Next Door Kitchen and Bar

Oh man, I went to Next Door for my first date with Sir A., literally last year! I remember this day really well because I was a dickweed who left my wallet in the glove compartment of my car, so when we went to split the bill, I had nothing. Sir A., paid for me without complaint and then took us out for milkshakes. I was absolutely mortified and made a huge point of showing him my wallet when he walked me back to my car. He still refused to accept my money as he said guys are used to footing the bill. I'm a strong, independent woman who earns bank! I don't need anyone to pay for me!

Look out for this place!

Its a lovely little place, right in the centre of Gray Street looking out into South Bank.

Lots and lots of tables

They have a massive bar section!

Nice!

We instantly got a bottle of ice cold water to start with.

Reused booze bottle!

Here is their menu! We got their shoestring fries with a wonderful truffled aioli. V., told me that this was really good and she wasn't wrong! Super crispy, well salted shoestring fries and a super truffley, garlicky aioli!

Yesssss

I got this as my entree, a pan fried calamari with crispy onion bits and a salsa verde sauce. It was a very light and refreshing taste, the calamari was super tender. Ehh, I prefer crispy calamari all the time, I would've preferred it that way for sure.

Sir A., got this New York style sirloin steak, it came with thick cut smoked bacon, red wine jus, mashed potato and colcannon aka an Irish dish with mashed potato and crispy kale bits. The steak was a perfect medium rare and melted on the tongue like pure butter, oh man that was a good steak! Even as good as that, the thick smoky chunks of bacon were an absolute delight as well, you can't see any in the picture but they're as thick as your finger nail! Sir A was desperately hoping that I wouldn't ask for any.

Really delicious!

I got their BLT, fancy as anything with its delicious crunchy bacon, ripe tomato, lettuce, bacon jam and aioli on toasted white bread. I really enjoyed this BLT and its the standard by which I measure them now! Every single ingredient was perfect and I would happily go back and order this if it was still on the menu.

Bacon!

Next Door Kitchen and Bar
Atmosphere: 7, I quite liked the physical breeziness of the location. You can do some great people watching there.
Service: 6, really prompt service.
Food: 7, pretty good! I would definitely go here again if I ever remembered that it was there. I don't know why I've never gone back considering I liked nearly everything I ate here.

Habitat Restaurant and Bar

I finally decided to go to Habitat with friends after my night shifts! Then we went again for W.,'s birthday! This place is right beside the Coles in Woolworths, I highly recommend parking there and walking across to it.

This place!

This is an outdoor seating area of theirs, perfect for night time drinking or catching up with friends.

Cushions, cushions everywhere

The inside looks more like a standard bar.

So many stools

I don't get the point of this spot, more cushions but how are you supposed to sit on them?

Wat.

They had these lovely little leather booths, for some reason the upholstery reminds me of caramel coloured padded room material.

Super comfy though

Here is the menu! They had an interesting selection of condiments for their table, olive oil, raw sugar, salt flakes, Huffman's hot sauce and a pepper mill.

Salt dishes weird me out

I got an iced latte! I kinda like the glass, it looks like its based off a chunk of bamboo. I like the layered effect of the coffee but I can't remember too much about the drink itself, not even a month later and I'm mind blanking :/

Looks good though!

D., came along since L., was on night shifts with us and he grabbed the Habitat feast plate, roasted tomato, mushrooms, bacon, choice of eggs, chorizo, black pudding, zucchini fritter and sourdough. He finished everything and said it was pretty good. I had everything else on the plate on everyone else's meal so I'll go through bits in other meals.

Not a bad looking plate

L., got the little Critter Fritters, zucchini fritters, red pepper jam, pumpkin mousse and lots of coriander garnish. I thought this was a bit of a weird pick for her since she normally goes for sweets and stuff without eggs or bacon. I guess this counts? She was a bit mixed between thinking this was a stingy serve but she also doesn't eat very much for breakfast so she was actually full.

Interesting

H., was obsessed with the name of this dish below, that's what I'm Guaccan about. I warned her off it, you know she picks the worst option on the menu. I was dubious about it because I feel like avo on toast should have something salty like feta or goats cheese to balance it out. This version of avo on toast came with sourdough, mashed avocado, dukkah, red chard salad with raspberry dressing. She said the dressing was quite sour and she would've liked something salty to go with the avocado.

Hmmm~

V., got the Andele Andele Paprika! Basically a breakfast burrito made with scrambled eggs, black beans, roasted capsicum, avocado, chorizo and wilted spinach. She ate everything but the chorizo and I was confused as to why then she fed me some. It was sort of like a chorizo flavoured breakfast sausage, quite greasy and fatty.

I still don't like Mexican food :/

I got the Squeaky Scotsman, black pudding, sweet potato bubble and squeak, brussel sprout chips and poached eggs. I remember being disappointed that there was so little black pudding on the dish considering its the main component. Its a very visually striking dish considering the elements but I would have liked more black pudding! The bubble and squeak was very crunchy which I enjoyed. 

Looks great though

The second time I went here I got the Rosie Cheddar Cheeks, a Vegemite and cheddar roll, crispy bacon, poached eggs, rocket and macerated tomato. I didn't feel like the Vegemite and cheddar flavour was particularly pronounced in the roll, I was expecting the scrolls you can get at bakeries where you can see layers and layers of oozy cheese and thick Vegemite. The bacon was great as was the freshness of the tomatoes to counteract the saltiness.

Blurry much ):

Manda got the Bah Bah Little Lamb burger for lunch, she waited impatiently for about 20 minutes for their lunch service to begin. As soon as that clock hit 11.30am, she grabbed hold of the waitress and put in her order! A minced lamb burger with red pepper jam, rocket, pickles and a cucumber yoghurt dressing, she also got a side of waffle fries with it! She said it was a really juicy and delicious burger, she was a happy lady.

Habitat Restaurant and Bar
Atmosphere: 8, its a lovely place. There's lots of spots where you stake out a place with friends.
Service: 5, uhhh a bit lacking, I don't know why they couldn't take Manda's lunch time order earlier :/
Food: 5, pretty average. I was always a bit let down by what was on the plate. The names of the dishes are cute though. I wouldn't go back here again.

Corbett and Claude

I got invited to Corbett and Claude when they opened up their first store at the Indooroopilly shopping centre. I hate that place, I rarely go because it's almost a 40 minute drive from where I live and you have to go through Coronation Drive to get there. Not to mention the shopping centre is bits tacked onto bits. I got so lost getting back to my car, I spent almost forty minutes wandering around the empty parking lots at night trying to find it. It's so eerie being somewhere you expect to be

Anyway, it's a bit of a weird place to find but if you just park on the third level of the shopping centre and walk to the food court end where the Lord of the Wings, Yum Cha Cuisine, Guzman y Gomez and other restaurants are you're there! It's on the outside opposite the Pig and Whistle. Don't think you can get there from Station Road by driving! There's nowhere to park!

We got a massive bowl of warm mixed olives to share as our first entree. Beware the pits! As much as I'm a savoury girl I never got into snacking on olives, too briney!

Everyone else loved them though

This is an amazing, amazing cheeseboard! It had so much tasty stuff on it san danielle prosciutto, salumi salami, quattro stelle smoked ham, pita bread, lavosh crackers, maffra red leichester, millawa blue cheese, whitestone double cream brie, whitestone vintage cheddar, swiss gruyere, vanella buffalo mozzarella, pesto, a fruit paste, mini figs and muscatel grapes! I was a massive fan of the blue cheese, mini fig and prosciutto all together.

Cheese please!

After the cheese platters were done we were allowed to pick whatever we wanted from the menu to try and we went a bit nuts picking food. I think everyone picked two or three dishes and we swarmed each other tables like a plague of locusts, snapping photos and sharing food. Food bloggers are great at sharing food, taking photos and waiting patiently to eat!

This was the first thing we got and it was the field mushroom, caramelised onion and goats cheese pizza, a match made in heaven! I can't emphasise enough how much I like the thinness and crispiness of this crust. The other big point I liked about these pizzas is that they had ample topping on each and every slice, at a lot of pizzerias you find there's a dud slice that is smaller than everything else and has no topping. At Corbett and Claude there is no dud slice! I quality tested all the pizzas to make sure!

I love you pizza

This was the crispy potato, rosemary and proscuitto pizza. I've never been a fan of potato on pizza, it's something about the lack of deep fried crunchiness that gets me, even with this one being cut ruffle chip style, they're still not crunchy after being in the oven. The proscuitto crisped up deliciously and of course rosemary and potato is a combination made in heaven. This one had a bit of a higher crust ratio that I'd like, but Mama Pham would love it. Mama Pham steals the crusts and leaves the filling part.

Wonderful crunch!

I didn't try any pizza but I did manage to pinch a prawn, this is grilled prawn, rocket and chili jam! The prawns didn't have any char marks that I could see but they had a great burst to them.

I didn't get to it in time ):

We got random assorted salads bought to our table all the time. This one was a quinoa based one. I didn't try any but the rest of the food bloggers seemed to enjoy it immensely.

Quinoa is weird

This was by far, my favourite pizza as it was the closest thing to a fancy meat lovers! This is the C&C special meatballs with caramelised onion, crispy proscuitto and barbeque sauce. The meatballs were soft, moist and utterly tasty! I think I ate close to half a pizza to myself, quite the feat among nearly 20 hungry foodies!

Yessssss

These all arrived at our table at the same type, nearly too far away for me to sample since I sat right smack bang in the middle. From top going clockwise, there was hand cut fries covered in parsley and grated parmesan with the best garlicky aioli I've ever had, the other food bloggers were rhapsodising ferociously about how these were the best fries they had ever had! Pan fried gnocchi coated in pesto and on a bed of spinach and tomato, I quite enjoyed these gnocchi finding them delicious with their crunchy exteriors and soft, pillowy interiors. I sadly didn't get to try the haloumi ):

CHIPS!

These are the crunchy chicken bits and I paraphrase another food blogger, "these are fancy ass KFC popcorn chicken!" That's exactly what they taste like, just jumbo sized and way crunchier. I'd have gladly eaten the entire tray by myself and I did because everyone had gotten way too full and the waiter made the mistake of putting this directly in front of me hahaha!

Bring on the chicken!

Corbett and Claude
Atmosphere: 5, solid little bar.
Service: 5, mixed at times. The service was a bit all over the place, one minute super attentive, the next forgetting orders.
Food: 8, great food! I would love the crunchy chicken bits or the fries again no problem at all. The pizzas are pretty good as well and I have to commend them on their abundance of toppings. It's just a shame they're so far away from me is all!

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~!

Yard Bird Ale House

Yardbird Alehouse has been on my list of go to places for a long freaking time, I've never gone because I dislike bar settings, all the noise, drunken people and uncomfortable chairs make me hate them.

Watch out for this sign in the corner of the little food district.

Aw yiss

There are a lot of interesting pieces of artwork around the bar but they're hard to take photos of!

Kitchen

Overexposed photo :(

See! They're pretty hard to take photos of, I really need to work on playing around with exposure settings.

Aw yiss

Love em!

Huh?

Lovely couches!

Here is a link to their menu! The first thing we ordered was the New Orleans Chicken pizza, grilled Cajun chicken, chorizo, roasted capsicum, Spanish onions, mozzarella cheese on a chipotle tomato base. I found this to be a wonderfully meaty pizza with great flavours from all the ingredients. The base was American style, slightly thick but still crispy crunchy on the bottom.

Awesome!

You can only choose one flavour for your wings for every six wings that you buy, we got try all the flavours since we bought so many wings between the . . . fifteen of us or whatever it was that arrived.  Honey BBQ was slightly sweet but had a good BBQ flavour, the Southern fried wings were garlic and parmesan flavoured but I wasn't a fan, Chipotle BBQ was my absolute flavour with a great smoky BBQ flavour that I wanted to lick off the wings and original buffalo had a solid heat and sour flavour.

Lastly was the death sentence wings, they were the spiciest thing I've ever had. I have a solid medium heat tolerance for everything, and like a brown person level of spice too. Ms M for Megababe and I each had one each, my mouth quickly went numb but I stopped being able to feel it and just finished eating my wing. After about a minute, someone asked if something was wrong as I had tears streaming down my face from the heat. I wasn't even aware that I was crying, I looked over to Ms M for Megababe and she was also silently crying. Everyone was very impressed by how strong the spice was and most people there refused to even have a full wing, contending to just lick a bit of the sauce.

Garlic and parmesan on top and then the original buffalo sauce wings

Chipotle BBQ!

I went here a second time with Mr J on a date. He ordered the Cuban sandwich based on my recommendation, I actually had it the first time I was here but I used this photo instead. Its filled with pulled pork, smoked leg ham, Swiss cheese, gherkins and American mustard. The pulled pork was the main part of the sandwich, I found it slightly too dry and needed some more sauce to stop it being so cloying. The sandwich was huge and it was a massive struggle to finish it, even Mr J had issues trying to eat it all.

Meat tornado sandwich

I got the cheeseburger which came with a side of fries. It was terrible, the beef patty was quite dry, cooked to a well done state and the patty itself was quite small in size.

Tiny patty

The chips were delicious, freshly fried and well salted.

Good chips!

Yard Bird Ale House
Atmosphere: 5, its a pub. It could be worse I suppose.
Service: 7, super fast pub service!
Food: 5.5, sometimes passable, sometimes bad, generally huge portions for cheap prices though. I'd happily go here for food while drunk.