Uncle Lais - Greenslopes

One of my final meals out for the year and I managed to finally tick off Uncle Lais from my list by way of a "start to holidays" lunch with Brisvegustation and family. Having heard of the queues and wait times associated with Uncle Lais, Brisvegustation kindly booked and ordered ahead of time.

In spite of its reputation, there were only a couple of tables occupied on the Friday lunchtime when we attended. 

Even though our lunch had been pre ordered, I still perused the menu for reference. The menu was fairly concise but covered essentially all you could want in Malaysian cuisine with a heavy focus on stir fried rice and noodles. Prices leaned towards the $20 mark which is a little bit expensive for what it is. Customers ordered and paid at the counter before the food orders were put through to the kitchen. 

Food came out relatively quickly, given the place wasn't particularly full. First to show up was the salted fish and chicken fried rice. It was a very photogenic dish of fried rice with an nice contrast to the colours, however when it came to toppings such as salted fish and chicken, it was a bit lacking as we couldn't really discern pieces of chicken or fish in our meal. The taste was fine though, as the rice was well seasoned with dark soy as well as carrots and onions and the portion was adequate.

Next up, my Teh Tarik arrived roughly at the same time as the Wat Tan Hor. The Teh Tarik was a lot sweeter and creamier than the likes of Pappa Roti which is my go to these days, I probably wouldn't get this again. As I had been craving Wat Tan Hor for a while now, this really hit the spot. However objectively speaking, the egg gravy was a bit lumpy and I would have liked a bit more noodles to go with the dish, the flavours were great though.

Our final dish was the signature Char Kway Teo which is what I came for. It came out fairly charred, the portion was a bit smaller than our other two dishes but it was tasty nonetheless. It could have had a bit more wok hei, but there was a fair amount of toppings to go with each bite and the spice profile was just right (in my opinion). While I wouldn't say that this is necessarily the best one I've had in Brisbane, it was definitely a solid effort and I wouldnt' mind coming back for this.

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 7.5/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10

Bing Go - Sunnybank

Hot summer nights always call for a nice cold dessert after dinner. Wanting something a little bit lighter than ice cream, we settled on bing soo at Market Square, made particularly more enticing by an eat club discount. 

There wasn't much of a queue when we showed up, we were able to order fairly promptly. There were a variety of bingsoo to choose from, with a heavy emphasis on asian flavours. Cups are generally for individual serves while bowls are to share. They also had an offering of drinks, waffles and toppoki.

It took around 10 minutes and our desserts were prepared. 

 

Dr L had the nutella bing soo and I had the matcha. The nutella was honestly more chocolate flavoured than it was nutella and he really enjoyed it. It wasn't too sweet and wasn't too decadent. I enjoyed the matcha in a cup, I liked how the shaved ice was matcha flavoured and the matcha ice cream on top. Again it wasn't too intense, but had ample flavour to it. The added red bean provided good texture and an earthy flavour to it. Overall it was a delicious dessert, offering variety from the standard ice cream runs at night at a similar price point, I wouldn't mind going back.

Price Range: $10 - $15pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 6/10

Ari Ari - Upper Mount Gravatt

Went to get some shopping done before the end of the year and we found ourselves at Garden City last weekend rounding off a few things before the Christmas season. Wanting to grab a quick and cool lunch because of the heat, we opted to try out Ari Ari, the new Korean BBQ restaurant in the complex.

 

Although their menu was largely BBQ sets, they had other cooked food like lunch sets and noodle dishes. We ordered via the QR codes on the tables. Despite the fact that our meals didn't take all that much time to cook, it took close to half an hour for our food to arrive. 

This was the Spicy Pork with Cold Nengmyun. Trying a bit of the pork, it really wasn't spicy at all. The noodles were chewy though but the soup was also a bit bland. 

I had the Cold Nengmyun with raw beef. The beef was well seasoned and delicious, but the quantity was quite lacking. Again the noodles were also quite chewy and delicious but the portions were very small. Considering the fact that these meals were high for noodle dishes as a main and the amount we got was equivalent to a large snack. At this kind of value proposition, I don't think I will be back anytime soon for their BBQ.

 

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 5/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 7/10 

Sinjeon - Brisbane CBD

Bit of an overdue post, but a Brisvegustation and I went to check out Sinjeon not long after it had opened on Adelaide Street. I was thrilled to have this in such close proximity after going to their Sunnybank Hills store.

Again, they had a lot of very cute displays out front to whet our appetites. The shop itself was quite small but most of the customers who came that day opted for take away so it wasn't too hard for us to get a seat.

  

 

Wanting a variety of options to try, we decided to order a set meal, comprising Original Topokki, Kimbab, Fried Fish Cakes, Crispy Dumplings, Fried Seaweed Rolls, Eggs and Drinks. We had two cans of Korean drink and these were quite unique. The grape drink had literal pieces of grape in the can but was quite sweet.

Our food came before long and it was definitely more than enough for two to share. The table was almost entirely filled.

The beef gimbap was delicious as always. The ratio of rice to toppings wasn't as good as queen's gimbap however it is better than a lot of other places. The beef was quite flavoursome and the other accompanying veggies were fresh and crunchy.

All the fried things came together also. I didn't really enjoy the dumplings as they didn't have too much meat in the filling. The seaweed roll was a highlight for me though, with a light umami flavour to the seaweed, otherwise the fried foods didn't stand out for me.

We also had a serve of cheese toppoki. This turned out to be quite spicy and the hard boiled egg. It was as saucy as it looked and was filled with little other than rice cake and cheese. I would have enjoyed it more if it had a bit more by way of meat or veggies, but for the price and convenient location, I couldn't complain too much. Overall we had a pretty good time at Sinjeon and wouldn't hesitate to go back for more later.

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 7/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10