Julius Pizzeria

A*, Manda and I all caught up for the first time in ages, A* and Manda started working in different areas so we didn't get to catch up as much as we used to. A* suggested we go here since she loves going to Julius Pizzeria since its still magically open after her 12 hour shifts end. I booked us in online and off we went! We were very organised and had already decided on what we wanted to eat before we had even entered the restaurant ahaha.

Parking is a bit hard. Julius Pizzeria is located opposite the Sciencentre. Probs park in a backstreet of West End or South Brisbane and leg it.

Here is their menu!

This is the interior

We all agreed on the salame e fontina pizza, or rather, I forced everyone into buying that since fontina is in my top five favourite cheeses for its easy melt and strong, nutty flavour. You can see the crispy edges of the spicy salami below as well as the molten puddles of fontina all over the pizza. The crust was amazing, packed with so much flavour, a slight chew and ample smoky flavour. The funny thing is that this was A*., and Manda's favourite pizza while A*'s suggestion of the Tartufo pizza was my favourite!

Amazing

The Tartufo pizza was our second pick! Mozzarella, smokey bacon, mushrooms and truffle paste, its a match made in heaven! I really enjoyed this pizza because I love all the above, I can't even single out my favourite ingredient out of all those bits. It was a delicious pizza and despite my usually generous nature, I tried to hide my enjoyment of this pizza so I could eat more of it. 

That shadow is me, heavily breathing

Julius Pizzeria
Atmosphere: 7, a busy pizzeria! You can see into the kitchen and see the giant pizza oven at work.
Service: 7, really efficient, always on the prowl and quick to ask if you want dessert or additional drinks. I'm a sucker for that, if anyone asks me if I want another drink, the answer is always yes!
Food: 10, so good! Pizza toppings are ample, crusts are wood fired and delicious. I love this place but I still prefer the crusts at Sorellina. If you want an Italian style pizza with a bit of a modern twist, head here!

88 Topokki

Toppokki, toppoki, tteokbokki, ddeokbokki, and however else you decide to spell it, is utterly delicious. Little strips of rice cakes that have a very satisfying chew, you can have them in their signature gochujang spicy sauce with fish balls and other goodies or as an accompaniment to your favourite hotpot! H., tells me its an iconic part of your childhood growing up in South Korea, the perfect quick meal or after school snack alongside Korean fried chicken of course! I will use the word tteokbokki for the rest of this page as it is my preferred spelling and what Wikipedia uses, if its good enough for wiki, its good enough for me.

So when we found out there was a shop called 88 Toppokki, we were extremely excited and had to go. Except we kept forgetting it was closed on Tuesdays. Oops. Its located in the Pinelands Shopping centre so its easy to get parking. Its located in the centre of the shop near the fruit shop.

Thats us!

Random 88 photos

Here are some terrible photos of the menu, otherwise check out Zomato for clearer ones.

The first time I went here was when I was looking for some fried chicken after work. I bought myself half a honey soy chicken for takeaway and chose the tteokbokki as my side. I like that you can choose between several different sides such as the grilled tteokbokki on a stick, rice, chips, regular stir fried tteokbokki or prawn and veggies. I love variety!

This fried chicken was very crispy and moist but I found the sauce a touch sweet so it's not my absolute favourite fried chicken to have. That being said, its definitely not bad though, and lots of people agree with me! They do a deal of 10 drumsticks for $10 and its always sold out when I try and get it.

Yassss

The stir fried tteokbokki is the regular tteokbokki you would order at any Korean restaurant, barring the fact that this is much more obviously a home style slash side dish version. How can you tell? The sheer number of bulk veggies present! Carrot, cabbage, green onion and zucchini a plenty, the fish cakes aren't as prominent but this is still an enjoyable dish. Just think of this as balancing out that chicken you just got! The sauce is a wonderful fluorescent orange from the spicy gochujang paste but despite that its not unbearably spicy like Madtongsan's tteokbokki, you can happily still eat this without stopping.

Yassss

I went back here a second time with H., and A*! H., and I had the same days off and were tossing up between here and Rogue Spice Canteen. H., insisted that we should eat the special hotpot while I was arguing that we couldn't possibly finish a hotpot off between us. Then I saw A* was online on Facebook and I knew she would come with us because she freaking loves tteokbokki. She loves it so much that once when we went to a Korean restaurant, she made us leave because it didn't sell tteokbokki, that was the time we went to FunnyFunny for dinner.

Anyway, we got the triple fried chicken plate, it came with honey soy chicken, plain fried chicken and a sweet and spicy sauce fried chicken. there was also a lightly dressed garden salad that we mostly ignored. A* loves plain fried chicken. I have a deep love of honey soy fried chicken and guess what H., loves? That's right, spicy fried chicken. We were the perfect team hahaha!

<333

We also got these banchan to go with our fried chicken from left to right its caramelised sweet potato, kimchi and soy marinated fish cakes! I love the sweet potato and the fish cakes the most, I could eat an entire bowl of these without getting sick. I often find myself having to move them away from me so I can't actually get to them before my main meal arrives.

Yesssss

H., was prodding us towards getting the special hotpot and I was being annoying by saying there was no guarantee that A* would agree to getting it. A* is an easy going girl though and she did agree. We got this in the regular size with three additional toppings which cost an extra $8-10 from memory. The ones we picked were an extra serve of deep fried seaweed rolls, quail eggs and tteokbokki since it didn't automatically come with them in there. There are a lot of other ingredients included in the hotpot such as spam, bulgogi beef, pork belly, enoki mushrooms, sweet potato noodles, calamari, deep fried gyoza, whole eggs, cabbage, mussels, prawns, onions, garlic, deep fried seaweed rolls and ramen noodles. We were told by our waitress to eat the deep fried gyoza and seaweed rolls first otherwise they would get too soggy. The soup had a wonderful savoury flavour that wasn't too spicy the best part was fishing out all the different ingredients to eat, you never knew what you were going to get!

H., loves deep fried seaweed rolls and she said this was the first place in Brisbane that she found made them. They're a battered roll of sushi seaweed that is wrapped around a bundle of soft vermicelli noodles, sounds kind of bland but the batter is really tasty! It tastes exactly like the batter on the plain fried chicken.

I really enjoy eating Korean hotpot much more than our Vietnamese version, lau, or Chinese style hotpot just due to the sheer number of ingredients present. Also for the fact that its already layered in for me, where as I would have to grab everything I want and dunk it in. Korean hotpot is already perfectly portioned to boil down to thick saucy goodness! It goes without saying that this place does the best hotpot I've found in Brisbane so far!

So so good!

88 Topokki
Atmosphere: 7, a cosy little place to hide from the world, as we did when it was absolutely bucketing down the day we went. 
Service: 7, pretty good actually. The shop is quite small so the waitresses are always lurking nearby, ready to help or top up your banchan dishes!
Food: 9, I love their hotpots and their fried chicken isn't bad either! I love that you can add whatever you want to the hotpot as well <3

Fromage the Cow

I love cheese, so much. It's like one of my food catch phrases, "I'm lactose intolerant and I love cheese." That's because cheese has low lactose and I've still got some lactease enzyme floating around in my guts. Anyway, K., and I went to Fromage the Cow after night shift one day to celebrate life.

It's in Milton and parking is shit. Be forewarned, the entire suburb is 2P and the parking dudes are vigilant.

See the cow and find a park nearby

This is their cheese fridge. I thought it would be way bigger like the entire store would be dedicated to cheese. A cheese wonderland if you may, where the walls are cheese and the floors are cheese and the furniture is cheese, a cheese version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory. I definitely think Pennisi's cuisine has a larger variety of cheeses although the parking there is just as abysmal.

I was expecting more?

They have a fireplace!

Empty

K., ordered an English breakfast which I wisely guessed to be three cups exactly. I like the simple design of the teapot set.

Tiny blue milk pitcher

You can find their menu here. FYI the items we ordered are no longer available. They also do toasted sandwiches, have a bar, they do dinners and have fancy dinner nights as well. The time that I went, they were advertising for a raclette night. K., got their three cheese open faced omelette which came with a tomato salsa and toasted Turkish bread. It was amazingly cheesy, slightly gooey still and definitely gave me food envy. This is one of the few times that I picked a dud dish. We both commented that open faced omelettes were a clever idea since you don't have to mess around with flipping them. All you have to do is left the bottom set and serve!

Delicious

I got the brie en cocotte, French baked eggs with pumpkin and morcilla. I hated this dish, I couldn't get any hint of cheese in my baked eggs at all, barring the bits of rind I fished out, the yolks were hard boiled and the whites had cooked to the point where they were inedible and rubbery. The pumpkin was finely diced as were the pieces of morcilla. The piece of bread I got was an immensely dense doorstop piece of bread, delicious and a greater component of my meal than the eggs were for sure.

The other thing that happened was my morcilla came still wrapped in its protective paper. I couldn't find any serving staff until our meal had ended. When I alerted the manager to it, they offered me an extra coffee or drink but I refused since I had already had a large mug. I went on to buy some cheese with the manager hovering over us and explaining all the cheeses. When we went to finalise our purchases he left and I don't think the other serving staff had gotten wind of our food mishap. We didn't get anything taken off our meals or a discount. An effort was made at rectifying their mistake I guess, but I'm still kinda disappointed.

Blerg

Fromage the Cow
Atmosphere: 6, cute little place, I'd love to see their fireplace in use in winter!
Service: 4, a bit lacklustre. Difficult to find anyone and poor communication with what happened with my meal.
Food: 6, would probably be higher if I hadn't picked the baked eggs. I wouldn't give these guys a second shot though, that part of town is too much of a pain to get to and I can get more cheese at Pennisi.

House of Hygge

Camdog is a devout Danish person. She is obnoxiously patriotic, she's the kind of person to proudly declare her Danish heritage at any possible moment. We received a container of those Danish butter cookies at work, she tells us they are made in Copenhagen from DANISH BUTTER.

DANISH

Number one restaurant in the world is Noma and its head chef!? Rene Redzepi FROM DENMARK.

Stolen from wiki

What does she also bring to work parties? My spinach dip you say? No, its RISALAMANDE, Danish rice pudding.

Stolen from Nordic Living

The Sydney Opera House? Designed by a DANISH PERSON.

Stolen from the Sydney Herald

So when I said there was a new Danish restaurant in town, she said she would go with me before she even knew what was on the menu or where it was. When I said it was near the West End vet, it was easy for us to get to. The other funny thing is that her parents and brother had all separately come to this cafe before she had even told them about it. Also there is a ton of street parking nearby, mostly up the hill.

*To be honest, Camdog only said the first bit about the butter cookies and some rando actor. She also told me some other facts but they turned out to be all incorrect when I was finding the photos.

Their coffee!

They are dog friendly!

Yay

Camdog was tickled pink when she heard of their name. She tried to explain what "hygge" meant, its kinda like a cosy feeling/relaxed vibe, like when you spend a rainy day indoors reading a book, or when you just relax with friends with a few brewskis late at night. According to her, its synonymous in Denmark for that feeling, you describe the situation as "hygge". Google says it means enjoying the good things in life and warm atmosphere so her descriptions were pretty spot on eh?

A description

Yay!

Here is their menu! Here is a legible version of the menu.

Camdog went absolutely nuts when she saw this chocolate. Its apparently a super thin chocolate spread that you can eat with bread. She bought home a box for her dad to eat.

?_?

Flowers at every table

We got there a bit early to have their lunch which is what really wanted to eat since we wanted to have their smorrebrod and risalamonde combo, they had like four different toppings on their risalamande besides the traditional sour cherry and almond combo! Camdog is a fiend for remoulade to the extent that her family have been fined by Australian customs for attempting to sneak it back into the country.

Anyway, she got the smashed avocado, mushrooms and balsamic vinegar onto of a dense rye bread. She said the taste took her back to Denmark and her best friend Lara's mum's rye bread, the perfect start to the day. We both agreed that the best way to have avo on toast is if people presmash it for you, none of this fanned bullshit.

!!!

I wanted something a bit more substantial so I got the Monte Cristo toastie, shaved leg ham, seeded mustard, swiss and havarti cheese, sharp dill pickles on top of toasted Turkish bread. They apparently coated it in egg wash before frying it but I didn't realise notice any difference. I had in mine like a savoury French toast style toastie, which really sounds amazing doesn't it? Those crispy, frilly edges would have been amazing. The flavour combination reminds me exactly of what I do at home when I have toasties so I was very happy.

Mmm bread

House of Hygge
Atmosphere: 7, brightly light, small cafe. Probably higher if you're Danish, cause Camdog was estatic.
Service: 5, friendly but unwilling to part with their remoulade even when Camdog wanted to buy it.
Food: 8, portions are a touch on the small side but delicious anyway. Defs would go back to try some more of their food or to see what a snapshot of Denmark is like!

Kitchen Inn

S* and I usually gossip like crazy during our walk to our cars. We hadn't seen each other in quite a while so we decided to go out to dinner together. S* promised me that this place had the best noodles in Brisbane and she regularly made the trip out to Calamvale from Kangaroo Point just to eat it. So with that in mind, I had to go didn't I?

Steal the menu from Zomato. The restaurant is on the corner of the Calamvale shopping centre, so there's lots of parking! Just don't do what S* did and park on the wrong road. She ended up parking on the road above the shopping centre and had to hop off the rocks to get down.

I got teh C special, I have no idea what it stands for but it tastes delicious! Some type of strong black tea with condensed milk to sweeten it. I really enjoyed this and would drop by for this to takeaway if I'm in the area! On googling, I found it its red tea, evaporated milk and brown sugar mixed in.

<3

S* told me buys the same thing each and every time she goes here. She tried it once and has never gotten anything else since then. It's the kolo mee special! Homemade wheat noodles, barbecue pork, pork mince and prawns. The noodles are the same as the one in my dish, super long, springy, with a slight chew to their texture, they were amazing! The toppings were very generous as well, to the extent that S* ended up taking half of it home, the bowl was endless!

It comes with this generic vegetable soup.

Ah yes

I got the braised pork rib and chili kolo mee, there was a ridiculous amount of dried chili in this dish! I ended up pulling out almost 20 pieces of red chili out, thankfully they just added a good smokiness to the dish and a bit of spice too! It had a thick, dark sauce that coated the noodles very well. I have no idea what you call this cut of pork, Google tells me they're called rib tips! Those knobbly, chewy, white gristly bits are well beloved of most Asians out there.

Mmm pork

I got the fried chicken, juicy, covered in a light battered and brined to perfection. They came with a solid chili sauce and I ate nearly all the plate by mself!

$8 bargain

Kitchen Inn
Atmosphere: 5, your local Asian takeway. 
Service: 5, nothing special.
Food: 8. solid food. Super cheap, huge portions and delicious. Defs go here again.

Barefoot Barista

Jubi bought an apartment down in Palm Beach! She finally invited me over between her hectic schedule working part time and studying full time for her Masters! We took a walk through the main strip and on her recommendation, went to Barefoot Barista.

This place!

We managed to sneak in towards the end of the lunch rush and pretty much had the place to ourselves. We sat out the back and got right into catching up.

Lots of dark wood

Here is their menu! Jubi got an iced latte, she said it was nice and strong.

Solid

I got this Berry Nice One smoothie, raspberry, blueberry and coconut two ways smoothie. I didn't like it, I found that it tasted very bland and that I had very large chunks of ice blocking my straw.

?_? why toasted coconut

I ended up going for lunch rather than breakfast. I got their pulled pork, charred corn salsa, chipotle mayo and coleslaw board. I really enjoyed this meal, except I somehow never expected it to be DIY tacos? I was expecting more of a burrito bowl kinda thing. I also suck at wrapping tacos, I end up getting bits everywhere. The pork was really juicy and went really well with the smokiness of the mayo. I really enjoyed the freshness of the corn salsa and now I make it all the time for my work lunches haha. I did find that the amount of taco shells I got, was not enough! Maybe that is because I put so little filling in them :(

Great!

Jubi got the Sunday Roast salad, chicken breast, roasted pumpkin, peas, rocket, radicchio, cos lettuce and a mustard dressing. Jubi loves roasted pumpkin and so was disappointed when she received this because she wanted a lot more pumpkin than the one she received. She said that the chicken breast was a touch dry and was disappointed in the size of her dish, since mine was much more substantial.

Light

Barefoot Barista:
Atmosphere: 7, I like bright spaces and dark wood haha. Its a good spot to catch up with friends.
Service: 5, I don't recall it.
Food: 7. only because I liked what I had meal wise but not drink and Jubi had the opposite opinion. So a bit mixed. Definitely give this place a shot though.