixture was at the time.

Its a very nice spot we sat at

Jubi got a chai latte brewed on water with a huge side of soy milk and honey. I think she got a good three cups out of this little teapot. I really can't remember what the brand of this chai is, but it definitely started with an M.

Its going to annoy me forever until I remember that brand

I got myself a flat white, they use Veneziano coffee here. That is one damn perfect fern. I found this to be much more palatable than other cups I've had of Veneziano, it still has that very strong, dark flavour that I associate with this brand.

Best one yet

I got the haloumi stack with two poached eggs, tomato, grilled eggplant, garlic butter mushrooms, tomato relish and spinach, underneath all that are two slices of sourdough as well. The haloumi was squeaky and mildly salty, much better than the one I had at Leaf Expresso, earlier that week. The grilled eggplant was delicious, smokey and sweet, I never realised I enjoyed eggplant so much until this year. The tomato I mostly ignored. The eggs were wonderful, bright, creamy and well cooked. The mushrooms I polished off almost immediately, I feel like they've could've done with more garlic, but you've seen my recipes, I love garlic.

So hungry just looking at it

All in all, this is the best vegetarian breakfast I've ever had.

Dat yolk.

The day that we went the museli of the day was Trader Jo's burnt fig and cinnamon crusted almond toasted muesli. I really enjoyed flavour of the fig, a slightly bitter offset to the sweetness of the cooked fig. The almonds were whole ones that were crunchy and sweet. It was a sweet and very crunchy mixture. She really enjoyed it however at the end of the day she ordered the green apple and dried muscatel toasted museli from Trader Jo instead.

Esher St Cafe and Deli
Atmosphere: 10, absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous little place that I'd be happy to stop by and catch up with friends at. If you sit at the front, there's a lot of things to
Service: 10, the service was impeccable. The waiter we were initially talking to was a bit slow like he was just starting out at the cafe, however after a little bit the guy making coffees who I'm pretty sure was the owner took over. He asked us a lot of extra things like if we wanted our chai brewed on soy milk instead of water or milk for lactose intolerance. He also asked if I was a blogger since I was frantically taking photos, I said yes and when he asked if I was a food blogger, I said yes again. Jubi said he had this scared look on his face afterwards. We wanted to sit at the front and they told us that there were extra seats at the back. We asked to sit at the front that a couple had just sat at and they quickly cleared the table while we were browsing the shop. He came back several times during our meal to ask how things were and cleared the table very quickly too.
Food: 8, the food was great. I'd happily go back again to try something else on their breakfast menu or to buy more things from their deli.

Leaf Expresso Bar

Leaf Expresso! It's the older sister to the much beloved hipster central of Moose and Gibson! You can definitely tell its owned by the same people however, as the decor is just as awesome, the coffee is still Two Seasons and the staff seem to swap between the two places all the time.

Yeah, its right on the corner of a local shopping centre

Ta-dah!

Here is their menu. For some reason I really like the way their menu is designed, especially with the little hash tags that encourage you to share their food photos.

All day brekkie!

Drinks!

Brunches and lunches

Their water is right beside this homemade icecream sandwich brand, I've only ever seen it at Swampdog fish and chips before. One of the water jugs had berries floating in the bottom, fancy pretty!

Delicious ice cream

Haha, not that adding berries to water really does anything for the flavour, sometimes you can detect a subtle washed out sourness. It reminds me of heavily dilute cordial! The colour is more the best part to be honest, you can just keep topping up the water endlessly. As you can guess, I'm not a fan of the lemon in water trend I keep seeing.

Oooh berries

Outside there is a lot of long benches and mismatched stools.

There are also green ones

As well as little wooden benches backed onto tables with large shady umbrellas and more mismatched chairs. I didn't take a photo, but there is a water bowl for dogs to the right of the picture below.

All the tables!

The interior is gorgeous. Especially the real branch that has been wired up to be a chandelier. Its quite low down on the ceiling and I bet its a massive OHS risk because its such a pain in the arse to clean, plus y'know its a real tree.

Its gorgeous!

All the artwork and plants on display are available for sale! By the time this post comes out, all the decorations might have already changed. That leather couch is super comfortable by the way.

Such a comfy couch

As usual, Jubi ordered an English Breakfast with soy milk and honey on the side. I think she got about three cups out of this little teapot. Is it me, or is the crockery here particularly disappointing considering how colourful the rest of the place is?

Such plain teapots and cups ):

I ordered the iced coffee which came with ice cream, whipped cream and two coffee beans on top. A sweet, strong, slightly nutty and creamy iced coffee, I really enjoyed it although I probably shouldn't have eaten those coffee beans.

Delicious iced coffee

I ordered the baked eggs on white beans, rosemary and kransky with sourdough and onion relish, I also ordered a side of garlic spinach and mushrooms.

"Baked" eggs

The garlic mushroom and spinach mix was really interesting and slight fancy since it had so many different mushrooms! There were white button mushrooms, swiss brown, enoki and small oyster mushrooms. It was a super garlicky concotion and I really enjoyed it, most of the time when you order garlic mushrooms, you only get regular white mushrooms cooked up. The different texture of the mushrooms made it much more interesting. Without this side, I wouldn't have bothered eating my breakfast.

Delicious!

On the other hand, my dish was completely missing the kransky. We had a chat to the chef later on who apologised and gave me a free savoury muffin. I wish I had the kransky included in this dish, because it was otherwise very plain and homely in flavour, basically just a white bean mash flavoured with a bit of rosemary. Jubi remarked that it was very European in flavour and that it reminded her of meals she had at home. The onion relish had a rich carmelised flavour with a lot of sweetness and I really enjoyed that with the sourdough that was provided. The eggs were a bit on the small side and I was a bit confused as to how these eggs were baked since they seem to be fried in a ring?

Sans kransky ):

Jubi ordered the bircher museli with dried apricot, whole almonds, semi dried paw paw, greek yoghurt topped with a peach and raspberry coulis. It was a very sweet and chewy combination which she really enjoyed. There was more coulis at the bottom of the yoghurt.

All my other photos of this turned out terribly

Here is my free spinach, pesto and sundried tomato muffin. I have no idea why I picked this since I don't normally like savory muffins, it was a touch dry but had very good flavours. My favourite part of it was that large blob of baked pesto at the top,

Mmm pesto

We went a second time just to try some more dishes. I ordered a flat white this time which was strong, wonderfully scented and didn't require any extra sugar. The photos on this second trip were taken with Jubi's phone since mine was out of charge. It seems a bit more sensitive to light than the camera on mine and you can see how much more "romantic" the pictures look with the shininess of the surrounding features.

A lovely heart

I got the salmon and potato cakes with a green pea puree, two poached eggs, fennel and cucumber salad and topped with a dill hollandaise sauce.The salmon cakes were deliciously crunchy on the outside and soft in the centre, they were mildly seasoned. The eggs were perfectly poached with no odd stringy bits and a lovely golden yolk. The cucumber and fennel salad was crisp and refreshing but would've gone nicely with a stronger flavour. Thankfully I ordered some haloumi as well!

So damn shiny

This is honestly some of the saltiest haloumi I've ever tasted. I have no idea what brand of haloumi they buy but this is fantastic. I was really surprised at the intensity of the flavour in this, think the saltiness of a full flavoured feta in haloumi and I'm no slouch when it comes to saltiness! This haloumi would be perfect at making a salad more interesting, and was a great accompaniment to my meal.

Jubi got the basil baked ricotta with smoked tomato and beetroot relish, serrano ham, wilted spinach and poached eggs. I just love the way this looks with the heavily fat ribboned serrano ham draped over the poached eggs. The serrano ham was delicious, I had a taste and was seriously considering stealing all of it. The herbed baked ricotta was interesting, I don't know why but it reminded me of a savoury cheesecake texture. It was an interestingly mild flavour.

Leaf Expresso Bar
Atmosphere: 9, a gorgeous, gorgeous cafe. You could easily imagine this place being the major meeting location for a hip TV show about cool teenagers or something.
Service: 6, counter service is used here. The waiters were very prompt at clearing our dishes when we were finished. The chef was very apologetic when I mentioned what happened to my meal.
Food: 7, solid food. Well cooked, well presented and good ingredients but I didn't really like it.