Tuesday 12 March 2024

Chuan Chinese - Sunnybank


Have long been interested in Chuan Chinese at Market Square. Ever since they opened, all I ever see is a completely packed restaurant every time I walk past. For the several instances I've tried to get a table, I've been knocked back without having a reservation. Phoning up to make a reservation, I've been told that they only take 5.30pm and 7.30pm bookings. As a result of this, we finally decided to try it out early in the week to avoid the crowds. 

 

We grabbed one of the only remaining tables and were seated comfortably outside the restaurant (but still inside the shopping centre). Paper menus were provided although ordering is done via QR code on the table. Interestingly enough, English was only available on the paper menu, so any non Chinese literate customers might have difficulty ordering without relying on photos alone. As for the contents on the menu, as far as I could tell, it was fairly standard for Sichuan cuisine with a selection of main dishes focusing on spice.


Some companions who had arrived earlier ordered a serve of spring rolls to start, these were freshly fried, crispy and I liked the mix of meat and veggies that it was filled with. 


We probably over ordered, but the first three dishes we chose came out exceptionally quickly after putting it in the system. 


First up was the pickled veggies with beef stew. The portion size was absolutely massive and the plate was even bigger. We chose mild spice for it and I found it to be challenging to my spice tolerance. There was a generous amount of beef and pickled veggies in the stew and although it was spicy, the sourness and savouriness of the dish still shone through. It went particularly well with rice. Would definitely order this again.


Next up was the "saliva" chicken, named not because it is made of saliva but because the thought of it makes people salivate. It was a good serving for the price and the chicken was extremely tender and flavoursome without being dry. 

 

We also had a serve of spicy beef offals (tongue and stomach) as well as wasabi fungus. Both were very spicy, but the offal dish was more of a hot spice whereas the fungus had a cooling spice that you would get with mustard. Both dishes were delicious and had a variety of very enjoyable textures, special mention would have to be made for the tripe which was very well done, elastic and tender, absorbing a lot of the spicy numbing goodness.


We had two non spicy dishes that evening. First was the signature braised pork belly which offered some much needed reprieve from the spice. The pork was very soft and melted in our mouth whilst being drenched with a rich soy/oyster sauce concoction that was very homey. Again, one that goes well with rice.


Our final dish, which came roughly half an hour after the rest of our food was the steamed egg with pipis. Silky smooth, it was like an egg infused tofu with a light seafood taste. Although mum makes this very frequently at home, this was undoubtedly more silky than the home made variety, making it a worthwhile dish to order when visiting. 

Overall we had a fantastic time at Chuan Chinese, although it was spicy, the food was of a high standard, each dish was a flavour bomb and I would definitely not hesitate to come back. Also there is a 10% cash discount, so for a large group, it would be worth bringing cash to take advantage of the deal.

Price Range: $30 - $40pp

Taste: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 7/10 
 







Tuesday 5 March 2024

Amoroso - Paddington

 

Valentine day is hardly ever complete without a sweet dessert to round off the meal. To this end we decided to walk over to Amoroso, my current favourite when it comes to gelato for a treat to finish the evening. It was a fairly long walk and we arrived to find the small shopfront packed.


The menu was identical to Sunnybank Hills as far as I could tell, offering gelato, sundaes and drinks. 


The flavours on offer were decidedly less Asian centric though with only Matcha on offer and I was the first one to order from the new tray.


In the interests of science (also I was very full), I ordered a kid's sized double scoop whilst Dr L had the standard size double scoop. On the face of it, I didn't really notice too much difference in size so it might be worth opting for kids scoops from now on.


I had the Matcha and Cappuccino whilst he had Lotus and Chocolate. Although the store was situated outside of Sunnybank, I was still pleased to see that the ice cream wasn't overly sweet. The matcha flavour was just as strong and I really enjoyed the chocolate hints in the cappuccino gelato. Dr L also found his dutch chocolate to be very rich and decadent whilst the biscoff was deliciously cinnamony. I can't wait for them to open closer to home and no doubt we will be regulars once that happens. 


Price Range: Less than $10pp

Taste: 8.5/10 
Value: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 7/10 




Tuesday 27 February 2024

Fratelli Restaurant - Paddington


Valentines day 2024. I wanted to do something about it but didn't want to be boxed into committing to an overpriced set menu. It took a while before we decided to try our luck (for the third time) at getting a reservation at Fratelli Restaurant which has been on my list for some time now. I guess third time is the charm because we ended up getting a table 


Sitting down, I noted their attention to detail in having a floral candle as well as rose petals on the table, a nice touch that I really appreciated.

 

Service was a little slow during the evening, given that it was super busy, however staff were extremely friendly and helpful throughout. We were provided menus promptly. It focussed on pizza, which we were there for, with a small selection of pasta as well.


Our entree was the Burrata tartufo which was interestingly served alone without bread or crackers. Our serve of Rucola (a side salad) also came with the entree. The Burrata was delicious, chilled and creamy with complimentary tastes of truffle and honey. The rocket salad was fairly interesting as it had a lot less of a bitter aftertaste than other ones I've previously had, the leaves were a lot more soft and tender also.


Our pizzas came shortly after our entrees, fresh out of the pizza oven.


Our white based pizza was the Tartufata, topped with fior di latte, porcini, truffle salsa, mushrooms and oregano. The truffle taste wasn't as strong as other funghi pizzas I've had previously, but I do really like the delicious earthy meaty taste of porcini. The base was probably the best I've had in Brisbane, light and fluffy without being overly soggy. I would come back for this reason alone, however I do think that there could have been more toppings on the pizza itself though.


Our red based pizza, the Fratelli, came topped with tomatoes, fior di latte, porcini mushrooms, pork sausage, gorgonzola, onion, and basil. Again there could have been a bit more by way of toppings but it was more generous than the tartufata. I loved the flavours of the pork sausage complimented with the tangy sugo and again the base was outstanding.

Although this is a little bit more pricey than other places, notably my favourite, Julius, I consider their pizza base to be superior and would come back for that alone, especially because parking is easier. Can't wait to try their other pizzas.

 

Price Range: $40 - $50pp

Taste: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Environment: 7/10

Tuesday 20 February 2024

Sushi Train - Underwood


Long before there was Sushi Edo and Ichiban Sushi, there was Sushi Train. Looking back on my childhood, I had fond memories of waiting for their anniversary sales where all plates would be $3 or $3.50 and we would queue up and eat to our heart's content. Perhaps I haven't been paying attention for sometime, but I was thrilled when I saw that they were having a $3.50 sale for the grand opening of their new Underwood store, so we trekked out there to line up half an hour before opening. We arrived to see a small group of people gathering at the door and we seated just before their scheduled opening time.


The setup was quite modern and the restaurant could accommodate quite a substantial amount of people. I had considered the kaiten sushis which had ipads to order dishes to be fairly modern, however this Sushi Train was even more modern with QR codes on the table to order from your personal device.



To their credit, they kept the train very well stocked and not just with the cheaper end of the menu, there was a good variety of fish and non fish options as well as cooked and non cooked dishes. As you would expect, we ended up getting a lot of food, so I will only provide brief commentary on each dish. 


First up was the aburi salmon, the fish was thick cut but a bit light on the caramelization. I also found the rice to have been a bit under seasoned, which is surprising when most sushi trains are fairly consistent.


Next up was the akami tuna, this was fresh and thick cut. Again (and in all other dishes) the rice was under seasoned. 


The tobiko ship was good, there was a generous amount of tobiko on top. Seaweed was fresh and crispy.

 

The salmon nigiri echoed the tuna nigiri, thick cut and fresh. I found the Salmon Tobiko ship to be fantastic value, especially for the sale price given there were two pieces per dish.


The salmon avocado ship was also delicious and creamy with the avo being just ripe enough.


This was our first serve of ikura salmon. There was confusion because it came as two pieces in a serve which caused us to order many more but it was in fact one serve per dish. There was however a generous amount of ikura but it would probably not be worth the standard price.


Probably my only regret that day was to order the salmon avo hand rolls. This was mainly because there was a huge amount of rice in the roll and I filled up more than two dishes of nigiri. Otherwise the avo and salmon were delicious but I would have liked the seaweed if it was more crispy.


This was the negi toro ship, it was fairly standard and there was a good amount of minced tuna in the dish.


The same can be said for the negi salmon dish. It was the first time trying it but I don't think it was memorable enough to order again.

 

I've always considered sushi train to have a fairly high standard of wagyu and Underwood was no different. The unagi roll was also well received.


One of our final salmon nigiris was the salmon avo nigiri. Ordinarily the avocado pieces are a bit bigger at other restaurants, otherwise it was fine.

 

Rounding off we had a serve of unagi nigiri which was very delicious and the unagi was fairly generous in size. The best dish of our meal came last, and was a thinly sliced wagyu nigiri topped with uni. Although it was only one piece per dish, the toppings on it may as well have been generous enough for two pieces. The wagyu was buttery soft and melt in your mouth while the uni was fresh and creamy. Definitely finished our meal on a highlight and I wish I could have had more of these.


Overall we had a fantastic time at Sushi Train Underwood. It definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of consistency and freshness, no doubt we will be back in the near future for more.

Price Range: $3.50 per plate (opening special)

Taste: 8.5/10
Value: 9/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 8/10 

Tuesday 13 February 2024

Holy Hock - Underwood


So I had noticed a little while ago that Holy Hock was opening in Underwood. As far as I could tell it focused on braised pork dishes much along the same lines as Tasty Rumour and Gang Nam. I hadn't intended to go try them out super soon after opening, but after a nearby restaurant that I was wanting to go to decided not to be open (despite their opening hours saying they would be) and we were stuck looking for a restaurant that opened later than 8.30pm. As with many Korean restaurants, Holy Hock opened later, so we went to check it out.


Other than us, there was only one table. The waitress was very attentive to us throughout the evening and answered any queries we had.


As mentioned, the menu was largely pork based however there was a notable addition of bulgogi which I don't remember seeing in any of the other braised pork restaurants. We had originally wanted to try a Half and Half along with the Bulgogi Hotpot however that night the hot pot was not functional. They did offer to pre cook the meat for us and serve it, but rather than detract from the experience, we opted for one Jok Bal and one Bossam instead.


Our full size Jok Bal came out first and it was definitely a sight to behold. I found the pork to be very flavoursome with a delicious soy flavour that infused the meat all the way through. The meat was tender and the fat had been rendered off it but the collagen under the skin remained. We really liked it, especially with the dipping sauces and the refillable sides. 


We also had a serve of Bossam. Although it looked smaller than the Jok Bal, given there was no bone, the amount of meat was comparable. I found the taste to be a bit milder in the Bossam than the Jok Bal, but it had a light miso taste to it which was complimented by the root kimchi that it was served with. Again a lot of the fat had rendered and there was substantial meat and collagen left with the skin. It went well wrapped with lettuce and other pickled sides. 


Both of our large dishes came with a side of miso based soup, this also had a considerable amount of onion and cabbage in it. We found it nourishing and wholesome with a slight acidic tang that we haven't had before in other miso based soups.

 

We ordered two other dishes to try, one was the tulip chicken feet and the other was the seafood pancake. The tulip chicken feet was quite impressive because they managed to remove all bones except for one, which was how I got to eat my first ever chicken foot. Other than for the novelty, it tasted more or less like chicken skin and collagen. I found it to be on the spicier side. I really rate the seaweed and pickles with rice balls that it was served with, these had a delicious sour and umami flavour throughout and were very moreish. I consider the seafood pancake to be the weakest dish in the meal, it didn't have too much by way of seafood and also it lacked flavour without the dipping sauce, so I probably wouldn't order that again.


Price Range: $25 - $35pp

Taste: 7.5/10
Value: 7.5/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 8/10