Udon Kompira - Brisbane CBD

Readers may be aware of my change of employment at the end of last year. With that comes a change of office and an opportunity to closely explore new venues. Being now located above post office square, that makes it the idea location to start. My commencement also coincided with the opening of Udon Kompira, so I went to try it out.

The setup was akin to Jiro Udon at Southport or Udonya at Sunnybank Plaza. You pick your udon/rice base, get a plate and pick up some tempura sides and pay at the counter. Being an udon specialty store, both times I went, I ordered udon.

The fried food on offer was neatly lined up and not dissimilar to the offerings at udonya with a few vegetable options, prawn, chicken and fish cake. I can't be sure but from memory it was a bit more expensive than Sunnybank.

Udon Kompira sets itself apart from its competition by making its noodles in house. When I asked how much a regular vs a large was, I expected to be told something akin one noodle or one and a half noodles but was instead given grams as the unit of description. Each noodle was cooked fresh to order.

On my first instance I ordered the large kake udon and had an assortment of sides. The udon was unlike udonya or jiro. Although thick and chewy, it lacked the squishy bite that you would find at those places and was instead a lot more firm, and hard to bite through, akin to shanghai la mian instead. Looking into this a bit further, it probably has to do with the protein content in the flour they used. The soup was light and fragrant and I liked the tempura egg with its runny interior. I found the zucchini to be a bit odd as it was so big and would have enjoyed a smaller piece with a bit more batter. 

On my second instance, I ordered the beef udon, this came topped with an onsen egg and wakame seaweed. The texture was the same as last time. Sides were also enjoyable, the prawn was a bit bigger this time than my first. 

Clearly, given my return visit, I didn't mind my meal at Udon Kompira. Service was fast and I was able to obtain my food and finish my meal within 20 minutes which is pretty admirable for a quick work lunch. Despite the noodles being hand made, I do prefer the noodles from udonya. Having said that, I will definitely be back because of the convenience factor.

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 7/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 7/10
 

Uncle Don - West End

After trying out Uncle Don in Rosalie a little while ago, I was pretty impressed with their quality of food. What I was a bit less impressed with though was the price, which erred upon the more expensive side of the spectrum for Japanese set meals. I was however pleased to see that a few of their stores had signed up to first table and so I went with a colleague to try out their West End store.

Arriving after a not too short hike on a weekday we were thankful that the air conditioning was cool. Most tables were free but we sat in a fairly quiet corner, facing the kitchen.

The menu was the same as their other outposts with a focus on rice bowls with a few sides, entrees and mains. The drinks menu was concise.

As you all know by now, first table discounts often come with the condition of ordering one full priced beverage. I had a sake to go with my meal.

 

Kicking off with the starters we had some temaki and salmon sashimi to share. The temaki was a tad small but had a decent rice to topping ratio. The salmon sashimi was fairly standard, it wasn't exceptionally fresh but it also wasn't unfresh.

Clearly both my companion and I were keen for the salmon. We both ordered salmon dons, she had the aburi and I had it fresh. As with their rosalie store, the quality was on point. Salmon was delicious, thinly sliced and the presentation was fantastic. The only downside was that it was on the smaller side. Had it not been for my starters, I would definitely have still been hungry. Having said that, once you factor in the first table discount, it represents excellent value and we hope to be back soon.

Price Range: $25 - $35pp (post discount)

Taste: 8/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10

Two Peck - Toowong

Although I do love Korean Fried Chicken, my all time favourite iteration of fried chicken will always be Taiwanese Fried Chicken. Whilst not as popular as KFC, there have been a few openings in Brisbane over the last several years. Most recently, Two Peck opened in Toowong Village. Some people on red note have suggested that it is the best Taiwanese Fried Chicken in town, so we had to go try it out and see for ourselves.

 

The shopfront was small. There was probably only one or two staff working that evening and a sign was clearly placed asking us to order on the screen rather than at the counter. The menu was definitely small and pretty much every item was fried. Ordering was easy enough though.

Those who read reviews online may note that the complaints largely revolve around how long it takes for the food to be prepared. Indeed I was able to compare three bubble tea shops, order and collect and come back to a further 5 minute wait before our order from Two Peck was ready.

Without designated seating, we took our food to the nearby food court to enjoy our spread. Our dinner comprised of two chicken fillets and three sides to share between the two of us. At $55 for the lot, it was market value when you consider what the competitors are charging but on the other hand it was also a bit steep for a bunch of fried things of not particularly high value.

 

Starting off with the fried chicken fillet. what sets two peck apart from the other stores is that it gives you the option of chicken breast fillet with bone or chicken thigh fillet without bones. Dr L hates bones in his food so he had the thigh fillet whilst I had the breast fillet. We expected the pieces to be small but they were quite large. We speculated that perhaps they smashed two patties together to form one big fillet, but we weren't sure. The thigh fillet was as you would expect, moist and juicy. The breast fillet was also moist and juicy, much to my delight. The batter was probably corn starch or some other low protein flour that made it similar to a tempura batter. I much prefer the traditional potato start that is used in Sam's Chicken for the balls of puffed goodness on the outside. Either way, this was pretty delicious and had just the right amount of salt and pepper.

Our three sides were a hit and miss though. Starting with what went well, the oyster mushrooms were perfectly fried with the light tempura batter. Crisp and crunchy on the outside with just the right amount of seasoning, taste wise it was faultless. It was however small for the price paid.

On the other hand, the calamari tentacles left a lot to be desired. Even though they were fried, somehow they batter was falling off the tentacles and it came out like a hot mess. I'm really surprised that they thought it was ok to serve them like this. Taste wise it was good enough though but again the portion was small, particularly given we paid almost $10 for this serve.

Final side of the night was tofu. Portions were small but in this case it had next to no batter on it so it wasn't even crisp, but rather had a weird oily coating where it should have been fried. I love tofu so generally I'd eat it no matter what, but this was definitely not up to standard as a fried tofu.

Overall, we had a mixed experience at Two Peck. The chicken was enjoyable enough but not the best in Brisbane. The sides were disappointing except for the mushroom. Although I didn't hate the experience, next time I am definitely going to Sam's Chicken for my fix instead.

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 7/10

Value: 6/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: N/A

Good Looking Rooster - Albion

Life for the modern day woman is pretty unforgiving. Society expects you to do a full time job on top of what is pretty much a full time job at home. Covid lockdownd gave me a bit of reprieve by allowing for work from home, saving me 2 hours of commute per day. Unfortunately with hybrid work, days working in the office often mean that we don't get to enjoy dinner until close to 9pm. Luckily for me, these days there are healthier options for dinner that don't involve loading up Dr L with unhealthy fast food.

I had recently been to Good Looking Rooster at Albion for a quick and healthy lunch, after which I received an invite from their PR company asking us to sample their dinner spread. We happily obliged and decided on an office day where cooking after work would have been a struggle.

The menu was fairly concise, comprising of chicken, hot sides, salads along with burgers and wraps. There were a few value combos to choose from as well. Service was friendly. When I went during lunch, it was fairly busy so there was a considerable wait for food. When I went during dinner, it was very quick and efficient.

The chickens were huge compared to the usual I get from Woolies. I daresay roughly double the size. We picked two from the display cabinet.

The combo we ordered included roast veggies as well as chips. Our chips came fresh out of the fryer.

We also had one large salad. I chose half greek salad and half caesar salad. Sauces were thoughtfully served on the side.

It took about 20 mins to get home but everything was well packed. Nothing spilled and w were able to keep the hot foods separated from the cold.

The chicken was of course the main event. This was well done. Large and juicy wit a delicious roast skin. My only critique would be that given its size, the flavours were not able to get all the way into the very big chicken breast. This was sufficiently addressed by the addition of wholesome gravy. Regarding the size, usually Dr L and I easily polish off half a chicken from the supermarket, these were huge and a quarter was already enough for a meal. Compared to Chargrill Charlies though, they are definitely less flavoursome.

Hot sides were generously packed and didn't get too steamed and moist during the ride home.

I was curious to try their wings, given they focus on roast chicken. The wings were surprisingly good. The batter was reminiscent of korean fried chicken, light and crunchy with a light salt and pepper coating. It was served with three sauces for variety, my favourite was definitely the ranch sauce, but I appreciated the wings even without sauce.

Roast veggies were generous in size and had a good variety of ingredients such as sweet potato, zucchini, carrots, pumpkin, corn and peas. On its own, it was a little bland but elevated with the gravy, it made for a very delicious side.

Chips were also generous in size. They came generously seasoned with chicken salt and we enjoyed them with the dipping sauces from the chicken wings. These arrived home still very hot and crisp and were well received by all, particularly for their rustic skin on texture. 

Although the salad was in a large container, there really wasn't too much in it on the basis of how much space the lettuce took up. Regardless, they were fresh and crunchy, offering a cool refreshing change to the rest of the meal. 

Although this was a sponsored meal, I can wholeheartedly recommend Good Looking Rooster. Other than the chips which are always a guilty pleasure for me, the meal was wholesome and balanced. If they were open closer to home, I would most definitely come back regularly on those busy days when I can't easily cook after dinner. 

Price Range: $20 - $25pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: N/A