Esher St Deli and Cafe

My God, Esher St Deli, I have been told about this place by more people than I've ever been told to go somewhere. Liz., Ms M for Megababe, Chelle and very loyal Jubi have all sung the praises of this place, calling it the cutest fucking place every with amazing, amazing food. The last three times I went out for breakfast with Jubi, we were supposed to go here but ended up going somewhere else last second.

To date, I think Jubi has been here AT LEAST six times since its been opened. She absolutely loves their muesli which changes day by day and they use a Farmer Joes mix, that she buys by the bucket load. Sometimes, I think a drug addiction would be cheaper considering how much they sell that stuff for.

Esher St Cafe and Deli!

They really should add an extra bit to their name, but Esher St Cafe, Deli and Plant Shop doesn't quite have the same ring to it. It's not so much gifts as random fruit plants, Bunnings eat your heart out. Pretty much every decoration here can be bought and taken home.

The sign is very noticeable

All these succulents are on sale out the front.

Pretty little things

Here are the outside tables, all very mismatched. I'm not sure I like the height of it all, since it could be a little close and bending down so far could be a pain.

Tables +_+

This is their lovely front entrance. Soon you can see all the food they have on display and all the fancy foodie stuff they have to lure you in.

I kept taking photos like a madman

They have a ladder strung up with lights. It seems like its the latest thing for cafes to buy something interesting and string it up with lights haha.

Not sure if this is upside down or what

This is their coffee machine with teas, museli, some organic fruit and cocoa visible.

There is a nice cogwheel sculpture next to the door

This is their backyard! They have a ton of extra tables at the back for you to sit at, although we chose to sit in the cafe itself due to lighting and the variety of things to look at while we waited.

It had a very nice breeze the day we went

Here are lots of different blueberry plants, all available for purchase! Lavender too, I'm not sure if this is the edible variety but considering the rest of the plants here, it might be.

Blue things

Here are some herbs, succulents and citrus plants! Also available for purchase!

So many things

These are papaya plants from memory, they were on the back staircase.

Red and yellow ones

Here is a shelf full of preserves, crackers, dip mixes and other interesting things. I bought one of the packet dip mixes seen here, it was a wild herb and dill one from New Zealand. I made it into a dip with some sour cream and aioli, and it was utterly delicious. I need to go back there and buy another packet. Much better than your stock standard, sour cream, mayonnaise and French onion soup mix dip.

+_+ so many things I want

Here are a collection of oils, spices, drinks, whole salt, pepper and random GF snacks. There is also a fridge full of award winning deli meats, pates, cultured butter, cheeses and yoghurts that I didn't take a photo of as well. I was very tempted by the Pepe Saya cultured butter but didn't have any good bread to eat it with.

I want all the things

They have a refridgerated display of sandwiches and cakes that was still enticing for us when we had finished our meals and were deciding on what to buy.

Those sandwiches look tasty

This is the main table where we sat. This seems to be where most of the gifts are kept! There is a lot of jewellery, hand creams, assorted small furniture and crockery around us.

So much stuff

This is our table. I just liked that they reused the jars from this place and let you try some of the stuff for free. The pesto mayo jar actually held brown sugar, although that little blue container beside it held some Italian seasoning, rock salt, black peppercorns and a dried herb mixture. I cracked some of it onto my poached eggs and it was quite tasty, I was too lazy to identify what the herb mixture was at the time.

Its a very nice spot we sat at

Jubi got a chai latte brewed on water with a huge side of soy milk and honey. I think she got a good three cups out of this little teapot. I really can't remember what the brand of this chai is, but it definitely started with an M.

Its going to annoy me forever until I remember that brand

I got myself a flat white, they use Veneziano coffee here. That is one damn perfect fern. I found this to be much more palatable than other cups I've had of Veneziano, it still has that very strong, dark flavour that I associate with this brand.

Best one yet

I got the haloumi stack with two poached eggs, tomato, grilled eggplant, garlic butter mushrooms, tomato relish and spinach, underneath all that are two slices of sourdough as well. The haloumi was squeaky and mildly salty, much better than the one I had at Leaf Expresso, earlier that week. The grilled eggplant was delicious, smokey and sweet, I never realised I enjoyed eggplant so much until this year. The tomato I mostly ignored. The eggs were wonderful, bright, creamy and well cooked. The mushrooms I polished off almost immediately, I feel like they've could've done with more garlic, but you've seen my recipes, I love garlic.

So hungry just looking at it

All in all, this is the best vegetarian breakfast I've ever had.

Dat yolk.

The day that we went the museli of the day was Trader Jo's burnt fig and cinnamon crusted almond toasted muesli. I really enjoyed flavour of the fig, a slightly bitter offset to the sweetness of the cooked fig. The almonds were whole ones that were crunchy and sweet. It was a sweet and very crunchy mixture. She really enjoyed it however at the end of the day she ordered the green apple and dried muscatel toasted museli from Trader Jo instead.

Esher St Cafe and Deli
Atmosphere: 10, absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous little place that I'd be happy to stop by and catch up with friends at. If you sit at the front, there's a lot of things to
Service: 10, the service was impeccable. The waiter we were initially talking to was a bit slow like he was just starting out at the cafe, however after a little bit the guy making coffees who I'm pretty sure was the owner took over. He asked us a lot of extra things like if we wanted our chai brewed on soy milk instead of water or milk for lactose intolerance. He also asked if I was a blogger since I was frantically taking photos, I said yes and when he asked if I was a food blogger, I said yes again. Jubi said he had this scared look on his face afterwards. We wanted to sit at the front and they told us that there were extra seats at the back. We asked to sit at the front that a couple had just sat at and they quickly cleared the table while we were browsing the shop. He came back several times during our meal to ask how things were and cleared the table very quickly too.
Food: 8, the food was great. I'd happily go back again to try something else on their breakfast menu or to buy more things from their deli.

Hoo Ha Bar

I only found Hoo Ha Bar because I was heading over to Southbank bus station from the Southbank train station. It was after I had gone out to breakfast already from night duty and was trying to get home. I was lured in by the billboard which is not present in the photo because I went on the one day it was closed. I saw the wonderful menu and I vowed to come back in the future.

Pst. Its a Tuesday.

The menu had changed a few times since I've gone there but this is what it was when I went. It has a really interesting mix of food and at very, very cheap prices. The total price was $35 for three mains and a drink.

Mains +_+

Tasty drinks

Anyway, the place is absolutely gorgeous. None of the furniture matches but they are complete little sections that look absolutely beautiful. Below is a gorgeous cabinet which stores all the glasses, cutlery and water bottles.

A random cabinet

Here is their bar, which is also cute. Its counter service. You have been forewarned.

Their bar

We sat at this table below. I'm not sure how to describe the furniture and why I like it so much, very nice dark wood?

Oh so pretty

This couch is beautiful too. Really comfortable too.

Pretty pretty

This is the corner, I have no idea how to describe these chairs. The table is odd, it doesn't look like it would support many dishes but would be a lovely spot to sit and have drinks at.

What are these chairs?

I'm not sure if I like the water bottles, they are tall brown glass bottles.

They weren't chilled either ):

I ordered the peanut butter cup milkshake consisting of peanut butter, chocolate, vanilla ice cream, milk and alleged awesomeness. Its not that awesome. The peanut butter flavour isn't very strong to be honest. All I can taste is a faint chocolate, creamy milkshake. As far as they go, this was a pretty average milkshake. I wish they had left a scoop of ice cream on the top or something so it was more noticeable, also it was quite plain looking.

No awesomesauce ):

My Boyfriend has his eye on this one for a while now, a smoked salmon Bagel Boys bagel with red onion, capers and a dill creme. There is a small splatter of oil that reminds me of sperm attacking an ovum, which is a bit gross. The flavours are a classic and this was the tastiest thing we ate in Hooha Bar. I wasn't able to taste the dill in the creme, but that may be because my Boyfriend was eating it at the speed of light.

Mmmm bagel

This is their mac n cheese with gruyere, parmesan and cheddar sauce, chorizo bits and a crunchy crumb topping. There is also random rocket on top. I didn't really like this mac and cheese either to be honest, I thought the cheesy sauce would be a lot stronger in flavour with the cheeses that they used. The macaroni was well cooked. The chorizo used would've been tastier if it was a hotter chorizo, I found it to be a bit greasy and my Boyfriend mostly ate it. He remarked that it was average.

This came out sizzling

I ordered the 12 hour slow cooked pulled pork reuben with house made sauerkraut, gruyere, dijon and sourdough bread. There were also three little cornichons on the side. The pulled pork was wonderful, fatty and meltingly tender from the slow cook. The sauerkraut was pretty from the use of red cabbage but not particularly sour or crunchy, if anything it was more like a wet coleslaw. The sourdough was good as was the melted gruyere. As reubens go, this was also average.

Wooden planks ahoy!

Hoo Ha Bar
Atmosphere: 9, it is honestly one of the most beautiful cafes I've ever been in. The furniture choice is amazing, can I hire these guys to decorate my house? Its a bright lit, funky hipster dive with lots of things to look at.
Service:7, very friendly hipster waiting staff who are happy to provide an opinion on the food. They were very prompt with our orders as well as clearing the table.
Food: 5.5, all of the food is very well cooked with well thought out ingredient combinations and good quality ingredients to boot. However, while I liked the idea of what I was ordering, the reality of the dish fell short. I would go here again to try other dishes with that being said, as the food is quite cheap and the place is absolutely gorgeous.

PPP: Mecca Bah and dessert at Freestyle Tout

Its really hard to coordinate PPP. Thankfully, I didn't have to bother organising this one since one of the doctors at my workplace did. She was one of our junior residents and she had been with us for two rotations. Anyway, she chose Mecca Bah for 7pm and of course no one really showed up for until 8pm. I wasn't on great terms with some of the doctors that turned up so I didn't take photos of their meal, that and the table we occupied was for 16 people. I apologise in advance for the quality of these photos, we had an outside table and I was using flash, hopefully discretely.

The tiny menu

This is a copy of their full menu. Below is a picture of their roseberry iced tea, a mocktail made of strawberry, Madagascan vanilla, rosewater and cranberry juice, this was ordered by L., It was sweet and fragrant drink, but nothing worth ordering twice.

Pretty little thing

I ordered a pink fez, a mocktail of pineapple juice, cranberry juice, vanilla syrup, lychees, mint and lime. The main flavour was mostly pineapple juice with a slight additional sourness from the cranberry juice. I love pineapple juice to be honest, so I'd reorder this again but then again plain pineapple juice would probably be cheaper, if not quite as pretty.

Not quite as pretty

This is their Amaratto sour that one of the doctors ordered. I had a sip. I wasn't a fan. She said it was pretty damn good though and ordered two of them.

It looks nice doesn't it?

My Boyfriend ordered the Madagascan Vanilla tea because of the name. The fragrant of the tea was glorious and I really would've preferred to have this with milk and sugar. He managed to get four cups out of this glass teapot. The glass tumbler was a stupid idea, due to the fact that glass conducts heat so well. He adds that the flavour of the tea improved after some long stewing on the third and fourth final glass.

Really hot glass teapot and tumbler

Initially we couldn't decide whether or not we wanted to go with a banquet option since there were so many of us or to just go with our own decisions. The pharmacists and their partners opted for banquets while the rest of us were grimacing since it seemed none of us had ever had good experiences with banquets before. There were actually enough people opting in for the banquet that they could've easily gotten it for themselves as well.

In the end, we ordered our own food and shared turkish bread and dips as an entree. The bread was extremely soft and fluffy Turkish bread. It was almost ridiculously soft and I was a bit surprised at how it looked to be honest. I was expectly it to be slightly spongier in texture and have a better hole texture. The bread was still quite tasty however.

The oddest turkish bread I've ever seen

From left to right, we received hummus, tahini and then baba ganoush. The hummus was smooth, creamy and fluffy with an almost too smooth texture to it, it was good but not the best hummus I've ever had. I had a taste of the hummus and then decided to ignore it. The tahini had a pool of olive oil and za'ataar spice pooled in the centre and had a strong garlicky flavour to it, I also ignored this. The baba ganoush was the most flavoursome of the bunch with a subtle smoky flavour and mild sweetness, L., also agreed with me but my Boyfriend disagreed and said that the hummus was the best.

Creamy blobs

One of the doctors ordered this lamb meatball tagine baked in a tomato sauce with two eggs and a side of couscous. I remember a few years ago when I had it, the sauce was quite watery and insipid, with the meatballs being both simultaneously dry and oily. I was a bit hesitant about the dish to be honest and I declined to try it again. The doctor stated that he quite enjoyed it and that the richness of the gooey egg yolks made it a bit too much for him. He added that the meatballs were a bit dry as well.

Dodgy meatballs ):

This is the very popular grilled spiced swordfish with a spicy couscous, I think about six people ordered this including L.,The swordfish was a firm, meaty slice of fish as swordfish tend to be, L., was very happy with hers as had tried on numerous occasions to order this without success as it was sold out every time. She didn't end up finishing it though, and she made her husband D., eat the rest.

Swordfish complete with a giant metal skewer

This is another doctor's food, vine leaf wrapped fish with parsley, artichoke and olive salad. The doctor who ordered this had spent a lot of time in Ireland and praised the fish used. She said since leaving Ireland she hadn't had this style of rich and super oily fish and had really missed it. I had a little taste of her fish and remembered thinking that it was almost unbearably salty and ashy bitter from the vine leaf. Once the leaf had been removed, the flesh was much more palatable and plainer in contrast. She agreed with me and ended up scraping most of the vine leaf off, it was odd since we all remarked that the vine leaves used in dolmades is never this salty. The artichoke and parsley made a good accompaniment to the dish however the olives were much too salty.

Not the most appetising looking of things

I got the sardine, caramelised onion, roast tomato, olive and rocket pizza. I didn't really enjoy the pizza, it was too salty and oily for my taste since there were both sardines and olives on there. The dressed sourish rocket on the top of the pizza really helped cut through the flavours but I regret ordering this otherwise.

Wonky pizza

My Boyfriend ordered this Moroccan spiced calamari with bean salad. He was very surprised when he got this dish and he was expecting crunchy golden fried calamari I think. The calamari was cooked very well, being meltingly soft and not at all disgustingly chewy. The bean salad was terrible, just a very hard plain white bean tossed in a bit of oil.

Meh

All in all, we were probably at Mecca Bah for a good two and a half hours. We didn't order for about an hour, then spent forty or so minutes waiting for our food and then spent the rest of the time talking. During that time, Chelle, Ms M for Megababe and D., all arrived to the dinner. Chelle and Ms M for Megababe headed over to Freestyle Tout and scored us a table allocation on the sidewalk. We ended up blocking off the sidewalk which made me extremely nervous in case there was a fire. This was the pizza they ordered to eat as they were waiting for us.I honestly have no idea what it was because I didn't take any photos of the menu as I knew it was online, too bad it looks like the online menu hasn't been updated in quite a while.

You look delicious though pizza

Ms M for Megababe ordered the apple crumble, a cream Anglaise with a scoop of vanilla Cocolusicious icecream and a chocolate squiggle. When I asked her what she though of it, she waxed rhapsodical about it. Well, I supposed she did, she gave me this ecstatic look and enthusiastically replied, "Oh my god, it was sooooo good!" Despite finishing that pizza with Chelle just minutes beforehand, she managed to eat all of it before the rest of the desserts had even arrived.

Chelle ordered a Little Taste of Queensland, a macademia white chocolate slice with caramel sauce, two scoops of white chocolate, caramel macademia ice cream along with a pretty milk chocolate sail. No one with us seemed to know what to make of the milk chocolate sail, everyone was examining it when Chelle received her dessert. When I told them that it was edible, they all seemed quite happy about it haha. I remember Lu., had this one of the first times we went to Freestyle Tout and I remembered the slice is deliciously sickly sweet, like caramel slice sweet. It'd be too much for me to finish by myself. Chelle said she liked it, but didn't elaborate any further.

I realise I've had bread and butter pudding with butterscotch sauce twice, but its too delicious to pass up. I also got a scoop of mango gelato, which wasn't as good as I was expecting, it definitely had a strong mango flavour but none of that succulent super sweet, slightly tart flavour that really good mangoes have. I love this bread and butter pudding however, soft, squishy and eggy with plump sultanas throughout it. The hot butterscotch sauce rapidly melted the crap out of that chocolate lace and I kept slapping my Boyfriend to stop him from eating it.

This is a chocolate deluxe sundae with vanilla, chocolate fudge, macademia ice cream, hot fudge sauce, marshmallows, cream and a giant chocolate sail. One of the other doctors ordered this and he ate it all before anyone noted. I think he may have shared this with his partner, who also shared her dessert with another female doctor.

This is the warm flourless chocolate cake with chocolate sauce, mixed berries, raspberry sorbet and a chocolate sail. This was ordered by three of the doctors.

This is the vegan cake with vanilla ice cream. I don't even remember what else was in this cake but the pharmacist who ordered this was very depressed by what he received. He didn't finish it and he said it lacked the love in chocolate sails and flaming alcohol that everything else had.

L., ordered the creme brulee with vanilla bean ice cream, raspberry sorbet, berry compote, biscotti and a fluffy bit of pashmak, a Middle Eastern cotton candy style confection made of almonds. Her creme brulee was set on fire and was still merrily burning away when it reached the table. We were all very impressed. I know from experience that the creme brulee is smooth as cream and as just about as rich here and not as sweet as some others I've had. It tastes almost like set cream, that's how creamy it is. The berry sorbet and compote are sorely required as they add a much needed acidity to the bland cream of the creme brulee.

I have no idea what this is, I think its a steamed ginger pudding with a custard, pistachios and desiccated orange slices which are mostly decorate. I think there is a blob of vanilla ice cream in the centre too. D., ordered this and he remarked that it was nice.

Mecca Bah
Atmosphere: 7, busy little restaurant that is perfect for large gatherings. The only thing that would be a drawback is that it enforces one bill to rule them all, no bill splitting.
Service: 7, very friendly waiter who was very understanding with our massive table and how we straggled in in dribs and drabs.
Food: 5, I didn't like the food here at all. I can't fault it for anything since it was well cooked, the flavours weren't to my taste the first time I visited here or the second.

 

Freestyle Tout 
Atmosphere: 7, very, very busy little place. One of those eateries you'd have to shout to make yourself heard in, thankfully we were outside so we could hear a bit better.
Service: 8, superb from our patient and very enthusiastic waiter, he did a very good job keeping track of us all. The guy running the floor inside the restaurant, wasn't half as helpful or cheerful as him though, from my experience the times I've been here though, he never is very happy.
Food: 7, I still love Freestyle.

MOS Burger

Oh MOS Burger, the MacDonalds of Japan. I remember wanting to go here when it first moved to Brisbane a few years ago in Sunnybank. Then I didn't bother and now I finally went here with my Boyfriend out of a spur of the moment desire.

I felt awkward photographing the front as there was an enthusiastic greeter there

Its located across from King George Square/Station and is a wide open, well lit store. There's more seating upstairs but I was too lazy to go up there since I had a heavy bag with me.

Sorta upstairs?

Here is their menu. I agonised as usual over my choice but I ended up getting a wagyu cheese burger with chicken nuggets and a fancy peach iced tea. On the other hand, my Boyfriend picked the teriyaki chicken burger with chips and their regular iced tea. The chips were crisp but a touch floury in the centre and unsalted to boot. The chicken nuggets were breast pieces and while crisp, were actually pretty average. I wonder why they use Masterfood's chilli sauce and don't have their own brand of sauces?

Hmmm

Also I would just like to mention that I had not received my meal on the first attempt. DUN DUN DUN.

HMMM

I actually received a chicken teriyaki burger on the first attempt and it looked completely different to my Boyfriend's. I took a bite just to confirm and yes it was indeed a chicken teriyaki burger, a well basted sweet, strong Teriyaki flavoured chicken thigh on soft white bread with lettuce and onion. He had also received a chicken teriyaki burger so I went back to talk to my server, who whisked away my burger and replaced it with my proper wagyu beef burger.

That ain't right

If you think it doesn't look fancy its because it isn't. I actually regretted swapping the burger over to what it was supposed to actually be. The beef was a touch dry, the tomato overly ripe, the iceburg lettuce at least kept in the bun like it was supposed to because it was a leaf and not shredded. I can get a better and cheaper beef cheese burger in any other place to be honest. My Boyfriend heartily agreed that his was much better and I should've kept my original burger.

There we go

Their drinks on the other hand were very good, I think its an extra dollar to spring for the peach iced tea but its worth it. There are actual chunks of peaches in the iced tea and there is no bitter astringency to the black tea at all. My Boyfriend swapped drinks with me because the iced tea was just a plain sweet iced tea, good for Asian taste buds not so much so for Aussie ones. L., tells me that the cranberry iced tea is fantastic too. 

I bought a small cranberry iced tea and it was fantastic. They used mostly a cranberry sugar syrup which I thought was sickly sweet but the whole fresh cranberries were fun to fish out and eat. The fresh cranberries added a sour/tart flavour to the tea.

Delicious drinks

The sign included on the dine in trays is pretty cute. It advises you to leave the burger in its wrapper to avoid getting food stains on your clothing.

MOS Burger
Atmosphere: 5, fast food place.
Service: 5, stuffed up my order and apologised profusely.
Food: 5, didn't get food poisoning. The drinks were much better, I'd give them a 7, I'd go back there solely for drinks.