Malacca Malay

I was initially very excited to find that there was a new restaurant opening up at the Hyperdome aka my local shopping centre. I know that I say that Garden City is my local but that is because no one would happily claim the Hyperdome as their local. When I saw that this place had opened, I knew I had to go and try their food.

Parking is easy, its at a major shopping centre. Just park down at the Coles end and leg it. It's right in front of Aldi, its hard to miss. Here is their menu, thanks Zomato!

I got the chicken satay skewers as my entree. I found the chicken to be a touch dry with a very heavy hand on the tumeric in their marinade. I was quite saddened that there was no heavy charring or smokey flavour on the chicken. Their satay sauce was quite sweet. It came chopped onion, cuucmber and sour pineapple on the side.

):

This was the curry pork rib with noodles. I could not finish this dish, both due to the generous portion sizing as well as the taste not being to my liking. The pork rib pieces that they use are the cartilage heavy, tasty pork rib tips that are loved in Asian cooking. They were smothered in a thick, grainy, spice heavy curry that reminded me of fresh curry powder? I'm not sure how to explain it because the flavour was very familiar but I was unable to really place it or describe it besides, "the equivalent of fresh curry powder."

:<

I got the teh tarik which was a gigantic delicious serve.

Another reason I didn't finish my meal was the large slick of oil present.

Pork remnants

Malacca Malay
Atmosphere: 5, nothing fancy.
Service: 5, counter service!
Food: 4, not to my liking. I didn't enjoy anything I ate.

Deep Fry Master

L., D., and I go to dinner after work fairly frequently. Where some may balk at the idea of 10-11pm dinner, we relish it! We always go to Sunnybank, specifically Market Square due to the fact that its always open and the exact middle point between our work and home. Unfortunately that means we're fast running out of spots to try because we're always there.

L., suggested this Taiwanese place at the back of Market Square called Deep Fry Master. It has its own parking lot and looks shady. Here is their menu. They have a very extensive menu, lots of snacks, meal options and fried a la carte option.

L., got this noodle soup number with minced pork, an egg, bean sprouts and chives with rice noodles. It also came with a winter melon iced tea. The soup stock have a very clean and mild flavour. It was a surprisingly palatable soup.

Noodle soup!

If you don't want any of these meal options you can get an assorted stir fried bag of stuff, with levels of heat available. I seriously have no idea why you would go out to eat this when you could do this at home, maybe you're too lazy to get all the veggies yourself? Pick you choice of ingredients and they'll cook it for you, this bag was cauliflower, cabbage and eggplant at the bottom. All the vegetables were cooked perfectly. 

Veggies

This was fish cake, a bay leaf, fried livers on a stick and white bait underneath. The fish cakes were soft and chewy with a good flavour, not overly fishy. The liver was covered in a spicy salt and were a touch rubbery. The white bait were actually very large pieces and were big enough to have soft fillets of flesh on them, rather than the crunchy morsels you receive at many places.

Meats

Fry Chicken Master
Atmosphere: 5, it looks like a dining hall for students.
Service: 5, L., took care of the ordering so nothing went wrong.
Food: 5, nothing bad, nothing great. Probably somewhere good to go if you miss these type of restaurants from Taiwan.

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. 

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.

Sorellina

I love pizza, any way I can get it! So I had to go to Sorellina, rumoured to be one of the best pizzerias in Brisbane! It frequently tops the charts in bloggers lists, Zomato round ups and my friend's recommendations, so off I go!

Parking is horrific here. Sorellina is located in the antiques district of Woolloongabba along Logan road, right near the Gabba stadium. I don't think I've ever gotten a park in that one way street hell. I recommend parking on Jurgens Street and legging it in. 

Looks like a beer hall!

Here is their menu! I went with VGirl and we opted to share the garlic foccacia as our entree. We got these five wedges of surprisingly dense, charry hunks of bread. It was roughly painted with garlic butter but we both didn't like it. The foccacia was actually really hard to chew through! Despite its appearance it wasn't fluffy at all and we had to really gnaw pieces of it off. Both VGirl and I are of the opinion that garlic bread should be like a fluffy sponge of bread soaked in garlic butter, which was definitely not the case of this bread. Hard pass. 

Boo

I got the pork sausage, salami, caramelised onion, mozzarella and parsley pizza. It was amazing, I absolutely loved their crust with its blistered golden brown bubbles, wafer thin edges and charred bottom, you could taste the wood smoke and can I say again, THAT CRUNCH. Ahh that's the way a wood fired pizza should be! The toppings were really good too, the salami had a hot spiciness to it, the dots of pork sausage mince had a nice fennel taste to cut through the pork and the caramelised onions were delicious sweet. VGirl disagreed with me by saying it was burnt, but she doesn't appreciate good food, just free food.

<333333

I talked VGirl into getting this eggplant, tomato, smoked mozzarella, parmesan and oregano pizza. I thought this was equally as good as my pizza, meltingly soft and smokey eggplant, stretchy mozzarella and the fragrance of oregano! VGirl disagreed, mostly because she actually doesn't like eggplant that much barring dip form. She just managed to be persuaded by me in this, she actually wanted to get the mushroom pizza. 

Great toppings

Whatever I took it to work with me cause I had eaten half of my pizza, VGirl had half of hers and kindly gave me the rest of hers since she didn't want it. T., when she had it work gave it high praise, she said it was an excellent pizza, that it was as good as stuff she had eaten in Sicily and that she would bring her family here if they were in Brisbane. High praise from a proud Italian girl!

Sorellina
Atmosphere: 6, an informal pizzeria where you can get tanked and eat good pizza with mates. Not for date night.
Service: 6, solid, the chefs seem to work dually as both service staff and chefs in a pinch.
Food: 9, amazingly good pizza! Ignore that garlic bread though, go straight for any of their pizzas!

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?