Chompers Springwood

I had been seeing a lot of Chompers on Instagram from other Brisbane based food bloggers so I got really excited when I went to the Hills Pizzeria and saw that there was a Chompers there as well! Its the first thing you see when entering the shopping complex so it's easy to find as well as find parking.

Here is a link to their menu! They have quite a wide range of options on their menu.

The first thing I got was a six pack of barbecue chicken wings. They weren't great, a quite salty or perhaps overly brined, soft crumbed chicken wing that was drizzled lightly with some barbecue sauce. It has a very homey feel to it.

?_?

This was my side of snack sized plain chips that came with my burger. They're quite a fair size that being said. I chose to have them with chicken salt but I thought they would be crunchier. They were all evenly sized, none of those fun, weird, super skinny crunchy ones or anything.

Chips chips chips

I picked the standard Chompers burger which consisted of fried egg, bacon, beef, tomato, cheese, lettuce and Chompers sauce. I found the beef patty to be quite dry and was unable to finish my burger. The fried egg was a bit too well done but I'm one of those people who want my egg on my burger slopping everywhere. I got this vibe of when I went to little takeaway shops and got a solid $10 burger with a drink when I was younger, or that feeling when your dad is running the BBQ on the weekend and he makes burgers with all the fixings rather than you kids go out to Maccas and waste money.

Dad, do you work at Chompers?

On another random occasion, I had gotten the beer battered chips with the rockstar option, their special seven blend cheese with bacon bits. I didn't notice any particular difference between the two chips in terms of flavour or crunch.

Rockstar style

Chompers
Atmosphere: 5, your local fast food joint. 
Service: 7, friendly and quick to help!
Food: 4, ahh pretty average for a specialist burger joint. It really reminds me of when my dad made me burgers at home and my dad is an average cook to say the least. There's a lot of other burger joints in Brisbane you can go to. Never again. 

Donut Boyz

Stop the presses, Donut Boyz is my pick for best doughnut purveyor! Cheap at only $3.50 for a glazed doughnut, $4 for a filled doughnut,  pack of six sets you back $20 from memory and the cronut of the day is about $5! So much more affordable than the other two doughnut places in Brisbane! The flavours change from day to day as well.

The first time I went here I got the salted pecan caramel glazed doughnut, it was absolutely amazing. I loved the sweetness of salted caramel glaze and the crunchy glazed pecan pieces. I saw Manda soon after I bought it, I seduced her with a bite and her eyes went huge as soon as she tasted it. We went back for some more doughnuts after that haha!

The second doughnut I picked was a chocolate glazed doughnut with a coffee custard and shot of espresso to inject into the custard. I saved this for later and shared it with Sir A., after I finished worked. We watched Netflix and ate our doughnut together. I really enjoyed the sweet creaminess of the coffee custard, it wasn't overpoweringly sweet and went well with the doughnut. The coffee shot was too sweet but it was a great theatrical piece!

This is actually just a picture from T.,'s six pack. We finished our night shifts and waited two hours for the place to open! We finish work around 7 and they open at 9am on a week end. It was a very, very long day for us but well worth it! That shiny one in the upper left hand corner was the one I picked! Salted caramel with caramel popcorn, the caramel was a much darker one that I'd like but it was a nice bitter contrast to the sweetness of the glaze.

Donut Boyz:
Atmosphere: 4, its a shipping container. It looks like sweatshop conditions to work in to be honest.
Service: 4, average as all hell, at least its better than the one person they have at Doughnut Bar. Would it kill them to have a picture menu set up somewhere so you don't have to get up to the front of the line to make your decision?
Food: 8, the best doughnuts. I go to the "Shailer Park" aka Hyperdome one all the time when I do my grocery shopping. It sucks up all my loose change!

Zeus Greek Food

Zeus Greek Food got so damn hyped on Instagram that I was really excited to go. I assembled my food posse, Mr A, Dandelion, A*., and Manda. Unfortunately this was the day after we had that Storey Bridge event and so Dandelion and Manda felt too unwell to go and Mr A., was at work util 7.30pm so we were still waiting for him. A*., and I were the only ones left and we told Mr A., not to bother once we had eaten here.  I feel like I was the only person on Instagram who didn't get a wrap. Or that's how I would feel if I had gotten the photos on Instagram. 

Anyway, Zeus Greek Food is right across from Guzman y Gomez aka the roundabout on Stanley Street. Parking is rough, I highly recommend parking somewhere else and legging it, but I'm cheap and love walking so there's that. 

To the lightning bolt!

All the drinks and a lovely set up!

Nice

They have this wonderful kitchen sink/condiments stand. Yes, I want to wash my hands at all occasions before I eat, because I'm a nurse and a hygienic human being. 

Aw yiss

They also have like a porn window where you can watch all the meat being cooked. 

Thats my fetish

It's got a bit of a weird set up I think? One of those shops that reach both sides of a road cause it occupies all the space in the middle? Head straight to the back, so you can see the view that I've got! 

So bright

A*., and I are dumbasses especially A*., cause she decided to do Dry July. It's a charity project to give up drinking or something for the month of July to fund raise money for more comfortable environments for cancer patients. A*., barely drank anyway but she decided to give up carbs and we had a great conversation about what constituted a carb at work cause we're 15 and love quoting Mean Girls. 

Nope.

We went through with a list of things and I was staunchly of the opinion that if you could make a sandwich out of it, it was a carb. So that removed simple carbs like what you get in fruits and vegetables. She was including things like flat breads and wraps which I vehemently vetoed. Naans, croissants, baguettes, doughnuts, brioche, all the breads really. 

So this little segue way leads me into why A*., isn't eating bread and so we decided to share a main serve of meat and then get sides to bulk it up. The first thing we decided on was haloumi because its delicious and you should always get haloumi, unless you have to pay $11.50 for five pieces. There's nothing wrong with the taste of the haloumi, it was squeaky, golden brown and delicious. We were mumbling words of dissent when we got it though. I know that sides don't constitute a meal but I'm still disappointed. Here is their menu by the way.

It looks sad.

A*., got the naked lamb portion which was 200g of spit roasted lamb which came with a small dish of tzatziki and lemon. Soft and tender, we demolished it in seconds. 

Still hungryyy

Tzatziki, you can't go wrong with it.

Gone in 60 seconds

We got the corn cobs with grated kefalotiri, a hard and salty cheese that you can grill like haloumi! These corn cobs were quite sweet and super buttery, like dripping butter levels. I was surprised that there wasn't a greater char to these corn cobs. 

$9.50 btw

The pita was $3 for two whole pita cut into quarters. I bought that when we had nearly eaten everything else just to fill me up. It was soft, fluffy and buttery, it was delicious.

Can't go wrong with pita bread~

Zeus Street Greek:
Atmosphere: 7, a lovely place to get something to eat. I love the little touches everywhere like the placeholders being ancient Greek philosophers! Our was Socrates if you were wondering.
Service: 5, friendly but a bit slow at times. 
Food: 5, delicious food but so, so expensive. West End is a brisk walk away and you get twice the portion sizes for the same price. I wouldn't go back here unless I was looking to burn money.

Greaser Bar

I got invited to Greaser Bar! It's been on my list of go to places because it was one of the very few place in Brisbane that was open after 10pm at night! A*., Mr A., Manda and I found a list of places to go to our after late shifts at work but they are woefully few and far between. That is unless you count Korean places and sometimes you just want a bit break from all that Korean food!

Its super hard to find Greaser Bar because its modeled on the old school Prohibition speakeasies. Head down Brunswick Street, its just a little bit past the bottle shop and you'll see what looks like a random alleyway. There should be two big security guards there and a plaque to their left that says Greaser Bar! Head down the alleyway, and follow the signs to the bar, if you walk past what looks like an industrial kitchen you're heading in the right direction!

We sat at different tables and I didn't know anyone so I just sat down at the closest one. It seems like everyone else knew it each other but we still played by food blogging etiquette, foods down, cameras up! This was the buttermilk Southern fried chicken that we got! Wing and drum pieces in a crispy southern spice coating, the chicken flesh was very juicy and tender while the coating was KFC style crunchy. The two sauces that came with the chicken were a redeye gravy and a chipotle mayonnaise, the gravy wasn't anything special but we used up every single bit of that creamy and mildly spicy mayonnaise.

Deliciouso~

We also got their cheeseburger and crinkle cut fries as well! It was a touch on the small size but the cheeseburger was absolutely delicious! It had a soft squishy bun, ground Angus beef that was very juicy and tender, a giant slice of melted cheese, lettuce leaf, tomato and a pickle that had been cut on an angle that was too big. The pickle had been cut so that it was nearly the entire length of the pickle, that's too long! You need little slices, or slices the length or width of the burger so it doesn't flop out everywhere! Simple but delicious. Fries were great too, but almost all fries are who are we kidding?

Burger burger burger~!

RJIE: Banhi mi dac biet at Scotts Road Takeaway

On the same day that we went to 2B Thai, VGirl and I went shopping for groceries in Inala and ended up going to Scotts Road for some banh mi for breakfast! The shop is right across from the train station so it's pretty easy to find.

This place!

It's a pretty small little takeaway shop with your standard goodies and their specialty banh mi! Its got a serious reputation as one of the most authentic banh mi places in Brisbane. I know VGirl and JGirl both make the trip down here at least once a week!

Shop set up

So many drinks

I got the banh mi dac biet, the special pork roll basically which consists of coriander, pickled carrot, cucumber, slices of cha lua, char siu and pork meatballs, a smear of chicken pate and homemade mayonnaise! Everything was fresh and delicious with the bread being light, crunchy and fluffy.

VGirl gets the same thing minus the meat and normally asks for double the mayo. Its addictive stuff!

Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant

True fact, VGirl and I love Malaysian/Indonesian food, its often halal, has a huge emphasis on vegetarian cuisine, massive portions of food, cheap prices, its a wonderful combination of Asian cuisines that we love and also mi goreng is gods gift to noodle lovers. So its a bit of a mystery why we haven't been to Jakarta in New Farm on an earlier occasion.

This place!

We got there so early that they were still opening up the restaurant when we arrived. It got pretty busy as we were leaving, lots of ex-pats and their Indonesian wives from the sound of it! It's pretty easy to spot from Brunswick Street, its pretty close to the Night Owl so its relatively easy to find!

This spot!

It has a really traditional Balinese kinda feel? It reminds me of the Indonesian lote class I had in primary school or at least the way that my teacher decorated the room!

I like it!

Lots and lots of tables

Here is their menu!

I got the ayam goreng tepung as my snack, because an entire dish of fried chicken is a snack of course. This was a described as marinated and deep fried chicken pieces. They look lightly battered to me and were quite salty, I found the proportion to be a bit stingy/lacking for the price of a main dish. I think this would be perfect for a group to sharing but as a complimentary dish, that's all you get!

Hmmmm~

VGirl got vegetarian bakmi goreng, she remarked that this was quite a healthy rendition with lots and lots of vegetables, onions, kai lan, tomato and carrot. We both found that this dish wasn't as flavoursome as the one that we at Sambal Oelek but it had a much greater charry flavour. She also wanted more visible bits of egg and so stole my fried egg from my plate with my blessing.

Not bad though!

I got the nasi goreng istimewa, Indonesian style fried rice topped with a fried egg, two chicken satay skewers and prawn crackers. It was a moderately sized meal but it gave me a good sample of two of the staples you find in any Indonesian restaurant, nasi goreng and chicken satay! I found the fried rice to be pretty good but the chicken satay was much better. It had a lovely sauce that I wish I had a lot more of!

Jakarta:
Atmosphere: 8, a cute little slice of Indonesia! I really liked the layout and warm setting of the restaurant.
Service: 8, super friendly and insightful service, The young waitress was probably about the same age of us but was very professional.
Food: 7, solid food for a cheap price. This would be great for a get together with friends, where you sit around, share food and chat for ages, not to mention its BYO so a cheap way to get wasted.