Seven South

I was prompted to go to this place by Instagram and one of my work mates who is a food blogger too! Her instagram name is SouthEastEats and she's a big deal. Unfortunately we were on very different shifts so I went straight after nights with a friend of mine called W., and K.,!

Parking is a bit sparse, it's a weird little shopping strip in the middle of suburbia. Leg it, if you're unlucky.

Look out for this place!

I like the look of the place though! Nice, brightly lit cafe with minimalist furniture and lots of little plants everywhere. Steal Zomato's menu!

I got this juice and I have no idea what it is. Just from the picture, I can already say I didn't like it because it is ridiculously fluffy. I hate fluffy drinks.

MINT >:

This was K.,'s meal, fried potato and parmesan hotcakes, poached eggs, avocado aioli, poached eggs and your choice of bacon or hot smoked salmon. She got the hot smoked salmon! They had a lovely fresh yolk on these eggs which I forgot to take a photo of. We were both a bit iffy about the potato cakes due to their lack of all over frying, just a shallow pan fry for these poor things! I want crunchy hash brown type potatos for my breakfast please! I think the salmon could have done with a strong smoke flavour too.

Bwah

W., got this dish, char grilled seasonal greens, kale, salsa verde, haloumi and poached eggs on the side. She wanted a fresh option for breakfast, this just looks like a salad gone rogue to me. She doesn't eat out much besides all Asian foods so she had actually never had kale, haloumi or poached eggs before which was interesting to watch haha. She said that she liked this dish but she freaked out over poached eggs and I ended up eating them. I find a lot of traditional Asian people balk at the idea of eating uncooked eggs, which is weird cause we will eat a lot of weird stuff given the chance.

So healthy for breakfast :/

I got this fancy avo on toast, with spiced pepitas, goats feta, smoked salmon and their pumpkin bread. I will stick my foot down and say that cold smoked salmon is my one true love, not hot smoked! The flavour in hot smoked is too mild for my liking and the fatty texture is all gone when they hot smoke it too. This goats feta wasn't too bad, not super goaty/strong on the taste buds like many can be. My pepitas were actually shelled unlike another breakfast joint I won't care to mention!

Lime!

Seven South
Atmosphere: 8, gorgeous little cafe! I love this kind of design.
Service: 5, nothing special.
Food: 7, nothing was bad, nothing was particularly enjoyable but nothing was poorly done? There is actually very little on the menu that I would say I wanted to eat? Mostly because its predominantly sweets or vegetables and I'm a big breakfast kinda girl. Give it a crack but I wouldn't go back here again personally, a swing and a miss!

Popolo Italian Kitchen and Bar

VGirl has an Italian's love of arancini! She always orders it when we go out because it is nearly always vegetarian and its deep fried, two of her basic dietary requirements. So we have been meaning to go to Popolo Italian Kitchen and Bar in Southbank for quite the while but balked at both parking and the price. We scored one of like four parks nearby having gone straight from our respective works, car pooling at VGirl's and then legging it the rest of the way. Southbank is a menace for parking!

Here is their menu! It has a nice view of the Brisbane river, but it can make it quite chilly at times. Luckily they have giant space heaters everywhere to warm things up.

I invested all my points in food photography

This is their tre formaggi aracini, aka three cheese aracini with roasted pumpkin puree, the three cheeses were taleggio, gorgonzola and parmesan! As a result these aracini were super cheesy with a delicious long stretch that I forgot to photograph. The best part for both of us was the roasted pumpkin puree, I don't know why but when you mix cream and pumpkin it makes this intense kinda mac n cheese sauce feel. We were both fighting over the last bits of puree and I think VGirl may have licked the plate to get the last of it.

Highly recommended!

For once, I wasn't a butthole and got a vegetarian main so VGirl could try some. I got this ravioli con zucca e ricotta, basically pumpkin and ricotta filled ravioli, tossed in a brown butter and sage sauce topped with amaretti crumb and more roasted pumpkin puree. We both liked the silkiness and thinness of this fresh pasta used in their ricotta. I always love a good butter and sage sauce and this one wasn't sitting in a pool of it which is nice. I didn't like the amaretti crumb, it was really sweet and we both didn't understand its inclusion. The pumpkin puree was the same as in the arancini!

Solid!

Haha, I guess if you're vegetarian prepare for pumpkin? VGirl got the pan fried gnocchi, which came with parmesan shaved over the top and more pumpkin puree! She said she liked the lightness of this gnocchi and still was enjoying the pumpkin puree haha.

Golden crust!

Popolo
Atmosphere: 5, we got there super early around 6pm so I can't really say. Its near the river and seems like a good spot to have dinner with friends. Not sure how the noise carries though?
Service: 5, we got our food! Nothing else to say really.
Food: 7, pretty good! Everything we had was pretty tasty but I don't think I'd go here again strictly for the price. We can get cheaper Italian elsewhere!

Fundies Wholefood Cafe

VGirl and I went to Fundies Wholefoods on Mothers Day, before you go thinking why we didn't take Mama Pham with us, she was working that day and had already received her Mother's Day present. We had originally planned to go to Kettle and Tin but the line was out the door, so to Fundies, land of the veggo brekkies!

Fundies is half organic wholefoods cafe and half organic/wholefoods/supplements shop. We had a bit of a look around but sat down for lunch pretty quickly since we were so hungry.

Nice pictures!

This is the front counter. There is a glass drinks cabinet on the size and also a hot pie oven.

VGirl was intrigued

Here is a link to their menu! Below is a copy of the specials for the time that we went.

VGirl got this Phoenix Lemon, Lime and Bitters drink, its lightly carbonated as in tastes like slightly flat soft drink. She said she liked it like that.

Hmmm

I got a soy flat white and I thought it was pretty good! The coffee roasters here is an organic roaster from Byron Bay called Zentveld's.

F is for Fundies!

We got given our cutlery in a jar, I don't why but I was tickled pink by this at the time.

Interesting

I got the smoked salmon supreme, organic New Zealand smoked salmon with capers, lemon, spinach, organic poached eggs, purple onion, dill aioli and toasted Turkish bread soldiers. I thought it was a pretty decent breakfast, I have no complaints about any of the ingredients or the choice of them either. This was a tried and true classic combination of flavours and if you love your organic food I'd say this is the place for you!

Solid

VGirl had a really hard time picking what she wanted to eat since for once she had a billion choices. She got the vegan sausage, organic shallot and potato rosti, poached eggs, wilted spinach, lemon and salsa, capsicum jam and chipotle mayonnaise. The vegan sausage tasted like stuffing. She said that she would bring our vegetarian friend Mandy here one day since there was so much choice for the two of them.

Fundies Wholefood Cafe
Atmosphere: 7. your local cafe!
Service: 5, solid, I have no complaints.
Food: 8, good organic food. A great place to go if you want more than your standard vegetarian options.

Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant

True fact, VGirl and I love Malaysian/Indonesian food, its often halal, has a huge emphasis on vegetarian cuisine, massive portions of food, cheap prices, its a wonderful combination of Asian cuisines that we love and also mi goreng is gods gift to noodle lovers. So its a bit of a mystery why we haven't been to Jakarta in New Farm on an earlier occasion.

This place!

We got there so early that they were still opening up the restaurant when we arrived. It got pretty busy as we were leaving, lots of ex-pats and their Indonesian wives from the sound of it! It's pretty easy to spot from Brunswick Street, its pretty close to the Night Owl so its relatively easy to find!

This spot!

It has a really traditional Balinese kinda feel? It reminds me of the Indonesian lote class I had in primary school or at least the way that my teacher decorated the room!

I like it!

Lots and lots of tables

Here is their menu!

I got the ayam goreng tepung as my snack, because an entire dish of fried chicken is a snack of course. This was a described as marinated and deep fried chicken pieces. They look lightly battered to me and were quite salty, I found the proportion to be a bit stingy/lacking for the price of a main dish. I think this would be perfect for a group to sharing but as a complimentary dish, that's all you get!

Hmmmm~

VGirl got vegetarian bakmi goreng, she remarked that this was quite a healthy rendition with lots and lots of vegetables, onions, kai lan, tomato and carrot. We both found that this dish wasn't as flavoursome as the one that we at Sambal Oelek but it had a much greater charry flavour. She also wanted more visible bits of egg and so stole my fried egg from my plate with my blessing.

Not bad though!

I got the nasi goreng istimewa, Indonesian style fried rice topped with a fried egg, two chicken satay skewers and prawn crackers. It was a moderately sized meal but it gave me a good sample of two of the staples you find in any Indonesian restaurant, nasi goreng and chicken satay! I found the fried rice to be pretty good but the chicken satay was much better. It had a lovely sauce that I wish I had a lot more of!

Jakarta:
Atmosphere: 8, a cute little slice of Indonesia! I really liked the layout and warm setting of the restaurant.
Service: 8, super friendly and insightful service, The young waitress was probably about the same age of us but was very professional.
Food: 7, solid food for a cheap price. This would be great for a get together with friends, where you sit around, share food and chat for ages, not to mention its BYO so a cheap way to get wasted.

CT Coffee and Restaurant

On New Years Day, VGirl, JGirl and I went to Inala to get groceries for our Banh Mi dinner party, hosted by yours truly. While we were there grabbing groceries, we decided to go for lunch! We randomly picked this place as it was one of the few places open and it had vegetarian options for VGirl.

It's in the Inala Shopping centre on the outside, its pretty easy to find.

This place!

Chay is the word for vegetarian in Vietnamese, so these are the dishes that they can make specially vegetarian! Bun rieu is usually a tomato and crab noodle soup. Bun cha gio is a spring roll and vermicelli salad. Banh xeo is the tumeric crepe stuffed with lots of veggies and meat. Out of those three options, the first one would be the hardest one to do.

The bun rieu is the exciting bit

They have a massive collection of artificial flavours for bubble tea. VGirl loves artifically flavoured bubble teas, like Healthy Cup, Easy Way, Hazel Tea, Cha Time and that sorta thing. She has an unhealthy disdain for real fruit in her bubble tea like that used at Sakuraya and Gong Cha.

All the colours of the rainbow!

Here is their super extensive menu.

I really like that the entire menu and all the labels are both in English and Vietnamese. As you know, I do love help yourself cutlery and condiments. The hallmark of any solid Asian restaurant!

DIY

Classic

JGirl wanted the pork chop and broken rice. It came with a little dish of soup that had a plain pork flavour to it.

Plain soup!

The pork chop was actually two pieces that had been split down the center, it was a pretty huge piece and it was exactly as the name suggested, pork chop and rice, nothing more, nothing less! The pork was tender, juicy and had a nice charry flavour.

Classic

I got the prawn mousse and vermicelli salad bowl. The prawn mousse here was odd, it was quite dense which is unusual for the style, the mousse is normally quite light and fluffy not this heavy almost chewy texture. I'm not sure what happened, but it was still pretty tasty. There was a good amount of salad veggies in the bowl and they were all very fresh looking, no dodgy brown bits here! The Vietnamese fish sauce mixture they gave me was quite bland, so I added extra fish sauce, lemon and sugar to it to bulk it up. 

Hmm~

I got the avocado milkshake. I forgot how super sweet traditional Vietnamese people make their drinks. I diluted it twice with water to make it palatable, a lot of Vietnamese drinks are super sweet and heavily iced so that they have time to melt and dilute it down. It is very refreshing on a hot day, I must say, but I'm a busy lady who ain't got time for that!

Its very pale, good flavour though

So here is VGirl's vegetarian bun rieu! It had lots of ripe tomato, tofu and egg pieces in the fluffy raft that is the signature of bun rieu. The soup was quite tasty and VGirl was very happy with her dish.

CT Coffee and Restaurant
Atmosphere: 8, super busy Vietnamese restaurant. It reminds me of home, especially with the huge tables of Vietnamese families with kids eating at the table, kids running underfoot, Paris by Night playing in the background and all the Vietnamese people everywhere.
Service: 9, really lovely. We got bossed around by the owner, who insisted that we sit down, take up the entire table and told us that of course they had vegetarian food! It's just like how my mum and aunts boss me around . . . even now, that I'm a grown woman.
Food: 7, authentic, cheap Vietnamese food and lots of it. What else could you want!