Nonbei Sake Bar and BBQ

There's a new nurse at work who I instantly became best foodies friends with when he started working with us. His name is W., we're both Vietnamese, love food and can eat lots. It was a match made in heaven, so before I knew it, he had convinced me to go to his favourite all you can eat restaurant, Nonbei! He was very excited when I said I hadn't been as he goes here quite regularly and was waxing rhapsodical about the tender fattiness of their sashimi and the sheer quantities of wagyu beef he had consumed on previous occasions here.

We invited several other people but for the first trip, it ended up being W., L., and myself. We went a second time less than a week later due to H., getting jealous of us going, this time Ms Chatterbox also accompanied her, as well as W., L., and myself again haha.

This place!

It's a very easy spot to find as its along Ann Street, right around the corner from where China Town basically ends. Plus the faux Japanese exterior is a dead give away haha.

Very easy to spot

Here is their menu! Their menu attraction for us was their buffet, starting from $39.90, there are two higher grades which included more expensive quality ingredients for the buffet. The $49.90 buffet that we all had to decide on had a wagyu of the day, pork neck, salmon sashimi, salmon yukke, fried oyster, tempura ginger, tempura oyster, dried ray wing and takuna rice. As well as the buffets, there are ala carte items, individually priced barbeque items and hot pot assortments!

The catch with the buffet is of course that the entire table has to order from the same buffet and that any leftover food is fined. They were pretty lenient when we went, although we were sneakily destroyed food any way that we possibly could to avoid getting fined. 

Unlike other buffets I've been to, this place had a tick and flick menu that you indicated either the physical quantity or weight of the item you were ordering. So for example, for fried items you specified how many pieces you wanted, for barbeque items it was by 100g lots and random items were usually in serving size. For serving size, most of the time they keep piling up your dish until you tell them to stop. W., L., and myself are all very adventurous eaters so we tried a lot of interesting things that night!

All the sheets! They gave us spares too

Ours were clearly marked "Awesome buffet"

We ordered a lot of food

Like so much.

These are from the second time we went, Miss Chatterbox, H., and L., all ordered alcoholic cocktails, I can't remember what mixed with Calpis. W., ordered some unimpressive looking plum wine again.

Both times, without fail we recieved these dishes first. L., W., and I all decided to try this and we were really glad because they were delicious if a little daunting! It wasn't so much the fluorescent and delicious seasoned seaweed salad that was throwing us but the wasabi octopus and the chilli squid!. The wasabi octopus is on the left, it had a very nasal clearing wasabi bite in the thin fluid, the texture of the octopus itself was fantastic! It popped in your mouth like what you'd imagine popping bubble wrap with your teeth would be like, with a slightly firmer texture. The chilli squid was a slippery and mildly spicy morsel, much like the spice you would get with kimchi.

When we were here the second time, we got double serves for every and H., loved the wasabi octopus so much she had three plates by herself and said that she would love to have this with rice as a dinner. She also said she wanted to make this for herself. We had to really convince Miss Chatterbox to try any of this, she's a Filipino lady but quite Westernised in her tastes, so she refused to eat any raw foods especially fish. She also insisted that all her food had to be cooked to well done. Even the salmon sashimi, I didn't take photos.

L-R clockwise, chilli squid, seasoned seaweed and wasabi octopus

This is the salmon yukke, a jumble of chopped up fresh salmon pieces with a raw egg yolk with grated wasabi on the side. H., and W., both got this on different occasions. H., has only recently started eating seafood as she as convinced her entire life that she had a seafood allergy after eating some pickled seafood when she was younger. She ate a prawn by accident or something she told me, and since then has started cautiously eating seafood. She said that this was quite good. Apparently they have a similar dish in Korean cuisine, but usually using fresh beef like beef tartare?

Exactly the same as the picture

Both times we were here, we got big scoops of the Japanese potato salad, a soft mash of potato, mayonnaise, carrot and spring onion doused in barbeque sauce. It was a good little starter and we helped ourselves to it constantly while we waited for everything else to appear.

Japanese style potato salad is always good

L., H., and Miss Chatterbox all ordered huge amounts of agedashi tofu. This first picture was from the first visit, we didn't realise that they only came in one very, very small serve! The piece of tofu pictured is only about the size of a 50c piece floating in a 10cm dish of broth.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it

We had a real hankering for fried oysters and these were gorgeous! Super golden brown, crunchy, and they burnt your mouth with a squirt of juicy oyster! The coating was a little plain but it came with a large blob of tartare sauce that could've been a little tangier to balance things out.

So tasty

Here is all our fried food piled on one plate! We got nearly everything the first time, pan fried gyoza, spicy pan fried gyoza, fried ginger, tempura octopus, chicken karaage, teriyaki chicken karaage and sweet chilli chicken karaage. The gyoza are all delicious, a very crunchy bottom with a juicy and flavoursome ginger and pork flavour to their ample filling. The spicier ones are coloured slightly orange, Miss Chatterbox complained that they were too spicy however and ended up discarding hers.

The karaages were all quite similar, the teriyaki one is my pick as the chicken flesh has a faint soy and ginger flavour from the teriyaki used. Oh and the sweet chilli chicken karaage is just the plain karaage covered in sweet chilli sauce, I'm really not sure what I was expecting to be honest.

The tempura octopus was a touch rubbery so I didn't try a second one. I dislike pickled ginger at the best of times, so I didn't try the fried ginger.

So many, I can't be bothered naming them all

Oh myyyy, we got so much salmon sashimi both times. I normally don't like salmon sashimi, but I finally get it, that slightly firm, slightly jelly like flesh with its ribbons of translucent fat ripping through. It melted on the tongue and spread its unctuous flavours throughout my taste buds. Goddamn this sashimi was good, I had two pieces the first time and nearly six or seven the second time hahaha.

Some damn good sashimi

Our mish mash of meats from the first occasion! Chicken soft bone, chicken thighs, pork belly, wagyu of the day which was marinatd in garlic and soy and some beef fillet. Ignore everything else but the wagyu to be honest. Chicken soft bone is actually the soft cartilage part of the breastbone, grill it to a crisp and chomp away. We really didn't eat the chicken or the pork belly much because of the longer cooking time and the fact that we had gorged ourselves on wagyu long before anything else had even cooked. Such tender delicious wagyu, has anyone ever had a bad wagyu even?

The second time we were here, we received cubes of wagyu instead of these thin marinated slices. Still delicious.

So much meat

We got pickled bean sprouts! I can't remember much about them so I doubt they were memorable.

What?

Beef stew! A tiny, tiny serve but really delicious, it had such a good flavour and the beef was so meltingly tender, it just fell apart when I picked it up and the thick stew was utterly drinkable. If I didn't have to share it, I'd have hogged it all to myself. I did a lot of sniper style plucking when people were distracted.

So blurry, so delicious

I don't know why I ordered takuna rice, I remember it being a lot more delicious at other places I've been to.  For this version, I got steamed white rice with the takuna aka pickled mustard greens chopped up on top. I did not get anywhere near finishing this with how much other food I was eating.

Poor wasted food

Seaweed sheets! Perfect to improve your skin and as a munchable, flavoursome and utterly zero space taking up snack while you're waiting for heartier things! I pretty much ate an entire bowl of these to myself both times. My god, I love seaweed sheets. My sister, VGirl, has been known to eat almost an entire set of the packets in one seating, like 8-10 packets.

I love seaweed

This is the absolutely massive cabbage salad. It's the size of a dinner plate and piled to the top, I tried a little bit and I remember thinking it was creamy and salty like kewpie Japanese mayonaise. I don't recall anything else about it but W., can polish off an entire bowl by himself as H., and Miss Chatterbox highly praised its crunchiness as well.

Interesting.

We decided to get dried skate wings as well! Guessing these come from manta ray like creatures. We tried it as it came, chewy as old boot leather. Then we put it on the barbeque until it was golden brown, still a bit chewy but not unpleasant. We were intrigued by the change that came over the pieces as the heat reached them, they flipped, buckled and blistered in slow seconds which was great fun. Still nothing to write home about.

I then forgot about a piece as I was eating things and decided to eat the charry morsel as to not waste food, I was amazed. The flavour had become intensely smoky sweet like the sauce you get on eel in Japanese restaurants with a slight chewiness that reminded a lot of us of dried squid pieces. We began eating them with great speed, watch them carefully as they burn fast!

Stage 1, unchanged

Stage 2, starting to pop and flip over

Stage 3/4, make sure both sides look this golden before consuming!

Nonbei Sake Bar & BBQ
Atmosphere: 6, dimly lit barbeque joint with lots of open tables as well as hidden nooks to sit in. Hopefully you get assigned to a nook as they are much better decorated and give the semblance of privacy. 
Service: 8, very attentive and quick to clear dishes. They are very informative and are able to help explain the menu very well, as well as helping make decisions on food if they think you've gone overboard on ordering.
Food: 8, very good food. I'd gladly go here again with friends. The food is great quality with an interesting variety and $50 all you can eat sashimi and wagyu is a great deal in my eyes.



Also until Food Truck PheNomNomNom is on, I'm gonna spam this all over my posts.

What! What is Food Truck PheNomNomNom, you ask! It's a food truck gathering! It's at the Coorparoo Bowls Club from noon to 6pm and is starring Juan More Taco, the Pasta Cruiser, Sushi Neko Food Van, Roam'in Pizza, Chocolate Komberry Co, V's Vanilla Van, iFroyo, Thumbs Up Hotdogs and King of the Wings! I've been inviting people like crazy over Instagram to come here. Click on their names to links to their FB pages!

It's a few days after my birthday so expect to see myself and VGirl lurking around there for some cheap eats! See you there, and here are some more promo pics! Follow them on Instagram at @FoodTruckPhenomnomnom or #FoodTruckPhenomnomnom . They keep releasing more and more promo stuff!

Baked brie with red wine and garlic

I first got the idea for this baked brie from watching an episode of Masterchef. It was one of the later seasons, the one where Adam and Callum were the finalists. There was a gourmet cheese master class that had a fancy British guy teaching the recipe for this. I watched eagerly, I saw the gooey strands of cheese and the crusty bread that went with it. I thought to myself, I can do that. The brainchild of many an attempted recipe.

I make this in many, many different ways but the basic recipe remains the same.  Soft cheese, red wine, garlic and whatever herbs you have. I've use rosemary, dill, thyme, lemon thyme and whatever else you want. Blanch the garlic, poke lots of holes, shove the garlic in, top up with wine and then bake until gooey.

The soft cheese goes all gooey and liquidy, the garlic goes soft, sweet and mellow and oh god the smell of this is absolutely glorious. It is very easy and requires few ingredients, what else do you need?

Baked brie with red wine and garlic

Ingredients:
1 brie or Camembert, any size will do
1 clove of garlic
How water
Red wine
Enough snipped up herbs to sprinkle over the top

All you need is this~

1. Finely slice your garlic clove and blanch it in hot water for a minute. Drain and pat dry. Turn the oven onto 180C.

Blanch!

2. Stab lots a hole for each slice of garlic into the top of the cheese. If you want, you can slice off the rind at the top before doing this, but I normally keep it on.

Lots of slits!

3. Put a piece of garlic into each hole.

4. Splash some wine over the top of the cheese and allow the wine to soak in. Sprinkle the herbs on top if you're using any.

5. Bake the cheese in a ramekin/oven proof bowl/it's box until gooey and golden. Generally about 15-20 minutes at 180C.

Looks gross but its delicious.

6. Serve with crusty bread!

PPP: Soul Bistro

Time for another PPP! This time starring H., C., L., and myself. We were tossing up between a few places but we ultimately chose Soul Bistro because the breakfast menu at another place we were looking at wasn't as interesting as this place's menu.That being said, we ended up going out for lunch so that didn't really matter.

Soul Bistro is not difficult to find but it isn't too easily visible from the road. It's on the intersection of Baroona and Milton Road, but you can't see it as you're driving along. So when you pull into Baroona Road off Milton, take the next left into the shopping centre, find a park, and start walking back towards Milton Road! Then you'll see this shiny brown sign and realise where you have to go. H., and L., both said that they had to pull out their GPS to find this place.

Aha!

It was an open, cheery looking meeting place with lots of table arrangements and green plants everywhere.

Lots of places to sit

Here is their online menu! They have a lot of promotions going on such as a cheap $10-13 dollar lunch special that comes with a can of soft drink, iced lemon tea or a coffee, 10% off student discount and a 10% discount if you're going to something at Suncorp Stadium afterwards. These were the specials that were on the day that we went.

Drinks!

Even more drinks!

They have menus everywhere

Seriously

Not even joking

I got an apple berry crush, super bright red, lots of floating seeds and a strong berry flavour with a nice balance between sweet and sour flavours. It was quite thick with a tangy berry sorbet chunk floating in the centre. My only complaint was that it was full of seeds, and I had to chew a bit after every sip. H., tried some and kept sipping my drink when she thought I wasn't looking.

Mmm berry and apple

C., and L., decided to get lunch specials and after enquiring, decided not to upgrade to a fancy lemonade like H., did. So they just got plain lemon iced teas, it was sweet with a lemony tang. The tea flavour was nicely balanced, and not overly tannic or bitter in flavour.

Pretty tea

H., upgraded her iced tea/house lemonade to the fancy lychee and mint lemonade. It was actually a fizzy lemonade with lychee and mint pieces floating around! I was really surprised as for some reason whenever lemonade is mentioned, I always think they mean a lemon juice, sugar and water combo rather than fizzy lemonade.

Lychees, lychees, lychees!

I ordered these chorizo tater tots with blue cheese sauce to share between us, there were seven to a serve which is a bit of an odd number. Everyone else dutifully tried a piece and remarked that it was good although no one had a second piece, so I happily had it all to myself. It had a crunchy crumbed exterior and was full of creamy mashed potato as well as big chunks of a garlicky chorizo. I would've preferred a spicier chorizo but this was still pretty good, the blue cheese sauce was a mild blue cheese but still had a very noticeable flavour.

Chorizo tater tots!

I decided to get the buffalo chicken wrap which were two unevenly cut wraps containing baby spinach, battered chicken breast pieces, seasoned rice and apparently blue cheese sauce with a small side salad and drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I didn't really notice much of a buffalo chicken flavour, I was expecting a crunchy chicken piece with a hot and sour sauce tempered by a thick blue cheese dressing. That being said, it wasn't an unpleasant combination of flavours, just not what I was expecting. The rice was odd, but it reminded me of Mexican burritos I've had in the past.

Hmm

H, ordered the grilled haloumi and mushrooms, which came with a tortilla toast, charred eggplant and herb aioli. Once again, we were surprised by the presentation, there was a stack of golden brown haloumi slices, a little mixed garden salad and then these little wraps with all the grilled eggplant and mushrooms inside. H., was happy with her meal for once and said it was tasty if unexpected.

So many bits

C., got the special of the day, chicken fritters with a potato salad and lemon iced tea. She enjoyed it but I was somehow suspicious of the appearance of the fritters. We exchanged bites and came to the same conclusion, the chicken fritters were the exact same as the ones I had in my buffalo chicken wrap.

Dun dun dun

L., got the fish of the day, succulent grilled barramundi on top of pumpkin, with a lightly dressed salad and a glass of lemon iced tea. She said the fish was quite good and finished her meal before the rest of us.

Soul Bistro:
Atmosphere: 7, airy little shopping centre cafe. Lots of greenery surrounding us and lots of little tables for people to sit at.
Service: 10, super cheerful guy serving us who knew the menu intimately, he was very good with recommendations and seemed very happy to serve us. He also kindly split the bill for us.
Food: 7, the food was a bit hit and miss, with similar elements despite the interesting descriptions. The food was all polished off though and for the price, including a drink, I'd be more than happy to come here again. I really wish there was something cheap and cheerful like this near where I work.