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~!

The Stock Exchange new menu!

I got invited to the Stock Exchange to try their new winter menu! I've never been there before since I don't drink or go out partying/clubbing very often but I have heard about the place before. I do love my bar food after all and truth be told, the times I've been to bars, they have the best service hands down. Also there were a lot of other food bloggers there, it was nice chatting to people so passionate about food! I saw some interesting techniques for taking photos and made some friends.

The Stock Exchange Hotel is easy to find for any Brisbane local so I won't bother explaining where it is. Here is the menu that we tried on the night!

We got the chili squid with sambal aioli dropped off at our table first, the squid was so amazingly tender here and perfectly cooked with not a single hint of chewiness. I found that the chili only added a tiny amount of heat to the dish but it was an attractive addition to the dish. I didn't get to try much of the sambal aioli as it got passed down the table and ended up where the mini chorizos were.

So good!

The sticky lamb ribs were melting tender and when I grabbed a bone to lift it up, I had to work super fast to get my plate underneath it as the meat was already dripping off the bone. The barbecue sauce was finger licking good with a good smoky and sweet flavour.

So perfectly cooked

Jalapeno poppers stuffed with cream cheese! I absolutely love the hell outta jalapeno poppers, I find them slightly spicy with a wonderful sour and crunchy flavour. I got to eat quite a few of them since a lot of people found jalapenos to be too spicy even with the cream cheese to reduce the heat. Just watch it when you're first taking a bite as it is super hot fresh from the fryer.

Bad food blogger, wait!

I was massively torn between the different dishes I could order for my main, I really wanted steak or beef cheeks or pork belly. I wanted everything but the pasta, which I'm 95% sure no one ordered. I went with the steak though because I was here before work and wanted a massive feed before I had to go into work. I got the steak medium rare and it was perfectly cooked, still blushing pink in the centre and had a wonderful caramelised crust. My only complaint was that the fat on the side of the steak hadn't rendered through yet and was a bit chewy as a result. I really enjoyed the meatiness of the grilled oyster mushrooms, also the golden brown chips and the sweetness of the roasted garlic!

Exchange Hotel
Atmosphere: 5, warm and bright pub!
Service: 7, thoughtful, timely and super attentive although they forgot my drink order initially.
Food: 8, solid bar food with huge portions and cheap prices, I'd definitely go here again.

Holloway presents Pizzartist!

I got invited to Holloway's new pizzeria opening, Pizzartist! They're originally a glasses and watch design shop but decided to branch into a restaurant. You can still buy glasses and watches at their shop and they still have a downstairs area entirely dedicated to glasses and watch design. This is their website.

This pretty little place

But its not called pizza time ):

Find this piano! Its not tuned ):

I liked the interior, the floor was handmade from different cuts of timber, there is a really interesting mural that I forgot to take a photo of that had tiny animals hidden in it, the lights are made from glasses and there are lots and lots of things to have a look at. There are also two small nooks with curtains to pull across and distance yourself from other diners. I thought that was a great little romantic spot but maybe thats just me!

Pretty pretty

The one on the right

Working piano!

More pianos also glasses you can buy

I love this

Apparently this isn't hard to clean

Yesss guitar shelves!

The guy I was talking to said that they have a constantly changing menu based on whatever is available seasonally. They said that they sourced a lot of herbs and vegetables from their garden at the back which is fully opening in several months where they also intend to hold late night cinema showings. Whatever else they use is sourced from close local sources with the furthest location being Samford Village.

Here is a blurry menu

They have these excellent Balinese knives and forks for their entrees.

Yassss

This is parmigana di melanzane! Soft, smokey layers of eggplant layered with rich, perfectly balanced tomato sauce, not too sour, not too bright and lots of parmesan. Oh and I bought T.. along with me, when you go to an Italian place, bring an Italian girl! Hooray! She said that this was quite good and that it would have been perfect with some bread to scoop up the sauce with it. Some deliciously crusty bread and butter or bread and olive oil would've made my day.

Gorgeous

They gave us a second set of knife and fork for our mains but we didn't use them because pizza is a hands on food. Only weirdoes like VGirl use their knife and fork with pizza.

Shiny

This was T.,'s choice of the Romanisca with a tomato sauce base, salami, mushroom, mozzarella, parmesan, chill honey and basil. Flavour wise, this stood out as both our favourite with it's hint of sweetness from the honey, noticeable heat from the chili flakes and salty salami pieces. The base was a little under done by my standards, but I love toast so crunchy that its nearly burnt. They have a regular oven but they used charcoal to give it a smokey flavour, they said that they were busy building a wood fired pizza oven outside though.

I love that charred base

This is the Marzia with a white base, pancetta, gorgonzola, mozzarella, parmesan and fresh rocket. T., and I both agreed that this had the better base, just more crunchy and slightly thinner. This was crazy cheesy, I've never had anything better than it, so deliciously cheesy, I was in heaven. The rocket balanced it out a bit and gave it a nice freshness to balance out the cheese. The pancetta became deliciously crunchy in the oven but I would've loved more of it!

Soooo good!

Yessssss

We also got the Amore pizza with caramelised figs, zabione custard and sultanas. I know it said sugar almonds but we definitely got sultanas instead. The figs were so good and I normally can't stand those weird seed filled weirdos. The zabione custard was my favourite component and it was chock full of vanilla bean, I don't like sweets but I really enjoyed it.

Pizzartist
Atmosphere: 10, I really, really enjoyed the atmosphere of this place. I recommended it to Ms M for Megababe for her romantic internet date. I love the small size of the shop, so it remains intimate and close. I want to sit in a little closed off alcove with curtains and candle light! Also pizza hahaha.
Service: Great. I got invited there so its biased.
Food: 9, absolutely delicious pizza. I wish there was more toppings but that may be because I love American style pizzas, also the crust was slightly underdone on the white pizza.

Emjays Coffee - Friday Knock Offs

I can only imagine what it would be like having a 9-5 job, working weekdays and knowing that relief of having the entire weekend stretching in front of you when it comes to Friday afternoons. As a shift working ward nurse, I don't have that luxury but I got to have a glimpse of that when I got invited to Emjays Coffee when they started their Friday Knock Offs menu! It's a discounted drinks, happy hour, sliders and bar food menu, perfect to unwind after a busy week and usher in the weekend!

It's easy to locate on the corner of Wharf and Adelaide Street. Here is their website.

This place!

It has a typical bar setting inside and this bright courtyard style seating. 

We sat down the back

Here is the menu!

Perfect

SLIDERS

We were allowed to get unlimited sliders, Asahi beer on tap and free champagne for the hour that we were there. I went with Mandy, VGirl and JGirl. We tried absolutely everything! We got two plates of their vege sliders which were a cheesy quinoa crumbed patty and a perfectly seasoned, super creamy avocado. You know how much I love meat, but this was honestly the best veggie burger I've ever had. The quinoa made a perfect crunchy coating for the oozy cheese interior and made it very textually interesting. My only criticism is that the burger buns are a touch dry and stale for all of them, I guess they would have been prepped ahead of time so that would explain the dryness.

The best

This was a perfect round slider with a big round beef patty, slice of pickle, mustard and cheese. I was very happy with the ratio of filling to bun with this slider. I loved the juiciness of the patty.

That ratio tho

These were the pulled pork and coleslaw slider and the Tex Mex chicken slider. The pulled pork was tender, moist and had a creamy coleslaw that was not too watery and very crisp. The Tex Mex chicken had a mildly spicy flavour and creamy guacamole underneath it as well. 

Mmm

We also got a big bowl of beer battered chips with pepper aioli to share. These chips were fat, thickly cut and super fluffy, they were a touch too salty but we still enjoyed them.

Emjay's Coffee
Atmosphere:
Service: 10, really good, super fast service. Considering how deep the queues were, the servers did an amazing job on the night we went, constantly scanning the bar for empty glasses, and clearing plates like machines.
Food: 7, pretty good! The bread was dry and the chips overly salty but this would be a great place to go for after work drinks. 

Restaurant Launch: Nest

Oh man, normally I blog about places I get invited to as soon as possible but I've been pretty slack lately because I'm on holiday! Anyway, I got invited to the opening of Nest along with heaps of other food bloggers. There was very, very little out there about the restaurant, I found an article saying that it was very expensive rebuilding, that Roma Street was destined to be a new dining precinct in the near future much like Stanley Street is and lastly that the restaurant was Asian fusion!

I had a ridiculous amount of trouble trying to find myself a +1 to this event. I had this sneaking suspicion that there would be a lot of meat at this event so I didn't want to bring along VGirl or Mandy. Then L., H., JGirl., Shishi, didn't answer their phones, Yannikins and Ness., were overseas, two of the guys I'm seeing were both unable to come along and then JGirl answered. Except that she finished work about an hour after the event started, so she volunteered Dr S., her girlfriend to come along!

Parking is relatively easy I guess. There's secure parking AT THE VERY TOP of the building that Nest is in. Like all the way at the top, if you think, oh that wasn't too bad, keep going, that isn't the right car park.

Anyway, we were greeted at the door and were offered some fortune cookies. There were 3 fortune cookies stuffed with a golden bird which meant you were entitled to a dining voucher at Nest. Sadly, despite eating nearly three fortune cookies each, we were unable to find one.

Mmm fortune cookies

The decoration is lovely! Everything fits in very nicely with the "nest" theme, lots of little cosy areas to sit in, a giant feature in the centre that resembles a birds nest and all the cocktails are named after bird themes too!

Lovely little spot

I kept forgetting the tags

My first thought was, "this would be a bitch to clean"

This was one of the cocktails we were given to drink on the night, Birds of Tokyo, Kraken, spiced rum, cinnamon syrup, cloudy apple juice, lime juice and mint. Dr S., drank it on our behalf and said it was delicious!

MASON JARSSSSS

I hustled Dr S., down to the kitchen end of the room to prowl for appetisers as they emerged from the kitchen. The first thing to appear were the tempura battered Mooloolaba prawns. These were freaking hot, had a lovely light batter and creamy prawn insides. I ate about five of these over the entire night, I can attest to their consistency and deliciousness.

Yummy prawns

I wasn't a fan of these honey glazed Asian barbeque chicken wings, the wings used were quite small and the sauce was way too sweet. For those who love sweet wings, these are for you and especially if you want to eat a small wing, but I'm all about jumbo wings and salty sauces!

They were small ):

Here is the cocktail lineup for the night!

DRINKS DRINKS DRINKS

This is the start of my weird requests to my bartender, you'll see a blurry photo of him later on. Since I don't drink and I'm a designated driver, I abstained from drinking but I really wanted something else besides the usual lemon, lime and bitters. I asked for two non alcoholic drinks and we received these mocktails! I'm not sure what was in them, orange juice, pineapple juice, cranberry cordial and some other things? It was delicious, I had two of them. Dr S., had one as well. As we walked through the room, people were very envious of our pretty drinks.

I love me some mocktails!

One of the entrees that stood on the stainless steel table for a while was the Turkish bread, olive oil, dukkah and herb butter. A lot of food bloggers were milling around, taking photos but we weren't sure if we could eat them or if they were just for display purposes. Then one of the staff members said they were up for eating so we dove right in

I love you dukkah

This is the duck salad which had green pear, cherry tomatoes, witlof, rocket and a tart dressing made from ginger, lime and coriander. Its a very crunchy, refreshing salad that I think a lot of people would enjoy as a light meal. I wasn't a massive fan because I thought the duck used could've had better flavour imparted into its flesh. All the duck used that night was stripped from their peking duck.

Duck, duck, duck, no goose?

This was the barbeque Beijing duck rolls which were served cool with vermicilli, blanched asparagus, cucumber and a few other veggies. It came with this mandarin sauce. As a Vietnamese person, I didn't enjoy it but I'm quite traditional when it comes to Vietnamese food.

Give me prawn and pork belly any day

This is the gado gado! Dr S., kept eating multiple servings of this dish, and she is quoted as saying, "that satay sauce is so good!" Satay sauce and chopped up salad, where can you go wrong really! I guess you could always get more sauce?

Gado gado is the brainchild of a parent who wanted their kids to eat veggies

Chicken satay! Tender, charry sticks of chicken and the same delectable satay sauce featured in the gado gado.

Not as blurry in real life thankfully

This was one of the few vegetarian dishes beside the gado gado, it was a vegetarian dumpling on top of onion jam. The jam was sweet, caramel and delicious, the dumpling not so much so. The dumpling had been deep fried, it had a really stodgy, doughy and dense interior which I didn't find appealing. This was a thought echoed by Dr S., and a few other food bloggers I met that night. 

Not sure what the veggies were, broccoli, carrot?

These were the peking duck pancakes with a hoisin dipping sauce. There were really good, super thin pancakes, crunchy cucumber and a big chunk of peking duck skin and flesh. I ate probably a plate of these. There was a guy making them like a machine for people sitting in front of him, those seats were hot land. 

So many!

This was the duck pizza, it was really average. For some reason, it tasted like what you could make at home with some leftover duck and pizza bases lying around.

Bleh

The nasi goreng was delicious! Fragrant, the rice grains were fluffy and separated, egg clung to the rice, chicken pieces were moist and tender and they were all around amazing. I would highly recommend the nasi goreng if you were to go to Nest.

Delicious!

The laksa was a coconut based one with prawn, chicken, egg and egg noodles. The soup was a little thin but the toppings were salad.

Laksa

Here is the menu! 

Here is the peking duck in all its glory.

Duck

These were the wagyu beef sliders! Bacon, wagyu beef patty, tomato, lettuce, cheese and barbecue sauce. Absolutely delicious.

Mmmm

This was the pad thai, I stalked it ridiculously throughout the night and finally scored a bowl. I was disappointed because the noodles were still quite chewy and the sauce was not well balanced. 

This was another one of the cocktails for the night, the tequila based one, Leaving the Nest. Dr S., didn't enjoy it but she said she also disliked tequila. 

Pretty

This was the collection of desserts! One was a delectable melting chocolate cake, a gloriously silky vanilla bean icecream and tender fried banana.

Yum

This was a virgin version of the Birds of Tokyo, absolutely delicious by the way. This was the fourth non-alcoholic drink of the night!

Nice

Here's my bartender!

Cool dude

This was the silky smooth creme brulee, the sugar topping was thin and cracked easily.

Here's the machine making peking duck pancakes!