Kinn Thai

Kinn Thai is one of the many new restaurants that have opened up in the Westfield Garden City shopping centre now that they've finished renovations! It's located in the outdoor food court where the movies are located in the older end of the shopping centre. VGirl and I decided to try it out during the extended opening hours just before Christmas! We weren't 100% sure what would be open during that time but we figured the restaurants at Garden City would be open a lot later to cope with the 38 non stop hours of shopping before Christmas!

The place is pretty dark, I only managed to get a few photos and then VGirl offered to take some photos behind me. Unfortunately, when she took these photos, they all included me in them so I had to delete them, plus they were super blurry. Note to myself, don't let VGirl take photos.

The bar runs along the side of the restaurant and is quite long!

At least this lantern photo is nice

Here is a copy of their online menu! There are a few dishes and drinks missing from it in comparison to the dine in menu. The dine in menu is quite pretty! A small leather bound menu with thick, glossy pages with an excellent summary of the dish and usually a picture to accompany it. They also have a neat little drinks menu as well with a lot of mocktails!

I picked this virgin strawberry daiquiri, it was made with pureed strawberries, cranberry juice and ice! I found it to taste exactly like the ingredients with a frappe like texture from the blended ice, it was very sweet and refreshing in the heat.

Yum!

I thought that VGirl and I were both ordering entrees so I got the crispy soft shell crab with papaya salad which was exactly like the name suggested with the addition of some green beans, tomato and roasted peanuts as well. I didn't realise until afterwards that she didn't get anything. The soft shell crab was delicious, crunchy, golden brown coating with the soft, sweet succulence of the crab flesh underneath. The papaya salad was quite large and plated off to one side so the dressing didn't soak into the crab. I found the dressing used to be mildly spicy and perfectly balanced between sweet, sour, salty and tangy. Even VGirl commented that it looked amazing and was a bit envious as I ate the salad, we both thought it was the perfect size to be a light meal rather than an entree,

So good!

As my main I got the gang phed ped yang, a red curry with roasted duck, cherry tomato, lychee, pineapple and basil leaves. The roasted duck was already deboned for me, I'm not sure how I feel about that because I love the depth of flavour and richness that bones lead to food when cooked. I suppose the bonus is that all my pieces of duck were all meat rather than bone and meat so that's something. There was quite a lot of fruit in my red curry and no other vegetables. There was ONE cherry tomato, a very large specimen about the size of a 50 cent piece, about five lychees that were sweet and delicious and lots of pieces of pineapple that a slightly fermented flavour to them. The red curry had a constant mild burn, enough to make you notice but not enough that you stopped to allow the burn to cool off. I think they also garnished with coconut cream for some reason? Those little white squiggles in the bottom right of my picture. I'm not sure why they would do this. 

Hmm~ not bad I suppose

VGirl felt like a curry and ordered a vegetarian green curry that had lots of vegetables in it such as apple eggplant, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, beans, lots of kaffir lime leaves, Thai basil and red chillis were used as garnish. Her curry was just as hot as mine I think, she had a hard time getting through it and drank copious amounts of water to cool off. She's not very good with spice, she's the kind of girl who orders lemon and herb at Nandos. She remarked that even though she was very full from the serve that she got, it was quite small portion sizing. I had to agree since my meal would've been only good for one person and if I had to share, I would have only done so begrudgingly due to how little I received in my dish.

We had to order rice separately on the side, at $3 a serve. It didn't seem like very much but it filled the two of us up. I wish there was more because the curry sauces were so damn good soaked into the rice. 

SIDE RICE

Kinn Thai
Atmosphere: 6, very busy place but slightly dark at night time. 
Service: 8, very prompt and efficient service. There's always staff doing laps of the floor, topping up water and clearing away dishes very efficiently.
Food: 8, delicious if small portioned and a bit expensive as a result. I think this place would be good for someone who wanted to go out for Thai and didn't want to share their food, because that would be the perfect portion size then. For me, that's the complete opposite of what I want in Thai food because I want to eat until I nearly throw up and then take home leftovers for the price of about $20 split between each diner.The entrees are a wonderful size and I'd highly recommend that soft shell crab and papaya salad that I got. It's not super authentic Thai, but its not bad either with that being said.

Vapiano Garden City

I got invited to one of the opening nights for Vapiano's new store in Garden City! I had previously gone to Vapiano in the CBD with my ex and have been there a few times since then so that's probably why I got invited to this one. I bought my sister, VGirl, along as my +1 since she loves Vapiano and is in fact having her Christmas party there pretty soon. I completely forgot to mention in my RSVP email that VGirl was a vegetarian but they reassured me on the day that there would be lots of vegetarian options for her.

As I mentioned before, this one is located in Garden City so its pretty easy to find! Its located in the eating precinct part of Garden City, near the movie cinema.Parking is easy too, just beware the three hour limit at Garden City shopping centre!

Gummi bears!

We both admired this large silver tree when we went there. It was quite a striking feature. There's also a large upstairs section as well as outside seating area, that I didn't get any photos of. Apparently this restaurant seats 170 people!

I believe it too because the restaurant was packed to the absolute gills when we went there. The lady who invited us said that the busiest Vapiano in the world is London, the amount of people they serve in the Sydney Vapiano from Monday to Friday is equal to ONE lunch session in London. This is a ridiculous amount of people, my mind completely boggles to imagine the amount of people and food that is!

So full!

I really like how Vapiano has fresh herbs to be picked and added to your food everywhere. The only thing here was basil and rosemary but I've also seen oregano and thyme in the CBD one.

Such fresh looking basil

Ooh! VGirl spotted these bag hooks underneath the benches! I thought they were very nifty, I hate putting my bag on the floor and usually have it in my lap for the entirety of the meal. One of my Facebook friends said that was a lawsuit waiting to happen with a kid running straight into it, but I think that would be pretty unlikely cause the way the tables are set up as well as how high up the hooks are? You'd have to remove the chairs and run straight between the rows of tables to run into the hook!

Bag hooks!

This is the Vapiano chip card! Everyone gets issued one of these when they enter the restaurant and as you buy more stuff the card gets the item added to it. When you're finished with your meal, you just go to the front counter and pay. It's very handy for large groups to split bills perfectly without everyone fussing around with breaking notes and things. Here is their menu by the way!

I'm normally the sucker who has to split the bill :/

Our first dish to try was the assorted antipasto platter, I have no idea if this is the large or regular size by the way. There was a selection of meats, prosciutto and salami, bruschetta, green unpitted olives, sundried tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella with pesto and slices of parmesan cheese. The prosciutto was deliciously fatty and succulent, I really enjoyed the flavour of it and ate all the leftover pieces, VGirl and I were sharing with another couple and we were all very careful about splitting the food fairly haha. The salami wasn't too bad but it wasn't anything particularly special. The bruschetta was delicious! Super crunchy toasts, rubbed with garlic with tasty basil, garlic and olive oil marinated tomatoes on top, VGirl quite liked these, probably more so because she dislikes cheese in general and olives too. We both enjoyed the sundried tomatoes, always a nice touch to any antipasto platter. The buffalo mozzarella was gorgeous, so beautifully creamy and soft. I would love to eat that melted on some pizza haha. The parmesan had a lovely sharp flavour and went so well with the salami.

The same lady told us that all the produce in Vapiano is produced in the state by that state. So all the Queensland stores, Gold Coast, Brisbane CBD and Garden City, use the same supplier, they use Queensland wines, Queensland beers on tap from the Newstead Brewery and our olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cheese and pasta is completely different to what the serve in the Melbourne Vapiano!

Mmmm antipasto

My little plate of food!

The second appetiser that we got to try was the beef carpaccio which came with rocket leaves, raw mushrooms and a horseradish sauce. I didn't particularly enjoy it despite the flavour of the beef, the horseradish wasn't bitey enough for my liking and I've never enjoyed the texture of raw mushrooms.

Swing and a miss for me!

I'm pretty sure this is the Toscano pizza, it came with spicy pepperoni, marinated tomatoes, mozzarella and olives? The olives is the bit that I'm sure is missing, but I remember they said it was the Toscano pizza when it came out and there's nothing else on the menu that matches this similar description. Except maybe the Diavolo pizza? Apparently that came with capsicum and I don't remember there being any on this pizza. Hmmm~ pizza mystery aside, it was a decent pizza, the base was the best part being super thin, crispy but soft closer to the toppings. I thought it was an excellent base and really enjoyed it.

Solid pizza base!

This was the pesto con spinaci pizza, basil pesto sauce on the bottom, fresh spinach leaves on top and then marinated tomatoes to weigh it down. The base on this one was a little bit thicker and fluffier compared to the ?Toscano/Diavolo pizza as well as the Bianco below. VGirl said this was her favourite pizza, although she complained that the uncooked spinach leaves flopped around everywhere and she felt like the tomato was a bit unevenly scattered. It seemed to be a table favourite and disappeared within a few moments of it being placed, photographed and then served up and down the table.

Mmmm pesto

Our table recieved probably about three of these Bianco pizzas, an oven roasted potato with rosemary, cream sauce and mozzarella. I loved everything about the pizza except the actual potato, the potato slices were still quite crunchy so I ate them first and savoured the crunchy base with its creamy sauce, mozzarella and rosemary pieces. It probably just needed a bit more time in the oven for it to be cooked through.

We had a bit of a gap here to check out how they made their pasta fresh on site. Nearly everything was made on site, from cutting of vegetables, to make fresh pasta dough and pizza dough, all the sauces and the other things not made on site were meat and the gluten free options. This is their $60, 000 pasta machine! It was chugging out little crinkly pasta pieces shaped like a cone with a frill called campanelle aka "little bells". They seemed perfect for having a thick or chunk sauce!

PASTA TIME

AW YISS

I also quickly checked out the pizza station. It's way less crowded than the pasta stand for sure. They have a section for quickly stretching out pizza dough and a section below for storing more pizza dough.

Uno.

Then it gets sped down the line to get a smear of sauce and some toppings!

Due.

Then it gets shoved in this massive oven!

Tre!

This is their cute poster of all the different types of pasta you can order. They also do GF pastas as well made out of spelt and their gnocchi is gluten free too.

+_+ capanelle!

We got to try their pesto rosso gnocchi, a sundried tomato pesto with pine nuts, chilli, fresh cherry tomatoes and ricotta. It was a surprisingly creamy sauce, probably from the pine nuts and ricotta. The gnocchi was a bit of a let down, with some of the comments I heard being that it was still a touch hard and firm to touch rather soft pillows that you'd expect.

Pretty dish though

We were then served the crema di funghi with the campanelle pasta from earlier! it was hands down the most delicious pasta I've had in a long, long time, the simplicity of oyster and white mushrooms in a white wine and nutmeg sauce topped with parmesan was simply amazing. The perfect al dente fresh pasta as well, I found the campanelle to hold on to a lot of sauce too and it had a gorgeous crisp texture, it was a very visually appealing pasta to me anyway! VGirl loved this pasta and finished off the plate while no one was looking.

Mmmm mushroom pasta

The second pasta that we recieved was the gambero al spinaci, prawn, spinach and pesto! I don't understand why the spinach here isn't tossed through with the pasta? I like wilted spinach! The prawns were quite large and bursty here. The pasta was a bit firmer than I'd like, just a touch under al dente but that was just my personal opinion. I found the pesto sauce to be a bit thinner than I'd like but I love a lot of pesto with my pasta. I managed to snag a takeaway pack of pasta for a guy I'm seeing and he had no complaints about the pasta I gave him, and he absolutely adores Italian food, so I trust his opinion.

Solid at least

We got the Bolognese with fusilli, it was a pork and beef mince with carrot and onion. It was a super thick ragu that had a really intense and bright tomato flavour to the dish. I think Bolognese is one of those super personal dishes that is completely different from person to person flavour profile wise, so I'll just say mine tastes completely different and that's how I like it!

Bolognese!

We then proceeded to get these nifty Vapiano takeaway containers, microwave proof barring the lid. They are quite sturdy little things and I nabbed two, one for the actual pasta which I gave to a guy I like and the second for a salad container for home hahaha.

Woohoo free container!

We then proceeded to have desserts, each table recieved two complete sets of the four desserts currently on sale at Vapiano. I was a dictator at my end of the table who gave everyone a spoon and a plate, then shoved a spoon in each dessert so that we could all evenly split desserts and try a bit of each one. You know I don't like sweets but here are my thoughts on the current Vapiano dessert line up!

This is the crema di fragola, a super creamy and light as air marscapone and strawberry dessert. It's very light and fluffy, so it tastes very refreshing and is ideal for those without much of a sweet tooth. This was of course, my favourite dessert hahaha!

Fluffy desserts!

This is the white chocolate and salted caramel cheesecake with honeycomb, it was a summer special dish that was permanently placed on the menu due to Facebook campaigns and its popularity. It has a crunchy biscuit base as well. VGirl adored this dish from the start, when we first came in and got our drinks, she saw this and desperately wanted to try it. She finished the mason jar by herself and was saying the entire time, "yassss," "it's so good!" "I literally can't even." She said that she would go to Vapiano strictly for this dessert that's how good it is. 

VGirl's pick

This was the nutella cheesecake created by one of the Gold Coast Vapiano cooks. It had a lot of hazelnut pieces on top as well as strawberry pieces. I found it to be a bit underset and quite runny even though it was a fridge set cheesecake. 

Nutella!

This was the classic tiramisu! Both VGirl and myself found it to have too strong an espresso and alcoholic flavour but the other people at the table finished it off very quickly. I overheard someone saying it was quite sweet but I didn't notice that to be honest.

Tiramisu!

Vapiano Garden City
Atmosphere: 7, brightly lit and with a bit more of a sensible layout than the CBD one.
Service: 10, perfect, but we were invited guests so I suppose that's a give.
Food: 7.5, pretty solid food! I think I had a lot of complaints but the good food was excellent and the other dishes were made average by a few discrepancies such as undercooked pasta and things. Definitely worth checking out if you're with a vegetarian friend due to the huge range of options!
Vegetarian suitability: lots and lots of choices, ideal for a vegetarian or vegan to eat here!

Lastly I got a goodie bag from Vapiano that included four vouchers for you and a friend to eat at their new Garden City store! It's valid until late February 2015 and allows you and a friend, pizza, pasta or salad, a dessert and a soft drink! All you have to do is comment here on my blog, who you would bring and what you would eat! You can also do the same thing on Instagram and since I'm sure the only people who read my blog are my personal friends, comment on the Facebook posts I keep putting up! I will draw this by next Friday 19th of December so get cracking! 

Vapiano vouchers!

Shouk Cafe

SHOUK SHOUK SHOUK! I've been wanting to go here since it opened up and I saw the menu featured on the Urbanlist. I really hate heading north of the Brisbane CBD though due to the one way streets and frantic traffic, so that's been scaring me off for weeks if not months. I also know that parking in Paddington is quite nightmarish due to the zoning laws, myriad of narrow streets and very, very, very steep hills. I actually got the courage to go there again because I had finished nights and T., and myself wanted something to celebrate with!

This place!

Right here!

I got here first and managed to get quite a few nice photos of the area around it. The cafe is very well lit with a large Queenslander style building and large windows showing off the surrounding view.

The front room!

The view from the back room!

A cosy little nook with lots of cook books to read!

Here is their menu! The cafe menu has a few more details on it like where they get their Merguez sausage from and who bakes their challah but otherwise is nearly identical! I got this soy latte which was quite good. I like the different coffee art too!

A star?

I got the shakshuka! Middle style baked eggs with a spicy and rich tomato sauce, green olives, slices of spicy Merguez sausages and two large organic eggs that burst into gooey perfection. It also came with an end hunk of challah! A traditional braided Jewish bread that is a touch sweet, a bit rich and eaten on special occasions. I actually got some reflux after eating this dish due to the acidity of the tomatoes but I thought it was quite tasty. The challah had a hard lump in the middle which can sometimes happen with too much air exposure the chef explained, I got another piece later on to replace my dodgy one!

Yum~

Perfectly gooey

T., got the Jackson! 2 eggs your way, bacon rashers, merguez sausage, garlic roasted mushrooms, herb roasted cherry tomatoes, garlic braised kale, latke, sourdough bread and cherry tomatoes. She also got avocado added on and a side of scrambled eggs.! She said that the merguez sausage was much too spicy for her, so I got to eat that. She had no complaints and was happily eating away.

We both didn't finish our meals. I didn't finish the other half of my challah and I left a lot of sauce behind.

So much

Hahaha T., didn't get very far with hers either! 

Poor effort T.,!

Shouk Cafe
Atmosphere: 9, I love the look of the cafe, its really bright, has a lovely view, great decorations and I absolutely adore the little reading corner! I want one of those please! I'd be happy to bring my friends here for a nice lunch. 
Service: 10, wonderful service, really friendly and welcoming. The waitress had a good knowledge of the menu and was able to offer recommendations as well as smoothly fix my challah issue.
Food: 8, very good food! Definitely go here and try their food!

Navala Churrascaria

All you can eat meat is a statement that rings sweetly to my ears, I love barbeque, I love nearly all cuts of meat and I love a challenge. I went with Mr A., the only male A., around to Navala Churrascaria, we were tossing up between this one and Mundo Churrasco in Bardon, but decided on here because W., and Gill. had enjoyed their dinner here the previous week. We also liked the fact that Navala had no time limit on their food and no seating times.

Mr A., and I are both bad at directions so we spent a lot of time driving around and around Eagle Street Pier looking for the Charlotte Street securing parking complex. It's in a much different spot than expected! Especially with all the one way signs! We got a bit lost trying to find it as we aimed ourselves towards where Jade Buddha/Bavarian Bier and Sake are located.

We were so relieved when we saw it that I didn't notice the water feature there. Its not the first time I've been there. Mr A., gave me a brief warning by saying that's wet, I thought it was just a shiny black tile, instead it was a 30cm plunge into a running fountain that I somehow failed to notice. I immediately dropped one leg down into knee high water and then stupidly put my other foot in to follow it. I honestly thought Mr A., was calmly understating things in that British way he does. He couldn't stop laughing when I replied, "yes, its wet." 

Anyway, we followed the smell of smoky meat to the sign. We admired the fire pits at the front of the restaurant immensely and wondered what the fire pit specials were for the night. Here is their menu. You can try nearly everything on the menu except for the fire pit, you only get to try 3-4 of whatever they decide to do that night. The night we went it was whole suckling pig, short ribs and pork belly.

Piggy!

We got seated pretty quickly and our waitress explained that this little wheel would indicate to our waiters whether or not we still wanted food! Flip it to sim por favor for more food or nao obrigado for no thank you! The waiters will zone in on your table and offer you a slice of whatever they're serving!

Bring it on baby!

Ugh meat sweats, the mind is willing but the body is weak

We choose quite a few of the sides to go with our meat. We had a pact that we couldn't have carbs or drinks because that would take up necessary space and Mr A., wanted to be at Navala Churrascaria so long that we got kicked out. He said that at an earlier stage in his life, he actually had been kicked out of several all you can eat buffets, which I was very impressed by.

The place is huge by the way! There's a lot of room for large groups, there's also a bar section and an outdoors seating.

HUGE!

Anyone, free condiments and sides at Navala! We picked, from upper left going clockwise, their malagueta sauce, a spicy, smokey and sweet chilli/tomato based sauce, a house made chipotle barbeque that was quite good, an excellent, excellent chunky habanero and seeded mustard sauce as well as some fruity/spicy and very small Brazilian chillis. We got multiple refills of the mustard and barbeque sauce overnight.

Mustard ftw

The first piece of meat we received was this tasty pork belly, succulent, fatty and well seasoned. The only disappointment was that my piece of crackling was quite chewy and not crunchy at all. Mr A.,'s was. It did take a long time for it to get to us however. We were seated for about fifteen minutes before we received any food due to being between two large 10+ person groups that seemed to get the prime pick of any and all rotating meats. Mr A., wasn't exactly shy about trying to get attention either.

Mmm pork belly!

We did get a piece of pao de quiejo each really early on, which broke our no carb rule because we were so hungry. I don't think its on the menu but we definitely got it the night that we went there. Pao de quiejo is basically a cheese and cassava flour puff ball, its a very starchy, cheesey ball of air. It was very moreish but we had to hold ourselves back for more meat!

Delicious cheesy carbs!

The next cut of meat that appeared at our table was the lamb rump cut to size and covered in malagueta sauce! We tried to snag more than a few pieces but the waiters have this habit of giving you a bit of a look that quells any request for thirds or fourths . . .

Seriously so much sauce though

This is a picture of some medium well beef flank steak? which was a touch salty but delicious. The banana leaf parcel is the coconut fish, a bland and melting piece of white fish that I wasn't a fan of.

Ehhhh it was okay

This is the beef hump, yes, you heard correctly, beef hump. Its apparently the cut of fat and muscle at the top of the shoulder. Its pretty gross, really hard, super salty and with lots of unrendered fat so its like chewing hard meat gum. Please avoid at any and all costs. Even for curiosity purposes.

Avoid!

The garlic prawns are especially good value, super garlicky, buttery and cooked to juicy perfection. I only had these two since I don't mess around with shells when I'm super hungry but I lost count of how many Mr A., had!

Oooh garlic prawns!

We had some well done lamb with chimichurri sauce! We got a dish of the sauce afterwards because it was so refreshing against the heaviness of all the meat.

Mmm lamb~

I had one and a half Brazilian style pork sausages which is about a whole sausage too much. They are quite juicy but they don't have the same bursty texture that German sausages do from being boiled then grilled. They aren't as flavour packed and I'd pass on them given the same opportunity to try them,

Pass!

We decided to grab a chicken heart each but they weren't great, slightly overcooked so they became rubbery little bullets.

Bleh

Ooh beautiful medium rare beef rump cap, you were basically the highlight of my night. This is also about the time the 7am dancing show started and I got the meat sweats something fierce. I took some photos then I realised I was there to eat not pretend to be interested in girls dressed in feathers!

Be still my beating heart, its beautiful!

These feather fans were somewhat interesting to watch though.

Peacock!

I was entranced by the cinnamon sugar grilled pineapple and especially the aroma but was disappointed with the pineapple itself. The pineapple was quite tart and not sweet in the least despite being lightly coated in brown sugar and cinnamon, as well as being grilled. I was expecting a thick, brown, burnt sugar and cinnamon caramel to be dripping off but I just got this sad pineapple instead! I was very disappointed to say the least.

Disappointing

I honestly can't remember what this might be, my heart sings pork however, so that's what I'm going with.

Pork?

At this stage, I had basically given up and started getting carbs. I ordered a bowl of chips and I've never felt so nauseatingly full as I did at that instance. Apparently Mr A., saw me touch a chip and turn green at the very THOUGHT of having something to eat.

Good chips though

I managed to eat the entire bowl, oh and thi really bad garlic bread too. Just wasn't seasoned enough aka salty enough to be worthwhile.

The colour was nice though

They also serve haloumi cheese which I thought was odd, but I never pass up haloumi so of course I got some. Too bad that they didn't also offer lemon wedges, haloumi and lemon is a match made in heaven.

Slightly spongy haloumi

I was still sporadically eating and heavy breathing at this stage. When the pork ribs rocked up I definitely couldn't say no as a pork and food lover, binge eater, food blogger, human being or whatever I class my gluttonous self as. They were delicious and I wish I had had more! Definitely try them if you seem them being offered.

RIBS

Navala Churrascaria
Atmosphere: 7, brightly lit, bustling restaurant with some really cheesy decorations haha. The show is fun and kids seem to love it! I think its a good place for large functions.
Service: 6, not too bad and its hard to have so much food circulating with lots of people around. It was really noticeable that we were sometimes ignored for larger groups and that we got food last though being on the opposite side of the kitchen.
Food: 7, I would definitely go back, the meat was high quality and mostly well cooked. There were a few exceptions were the meat was overcooked or heavily salted.