Roro - Sunnybank

The year is 2025 and my obsession with charcoal grilled skewers continues. People who follow my instagram page may have remembered that last year I purchased take home charcoal bbq kits from Charcoal Champ and had a fantastic time grilling them at home. I was so obsessed with Charcoal Champ that I also made a point to dine at their restaurant which was surprisingly disappointing. I had yet to get around to blogging about my dining experience but then Roro slid into my DMs advising me that as the previous owners of Charcoal Champ, they had sold the shop to new management, taken their capital and started up Roro at Sunnybank Plaza, now offering more premium (and therefore more expensive) take home BBQ kits. A friend of mine ordered the kits and said the quality was as good as Charcoal Champ used to be, but a bit more expensive. I hadn't had the occasion to get another take away kit but Dr L and I made it over there for a weeknight dinner.

Arriving on a Tuesday evening, the place was fairly deserted other than another table. Dr L was momentarily taken aback when he arrived, expecting an abundance of charcoal and meat flavours. Instead it was fairly sterile and clean with no discernible scents. Skewers were set up malatang style where you grab what you want, weigh it and pay for it. The going rate for skewers was $8.80 per 100g, which might not seem like too much but it's already more than double what many malatang stores are charging, not to mention malatang provides soup and seasoning whereas at Roro you're also paying for the actual wooden skewer that you presumably don't eat. In other words, it better be good to be worth the price.

Anyway there was quite an assortment of meats and veggies available to choose from. Most things appeared fairly fresh and didn't smell off. I did note that there were chunks of salmon that had turned black and were still in the cabinet, so I made doubly sure not to touch the salmon.

Ultimately, we ended up with 28 skewers, weighing 930g between the two of us. This means that on skewers alone, it cost us almost $82.

Other than the pick your own skewers, they also had a fairly concise menu of other accompaniments such as sides, snacks and drinks to go with your skewers. We picked a couple things off this to go with our meal.

Although we were given a buzzer to collect our meal when it was ready, they still brought it to our table (because there was literally no one else in the store waiting for food).

This is $82 worth of skewers. We chose the Roro special seasoning as this was what I usually got with my take home kits. Starting with the positives, we were fairly happy with the meat quality. The wagyu was definitely tender and not chewy without being overly greasy. I also liked the crunch that the pork jowl came with. Everything else was fairly standard as you would expect of oyster mushrooms or Taiwanese sausage. Now for the downsides. None of the skewers had much charcoal smell to it at all, nor did it even have much charring to it at all, which was very disappointing. What I enjoy about charcoal skewers is their dry crisp exterior, which I have been able to achieve with the take home kits. For some unknown reason, Roro decided to keep their seasonings wet and instead it was coated in a cumin chilli kind of paste that left a small pool on the paper after we were done. Both Dr L and I found this to be underwhelming, especially for the premium.

The highlight of our meal turned out to be this humble cabbage salad which was only $1. Although the portion wasn't particularly big, Dr L was a huge fan of their kewpie sesame sauce.

Always getting lured into ordering a tornado potato, we got one to share. Like the skewers, it was disappointing. Thick and chewy, it wasn't particularly crisp and the batter was very thick. I would not order this again.

In summation, I'd have to say we were fairly disappointed in the dine in experience at Roro. $90 for a casual dinner for two is on the higher end of the price range for Sunnybank, especially when you consider we didn't order drinks and still had room for a substantial dessert after. I would have gladly come back if the skewers tasted good but in this case it the environment was sterile and although they were going for a comfortable vibe, it reduced the authenticity that you would get at a more traditional skewer shop like iSkewer or Grill n Roll. I may still come back for the skewer kits (although these have also gone up in price), but I will definitely not be back for dine in. 

Price Range: $40 - $50pp

Taste: 5/10

Value: 4/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10

 

Grill Ippin Don - Runcorn

Readers may recall that one of my favourite spots for Taiwanese cuisine is Glamorous Wok in Sunny Park. I liked it so much that I held my birthday party there two years ago. As you can imagine, I was fairly thrilled to hear about the low key opening of a casual Taiwanese set meal restaurant in Runcorn Plaza. Not wanting to delay, I headed off for a visit on their opening week.

Arriving at 11.30am, we avoided having to queue up for a table but the restaurant was undoubtedly packed. We ended up getting a seat on one of the larger communal dining tables.

The menu was extremely enticing and I would probably be happy eating any of the items listed. They had a fairly wide selection of rice and noodle dishes that you could expand to a Japanese style bento set at an extra charge.

Ordering at the counter, water was offered on a self serve basis as were the condiments. I liked the pickled veggies and minced garlic on offer. 

My dad who was dining with me that day ordered the signature Grilled Angus Don. I convinced him to order it in a set meal so I could sample the sides. The beef bowl came with a perfectly cooked onsen egg and mixing it in was as satisfying as it looked. Trying some of his food, I liked the charring on the beef which was very tender. It wasn't as buttery as wagyu but the flavour was delicious. There was also a good beef to rice ratio. The only let down for me would have to be the portion size which was definitely relatively small for a main. But for the price, we definitely couldn't complain.

Not being able to stray from the staples, I had the beef noodle soup, also in a set. The side dishes were light and moreish. I particularly enjoyed the cherry tomatoes which went well with the noodles. Like the angus don, the beef noodles were a bit on the smaller side when it came to portions. I did really enjoy the depth and umami of the meaty beef broth and the generous amount of tender beef shin though. What I did find curious though was their choice to use egg noodle when it is usually served with white wheat noodles. Nevertheless, we both really enjoyed the food. I can't wait to come back soon with Dr L to try out the other dishes.

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 8.5/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10 

Mr Tall Pork Noodles - Calamvale

Mr Tall is a moderately new Malaysian restaurant that opened at the end of 2024 whilst I was overseas. Located in Calamvale Central, the opening hype was definitely a sight to behold with queues allegedly up to two hours to get a table. I waited for the hype to die down a bit and took the liberty of going with Dr L after work for a quick dinner during the week so I wouldn't need to cook. 

Arriving at about 6.30pm on a Tuesday night, the place was still popular as ever but we managed to get a table without waiting.

  

The menu was available by way of QR code and we also put down our order through it. To be honest the menu was definitely one of the shorter ones I've seen and if you weren't a fan of pork noodles, it might have been difficult to find something to order. Prices were also on the steeper side but if the quality was high enough, it might justify the cost.

Starting off we had two drinks, I had the coffee with milk tea and Dr L had the Calamansi juice. Despite the deep colour of my beverage, it wasn't as strong as you would imagine. It was also a little sweet for my taste. Dr L's drink was tangy with as strong citrus twist. Trying some myself, it was also on the sweeter side.

Starting with a snack, this was the five spice beancurd roll. It was really tasty and reminded me quite a lot of the beancurd rolls you have at yumcha. Crispy on the outside with juicy plump pork on the inside, we really enjoyed this dish.

It didn't take much longer for our noodle dishes to show up and out table was almost overflowing.

Starting with the pork noodles, I had originally wanted to order the offals but some were sold out. I had to settle for pork mince noodles with extra stomach and intestines served on the side. The noodles were delicious and bouncy, served in a clean clear broth. I appreciated that they had thoroughly cleaned the offal and there were no unpleasant smells in it. The pork mince was also generous in portion.

The fish laksa with vermicelli was a let down on this instance though. I think they may have given me more than the standard portion of noodles and it had soaked up the majority of the soup. It was a bowl that the two of us couldn't even finish half of because no matter how much we ate, there was just more soggy noodle and unfortunately we left the majority of it. On a positive note, the tempura fish was delicious.

Credit where credit is due, after my less than stellar experience with the laksa, the restaurant offered to replace it next time I went. When I did, I also tried out the lychee soda. This was crisp, refreshing and had a generous amount of real lychees in the drink.

Changing the type of noodle I had with the laksa to avoid the risk of being soggy, this was a much better iteration of the dish compared to last time. Again the fish was lightly battered and pleasant. The thick rice noodles were chewy and complemented the spicy creamy soup well. 

In conclusion, if you're a big fan of Malaysian pork noodles, its definitely worth hitting up Mr Tall. I enjoyed the meals however found them to be on the pricey side for cheap asian eats. I would also have liked for there to be a couple more options to choose from for some variety. Having said that, I would have no objections to a return visit if my friends ever asked me to go with them, but I am in no huge rush to return.

Price Range: $25 - $35pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 6/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 7/10 

Hwaro92 - Springwood

After the recent opening of the highly controversial Seoul Garden, another contender for Korean BBQ in the broader Brisbane area has opened with Hwaro92 (originally situated in Robina and doing a la carte) opening a second store in Springwood and offering a KBBQ that offers more or less the same thing as Seoul Garden with a lot less drama. We made a reservation to go with a couple of friends not long after their grand opening.

Parking was fairly straightforward and simple. Prices are notably $2 more than Seoul Garden for all meals and the time limit remains the same. There were a couple of notable differences though which made for a significantly more pleasant experience. Firstly they were willing to entertain bookings of two, secondly they asked that you pay upon entry and unless you left an egregious amount of food, you wouldn't be threated with with extra charges. Finally, as with most authentic Korean restaurants, there is a 5% discount for cash payment. 

After being seated, we went out quickly to forage for food. Queues were nowhere near as insane as Seoul Garden and I was able to comfortably browse without wasting too much time. Firstly there was a selection of salads and other cold fruits and veggies.

There was 15 different types of meat on offer. Notably including some delicious garlic prawns. Meats were divided into marinated and umarinated.

Selections of hot food included stews, rice and noodles. 

As always, fried chicken wings were on offer with original and glazed variations.

Noodle bars seem to be all the rage these days and they also offer an inexpensive option to fill customers stomachs so there was definitely one here also.

Rice and two soups were available.

There were also a few other selections of fried foods like mozzarella sticks as well as some kimbap and inari.

Desserts were notably lacking compared to Seoul Garden though, comprising of ice blocks, taiyaki, sweet dumplings and warabimochi.

It didn't take long for us to load up and the table was blissfully full.

Starting off with the negatives, I would say that the grill was surprisingly small for a table for four. It would have been adequate for two but we struggled to fit everything on it to share for our group. The heating was also oddly un-centred with the heating elements leaning towards the edge, leading to meats placed in the centre cooking slower. The biggest red flag for me was the non stick coating from the grill that was noticably flaking off. Other than that though, the meat quality was significantly better than Seoul Garden. It was fresh, the marinates were delicious and authentic. I also liked that the cuts were high quality, not overly fatty and not overly chewy. Compared to other buffet options available I think that only Yido would surpass the quality provided by Hwaro and that comes at a price of $10 more.

Sides were equally as impressive, we enjoyed the fresh and clean lettuce for wrapping, the crunchy spicy kimchi and wholesome mashed pumpkin. 

As with all kbbq buffets, the meat was of course my main focus but I sampled a bit of their cooked dishes to get a gauge on their quality which was overall good. The inari was my fav of the cooked food, rice had a really enjoyable texture that was not too soft but just bouncy enough with a generous amount of toppings. Seafood pancake was unexpectedly crunchy. Chicken wings were hot and crunchy. Mozzarella stick had batter that was too thick for my liking but I also think that's the way they were intended.

 

As mentioned, the dessert options weren't anywhere close to what you can get at Seoul Garden, but I found it to be adequate. Dr L really rated the sweet dumplings and ate quite a few of them. I had a selection of the warabimochi which weren't too sweet but also weren't intense in flavour. Ice blocks were fairly standard.

Overall, we had a fairly stellar time at Hwaro92. If we compare food quality in a vacuum, Yido would probably win out because of the quality of wagyu they use. If you consider the more comfortable (and clean) dining area, I would say you would get a better experience at Hwaro. Staff were friendly and helpful, and when you compare to being herded around and pressured like we were at Seoul Garden, I can comfortably say that I have absolutely no need to return to Seoul Garden anymore. At $52pp, I don't think anything else in Brisbane can beat out Hwaro as a dining experience and this will probably be our go to from now on.

Price Range: $52.90pp

Taste: 8.5/10

Value: 9/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10