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!

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!

Doughnut Bar

I went to the Doughnut Bar food truck when it was in Eat Street! My sister VGirl was also with me and she was just as keen as I was to try this latest contender to the doughnut scene! Watch out for their van at the front of Eat Street.

This is the Malteaser doughnut! Melted dark chocolate on top, MnMs and three Maltesers! The chocolate was much more balanced than at Doughnut Time however I found that the actually taste of the doughnut was very bread like. Imagine bread, then you put icing on top of it, just like that. This was consistent across all the doughnuts that we ate.

Pretty though

This is the salted sundae, salted caramel glaze and pistachio! VGirl thought this was delicious but remarked that pistachio is always delicious. She also adds that she ate her doughnut the day after, when it had been in the fridge the entire time.

I wanted this one but allowed VGirl to have it

This was also my doughnut, the Cookie Monster, melted milk chocolate, bits of Tim Tam and blue icing. VGirl said it was tasty. I had no real opinion of it.

Crumbly bits

Doughnut Bar
Atmosphere: 5, its in Eat Street!
Service: 5, prompt service.
Food: 5, I didn't really like them. I found the icing more balanced than Doughnut Time, not quite as intensely sugary. I disliked the texture of the doughnuts themselves though. VGirl liked these more, but she doesn't have much of a sense of taste. 

Doughnut Time

All aboard the hype train! Doughnut Time has had the most efficient viral marketing on Instagram that I've ever seen. It consists of crazy flavours, bright colours and lots and lots of food bloggers getting on board with it. That being said, its a bit of a difficult place to get to since there isn't much parking around and its a bit expensive. It's sandwiched in between Kwan Brothers and Alfredo's.

Blink and you'll miss it

Here was the menu from the time that I went, they bring out lots of different flavours all the time, so stalk them on Instagram.

Fun names 

Here is the pretty box from them. It fits six doughnuts and they're still $6 a pop each. No discount for bulk buys.

Yessss

Here is the six doughnuts I picked for the first box. There's a few double ups here but I also got another box.

Pretty pretty pretty

Not so pretty is their OG - original glazed doughnut, the doughnuts are quite reasonably sized about 15cm in diameter. This tastes exactly like a jumbo original Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The texture of all the doughnuts is the same, fluffy layers of dough much like Krispy Kremes are. The difference between the lot of them is basically whatever glaze is on top of it.

Not bad

The salty dog was the name of their glorious salted caramel doughnut. It was amazing, tooth achingly sweet but absolutely delicious. I loved it and was licking the sides of the box to get more of that salted caramel glaze.

Salted caramel is my weakness

Here is their Planting the Seed, raspberry and cream! I had a bit of the icing off this one and thought it could have been tarter. Strawberries and cream was what I thought it was and I got this for Dr S., as a result.

Pretty though

Dr S., also requested this Americana doughnut, peanut butter and jelly time! This was a strawberry jelly glaze and the centre of the doughnut was filled with a smooth, creamy peanut butter.

Not bad!

This was the Butternut, burnt butter glaze topped with pistachios, it was sooooo good! That savoury buttery flavour was a perfect contrast to the sweetness of the glaze. I think this was my favourite one after the salted caramel doughnut.

Second best!

Disco Biscuit was the name of the chocolate and Oreo glazed doughnut. It had a sweet milk chocolate glaze and clusters of crushed Oreos on the top. I think a slightly darker chocolate would've been better to offset the sweetness. That being said, I did love my Oreo doughnut!

Oreo~

Doughnut Time
Atmosphere: 5, little hole in the wall in the middle of nowhereish. Blink and you'll miss it locations, not to mention the multitude of one way streets around the place.
Service: 5, passable. The shop is tiny, so they can only fit one person in there and the rest of the place is doughnuts. Expect long serving times for this reason, not to mention restocking.
Food: 5, the doughnuts are fancy Krispy Kremes, glaze is often overly sweet and they're quite expensive. I don't ever see anyone become a regular for this place for those reasons. They are gorgeous little doughnuts and the flavours are fun, but for me, too expensive.

Chester Street Bakery

E., and I went to breakfast the day that we finished up our nights together. We had somewhere else originally picked but we finished up the day of the Queens Birthday public holiday and so we didn't have many places to choose from. Plus the place we went to at first was shut as I was looking at the previous year's list of open places.

I looked up the real list and decided that Chester Street Bakery wouldn't be a bad choice and off we went! We were very surprised to find out that it was only maybe five or so minutes away from where we had dinner the night before at Ribs and Burgers!

Its located in industrial wasteland

Its located right in the corner and there is pretty average metered parking around in case there isn't any parking in the little lot there.

In this little nook

It was a pretty chilly place but there are lots of space heaters everywhere to keep you toasty warm.

Ooh yes giant heaters

This is their desserts board! Only available after 5pm for the solid price of $14.90.

This was their desserts board!

I had a lot of fun looking around because there are large clear refrigerated cabinets everywhere with lots of pretty and delicious looking cakes waiting to be sliced up and eaten.

Ooh

Ooh yes

More cakes!

Even more cakes!

Jesus

I took a brief picture of the front display cabinent but I didn't snap a picture of the bread behind the counter or the front display of freshly made baked goods. Too many serving staff around ):

Not just cakes, salads too!

We decided to sit inside on this long communal dining table. We were a bit hidden away from the cool breeze and were staring right at the pizza oven and bar area.

This fun place

I had my eyes on the front counter for quite a while though. I finished my meal quite quickly and was then eyeing off a dessert for the longest time.

This was our other view

Anyway, I got the raspberry, watermelon, strawberry, lime and coconut water frappe. It was very sweet and refreshing, there wasn't one particularly dominate flavour, just a nice blend of all the fruits used. I finished my drink off quite quickly as a result.

Mmm~

I got the breakfast pizza, cracked egg, speck, oregano, cherry tomato, rocket and mozzarella. It was quite a small sized pizza with just the one egg cracked over it. The base was absolutely delicious though, super crunchy, wafer thing and it was made so it had a good crust to grab a hold of. It had a lovely smoky odour from the wood fired ovens they use. The speck was quite salty and fatty, sliced super thin like prosciutto normally is and it contrasted very well with the sweet cherry tomato and runny egg. The rocket was a good mix too, sharp, peppery and very fresh against the rest of the toppings.

Quite tasty

E., ordered the hiker's breakfast, baked eggs, grilled chorizo, white bean ragu, lemon creme fraiche and two slices of baguette. It came out in a little cast iron pan, which I always enjoy the appearance of. I really like the sweet richness of the ragu and the mildly spicy and garlicky slices of succulent chorizo throughout the dish. The yolk was a little overcooked for my liking as I love a gooey yolk, spilling all over my food. The baguette was a delicious, freshly baked one with a chewy crust and soft, fluffy innards. The only thing I disliked was that there was so little of it. The creme fraiche was a surprisingly light contrast to the rest of the rich food, the creaminess and sourness of the creme was a really good contrast.

Please sir, can I have some more bread?

I decided that we should get desserts afterwards. I had my eye on this salted caramel doughnut from the moment I saw it on the counter. It was a glorious round puff of a thing with this little ooze of caramel out the side, like just for a little tease.

Ooh, you so damn pretty

I split it down the centre and we marveled at its prettiness, without feeling the least bit sleazy. The salted caramel was so utterly delicious, it was so thick, buttery smooth and sweet with a hint of salt. I don't like sweets but I loved this, I would've eaten an entire jar of the stuff with a spoon. If they had sold salted caramel as a spread, I'd be dead by now.

So damn good

E., also bought us two salted caramel and chocolate shortbread. The shortbread was so buttery and short, with a cocoa hit that we found very intriguing since both of us are very used to the traditional all butter shortbread. The cream sandwiching the two shortbread pieces was faintly salted caramel but not to the same extent of the salted caramel doughnut, it was still delicious and for $3.50 hell yeah, I'll get some more. Then again, the doughnut was only $4.

Also good

Dr S., JGirl, VGirl and myself went back to Chester Street Bakery after we went to the Smoke. Dr S., and JGirl saw my pictures and had been drooling over the salted caramel doughnut and wanted to go here like crazy. We went for just a quick dessert run, Dr S., decided to get this salted caramel and chocolate bar, it was a dense dark chocolate brownie, covered in a white chocolate icing, small malt balls and a squiggle of salted caramel. We partially split them between us and then we were scraping the salted caramel off the plate to get the last bits of it.

Also only about $5

VGirl spent like 20 minutes trying to decide on something to eat, she doesn't like chocolate a lot and most sweets, but she likes most of the really old school classic Aussie desserts. She was hoping for a little lemon meringue pie but she didn't want a large slice of one. We kept saying she should get something to eat so she ended up getting this lemon slice. It had a buttery, crumbly and short base topped by a deliciously tart lemon curd.

She enjoyed it

I was the only one to get a full dessert, I got the chocolate fondant with malt ice cream and ovaltine crunch. It was the last thing to come out for obvious reasons and we all marveled at it when it came out.

Mmm fondant

I cracked open that bad boy and watched all the molten cake spill everywhere.It melted the malt icecream beautifully and I loved the crunch of those little Ovaltine balls, it was a wonderful contrast in textures. It was very rich though, and I'm not sure if I would order it again.

Oooh that close up

Chester Street Bakery
Atmosphere: 5, cold but I like the display of the 
Service: 6, decent enough I guess. They do a lot of run by cutlery and dish grabs.
Food: 7, I quite enjoyed all my food here, the portions are bit small especially the mains but they are very tasty. I'm a fan of big meals, so I wouldn't be happy always getting this small a meal. The small desserts are fantastic though and especially for the price they are. I'd gladly go here for a quick dessert with friends after a big meal.

Swiss Gourmet Deli

Did you know that there is an archive of mouldering posts on my blog that contain one or two items and not full reviews? Sometimes I just go to somewhere, pick up one or two items and never return. When I run out of posts and am in a rut for posting something, that moulding post becomes a RJIE, sometimes it spends a little longer in hibernation and becomes a full blog post.



Swiss Gourmet Deli is one of those places I go to whenever I'm in West End so I automatically assume everyone knows about it. I was quite surprised when we went to Char Char Yiros that no one had ever been inside. I thought to myself, yes, I need to share this!

The fluffy looking thing in the photo below is actually a Portuguese pavlova, its a super tall, super sweet meringue coated in burnt caramel and almonds. It doesn't look particularly large but the size of this slice was about the size of a paperback book. We shared this slice between four of us, great for those who love cloud like meringue. I don't think we actually finished it.

Huge, huge, huge!

The Swiss Gourmet Deli is super famous for its awesome Portuguese custard tarts, at the time of report they cost about $2.80. They are absolutely delicious, a super silky thick custard with real vanilla bean seeds, the top is lovingly scorched to a golden brown forming a weird skin that I enjoy picking off and eating and the pastry is short and flaky. I always buy just one, and I try to avoid going back because that would start a terrible downwards spiral of gluttony.

So good

Swiss Gourmet Deli
Atmosphere: 6, super duper cramped shop of everything. Everywhere you possibly look there is something new to check out and ponder buying. The glass counter is full of delicious things that you want to buy, don't make eye contact with it.
Service: 5, buy stuff and bail.
Food: 8, delicious food and rare ingredients that you can't find anywhere else!