Panda Haus - Calamvale

Readers may recall my love of the Chinese food offerings at Causeway Bay Seafood Restaurant. When I was talking to a friend about it recently, they mentioned that they held the recently re-opened Panda Haus in higher regard. With praise like that, I definitely had to go check it out to see if it was worth the hype. So I gathered a few friends and made a booking for Friday night after work.

Making a reservation for 7pm, the store was fairly packed with tables spilling outside. Apparently the old store was fairly small and in comparison, the newer, bigger shopfront has caused challenges with being able to cope with a larger customer base than previously. As such, reviews online often complain about wait times. I did try to circumvent this by pre ordering food, but they didn't take pre orders other than for seafood.

 

Compared to Causeway bay, their menu was decidedly shorter. Prices were roughly the same and there were a significant number of dishes that overlapped. We originally ordered 11 dishes to share between 9, but only 10 arrived with us only being notified at the end that the final dish was not available.

As mentioned in the other reviews, service was very chaotic throughout. We ordered a pot of tieguanyin and it got lost when we sought a refill. Otherwise I appreciate the larger than average teapot.

Half an hour after I ordered, the food started to arrive. Our entire course arrived throughout the next hour, which was a bit longer than I had expected. Items also showed up out of order. First to arrive was the yang chow fried rice, carb dishes like this usually show up at the end when everyone needs to fill up, but instead it came first. It did have good wok hei and each granule of rice was distinct from its neighbours. The rice to topping ratio could have been better, but it was a nice way to start the meal but the portions were a bit small. Our other carb, the century egg and mince congee came next. This was bigger in size and had a good texture, with a generous amount of toppings. 

Braised tofu came next. I was somewhat disappointed that this did not come in a pot but rather a plate. Portions were small but the taste was pretty good. 

Seafood which should have arrived first came sporadically. This was the steamed garlic scallops. I expected them to come with vermicelli but they did not, which was strange and a disappointment for the table. The scallops were reasonably fresh and tasty though.

Our barramundi came after. This was smaller than expected and although not unfresh it was not overly fresh. I would say it is a very average steamed fish and the causeway bay iteration is far superior.

A couple of fried dishes came after, the garlic pork rips and salt and pepper white bait. Portions were surprisingly small for the price. Both were freshly fried and a fairly tasty but the flavours didn't pop as much as other places. 

Highlight of the night was without a doubt the tea scented diced beef cubes. These were tender and well seasoned, the scent of tea was an unusual but welcome addition to the dish, but again we found it to be very small for the price.

Before ordering, I enquired how many prawns would be in the salted egg prawn dish. It turns out that for our group we needed more than one portion, so we ordered one and a half. The kitchen missed half our order and it took another half hour for that to come out. The salty egg yolk sauce was a highlight for us, rich and umami, it complimented the prawns well.

It was also disappointing for us that the salted egg and century egg spinach came at the end of our meal, long after we had finished our rice. We would have really enjoyed some rice to soak up the soup stock, but this dish was well seasoned, adequately portioned and well received.

Overall, despite my complaints, we had a reasonably good time at Panda Haus. The food was above average in standard. Portions are small, service is chaotic and it is not as good as Causeway Bay. It is however, better than landmark and parkland by a wide margin and I wouldn't mind a return visit. 

Price Range: $40 - $50pp

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Do - Sunnybank Hills

 

When Just Soy closed a couple of years ago, it caused a considerable outcry in my social circles (mainly because my parents were so upset at the loss of their usual dessert shop). After several years of deprivation, Do Dessert opened next to where the original store was. My parents had attempted to go but apparently it was not open during one of their set operating hours. Anyway, I had a party the other week and needed to pick up dessert for the group and also had a challenging experience in regards to ordering. 

Apparently large bulk orders had to be made two days in advance. I was more than happy to adhere with this requirement but it does not help when they did not respond to messages on both social media platforms they advertise on (instagram and rednote) nor did they have a telephone number available at all. Either way, the morning of the day I had originally intended to pick it up, my messages finally got through. After a considerable tussle I was able to arrange for pick up that afternoon.

Arriving at 4pm, pickup was straightforward enough. I noted the menu at the cafe, offering tofu fa on an individual portion basis. Knowing Dr L is a huge fan, I ordered one extra portion to go in spite of what I consider to be high prices.

If you intend to pick up an order, it is fairly important to double check what you ordered compared to what is provided, if I hadn't counted what was in my bag that day, I would have been short changed one syrup. Even when pointing this out, staff only filled up half a container whilst the other container was full to the top. Ultimately this service left a very unsavoury taste in my mouth.

Service aside, Dr L and I got started that evening, sharing one medium box between the two of us. The portion was sufficient and the toppings were generous. I found the tofu could have been more silky but it was adequate when considering the competition in Australia. Pearls and taro balls were soft but I found the crushed peanuts to be on the sweet side.

Our party started the next morning and I was very pleased that the quality of the tofu and the topping held up fine. We had a large family size portion which allowed each of our group of six to have seconds. Toppings included more taro balls, red bean, crushed peanuts as well as black sugar syrup and jasmine syrup.

Like last night, the dessert was fragrant and refreshing. I particularly enjoyed the scent of Jasmine Syrup whilst Dr L liked the caramelised sweetness of the brown sugar. Again the tofu had a decent texture and the toppings were soft.

Overall I did enjoy the product at Do, unfortunately the service and pricing leaves much to be desired. Had the service not been so bad, I probably would have justified a return visit, but given they don't seem to care for business and seem reluctant to provide me with items that I had ordered and paid for, this will unfortunately go onto my blacklist.

Price Range: $10 - $15pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 6/10

Service: 1/10

Environment: 7/10

Zuo Yan - Rochedale

I had been craving Sichuan food for some time now. Having heard that the chef from Chuan (Market Square) had moved off to Zuo Yan at Rochedale, I've made a point of wanting to go check it out for some time, but had to save it for a time when we had a big enough group.

We made a reservation to go on a weekend. Although it wasn't entirely full, I do recommend making a booking as the place is fairly small. There were half a dozen tables inside and even less outside.

  

Ordering was done via the QR codes. There wasn't too many options available on the menu, but there were quite a few things we wanted to try. We put our orders in fairly quickly. In spite of this, our food took quite a long time to come out. Based on my observations, they seem to have done batch cooking, so they saved up until a few tables had ordered the same thing (since the menu wasn't huge) before doing several serves in one go.

First to arrive was the "get rich" spicy chicken. This was clearly their signature dish as almost every table ordered it. On the plate, it looked like a huge portion, but in actual fact most of it was dried chillies which were unedible. Although the morsels of chicken and fried intestine were delicious, it was surprisingly high effort to dig around to extract our food.

 

This theme seemed to translate across our next two dishes, being the Sichuan Boiled Beef Slices with Tofu and the Premium Mao Xue Wang. Both looked a lot more spicy than they actually were. I liked the fragrant numbing spice of the Sichuan peppercorn. The beef and tofu dish had ample amounts of tofu but not too much by way of beef. The Mao Xue Wang had a wider range of ingredients such as all forms of offal, spam, veggies and beef slices. It burned but it was also comforting.

Onto the non spicy dishes, we had a serve of seafood tofu pot and sweet and sour pork. I really enjoyed the sauce that the tofu pot was served in, it was a wholesome oyster sauce concoction. I also really liked how much tofu the dish comprised off, but my companions did point out that there was hardly any seafood in it, other than a few pieces of octopus and prawn that looked like it came out of a seafood mix from the supermarket. Although not a fan of sweet and sour pork, I can't deny that it was well cooked with a balanced sauce, tender and crispy pork pieces and just the right amount of sweet fruits.

I was really looking forward to the salty egg pork ribs, these were also freshly fried and crispy. However for some reason the pork was so tender that the meat was falling off the bones even when you picked it up. This level of tenderness is quite unexpected for a dish like this and the meat reminded me of what you would get after cooking a soup, so the texture could definitely improve.

Last dish was the boiled beef slices with enoki and pickled veggies. I was expecting a non spicy dish, but this had quite a bit of heat to it. Beef slices were more or less what you would get for a hot pot. Again the bowl was huge but the actual food we could eat was quite little. We fished around for not too many bunches of enoki, but the soup itself was fairly addictive. 

Overall, Zuo Yan definitely addressed my craving for Sichuan food. Not sure if it's the recent surge in cost of ingredients, but actual portion sizes could be bigger, although prices are reasonable. For a significant hike from home, I would have wanted something more memorable, so for now I will just stick to the Sunnybank options instead.

Price Range: $30 - $40pp

Taste: 7.5/10 

Value:  6.5/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 7/10 





















 

Penelope - Fortitude Valley

These days with the cost of living spiralling out of control, Dr L and I try to save more refined (expensive) dining experiences for special occasions. Penelope has been on my radar for some time and we were keen to go but wanted the right reason which is why we waited for our anniversary to make a booking.

Arriving for a late weekday dinner, the bistro was still reasonably full and we were promptly seated. Service was very good that evening, our waitress was friendly and had a very high level of attention to detail.

The menu wasn't very long but contained a significant number of items that I wanted to try. I might have gone a bit overboard but I ordered with no regrets. 

Starting with the appetisers, we had the Oysters Penelope, Champagne and Strawberry Mignonette. The oysters were definintely on the smaller side but we really enjoyed the sweet tang of strawberries and champagne.

We also had a bite of Scallop, Potato Scallop, Oscietra Caviar and Chives each. These were also consumed in one mouthful but very decadent and indulgent with the rich mayonnaise and caviar atop the scallop and freshly fried potato scallop.

 

Next to arrive were my two picks of raw dishes, being the Kingfish Ceviche, Pickled Fennel, Citrus Vinaigrette and Lime Pearls and the Wagyu Beef Tartare, Pecorino, Horseradish with Pickles. Both were executed well with respective proteins. Between the two, I definitely preferred the rich creamy tartare more but Dr L liked the sharp tang of Kingfish.

 

During our dinner we also had a couple rounds of cocktails. I had the sidecar and the martini. Both were reasonably strong and I liked that the sidecar wasn't particularly overloaded with syrup. They were expertly crafted and well enjoyed.

In spite of protests from Dr L, I couldn't help myself from ordering a serve of Chicken Tenders, Hot Honey with Buttermilk Ranch. The downside of tenders is that they're often served fairly dry. This was definitely not the case. They had a light crisp batter and a juicy meaty interior. The added honey and ranch made it a bit more unique compared to the usual tenders you might get elsewhere.

Earlier on, we had forgotten to order the Barbecue Lamb Skewers, Sumac, Green Sauce with Yoghurt. I only remembered this when I was halfway through my tartare. The waitress put the order in immediately and it was served with the tenders without much delay at all. I liked the lamb skewers, they were fairly were well charred albeit a bit dry. This was made up by the tangy sharp yoghurt it was served atop.

I was most interested in the Steak Frites, being the crescendo of our meal. The steak was a tad chewy but I really liked their peppercorn sauce and the generous amount of fries on the side. Perhaps it was because we had already eaten quite a few dishes but this was a good portion to share. My opinion may differ if I had had this on an empty stomach.

We ordered a Waldorf Salad to accompany the steak and expected a reasonably small portion but instead we had a huge plate that was almost the size of the plate the steak came on. I don't usually enjoy my salad with walnuts and grapes so this was quite a new combination for us, one that we didn't mind at all.

Not wanting to leave without dessert, I ordered the Cafe Noir whilst Dr L had the S'mores soft serve. As with the previous cocktails, the cafe noir was a delight to consume. The soft serve was a minor let down though with the texture being fairly coarse which was far from ideal. Dr L didn't mind it though, but for the price, it was probably worth going to Messina around the corner instead.

Although there were a few minor hiccups in our meal, we still had a fantastic anniversary dinner at Penelope. It was a meal well worth waiting for and would gladly return to for another occasion.

Price Range: $125 - $175pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 9/10

Environment: 8/10