Beastie Burgers

Beastie Burgers are a favourite amongst our group - as their burgers range from beef, to seafood and chicken all done in style.   Although the piece-de-resistance are the chunky onions rings which are absolutely delicious!

Hence, when faced with a decision as to what to eat one Monday evening, I wandered down and ordered my takeaway feast.

I have to say, when we ate in the restaurant, I loved the onion rings - I thought the burger was ok.  But I was disappointed with the takeaway.   The onion rings are 100 times better fresh and my beef pattie was burnt. =(

Given that experience, I'm giving Beastie Burgers 5/10, although I think my fellow Brisbane Biters would be quite a bit more generous.

Beastie Burgers is at Shop 60d, Little Stanley Street, South Bank.

Sardine Tin

A previous lonely Monday, I was walking around Southbank (waiting for my Beastie Burger to be cooked) when I spotted this lovely, wine bar.   I was enchanted with the name and decor and decided that this would be the place for our weekly team dinner.






Arriving at 7pm, we didn't make reservations, but I was charmed by the chalk reservation handwritten onto another table.  The three of us perched on some high chairs, and proceeded to choose items off the menu and wine list.


We chose 3 share plates of tapas.   They were all delicious!    We started with some marinated mushrooms, anchovies and fresh beetroot with goats cheese.   We then had lovely calamari, chicken wings, and smoked salmon with asparagus.   And yet another with pork belly and sardines.   

Finally, we decided to share a cheese platter and indulge in some dessert wine (although Gary opted for Port).   Really great cheese platter with plenty of variety.  I enjoyed the dried muscatel grapes, and thought the touch of honey comb honey was a great alternative to fig paste.




Thoroughly delicious, and I only hope to find a restaurant like this back in Sydney so I can enjoy it!

I'm giving Sardine Tin a 9/10.

Sardine Tin is at Shop 3A, Little Stanley Street, South Bank.

Guppy's Seafood & Grill

Looking for a good value meal, I couldn't go past the 2-4-1 that Guppy's holds on Tuesday nights. Besides the meal, you need to buy a drink (but very reasonable) so for under $20 you can eat and drink!

Although choices are limited to a compact menu, the selections are interesting.   We copied each other though and opted for the Corn crusted barramundi with mango salsa and sweet potato "chips".   I really liked the corn crusting - tasted like nachos - yum!

I also enjoyed choosing the strawberry/white chocolate / frappe type shake.   Tasted like creaming soda.

The service was fast and the food was good value.   I'm giving Guppy's a 6.5/10

Guppy's Seafood & Grill is located at 199 Grey Street, Southbank

Sardar Rasoi

We spotted a brand new indian restaurant - boasting bollywood music, bright uniforms and decor at the edge of the South Bank parklands, so we thought, why not? let's give the punjabi fusion theme a go.

Chicken Tikka Entree

At first, we were a bit worried about the single, poor review on eatability, but with the rain pelting down, we thought we should give it a go anyway, and we were very glad that we did!

The menu was both nicely presented and exciting!   We finally settled on a chicken tikka entree, a family sized naan, a mild pindi masala (okra), a medium... masala (chickpeas) and a vegetable biryani.

Mild really is mild - thank goodness, and I'm glad we only chose medium, as already I found it quite spicy.   So that's a good sign for those wanting an aurthentic taste.

Impressed by the family size naan!!!

Everything was very tasty - and surprisingly light and fresh!   MVL commented that this was similar to home style cooking and thought that it was delicious.

After seeing the poor review, but then having our own good experience (and the great value - $50 in total for dinner - including the 15% off voucher on eatability for Dec 2010), I'm giving the place an 8/10, Hayden agreed with an 8/10 and MVL went for a 9/10.

We all agreed we'd go back.

Sardar Rasoi is at Shop 2, 164c Grey Street, South Brisbane (although, we entered from Little Stanley Street)

Piaf

Piaf is a cute little french restaurant in Southbank, with a small seasonal menu, and I decided on Monday that I had to try it out!

Boasting a small seasonal menu, each section had me salivating and in dilemma about what to eat!   In the end, I chose to go all french...!

For my entree, I went with the escargot.   Beautiful snails in a lovely garlic and chive? sauce.   Really lovely, and I enjoyed mopping up the sauce with the bread provided!

Leesa chose the onion tart with goats cheese.

Meanwhile, Gary tucked into the beetroot cured salmon.   Quite good, although the beetroot curing was unusual.

Next, we chose our mains.   Leesa went with the "rump cap" which came with a broadbean salad.   The rump cap is a tender piece of meat, just above the usual "rump" cut on the cow.



Gary chose the chicken breast with roasted garlic and potatoes.   

And I tucked into a delicious confit of duck, on a watercress salad, with dried cranberries and walnuts.   Yum!!! and the duck was cooked perfectly, tender and falling off the bone.

We then decided to indulge further, sharing a cheese plate and some desert wine. We went with a brie and a crusted cheese.   Leesa and I liked the brie, but the crusted cheese was a bit pungent for my liking.   At least Gary liked it though!



All in all, quite a good meal and the prices were good for the quality of the food.   The entree's cost $12 and the mains $22.

 I think this was the place Sacha mentioned when I first visited Brisbane - but its probably now at the end, when we discovered it!  I only wish I knew about it earlier so I could have taken my mum when she visited.

I'd probably rate this place an 8/10 - good food, good prices, nice ambience, but I didn't like the cheese I picked... which is probably my fault... but still!!

Piaf is at 5/182 Grey Street, South Bank.

San Kai - Japanese Modern Cuisine Lounge Bar

7 months in Brisbane, and this little gem that has opened up the road is still in its first month!  But what better place to start then around the corner from where we're staying!

Hayden had done some pioneering, and as a result, we booked a table of 8 for 7pm.   The decor was lovely - actually, that was one of the things that attracted us to the restaurant in the first place!   Seated just inside (but feeling alfresco as the window was wide open behind us) we enjoyed the weather and ambience of the place.

There was an extensive menu, and we all spent a lot of time studying it so we could decide what we wanted!   Eventually, we made up our minds and then the feasting began!

Stuart, who had eaten lunch at 3pm - was too full for a full meal - so he chose the Sashimi plate (supplemented by Asahi of course).   It was fresh and delivered fast.   5/10 (he felt that he couldn't give a bigger score since he only had one dish)

Leesa shared with Gary, but started with some vegetable tempura, before a generous main course of teriyaki chicken.   (8.5/10)

Leesa had some red wine.

Sacha who's been overdosing on vegetables lately, ordered some chicken yakitori before digging into the Vegetarian dinner box. (7/10)

Sacha had a cabernet savignon.

Ryan also had the Vegetarian dinner box (surprisingly!) but did steal some of Ann's sushi later.   (8.5/10)

Gary meanwhile spoilt himself with some pork tonkatsu.   (8.5/10)

Hayden dug into a Tempura Dinner box.   (8/10)   It also had some amazing grilled fish which was amazing.

He also had a chardonnay.

Whilst Ann enjoyed a yummy Sushi dinner box. (8.5/10)

She also had a plum wine.

Finally, I had a great Sashimi Dinner box.   The Sashimi was lovely and fresh, the rice was fluffy and I liked the seaweed on the dish.  The only downside was that the miso soup was a bit too salty.   The surprise of the night however was the chawamushi - a savory egg custard filled with goodies - chinese mushroom, chicken, prawn, bamboo and fish cake.   Delicious - I'd go back just for it!  

I also had a pokka guava drink which was yum!

I would give it 7/10 - their score was reduced as I was left waiting for my food....!

All the dinner sets finished off with some green tea ice cream which was a perfect way to round off a delicious meal.

I'm sure we'll be back (or the rest of the group anyway, as this is my last week in Brisbane!)

San Kai - Japanese Modern Cuisine Lounge Bar is at (approx) 164 Grey St,  South Bank - opposite the Mantra.

La Via Update!

Fast becoming our favourite Italian restaurant, we returned to La Via for Hayden's birthday.  

To our surprise and delight, the menu had been updated so we all had new choices in which to indulge ourselves.

Hayden had a chilli pizza.   Aimee and Ann shared a square Gnocchi and truffle Risotto.    Gary had a delicious smelling mushroom pizza - could smell the porcini mushrooms.   Sacha and Kylie had pizzas, whilst Stuart had the fish with clam chowder.

I decided to do the double entree and enjoyed rabbit arancini as well as a delicious scallop with squid ink linguini - beautiful!

Once again, La Via delivered and we all had a wonderful feast out!

Caravanserai

We always like trying out new places, and were recommended to try out Caravanserai if we liked Turkish food.   Now, we all love Turkish food, and with a discounted banquet on a Tuesday night, we trotted out to Papaya Hill to try it out!

We rang and booked (last minute) but it was good as we got a table inside!  (It was quite a chilly night)   Not long after everyone arrived, we were served a wonderful antipasto plate.  Stuffed vine leaves, olives, dips, cheeses and a selection of leaves we enjoyed them with amazingly tasty, warm, fresh from the oven turkish bread - yum!!!


Unfortunately, after that, the service was exceedingly slow as we were basically the last table, and we watched delicious foods waft past with no joy.   We did all have a hot apple tea though which was moreish.

Eventually, we were served and the food was amazing.   Because we had a vegetarian, we had 2 vego and 2 meat dishes.   The vegetarian dishes consisted of a tasty lentil soup, as well as a dish of haloumi cheese and sweet potato.   The meat dishes were yummy meatballs and chicken skewers.  Delicious!

The piece de resistance however, was the plate of turkish sweets which topped off the night.   We tried an amazing short bread, a chocolate ball, baklava and chewy, rose infused turkish delight.   Amazing!

It's probably one of the best Turkish restaurants I've ever been too, and will definitely return when I am craving Turkish.   If you don't mind the wait, I'd give the place 8/10.

You can find Caravanserai at 1-3 Dornoch Tce West End 4101 QLD

Bamboo Basket

How quickly time flies - 3 months have gone past, and one of our team members is leaving.   With the night being stormy and wet - we decided to stay local and try out an Asian restaurant in Southbank.

I was quite surprised that the restaurant was packed - especially on a week night, and because it was so wet!   I did however have high hopes for the food, with mixed results.

We started off with a Chive and Egg crispy flatbread which was good.   I prefer mine a bit more crispy, but we did enjoy the fluffiness of the egg and pastry.

Next, we had some Shanghai dumplings - which were amazing.   The soup was really delicious, and they were cooked to perfection.

For mains, MVL had the Budda's Noodles - which were a tasty concoction of vegetables in a fragrant broth.   He rated the restaurant 9/10.

The rest of us shared a pork belly dish with multi-grain man tao.   I was really impressed with the bun, as it was light and delicious!  I usually don't like man tao.

We also shared a beef noodle soup - which was so-so.

And finally, 2 courses of peking duck.  

The Peking Duck pancakes consisted of a good duck - which was crispy, but the cucumber and shallots were sliced too thinly and a very meagre.  

The San Choi Bao was disappointing, as it had a slightly burnt flavour throughout the filling.

All in all, John - 8/10, Gary - 8/10, Cindy - 6/10

Bamboo Basket is at 189 Grey St, Southbank

Tides Waterfront Dining

After an easy Sunday morning cruise up to the Sunshine Coast, we were getting hungry.   In the mood for some fine food, in a casual yet elegant setting, Tides Waterfront Dining was perfect.

Timing is everything, and we were able to take advantage of the $29 lunch special.





For entree, we had some lovely warm toasted turkish bread with evvo and aged balsamic vinegar.   9/10 - crusty, warm and tasty!   We then had a choice of mains.

Mal chose the rump steak with truffle mash, steamed beans and red wine jus.  (perfectly cooked and melt in the mouth) 9/10

Whilst I had the Panko crusted prawns with cucumber and radish salad.   (great flavours, though I thought the portion was a bit small) 6/10

Next, Mal enjoyed a belgium brownie, with persian fairy floss and vanilla ice cream for dessert. 7/10

But my favourite dish of the day was definitely my delicious chocolate pannacotta (with tiny chocolate flakes in it), strawberry sorbet and strawberry and pistachio salsa.   Everything went together perfectly, and I had to stop myself from licking the plate.  I'd probably go back just for dessert! 10/10

We finished off with a coffee, and if we were in the region again, I wouldn't hesitate going back.

Tides Waterfront Dining is Upstairs @ cne Minchinton St and The Esplanade Caloundra

Era Cafe

Sunday brunch... and where better to go than a chilled out cafe to catch up with some good friends and enjoy some good food.

This particular Sunday, a friend came up to meet us from Sydney, and after indulging our inner children at the Lego shop, we headed down Merivale St for some brunch.

After mulling over the menu, we chose our dishes.

We chose home made baked beans.
8/10

Gnocchi with lamb

Great concept - poor execution.  The lamb was slightly dry and not as tender as the menu had led us to believe.
5/10

and ....

Eggs Benedict with Salmon!

With all those options however, our favourite dish was - Chips and Aioli!   10/10







All in all, quite a nice atmosphere - and the service is pretty good, but given the quality of food and value for money I don't think I'll be rushing back... unless I have a chip craving!  

Era Cafe is at 102 Melbourne Street South Brisbane (Cnr Merivale Street)

Scales & Ales

On advice from a local, John and I headed out on a ferry to Bulimba. Once there, we walked straight up the street as directed. As it was a Monday night, a lot of places seemed closed, but not too far into the main drag, we saw a sign and promptly got redirected up a side street. (and a great thing too!)

About 40m from the corner of the street, we found our eating place for the night - Scales & Ales.

Quite a small restaurant, but stocked with great beers (including John's favourite - 3 sheets from the Lord Nelson), there's a delightful little bar area were you can sip wine / beer or even eat. The other half of the restaurant had half a dozen tables or so where you could have a proper sit down meal.

Striking a perfect balance between fine dining and casual, the restaurant is open, airy and classy. The atmosphere allows you to relax and enjoy in style without having to deal with the pretentiousness that can accompany a fine dining restaurant. (Apparently, the head chef used to work at Aria)

We started off with some beer (I had a fantastic Apple Cider from WA?) in the bar area before moving into the main dining area for dinner.

Thoroughly spoilt, we each enjoyed 3 courses.

As an entrée, John had Salt and Pepper Calamari, whilst I sampled the twice baked crab soufflé. The crab soufflé was awesome. The crab meat was tasty and tender, and the cheese soufflé wasn't too heavy.

Next, we each had a Fish & Mussel pie. Made Shepard style (in a pan with fluffy potato on top) it was warm and lovely - perfect for a cold night.

Finally, we gave into temptation ... dessert! John had a bread and butter pudding, and I had a flour-less chocolate cake with amazing watermelon sorbet.

All in all, a fantastic little restaurant, that we'd both like to revisit.

John - X / 10
Cindy - 9/10

The Fox - BBQ and Smokehouse

Ribs - what a magic word.   One mention, and it was all I had on my mind.   So, when we found the deal at the Fox - which is $16.99 all you can eat BBQ Ribs and Pizza.   We wandered down at the usual 7pm - for a 7:15pm seating (they have 3 on Wednesdays - 6pm, 7:15pm and 8:30pm).

Once we got there, we were wowed by the beautiful art deco lights and soft ambiance in the restaurant.   Definitely not what I was expecting at a "pub".   We were seated after a short time, and were greeted by a lovely Texan waitress.   (thumbs up for the "genuine" angle!) We ordered drinks - frozen margaritas for Ann, Ryan and Aimee, a XXXX Gold Bitter for Hayden and a lemon, lime and bitters for me.

We were given a choice of 3 pizzas - pepperoni, margarita and garlic and rosemary.   Although we were only supposed to have 2 - they brought us all 3 to try.   In general, they were ok - but we found the bases on the thick side (although Ann loved the wood-fire aspect of it).   Aimee really liked the pepperoni pizza when it was fresh out of the oven - lovely chewy cheesy goodness.

But... the main event - the ribs!   My heart sang when 3 big plates of ribs came out for us.   Beef and pork - with a tangy BBQ sauce, served with fries and coleslaw.   Yum!   Ann and I completely demolished ours in about 15 mins?  We then looked at the rest of the table and kinda asked them... why aren't you eating? *lol*

The ribs were pretty good - most of them were totally succulent, with meat literally falling off the bone.   My 2 gripes were that some of the ones on the side, were overcooked, and hence impacted my experience of eating the ribs and also a couple of them were really gristly.

Pizza Ratings

Ann - 6/10

Ryan - 6/10

Hayden - 6/10

Aimee - 6/10

Cindy - 4/10

Rib Ratings

Ann - 7/10 - would be an 8 if it the sauce was less tangy and more smokey

Ryan - 7/10

Hayden - 8/10

Aimee - 8/10

Cindy - 7/10

All in all though - fantastic value - all you can eat (including a drink) for about $20-$25 a head, and we did all walk out full.   (Although Ann and I have our eyes on the Apple pie for next time...)   We'll be back to sample the rest of the American smoke house menu.

The Fox Hotel is on the corner of Melbourne and Hope St, South Brisbane.

La Via

It was time for Italian, and a simple google search of Italian in South Brisbane turned up 3 restaurants.  Given that La Via had the best reviews, at 7:30pm 7 of us trotted out to try the food on offer.

When we arrived, we were greeted and sat promptly (after joining a few tables together).   We were given menus straight away and had fun deciphering the menu.   (A bit of Italian understanding would have been helpful!).   We enjoyed the openness of the kitchen and the ambient atmosphere.   It also smelt great!   Additionally, we were seated along the cushy chairs which I enjoyed.

To begin our experience, we chose a red wine (of which we had 2 bottles), and in earnest attacked the menu and made our food choices.
Wine Ratings:
Ann - 8.5
Ryan - 8
Aimee - 8.5
Hayden - 10
Gary - 8
Lisa -  7

The menu small but wonderful, and everyone loved their dishes.

Gary had a wonderful calamari which made everyone go "yum".
9.5/10

Lisa had a pumpkin pizza - 8.5/10

Aimee had a chilli pepperoni pizza - delicious! 8/10
The rest of us who also tried a piece scored it as follows:
Cindy - 8/10
Ryan - 8/10 - and the "Best Pizza I've had in Australia"

Hayden had a Pizza Margarita.
7/10

Ann had a lovely pumpkin pasta.
7.5/10

Ryan had a Wagyu Beef which was delicious, but he felt the cut of the meat let the dish down a little.
8/10

I had the fish of the day (barramundi) served with a crab  / vegetable accompaniment.   Really delicious!   Ann & Aimee reckon they could have had the vegies alone or with bread for dinner!
8/10



After dinner, Hayden had a great coffee, 8/10 and we all agree that we are coming back to this place again!

La Via is located at shop 6e Little Stanley Street South Bank.

Landmark Restaurant

Early Saturday morning, you wake up.. and feel like yum cha!   So for our first out of South Brisbane / West End experience, we headed for land of the oriental - Sunny bank!

After getting slightly confused by the lay of the land, we parked our car on one corner of the Asian suburb and were happy that Aimee & Hayden's iPhones were working so we could locate our eating place.   We crossed 2 main roads, walked through a car park, entered a shopping centre and were about to give up hope, when we saw the lectern with an asian chick standing there handing out raffle tickets.  Awesome.

Since we were pretty early (10:30ish), there was no queue and although at the edge of the restaurant, we were promptly sat down next to the peking ducks, bbq pork window which started our mouths drooling.

We sat down and as the dishes went past, we started selecting and eating.  We ate dumplings, tripe, roast duck, spring rolls.   Some of them were quite tasty, but in my opinion - no where near as good as anywhere in Sydney...   We were also very unimpressed with the service.  When we asked for some vegetables, a man, then a lady simply waved their hands at us.   And when we asked for the bill, the same lady waved rudely at us as well.

All in all, not a fantastic experience.   The service was lousy, the food lacked variety and it wasn't genuine enough for me.   We'll be hunting for another yum cha place thats for sure!

Ratings:
Aimee - 2/10
Hayden - 2/10
Mal - 4/10
Cindy - 3/10

Landmark Restaurant is at Sunnybank Plaza Shopping Centre.  Cnr Mains Road & McCullough St

Ahmet's Turkish Restaurant

We were tossing up between Italian and Turkish tonight, but given the lack of wheels, we decided to keep it local and head down to South Bank for some Turkish.   Walking pass it always seemed quite busy, so I was quite keen to give the restaurant a go.


We entered from Grey St, and were lead through the delightfully coloured restaurant with great table cloths to a table on Little Stanley St.   Although the weather was still lovely, the lack of light dimmed our experience a little.


After we sat down, we ordered some wine (I chose apple tea) as well as some dips for entree.   We then proceeded to strain our eyes to read the menu.   


There were so many delicious sounding dishes to choose from but we eventually settled on the vegetable pide, a mixed grill platter and the Barramundi Kofte.


The dips arrived and we dug into the 6 with much gusto.   The selection we were presented with was:

• hommus - good, but slightly bland - went well with the hot & spicy
• avocado - good, but slightly bland
• beetroot - delicious - my favourite 
• hot & spicy - yum, with a good kick
• pumpkin - really nice - but we thought it was carrot *lol*
• haydari - too yoghurty for me, but Aimee & Gary liked it

We then started enjoying the mains.   The vegetable pide was lovely and warm, and the cheese was at the perfect chewy / stretchy texture which made it great to eat.   

Next, I tried the Barramundi Kofte - which Hayden called Turkish Fish & Chips.   The fish was a bit dry for Gary's liking, but eaten with the yummy potato, "tartae" sauce and salad, I thought it was quite nice.

Finally, I sunk my teeth into the mixed grill.  I was hoping this was good because I chose it!   On the plate was a lamb cutlet - quite yummy, grilled chicken, lamb and beef skewers.  My favourite was the lamb skewer which was delicious!   

After the entree and mains, Aimee and Gary were full, but having had my eye on the baklava since seeing it on the menu, Hayden and I couldn't resist.   I also had to order another apple tea  because it was so yummy!   


The baklava was lovely and sweet - but not sickly sweet, and the pastry was fluffy lightness - I really enjoyed it - will have to bring my sister here when she gets a chance to visit.

All in all, I quite liked it and would come back again.   I think the sharing of the dishes made it more enjoyable - I'm not sure that I would have enjoyed it as much if I only had 1 dish to eat on my own.   Also, I think if we had been indoors and could have enjoyed the ambience and light inside we would have had a better experience.   We had a great waiter though!




So... ratings:
Gary - 6.5/10 - some dishes were a bit dry and it was very dark
Aimee - 7.5/10 - enjoyed it more last time when she was seated inside
Hayden - 7/10
Cindy - 8/10 - apple tea was awesome


Until next time... happy eating!


Ahmet's Turkist Restaurant is at Shop 10/164 Grey St South Bank