Sushi Ren

Ren Sushi is my go to sushi place, if I can't be bothered to drive all the way to Sunnybank. It's located just a zip down the high way from my house. It's located in that weird strip between Bunnings and Big Gun butchers, right near the MacDonalds if you know where that is. Parking is okay but quite limited.

The beauty of this place is that everything on the train is $3.50, nothing better than fixed price sushi. You just go crazy trying new things!

This is their menu!

+_+

It looks like every sushi train in Australia really. Sit at the train or sit in a booth. At least on their train its kinda organised? VGirl was all over that Veggie Love.

VGirl says aw yiss

Noice

This VGirl's go to, a giant veggie tempura sushi roll. I actually have no idea what veggies are in here, carrot maybe? Whatever, she seemed happy. You'll notice that all the sushi here is jumbo sized, which is a bit difficult to finish in one bite. The sushi chefs perked up a bit and made quite a few of these for VGirl to eat once they saw that was all she ate.

Veggie tempura

I love that basic bitch combo of canned tuna, mayo and rice, but they spiced it up with a little sprinkle of furikake! This one can be a bit dry at times, not helpful when you're starving and wolfing down food. Despite my shit talking, I'll order this every time.

<3

This lump is chicken katsu with avocado topped with a spicy mayonnaise. Its pretty good despite how awful the presentation is.

Yas.

Here is their crispy chicken and avocado. Once again, a beast of a sushi piece! I envy how sushi places get picture perfect avocado every time, never a smudgy grey or stony bit in them! Just pure creamy green deliciousness.

#skills

This is their lobster roll. I literally have no memory of consuming this.

Wat.

This is their deep fried tuna and avocado roll, I order this all the time and I have no idea why. My soul cringes at the idea of deep fried and crumbed rice, but my mouth is like, yeah I'll have it.

This is another of their deep fried abominations, bulgogi beef on top of a strip of deep fried rice. It's messy but damn, worth a try.

!?!?

Crab claws. They come out super hot, full of dubious meat but still fun to eat!

Blurry

Sushi Ren
Atmosphere: 5, your standard sushi train.
Service: 5, nothing fancy.
Food: 6, nothing fancy, nothing flash. Its cheap sushi if you can't be bothered going all the way to Sushi Edo. The flavour combinations are a bit bizarre and the serving style would make a traditionalist blanch, but its not bad!

Scout

I had heard about Scout and seen their menu before and finally decided to go there after my night shifts. Parking is hard since its along a one way street with very limited spots due to their timing. The side streets are pretty small and on hills so good luck.

Keep an eye out for this spot!

I have to add that I hated the furniture for this place, the stools were too short for the tables and then the bench was too high for the table. Otherwise the decoration for the place isn't too bad. It's a cool little hipster place with a very solid following of loyal locals judging from the constant flow of foot traffic. The menu is normally up on their FB page.

I got a massive coffee in order to fuel the rest of my day. This was a giant double shot mocha in a giant mug. It was immensely drinkable, no bitterness or sour tones to this coffee!

<3

I got the Scout's Honour, their version of the big breakfast which came with two poached eggs, sourdough, pork and fennel sausage, roasted tomato, garlic mushrooms and potato bake. It. Was. Amazing. I loved every part of this dish, perfectly cooked eggs, crunchy toast, caramelised slices of sausage, garlicky mushrooms, sweet tomatoes and a creamy, cheese potato bake. I got this dish twice, thats recommendation enough.

The best

The second time I went here, I bought Manda with me. We both got the same drink, I slapped her for doing that. Well not really, but I almost did! We got Vietnamese iced coffee, she had a sip of mine and decided to go get her own. She also made the set yourself on fire mistake of asking some random hipster girl for the iced coffee, she did not work there. I was so embarrassed I nearly spontaneously combusted of shame.

Anyway, this Vietnamese iced coffee isn't made the same way that its traditionally done with the filter and dripped onto ice. However that is like a third of condensed milk, a third of straight up espresso and then a third of ice, that in my mind, the perfect ratio. Manda didn't get quite as much condensed milk as I did and the waitress got us some more. Its perfect for slow days and shit talking with friends!

Noice

Manda got this brekkie bagel, rocket, crispy kaiserflesch, fried egg, tomato relish, tomato and aioli. It was deliciously dense, she only had half and hid the rest for lunch. I tried to take a bite, but I got scared off when Manda could only finish half of it.

Mmmm

Scout Cafe
Atmosphere: 8, love that little place but I hate the furniture!
Service: 8, really good service. Prompt and the waitresses are on patrol, if you can spot them hahaha
Food: 9, DELICIOUS! Nothing else to say. Eat everything here. No questions asked. 

Dapur Dahlia

I love Malaysian food so its a wonder that I hadn't already been to Dapur Dahlia in my travels! I decided that VGirl and her boyfriend, Zbag, JGirl, Dr S., and myself, should all head here for dinner one day.

Dapur Dahlia is a bit hard to spot, its pretty near to the Pizza Hut/Night Owl store in Upper Mount Gravatt so keep an eye out for that. Parking is a bit limited since its not particularly a big shopping lot. This restaurant is super popular, while the Indian restaurant beside it had barely any customers the entire time we were there. Perhaps they should expand that way?

This place!

The restaurant is extremely small by the way, not to mention the furniture is pretty small and uncomfortable to sit on. We had to wait about 20 minutes to get a table simply for the fact that there are only about . . . 8 tables in the entire place, the majority of which end up being put together due to limited tabletop space. In short, I hate this tiny restaurant's atmosphere!

Here is their collection of menus.

We all got random drinks. VGirl got this Soda Bandung, aka iced rose water soda. It's bright pink and icy cold, it also tastes exactly like creaming soda, surprise!

Fave for VGirl

I got the traditional teh ais, thick black tea and condensed milk thats been stretched. Zero stretching here, there is no foamy top at all! That being said its delicious, but what more do you expect from condensed milk drinks?

Love condensed milk

Zbag picked ais limau, a black tea with lime juice added. It was a very refreshing and sweet iced tea flavour.

Yummy

I made VGirl get the Maggi migoreng as opposed to the regular migoreng, this is because I wanted to eat Maggi noodles over hokkien noodles. Also it was the chef's special! This is even though VGirl would only allow me a small mouthful of the noodles. She said it was delicious and finished it before the rest of the dishes were even put down. When I asked her if she wanted another serve, she declined but spent a lot of time inquiring after other peoples meals, so maybe I should have gotten one . . . oh the vegetables in this dish were bean sprouts, carrot, cabbage and gai lan!

Yassss

I got the ayam goreng and beef rendang nasi lemak! I love nasi lemak because it allows me to pick and choose bits off the menu that I want to try without having to actually order that dish as a main! So yeah I picked fried chicken of course and beef rendang! To be truthful, since I started making beef rendang, I've never found one as good as my own. I love the sauce super dense, full of spices and coconut and the beef to fall apart. This was okay. The fried chicken reminds me of home with the way the winglet is still kept on it! That's the good bit, there's so much skin on there to eat! I enjoyed the sambal that they had here as well as the fact that the egg was a medium boil, no dodgy iron grey ring for me thanks!

<3 nasi lemak

Chicken satay, the way it should be! Charred, fat skewers of chicken absolutely doused in finger licking satay sauce accompanied with cucumber and red onion! They come four to a serve, so there was enough for everyone to eat one and get

Ideal number, so easily divisible!

This is their roti telur bawang aka egg and onion flatbread that comes with dahl, lentil curry, and a curry gravy, chicken! I feel like that sentence has a lot of commas in there but I'm too lazy to fix it, so please endure! Dr S., and JGirl both enjoyed this!

!

However, they also ordered roti jala aka net bread, which also came with a curry gravy and chicken curry. I have no idea why they basically ordered the same dish twice to share. I don't understand the appeal of roti jala because its meant to go with curry dishes as a means of sopping or picking up curry. So why would you use a bread that has so many holes in it to do that? Doesn't that seem fundamentally arduous somehow? Like eating soup with a spoon?

?_?

CBoy got the seafood laksa. It is a massive, massive bowl! It comes with lots of prawns, calamari, fish cakes, three types of noodle, flat rice, egg and a homemade rice starch noodle as well as a very rich and flavourful coconut broth! He did not finish this bowl by the way, it defeated him!

Truck size bowl

We got the cendol as our shareable dessert, bright green pandan noodles, shaved ice and palm sugar syrup! I like that they actually used real palm sugar, you can taste the caramel sweetness of it. I had to scoff this down as everyone else was too full and wanted to go home and sleep.

Refreshing!

Dapur Dahlia 
Atmosphere: 3, I hate this tiny restaurant. Please expand more!
Service: 5, nothing special.
Food: 7, average! The drinks are pretty good as are the dishes barring the roti. The serving size is solid and the pricing is pretty cheap. Give this place a shot, I'd say! 

Princess Thai

I really wish Thai Phoenix wasn't located so far north side, I think its a really solid place to go to and everything I ate here was amazing! I went with my friend Dani and we loved everything we had here. I'd go here more frequently if it wasn't north side.

Parking is a bit shit, its near the Nandos! There is SOME parking but if its busy, I doubt you'd get a park directly in front of the store.

Here is their menu!

We went during lunch so they had an amazing lunch special that we took full advantage of. Below is a drink that I remember sounded so good that I wanted seconds after chugging it even before my food arrived. Dani got the same drink and loved it.

Yesssssss

We went with classic dishes for our entree, pork spring rolls and chicken satay. The pork spring rolls tasted very much like what Mama Pham makes at home, a good amount of pork mince and lots of veggies too. They had a really crispy shell despite being a bit pale. The chicken satay was really good, it had a nice char on the outside and the satay sauce was some of the best I've ever had. I could drink it or bath in it. We scraped that dish dry.

Yesssssss

Dani got the chicken and cashew stir fry with plain rice for her main meal. It had a ridiculous amount of birds eye chilli hidden within its depths. We hid them in the leftover pad thai for her boyfriend to accidentally eat haha. She said that she liked how much chicken there was as well as the plentiful cashews you can see in the picture. This was a lunch special for $10! Quite the bargain I think.

+_+ cashews

The real reason I went here is for their Princess Curry aka khao soi, Northern Thai style coconut curry with crispy egg noodles and your choice of chicken or beef. I got chicken and it was melt in your mouth, home cooked style tender! It came with the traditional accompaniments of mustard pickles, chilli oil and lemon wedges, so you adjust it to your preference. I really loved this version of the dish and it had Dani in heaven. She told me that since then she has gotten this every time she's gone there. This is also a lunch special!

Love you <3

Pad thai is always on your go to Thai dish list! This one was really good, well balanced, with tender noodles and lots of egg, tofu and chicken bits to pick at. We did not finish our meals so this became takeaway.

<3

Princess Thai
Atmosphere: 8, I really liked the interior, unfortunately, even during a weekday lunch there were too many people for me to get a good photograph!
Service: 6, friendly and very obliging staff.
Food: 9, really good Thai food. The lunch specials are super cheap and they offer my favourite Thai dish, khao soi, as one of their specials! What's not to love? I took off a point because they are located north side. I'm petty like that.

Momo Chicken and Beer

This is the post I've been avoiding, because this place is popular enough already without me having to promote it. It's the hands down, best fried chicken joint in all of Brisbane. I go here religiously. like once a fortnight. It's honestly one of the very few places in Brisbane that is open late night, like normal countries late night, midnight erryday. I've dragged all my coworkers and family members here. Its basically my restaurant version of Maccas.

It's located in the shopping centre part of Runcorn Plaza, right on the corner. Parking is pretty decent most days but try and avoid parking underneath the big trees at sunset, your car will get covered in bird shit.

Here is their menu.

 This is literally the first thing I've ever ordered and my last dish on earth. Half a honey soy fried chicken with a serve of home made crunchy potato chips. Oh. My. God. Their fried chicken is to die for, such an amazing earth shattering crunch, that manages to stay even until the second day of eating! They have such tender, juicy chicken as well covered in a luscious, sticky, sweet and salty sauce, I honestly lick my finger and drag it through what's leftover in the box. Get the chicken on the bone, that's where the flavour is!

The potato chips are also amazing here. They're super thin, made on site and taste like fried chicken themselves since I think they're fried in the same cooking oil.

It comes with a box of amazing radish pickles. Misshapen, roughly cut cubes that are obviously cut and pickled on site.

Yassss

Yessss lunch and after school special

Here is their spicy, cheesy and chicken dish. It comes with a huge amount of green onions, spicy chicken, onion, garlic and obviously a lot of cheese. The sauce is a mixture of gochujang and friends. It is mouth burning spicy but the cheese helps, this is a dish that definitely needs a bunch of rice to go with.

Sizzling

This is their plain fried chicken, its no different from the honey soy aside from the fact that it comes with a very tangy, honey mustard sauce.

Glorious fried chicken

Here is their awful kimchi pancake. It is soggy and uncut, when asked about this, they said that they don't cut it for you because its not served that way in South Korea. They seemed very surprised when we asked for scissors as a result.

Passss

I forgot to take photos but also, ALWAYS get their soy fried noodle. Its an udon noodle in a slippery, dark soy sauce with a lot of vegetables, carrot and cabbage, that somehow makes up for the lack of meat you get eating an entire bird of chicken. If you get the soy fried noodles, it also comes with their fancy side dishes, pasta salad, kimchi and pickled seaweed!

Momo Chicken and Beer
Atmosphere: 3, super pub like. Noisy and full of drinking.
Service: 3, inefficient, abrupt and vague. Two girls for the entire store, they often leave tables dirty for a long period of time before cleaning them up and are slow to answer buzzers if you're not Korean.
Food: 10, absolutely freaking excellent. The best fried chicken in town! I bring people here all the time and if you see an Asian girl in a nurses uniform, its probably me. Or one of my friends here I guess?

Yim Thai

S., and I went here before work one night. We ate dinner and then grabbed takeaway, green Thai curry and something else I forgot. We found the green Thai curry a bit too creamy and sweet, but everything else we had was soliddddd. I'm really sad that they don't do delivery though.

Yim Thai is located in a little shopping centre so there is heaps of parking here. Keep an eye out for Chompers, then you know you're there!

This place!

We couldn't get a table inside because they were all reserved. We had to sit outside.

):<

Also outside was pretty packed.

>:(

I hate metal serving dishes because they get too hot from the food. Here is their menu!

Boo!

S., got these coconut prawns. They were pretty huge and she said they were really good. I'm not a fan of prawns cause they are too much work for when I'm super hungry. Plus I'm stingy so I like to have every piece of meat available. You can see the generous coating of crunchy coconut on there too!

Solid

We also got the curry puffs to share, they are gorgeous little things, look at that perfect tuck! That is the perfection of an Asian auntie, who yells at her useless nieces and nephews. I know that feel because that's what Mama Pham does to me when I try and help her out in the kitchen. The contempt of lifelong skills. I smashed through these in seconds, I freaking love curry puffs, I love their sweet spiciness and mash of vegetables.

Perfect for kids

S., got the scallop and prawn prad prik kin aka a wild ginger and red curry paste stir fry, she could not stop talking about this dish. She got a huge amount of prawns and scallops that were cooked to a perfect juiciness. This is quite a favourite for everyone I've dined with. It comes with quite a large amount of vegetables in with it as well.

!

My honest to god favourite is the crispy pork belly cooked in chilli, coconut cream, young ginger, peppercorns and a ton of veggies, same as all their other stir fry dishes. I love how crispy the crackling is on this dish as well as the soft, melting flavour of the fat and meat pieces. Every time I've gone here, I've ordered this dish!

Hello delicious pork belly

We got som tum as our healthy shared entree. I love papaya salad from any country, the crunch of papaya, sweet cherry tomatoes, salty dried shrimp, the snap of green beans, peanuts, crunch, crunch, crunch! I love things that are crunchy and balanced between multiple flavours, plus its not a seasonal dish so I can get it all the time! The salad had a good amount of heat, enough that we noticed but not enough that we had to stop, it was wonderful! Every time I go here, I get at least two serves of this dish!

Yessss

Also I have been back here twice, for some reason I keep thinking I've already posted this review so I keep forgetting to take more photos. My bad guys, my bad. I went here with L., H., and S.Y, who all agreed it was some of the best Thai food they've had in Brisbane. Then H., went here with her husband and then proceeded to order the worse stuff in the restaurant according to her husband, apparently their jungle curry isn't great.

Yim Thai
Atmosphere: 7, a lovely and well decorated little place. Perfect for a family get together but not quite fancy enough for date night.
Service: 5, nothing stand out.
Food: 8, really good Thai food, just aim for the stir fries rather than the curries. Their som tum is a must!