The Establishment

Imma start off by saying this is my favourite Italian place in Brisbane because its pretty cheap, has huge portions and I like people watching in West End. I definitely prefer this place for dinners but their breakfast dishes are pretty huge too. It's easy to get to being on the Boundary St intersection opposite the Commonwealth Bank. Park at the Coles and run!

This place!

They have a massive wall of coffee!

Ah!

Here is some of their menu. I honestly forgot to take photos, thinking I had already had them. My bad. Anyway I got a really strong mocha with an extra shot to survive the the drive home.

<3

I got a serve of chorizo scrambled eggs with spinach, mushrooms and a massive slab of sourdough under there. The chorizo was a super fine dice which I wasn't happy about but there was a lot of it so I guess that kind of balanced it out. The eggs were really creamy with a soft curd. I have nothing else to say about this dish because it's something you can easily make at home but it also pretty tasty.

Spot the bread

There was a ridiculous amount of food and I failed to finish my food.

Woah

Dr. S., VGirl, JGirl, and myself went again after we went to the Lifeline Bookfest earlier this year. We wanted something in the area that was also a prime spot to watch the dodgy set of lights where there were numerous close calls with car crashes. Its a traffic light intersection where you CANNOT do a U-turn to get into Coles however, people attempt it anyway with near disastrous effects.

Here is their menu!

We got this freaking huge bowl of chips to start with as per VGirl's requests. Crispy hand cut chips! What more could you want!

Plus aioli and tomato sauce

We got these potato croquettes as well to share between us, I don't think they're on the menu any longer but they were pretty good as well.

Crunchy crunchy!

Next up were the arancini balls filled with mushrooms, pine nuts, parmiggano cheese and truffle oil. These came in a group of three that we split between the four of us. They were super hot and burnt our tongues in our haste to polish them off haha.

<3!

I can't remember who got this seafood fettucine, it came full of scallops, prawns and a super garlicky and bright tomato sauce. Like a ridiculous amount of seafood, we were feeding each other prawns and scallops for the length of the meal. There wasn't just the jumble on the top but also a whole heap inside the pasta nest as well. This giant portion wasn't finished, it was taken home for lunch the next day!

So much

This is VGirl's spinach and ricotta canneloni with a giant serve of balsamic vinegar drizzled garden salad, lots of rocket, tomato, purple onion, pine nuts and capsicum. As usual, VGirl didn't comment very much on her dish, her comment in it's entirety was, "its spinach and ricotta." She's not wrong I suppose, I don't have high expectations of spinach and ricotta dishes, I find it a bit of a bland combination. Too creamy and mild for my tastes, spinach and feta all the way. She liked the huge side salad though.

This blurry blob

JGirl ordered the chorizo and pesto gnocchi with sweet potato crisp, thats the crunchy pile on top! She adored this dish so much that she bought it again the next time we came here. We all had a lot of fun eating the super crunchy, deep fried sweet potato bits but I still miss the fluffiness of sweet potato. The sauce is very rich and creamy while the gnocchi is obviously homemade, so light and fluffy.

<3

Dr S., got gnocchi as well, the zucca! Roasted pumpkin, goats cheese, spinach, pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes, a perfect vegetarian assortment. Dr S., said that she never understood the appeal of gnocchi until she had this dish saying that the ones she had eaten in the past were rubbery and dense. Not like these fluffy square pillows, haha, not a pretty appearance but a great taste, right up my alley!

Shiny

I went again with just Dr S., and JGirl about a week later. We got this garlic bread as our entree. It needed more garlic, you should be able to see it! Not a fan of how they cut the bread as well, it makes it hard to share if you have two noticeably smaller pieces and a jumbo middle one.

Uneven cuts too

I got the jumbo lasagna and side salad, its not called jumbo lasagna, that's just obviously the freaking size of that slab. That's like, what your nonna feeds you when you come over for dinner and she thinks you look too thin. It was delicious, probably one of the best lasagnas I've had ever! Easily detected layers of beef and pork ragu, bechamel sauce, Napoli sauce and parmeggiano regiano sprinkled on top. I did not finish this and so I took the rest of it into work!

Yessss

Dr S., got the sand crab ravioli, a classic Brissie dish I feel! The sand crab ravioli were densely packed with sweet crab meat and covered in a gorgeous buttery sauce of burnt butter and sage. Honestly one of my favourite classic sauce flavours, I loved the piece that I got but compared to my dish, the serving size was underwhelming.

Haha food envy!

The Establishment
Atmosphere: 5, the corner of a busy intersection!
Service: 7, solid, they always check if we're enjoying our meal and top up the water quickly.
Food: 9, really delicious Italian food, cheap, plentiful and with a few more options than your traditional Italian restaurant! Put this one down as my fav Italian place in Brisbane!

Otello Trattoria and Pizzeria

Every time I go to Otello, I have just had plans cancelled by friends, its not the best association. I really only went to Otello because I was running out of places to go to in West End after my fortnightly haircut and massage.

Parking can be a bit of a pain since its West End, park in a nearby street or the local Coles and walk up.

This place!

Here is their menu! I got the diavola pizza, hot salami, mozzarella, capsicum and hot chilli flakes. While the edge of the crust had a very good flavour, I actually didn't enjoy it the pizza. I had quite a few reasons for the because the salami pieces were really stingy for one! They were torn pieces not whole slices and secondly the base!

Mistake

The mozzarella was a really high moisture one and so made most of the base almost unbearably wet and floppy. I despised that wet base, I love my pizzas able to sustain their own weight but this one was a wet noodle flopping around. Blergh.

So wet

I also got the arancini con bologanese, two arancini balls stuffed with bologanese and peas! It had a nice crisp crumb and gooey centre. The rice grains were perfectly cooked.

Two!

Innards shot

I went a second time, while they were running their $10 lunch promo and decided to take advantage of it by buying two mains for lunch! I got their salt and pepper calamari with aioli sauce. The calamari was very tender with an excellent crumbed coating with lots of salt and pepper. I thought their aioli could have been more garlicky but it was still smooth and creamy.

Not bad

I also got a margarita pizza to eat. I wish there was more basil on this pizza, more basil please! I didn't have the same issue with the super wet toppings that I had when I had the diavola pizza the first time around thankfully. The crust was light, chewy with a good wood fire char.

Not bad!

Otello Trattoria and Pizzeria:
Atmosphere: 5, I just sit at the front, I heard there's a back courtyard but I've never bothered heading back there.
Service: 4, a bit absent minded. Both occasions when I went in the middle of the day I had to wait around to be seated, served or had someone notice me at the front counter to pay. 
Food: 6, ehhh its average. Their pizzas are okay, their entrees are okay. You can get better service/food and atmosphere for the same price if you want to eat traditional Italian food in the Brisbane CBD. May I suggest Spaghetti House?

The Persian Restaurant

Two Muslim girls joined my work place recently! Shalalah and Ash., I'm really running out of things to call people with the first name starting with A! Since they're both new to Brisbane I've been giving them recommendations of where to go since I've always gone to halal places with my best Yassmin! This place has always been on the list and so when we had the day free, H., Shalalah, Ash., and I decided to go. It was originally Shalalah and H., going but Ash., and I crashed the party haha.

The Persian Restaurant is on the main strip of Sandgate Road. near Mundo Churrasco if you know where that is. Parking is a bit of a pain since the street parking is limited on a main road the the two car parks for the area are pretty underground and not easily visible from the street. Keep a sharp eye out!

Kitchen!

Haha, even though the restaurant doesn't have halal signage, Ash., and Shalalah both instantly knew it was. Apparently it has that ethnic look to the place? It reminds me of when Yass and I went to Arabellas and she knew it was halal upon seeing it.

Ethnic?

Wall to wall carpets.

Here is their menu! We got this freaking amazing eggplant dip called  kashk-e-Bademjan, grilled eggplant with fried mint and whey sauce. The incredible soft melting texture of eggplant and soft caramelised onions, with the fresh coolness of the mint and whey sauce that added an incredible richness to the dip. Oh it was so, so good! Yeah, it looks like vomit but its so delicious, who cares!

<33333

We got this dips assortment to share as well, it came with flat bread that tasted pretty stale as well as hummus, mast-o-khiyar and mirza ghasemi, the last two being a yoghurt and garlic sauce and then a grilled eggplant, chopped tomato and egg dip. These three dishes don't hold a candle to the earlier eggplant dish, so don't even bother! However, that's only my opinion, Ash., loved the hummus, Shalalah and H., both preferred the eggplant and tomato dish. I wasn't able to try the yoghurt and garlic dish, as you know yoghurt gives me rapid onset diarrhoea with my lactose intolerance.

The colours are easy to figure out

This is the King's Choice, one skewer of the barg, joojeh and koobideh kebabs. Barg is marinated lamb backstrap, the joojeh is chicken marinated in lemon juice, olive oil and saffron while the koobideh is flavoured minced lamb! I felt very strongly about the koobideh being the best, it has the best spice mixture to it and was super tender and juicy. If I were to go back, koobideh x2 for me please! I really like how rice is served in Middle Eastern style restaurants, they have super fluffy rice, with very individual granules and normally serve it with a pat of butter on the side to enrich the rice!

I left out Shalalah's meal because she got the double serve of the joojeh and rice.

<3 fit for a king!

H., wanted to eat something vegetarian and light so I said she should pick this, I wasn't really thinking though so she ended up getting most of what we got earlier. Flat bread, hummus, spicy beetroot dip, dolmades, tabbouleh and pickles. I think she was expecting more of a main meal kinda thing rather than endless nibbles, sorry H.,! 

Although the bread here was a lot fluffier and warmed slightly, unlike the tough bread we received earlier. When I mentioned this, everyone else said that they hadn't noticed any difference?

Hmm

Ash., picked a dud dish as well having gotten the tah chin morgh, chicken cooked with saffron and yoghurt, topped with rice and oven baked. It came with a side salad and more of that yoghurt and garlic dip. It was this giant blob of mushy rice that when she broke apart revealed more yoghurt and then chicken finally. It was a really bland dish, I was expecting the yoghurt to be a marinade not to be included as the sauce/main component of the meal. Looking at google, reveals more a rice crust to provide a textural component. She ate most of the chicken and left the rice behind.

Blergh

The Persian Restaurant
Atmosphere: 7, a lovely place to take photos haha!
Service: 5, average.
Food: 6, what I ate was good, what other people ate wasn't, A bit of a mixed bag! Definitely try the koobideh kebab and that eggplant and fried mint and whey dip!

Snag and Brown

Post night shift breakfasts ahoy! I went here with Mr 2., and a straggler who invited them self along, a real shame cause I wanted to talk trash about them while we were at breakfast. Nothing worse than going to a meal with someone you dislike, it taints my food.

This cafe is located down Ekibin Road in Annerley, the end further away from Ipswich Road if that helps. Parking is alright I suppose, just crossing the road in the morning can take a little while.

Local feeds

Here is their menu. Below is their disclosure? Or rather, an explanation of their menu items.

Good to know

Here is their drinks menu!

I love different drink options

I got the bounty hot chocolate made on soy milk with a double shot of espresso added in. It had a great coconut flavour and small pieces of toasted coconut in the drink to add some texture. I dunno why but its surprisingly hard to find flavoured hot chocolate drinks that aren't at a dessert cafe, the only other brekkie place that I know always makes them is Cafe Wrapture in West End!

+_+ yesss flavoured hot chocolates

Mr 2 got the English breakfast. Why is the cup the same size as the teapot?

?_?

This is the medley of mushroom with truss tomatoes, poached eggs, toast, leafy greens and weird polenta sausage.

Ehhh

I got the braised pork belly with black pudding, sweet potato and caramelised onion hash brown, poached eggs, popcorn crackling and an onion and apple puree. What is it with me and ordering braised pork belly and receiving this dry looking roast chunk? Wikipedia even says so! Braising is when you fry something on a high heat and then continue the rest of the cooking in a liquid, until it becomes so tender you can push it apart with a fork. I was expecting this gelatinous brown blob where the fat had rendered down into the meat, where if I looked at it threateningly, it would just collapse!

So as you can expect, I was already irritable when I saw this. I didn't like this meal, the black pudding was cut unevenly and just warmed, they didn't fry off the black pudding until it was crispy. The apple puree was pretty sweet, The crackling was pretty and crunchy but not salty in the least. The sweet potato hash was pretty good though, quite sweet from the caramelised onion and the sweet potato pieces had a good crispy edge. I was expecting a different appearance though, more like the usual potato hash browns or like a squished hash to be honest?

Wow, I didn't realise how much I disliked this meal until I began typing this :/, before I did this, I would have classed my annoyance as mild.

Uhhh

At least my egg popped?

Yay?

Mr 2 got the big breakfast, pork chipolatas, thick cut bacon, your choice of eggs, your choice of hash brown, mushrooms, roasted truss tomatoes, white bean, house relish and pork cassoulet and leafy greens. He decided to go with poached eggs and the sweet potato and caramelised onion hash brown that I got with my dish. His comment was that everything was okay, nothing great but he wouldn't go back here based off that. He also adds that he doesn't like 62C degree poached eggs, he finds them too runny for his liking.

Thick bacon!

Snag and Brown
Atmosphere: 7, pretty cute converted house!
Service: 7, pretty friendly service, more than happy to change my drink for me as well as explain the menu.
Food: 5, average food.

Nene Chicken

I was very excitedly stalking Nene Chicken's opening in Queens St Mall for many months. All my friends know I love fried chicken especially Korean Fried chicken and I was especially excited as Nene Chicken is South Korea's version of our KFC! I didn't manage to go on their opening day because the rain was so bad but I managed to go later in the week with VGirl, her boyfriend, JGirl, Dr S., and myself.

Parking is terrible, it's the CBD! Hope for weekend parking at the Myer Centre, park further afield and leg it in or catch public transport! It's located near the Starbucks/MacDonald's end of Queens St Mall.

Here is their menu! Don't bother with their website as it has no prices and doesn't actually have the same range of products as their Zomato menu.

We got the bulchi chips to share! It's a mix of deep fried potato chips covered in bulgogi mince, kimchi, then topped with sour cream, tomato and finely shredded green onion. It's pretty messy but also delicious to eat, think of it as a Korean take on chilli fries!

We got the largest box of chicken! Jumbo 16 pieces which allows you to get two types of sauces for an extra $2. We ended up getting the bulgogi and swicy flavours. The bulgogi flavour tastes just like straight up honey and garlic soy, which is essentially what bulgogi is, I like the flavours here and I will always continue to pick honey and garlic soy if asked .

The swicy flavour is their sweet/spicy flavour, tasting a lot like a sweet tomato and honey number, its very sticky and continued to thicken up as we ate it. I think we were pretty evenly divided on which flavour we preferred. I still prefer Momo's chicken though, its just as crispy but has isn't as drenched in sauce. There was a massive pool of sauce at the bottom which I though was a bit much and made eating quite messy.

All their fried chicken comes with a tiny serve of pickled radish and coleslaw, the radish too finely diced to be easy to pick up or share. Ditto the coleslaw, its very finely shredded and was very soggy by the time we got it. That being said, I do appreciate any form of vegetation when I'm eating Korean fried chicken, it alleviates the oiliness! Especially the crunchy pickles.

Actually a huge box

Nene Chicken:
Atmosphere: 5, its a takeaway shop.
Service: 5, brisk and efficient. They package everything neatly for you and also give you plastic gloves to stop your fingers getting dirty!
Food: 8, a good introduction to Korean Fried Chicken but I still love Momo's more!