Fresh Alo - West End

Some of my readers may have heard my gripe about the state of (western) social media lately. Authentic posts are increasingly hard to come by and my feed has now largely become dominated by advertisements, sponsored posts or posts with otherwise undisclosed conflicts of interest. This has in turn made it quite difficult for me to discern which places are actually good and which places are bad but hyped up. Interestingly enough, it appears that Chinese social media (at least in Brisbane) has yet to become corrupted to that level, and I've recently been able to find some fairly stellar recommendations as well as some particularly spicy, savage reviews. 

One place that came highly recommended was Fresh Alo, a store that originally had a more fusion focus which had next to no social media presence on western platforms. I'm not sure if it's a change of management or a change of strategy, but they have lately taken a turn specialise in Harbin style malatang and fried skewers.

 

What sets this malatang apart from other stores is that there is no DIY option for you to grab your own ingredients. Instead all you have three options only, deluxe, standard and vegetarian with all ingredients pre-packed with no alterations. Only noodle type can be customised. There was also a selection of fried skewers. Prices were very impressive when considering the going rates at Sunnybank these days. Service was also particularly warm and welcoming (if you can speak Chinese).

As with other malatang stores, there was a small selection of sauces for you to DIY. Notably garlic is available, so I was happy.

It didn't take long for my standard malatang to arrive. At $20 for 600g, this was a very reasonable price for this this day and age. There was a generous assortment of beef slices and spam accompanying the noodles, veggies and tofu. Although I would have gone harder on the meat if I was picking my own ingredients, I was pretty happy with this bowl. The soup was not as creamy and rich as David's Masterpot but I consider it to be better than the average.

It took a bit longer for our deep fried skewers to arrive but this was definitely worth it. This plate cost roughly $20 and it was completely loaded with all assortments of protein, enoki and crab sticks. I was especially impressed with the fried chicken cutlet that was priced at $5. All items came dusted with a spicy cumin powder that was unbelievably addictive. I would come back for the skewers alone.

Rounding off our meal we had some deep fried mantou served with condensed milk. At $3 for 4 pieces it was also a good deal. This was likely storebought and then deep fried and I have no issue with this. Light and fluffy with a crispy shell, it was a comforting way to conclude our meal.

In total, our diner for two cost just $46 and we had so much food we had to get takeaway and containers were complimentary. Overall we had a very positive experience at Fresh Alo, it is definitely an underrated spot and we can't wait to come back for more.

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 8.5/10

Value: 9/10
Service: 9/10

Environment: 7/10

Orange tea - South Brisbane

Brisbane One in South Brisbane is a moderately new block of apartments. Although it took a little bit of time to get their commercial occupancies filled, recent years have bought with it quite a few exciting openings that make me wish that I lived on site. Recently Orange Tea took up lodgings on the ground floor, sharing the space with Sam's Chicken. 

Given the prices of bubble tea these days, we were happy to line up on opening weekend for their buy one get one free promotion. Whilst in line, we were then further enticed with buy one get one free vouchers in exchange for five star reviews on google.

The menu was pretty much the same as their Sunnybank store, offering interesting options like gelato tea and of course their signature orange tea. Service was fast and efficient, especially given it was opening day.

The first time we went, I had an orange tea and Dr L had the lychee oolong tea which was one of the limited free drinks.

 

Compared to other bubble tea stores, orange tea actually offers one whole orange in its fragrant green tea while other shops just mix in orange juice. The result is a far fresher and crisper experience which stands out to me as a must order. Dr L also remarked that his lychee oolong was fresh but mellow, making for a delicious beverage. The dedication to plastic straws is also a definite selling point.

Wanting to utilise our vouchers, we returned twice within quick succession. The next time we enjoyed our drinks with dinner from Sam's Chicken. Dr L had a taro milk tea and I had a smoky oolong tea with smoky oolong gelato. Dr L was particularly impressed that the taro was made with fresh paste and that they were very generous with the portions. The tea was fragrant and the milk was creamy, definitely one of the better taro milk teas around. My smoky oolong with gelato was unique as it was delicious, the smoky flavours definitely came through and I was pleased that the drink was sweet enough with just the ice cream in unsweetened tea. 

 

In fact I enjoyed my gelato tea so much that on our last visit, I had the black tea with a scoop of earl grey gelato, this time infusing some floral scents into my beverage. Dr L opted for papaya milk which was unique to this chain, we don't think we've seen it anywhere else in Brisbane. I was really impressed with the generous chunk of papaya that they blended into Maleny milk. Both drinks were again well received. Given how close this store is from home, I have no doubts we will be back in no time.

Price Range: Less than $10pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10

 

Chatty Beans - Kangaroo Point

Always love trying out new cafes for brunch and earlier on we were kindly invited to try out the food at Chatty Beans, a fairly new cafe that opened at Kangaroo Point last November. Situated along Baines St opposite the Pineapple Hotel, parking was surprisingly easy during the weekend. 

 

Created by the owners of Raw Specialty Coffee in the Gabba, they were well versed in the art of coffee and are currently running a short menu of classic brunch dishes with a couple of weekly specials. Seating is entirely outdoors, making it a bit of a struggle during the summer months. Prices are very reasonable for brunch given the recent years of inflation.

Service is available at the counter and it didn't take too long for our food and drinks to arrive.

Dr L had his standard iced chocolate. This came with whipped cream and a generous amount of chocolate sauce in a mason jar. I had a large cappuccino with skim milk this was served in a fairly tall mug. Beans came from bear bones and the boldness was definitely distinct and the caffeine hit was exactly what I needed.

This was the big brekky, comprising of avocado, bacon, eggs, spinach, tomatoes and toast. For the price of $21.50 it was definitely a good deal when you consider that other brunch places charge at least mid do late 20s for a big breakfast. Each element was executed well, the eggs were poached with a runny interior. Avocado was ripe and well seasoned whilst the avocado was reasonably browned. The toast was a large generous slice and the tomato was also reasonably charred. All in all a solid rendition of a big breakky. The only thing missing is arguably a hash brown.

Our other dish was an avo toast with scrambled eggs. It was more or less the big breakfast without the bacon and spinach but with a larger portion avocado. To shake things up I asked for the eggs scrambled and these were fairly well done, being smooth and creamy without being too overdone. As with the big breaky, this was a solid effort and executed well. We enjoyed our breakfast at Chatty Beans and definitely look forward to seeing what specials they decide to put out next.

Espresso and Matcha dined as guests of Chatty Beans but as always our opinions are our own.

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 8.5/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 6/10 

Pick a Cake - Hamilton

It's been a little while since I've had breakfast out but when our foodie friend Mr J had his birthday celebration, we headed over to Pick a Cake at Hamilton for a catch up. Being located on Park Road, it was inevitably super busy and parking was very difficult. 

 

There were a few seats inside and a few more outside but the store was undoubtedly quite small. Menus were provided with a selection of drinks and desserts. Options were very extensive.

If the menu options didn't give you enough decision paralysis, there were also three display cabinets of cakes, cookies and pastries to choose from. 

As usual, Dr L had an iced chocolate. This was a bit on the petite side but he said it was rich and chocolate-y. There was a notable absence of ice cream but given the price, it was a very reasonable serve.

Spying a Thai Milk Tea Latte on the menu, I opted for it instead of my usual cappuccino. Expecting an intense tea hit, I was surprised that it was very weak. The milk was frothy and the size was good but I would definitely have enjoyed a stronger tea. 

Dr L had two small desserts for brunch as I am not a huge fan of sweet brunches. Both were petite and cute but also inexpensive.

For the particularly indecisive, this was the half half cookie. Comprising of half choc chip cookie and half red velvet cookie, it was a steal for $6 (by commercial standards).  He said it was very decadent and enjoyable with high quality ingredients and a good choc chip to cookie ratio.

Dr L also had a salty egg yolk taro tart. This was warmed up and the salty egg yolk was served runny. It had a generous portion of taro, a flaky pastry base and delicious salty egg yolk. It was definitely a highlight of his meal and inexpensive for what it was. Something to definitely come back for next time we are back.

We didn't order anything on their paper menu but this was their special mango sticky rice. It was really well received and came highly recommended from our foodie friend.

It would hardly be a birthday without birthday cake. We ordered this adorable cake from their chiffon selection. This was outstanding. The three flavours we had, pandan, taro and thai milk tea were fantastic and each cake was infused with respective flavours. My highlight was the pandan cake which was fragrant and fluffy. It was delicious and I would definitely come back for more cake, probably not for brunch but perhaps as an afternoon tea.

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10 

Miss Chilli HotPot - Milton

Hotpot is one of those things that I often eat at home and almost never eat out. My reason for this is largely because I can source what they offer from the asian grocery store myself and have it at home for a faction of the price. Having said that, there are still a few people I know who are madly in love with the idea of enjoying hot pot outside. One such friend was leaving to spend a year away and suggested that we go try out Miss Chilli Hotpot whilst she could still enjoy hot pot in Brisbane. 

We made a reservation for 6.30pm on a Sunday. When we arrived it was almost empty but by the time we left it was full though. 

  

Ordering was done via QR code so we didn't have too much interaction with staff. Prices for items were steep and probably on par with Haidilao. There was a lot of variations, including meat, seafood, veggies, snacks and drinks.

Dipping sauces were available for a cost price of $3 per person. There were a considerable number of options but I went ahead with my usual garlic soy concoction.

We settled on a half an half pot with bone broth on one side and spicy numbing soup on the other. It came out fairly fast and the soup was definitely a significant improvement on powdered soup powder you can get for home hot pots, however the price was fairly steep at $32.80, meaning that the larger the group, the more economical it is.

It didn't take long for the table to become completely filled with food. Even though the table was big, the food we ordered couldn't fit and we had to have a small trolley on the side for everything. 

An odd thing they had on their menu was the braised platter. Typically I don't put braised dishes in my soup but this was an interesting addition with a lot of the cuts being quite bony. It was unique but not something I would order again.

This was the handmade beef balls, it was made with fresh beef mince mixed in with some herbs and veggies. As a cantonese person, I expected the beef balls to have a bit of bounce but this wasn't really the case. For almost $20, that means each ball was almost $2, being fairly expensive although made in house.

Next up were crab sticks. These are essentially storebought and no different to what I can source from the supermarket. For almost $10 it was a significant mark up from cost price.

This was the tender beef, it came marinated. The beef itself was fairly smooth, likely due to velveting processes, however I found the beef to be still a bit tough and chewy once cooked, although the exterior was fairly silky. In comparison, I prefer the sliced beef at The New Hot Pot.

The highlight of our evening was the MB6 wagyu beef. This was one serve for $32.80 which made it fairly pricey. The meat quality was definitely high and superior to my options when cooking at home, given my lack of a meat slicer. Tender and paper thin, it was indeed very delicious.

In terms of mushrooms, we had some enoki and white shimeji. The portions were adequate and they were again fairly fresh, the markup was a bit steep though.

Another dish of meat we had was the beef and lamb combo, priced the same as the marbled beef, it was half sliced lamb and half sliced beef. As you can see, they were paper thin. Although also delicious, the quantity was definitely lacking for the price.

Wanting a selection of offals to try, this was the intestines, aorta and omasum platter. This was quite a highlight for me, offering a taste of everything without portions being too big. I enjoyed all of the offals which were well cleaned and not smelly. Particularly the goose intestines were chewy and soaked up the broth well.

Dr L is a huge fan of quail eggs so we ordered a serve for him. These were fairly standard and he enjoyed it quite a bit.

Also not a standard order for us but we had a serve of their fried rice. This wasn't too expensive and it was executed quite well, the rice was day old and separated into individual grains. There wasn't too much by way of toppings other than egg and spring onion though.

Rounding off with dessert, this was the deep fried rice cake served with black sugar dipping sauce. It was executed a lot better than I had imagined with the mochi being fluffy and chewy by the time I got to it. The outer crust was crunchy without being oily and the sugar syrup wasn't overly sweet. I'd be keen to try this in other specialty dessert stores.

Overall our dinner at Miss Chilli was very expensive, pushing at almost $400 for four people. Although the experience was enjoyable and the food was delicious, I find the value proposition offered here to be fairly weak. As such, unless there was some ongoing promotions that made it of more value, I don't think I'll be back for some time.

Price Range: $90 - $110pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 2/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 7/10