Emjays Coffee - Friday Knock Offs

I can only imagine what it would be like having a 9-5 job, working weekdays and knowing that relief of having the entire weekend stretching in front of you when it comes to Friday afternoons. As a shift working ward nurse, I don't have that luxury but I got to have a glimpse of that when I got invited to Emjays Coffee when they started their Friday Knock Offs menu! It's a discounted drinks, happy hour, sliders and bar food menu, perfect to unwind after a busy week and usher in the weekend!

It's easy to locate on the corner of Wharf and Adelaide Street. Here is their website.

This place!

It has a typical bar setting inside and this bright courtyard style seating. 

We sat down the back

Here is the menu!

Perfect

SLIDERS

We were allowed to get unlimited sliders, Asahi beer on tap and free champagne for the hour that we were there. I went with Mandy, VGirl and JGirl. We tried absolutely everything! We got two plates of their vege sliders which were a cheesy quinoa crumbed patty and a perfectly seasoned, super creamy avocado. You know how much I love meat, but this was honestly the best veggie burger I've ever had. The quinoa made a perfect crunchy coating for the oozy cheese interior and made it very textually interesting. My only criticism is that the burger buns are a touch dry and stale for all of them, I guess they would have been prepped ahead of time so that would explain the dryness.

The best

This was a perfect round slider with a big round beef patty, slice of pickle, mustard and cheese. I was very happy with the ratio of filling to bun with this slider. I loved the juiciness of the patty.

That ratio tho

These were the pulled pork and coleslaw slider and the Tex Mex chicken slider. The pulled pork was tender, moist and had a creamy coleslaw that was not too watery and very crisp. The Tex Mex chicken had a mildly spicy flavour and creamy guacamole underneath it as well. 

Mmm

We also got a big bowl of beer battered chips with pepper aioli to share. These chips were fat, thickly cut and super fluffy, they were a touch too salty but we still enjoyed them.

Emjay's Coffee
Atmosphere:
Service: 10, really good, super fast service. Considering how deep the queues were, the servers did an amazing job on the night we went, constantly scanning the bar for empty glasses, and clearing plates like machines.
Food: 7, pretty good! The bread was dry and the chips overly salty but this would be a great place to go for after work drinks. 

Indian Mehfil

Mr W., and I went out for lunch on the final day of a massive storm. It had rained for four days and nights, my gazebo collapsed under the weight of the rain and to make matters worse, I had days off and couldn't go anywhere due to the rain. I was going stir crazy and so drove to Mr W.,'s where he decided we should get Indian food and then watch a ton of horror movies in the dark.

Apparently I avoid rain like a cat does and run from car to undercover with an umbrella in even light drizzle. Mr W., thought it was really amusing how annoyed I was getting from the rain. I have a tendency to get sick really easily as an asthmatic, at the time of writing I've been home four days from work with a nasty upper respiratory track infection of some sort. 

Anyway, we decided to go ahead with the lunch specials of the day. Here is their menu! I went with the lamb korma, rice and naan. I decided to go with a medium heat but it was only very faintly a mild. The lamb was only slightly tender, it could have done with slightly more cooking time. The curry sauce was fragrant and full of ground spices but I still found it not to be anything special. We both agreed that this was the better of the two.

Lamb korma

Mr W., with the old faithful of butter chicken. This was honestly one of the worst renditions of butter chicken I've ever had with a bland, tasteless sauce that was honestly unremarkable but for its colour but also for its lack of flavour. There was no aroma to the sauce. The chicken pieces were large and tender.

Blergh

The naans were good at least. Scorching hot, fluffy layers, burst bubbles and with a nice charring on the outside. 

Naans are always delicious

No exceptions

Indian Mehfil
Atmosphere: - blank because we had takeaway food.
Service: 5, we got our food. However when we got home we realised that we didn't get our pappadums, apparently this has happened to quite a few people on Urbanspoon. I wonder if they've decided to stop that and never update their menus.
Food: 4, I would not come back here based on what I've had.

Rare Pear - Holland Park

This is yet another post that I was super lazy with starting. I've been here twice with large groups of people both times and yet I still haven't posted this review. I have no idea why other than sheer laziness as I quite enjoyed my meal here. It's very easily located off Logan road in the more or less direct centre of the shopping district for Holland Park, very close to it is Cafe Deedot.

This place!

They serve Di Bella coffee

There always seems to be a new lunch and breakfast special every time I go here. This was the special the first day that I went. Their menu is also available online.

So many bits

W., ordered the green protein smoothie which consisted of spinach, berries, protein powder, banana, greek yoghurt, almond milk, chia seeds and cinnamon powder. He said it was pretty tasty.

Very green

Miss Chatterbox had a cappuccino and thought it was also pretty good.

A soy latte for Z.,

Mug!

This was my somewhat chewy drink of the apple berry chia smoothie, it was made with apple juice soaked chia seeds, mixed berries, fresh apple juice, banana and ice. I found myself frequently stopping to chew either the chia seeds or the raspberry seeds in the drink. I found the drink to be quite thick and have a pronounced banana flavour.

Chewy

H., picked up a mocha!

Pretty

One of my friend's daughters decided to get a babycino, hot foamed milk in a teacup with chocolate powder and sprinkles on top. We all thought this was a super cute touch.

So cute

We arrived just in time for lunch to start so half of us went with brekkie and half with lunch. I got the southern fried chicken burger which came with rocket and corn salsa. I found the buttermilk marinated chicken to be super crunchy but thought that the chicken flesh was a bit lacking, I wanted there to be a slightly bigger portion of chicken as the majority of it was crunchy coating and I frequently got a mouthful of fried chicken coating and bun.

It looks lovely though

Z., got the pulled pork breakfast burger which consisted of pulled pork, barbecue sauce, fried egg, grilled haloumi, bacon, coleslaw, corn salsa and rocket with a side of beer battered chips. This is my kind of breakfast! It would also be perfectly adequate for a lunch or dinner hahaha. The pulled pork was succulent and the mixture of other decadent breakfast ingredients with the runny fried egg, grilled haloumi and crispy bacon made it utterly delicious. I was very jealous of Z.,'s choice. I think if you're a big eater at breakfast, definitely pick this burger.

There is pulled pork under all the rocket!

W., got the special of the day which was a pork and fennel sausage with blue cheese dressing, smashed avocado, grilled apricot, mushrooms, tomato and a side of beer battered chips. I had a little bite and the flavour reminded me of a falafel more than a pork and fennel sausage? The sausage was presented as a loose mince patty.

Very interesting

Miss Chatterbox got the grilled barramundi with chorizo, roasted potato and pumpkin, asparagus, lemon and rocket salad. She said she really enjoyed the fish as it was well done and had no hint of pinkness at all, remember she grilled some salmon sashimi at a different restaurant as it was too raw? She said that her favourite part of the whole dish were the potatoes, she said they were super crunchy but fluffy and wished her roasted potatoes came out like that.

Mmm chorizo

This was S.,'s big brekkie which she shared with her toddler, it comes with bacon, lamb and rosemary sausages, sourdough, house baked beans, garlic and thyme mushrooms, grilled tomato, your choice of eggs and a herbed hollandaise sauce. They tend to change the components of this big breakfast quite regularly I think but those were the components when we went last year. She said it was an absolutely huge serving but managed to finish it anyway.

Big brekkie!

We went back here a few months later for Ms S.,'s birthday. I got the summer sorbet smoothie which had lemon sorbet, fresh apple juice, yoghurt, strawberries and mint. It was quite a pleasantly sweet and sour drink that I really enjoyed. Ms S.,'s little daughter kept reaching over and wanting to drink my drink so I let her! You can't really ignore little toddlers requests can you hahaha. We had a lot of fun trying to feed her things but she seemed to prefer simple flavours ad textures like the ones present in this drink. In hindsight, she ate a fair bit of my feed but refused everyone else's!

Little O.,'s choice!

This is the Rare Pear salad ordered by L.,! It contains grilled prawns, crispy pancetta, fetta, roasted capsicum, pumpkin, beetroot, pearl barley, couscous, mixed seeds, nuts and a chipotle and sumac dressing. It's probably one of the prettiest dishes I've come across in a long time, L., loved it and really enjoyed picking apart the components of this dish. I like the fact that its primarily a bacon salad haha.

So pretty

This is the almond and herb crumbed barramundi with roasted potatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplant relish, caper dill remoulade, asparagus and lemon. H., MHZ., and S., all ordered it! Everyone said it was absolutely delicious but S.,'s daughter didn't agree, she only wanted to eat the potatoes on the plate.

Nice

This was my dish, the salt and pepper calamari with asparagus, feta, roasted pumpkin, cherry tomatoes and lemon with a chipotle aioli. S.,'s little girl ate a lot of my calamari and my pumpkin. This was honestly the dish that reignited my love for pumpkin. I haven't eaten it much since I was toddler, apparently Mama Pham fed me so much pumpkin and carrot as a baby that I turned orange! This roasted pumpkin has such a gloriously caramelised crust that I ate it up in seconds!

How did the pumpkin get so good?

The Rare Pear - Holland Park
Atmosphere: 6, a busy little cafe on a main road! I've always sat outside though and its quite nice. Lots of shade and different tables to choose from.
Service: 8, really friendly waiters and waitresses.
Food: 8, I really like the huge portions here and the sheer variety of ingredients and foods that they serve, they have an ever changing seasonal menu too which ensures freshness! The plating is some of the prettiest I've seen in Brisbane. It's a little bit expensive but its good for what you get.

Motto Motto Japanese Kitchen

Motto Motto has been the talk of the town recently, literally, you can check it out on Urbanspoon. I do love Japanese food so I went to check it out immediately. It's part of the new renovations at Garden City. Here is their menu.

The first time I went there, I decided to get the bento box which consisted of your choice of main either a rice bowl or bun with two sides and a drink. I had the seafood salad on brioche buns, it had prawns, scallops, flying fish roe, pickled cucumber, Japanese mayonnaise and green salad. The brioche bun was sweet, buttery and super soft. I found the bun to be gorgeously packed and with a large amount of ingredients but also difficult to eat, especially as it kept spilling everywhere. I'm not a person who eats sandwiches with knife and fork, but it's gotta be done with this one!

Pretty as a picture though

For my two sides, I picked the seaweed fries and the sweet and sour soft shell crab. The fries were shoestring style, crispy and covered with lots of little pieces of shredded seaweed. The soft shell crab was sitting on top of a pool of a very super sour dressing, it was almost unbearably sour and unbalanced. It did cut through the tempura coating very nicely though.

Unexpected

The second time I went there I got the NYA, not your average curry, with chicken karaage. It came with a little boat of curry sauce that they poured over for me. I was initially ecstatic that they came separately, thinking that I could add sauce at my leisure, you know how much I hate crunchy foods being turned soggy, but they told me that they had to do it themselves and take back the serving dish. The curry sauce is very thick and glossy and initially seems like a very small amount of sauce, but it manages to soak into most of the rice. I prefer a super saucy curry myself but since I didn't eat all of the rice, it was just enough.

So shiny

Motto Motto Japanese Kitchen
Atmosphere: 5, its very bright, as in fluorescent hell bright.I found my photos turned out to be very lens flare happy as a result, no matter where I sat. The place itself is clean and simple though. Catch a quick meal and go!
Service: 7, polite, efficient Japanese service!

Food: 6, definitely worth a try. The portions seem a little on the small side but they always manage to fill you up more than you expect.

Cafeine

I went to Cafeine so long ago, I'm not even sure what the circumstances where behind going there. I think it was because we wanted somewhere to go to after night shift. A., M., and T., went here with me. I also think I lost a photos from here, like my menu and store sign pictures.

It's on the main road of Cooparoo, so it's a bit of a difficult place to find a park,especially as all the rest of the places to park at belong to other shops and specify that they will tow you if you're not their customer. I ended up parking in a little side street and legging it, I was actually the first person there despite getting lost from work.

I forgot to take a photo of the store entrance but its directly opposite the Commonwealth Bank branch.

The interior is very bright and filled with lots of music posters. It seems like a very popular place for mothers and local businessmen to get a coffee before their day starts.

Hard to get a seat!

Busy at 8am

This is a jumbo strawberry milkshake that T., had, she said it was delicious with super creamy milk and super sweet strawberries.

Nice

I remember being very happy with our mugs, they were super cute.

I moustache you a question

A*., said her coffee was delicious, although I suspect she got a mocha.

Or a cappuccino? 

I can't remember what on earth these dishes are called since I lost my copy of their menu. It had four slices of thick cut Turkish bread, haloumi, pesto baked tomatoes and two eggs wrapped in bacon. I remember being so envious of this dish, I was fuming that the person who ordered this refused to let me have this dish. I don't remember much of this trip but I still remember the butthead who ordered this dish.

Mannnn this was good

T., ordered the big breakfast as always and it was huge! Haloumi, tomato, tomato relish, bacon done super crispy as she loves it, garlic mushrooms, a potato and feta cake, scrambled eggs and Turkish bread! She liberally fed me from her plate as usual and didn't manage to finish it haha.

Its an absolutely massive serve

I got the potato and feta cakes with haloumi, spinach, pesto and avocado. The potato cakes had a lovely golden brown crust and well seasoned, soft, fluffy, creamy, mashed potato insides. The haloumi slices were thick and crunchy, and weren't overly salty in flavour.

I miss bacon though

No one was able to finish their dish. It was entirely too much!

Cafeine
Atmosphere: 7, brightly lit, busy cafe on a main road! Great for a quick pit stop.
Service: 6, pretty decent from memory. Since our party straggled in in dribs and drabs, they said they wouldn't process our order until we all arrived which was nice.
Food: 7, the food is super cheap, plentiful and has a lot of different components. If you want a huge feed, I'd go here.