After going to PappaRich in Wintergarden last year, I was expecting that sooner or later it would come and open down on the southside. As predicted, it recently opened its second Brisbane Store in the Town Square precinct of Garden City. After reading that they had a few teething issues upon opening, I decided to wait for a couple more weeks before trying it out. Arriving last Saturday at 12.30pm, it was peak lunch hour, and there was already a crowd outside waiting to be seated. Giving my name to the waiter, I was told it would be a good 20 mins before we could get a table.
The wait turned out to be a little closer to 30 mins, but at least I could take my time appreciating their menu at my leisure whilst I waited. Having given my name to the friendly waiter, I was also not compelled to stand in line, I could find nearby seating to wait for my name to be called (whilst gaming of course).
After the wait we were given a table at the back. I liked how the decor of the Garden City Store was similar to the City one, the consistency really stroked my sensitive OCD tendencies.
Again, each table had a buzzer, which I found a very efficient way to get waitstaff's attention rather than trying to wave one down. Orders were written on the notepad provided on each table to avoid confusion, and I do prefer it over ipad ordering, as we could still have freedom to add comments to our dishes for any required alterations.
Drinks came soon after our order. My companions had an iced red bean frappe, an iced tea tarik and I had a tea tarik. The red been frappe was coarsely blended like traditional ones, with copious amounts of red been paste and fresh milk. He would have liked for it to be a little creamier and for it to have had some more condensed milk. Both the hot and cold tea tariks were really well received. They were rich, fragrant and smooth, but the hot one was really very small for the price paid.
Our food came quite promptly as well. My first companion had Pappa's Special Nasi Lemak. It consisted of some of the most fragrant and tasty coconut rice that we have ever had, served with a large portion of tender curry chicken, sweet sambal prawns, and a side of anchovies, peanuts, half an egg and some cucumber. Having read before that other reviewers weren't too satisfied with their serving size, I was quite pleased to see that they had made significant improvements to the quantities served, and my companion was really quite satisfied.
My other companion had a hainan chicken rice. The boiled chicken came with chicken rice, a side of sprouts and also a bowl of chicken soup. The chicken was smooth and tender, bonus points for not being overdone, which happens in quite a few places, though the portion could have been a little larger. The rice, like the coconut rice, was done really well, and was infused with quite a bit of chicken flavour, whereas the sprouts were refreshing and cleansed the palate. The broth was also steaming hot, but could have been stronger flavoured in my opinion.
My dish was Pappas Wat Tan Hor. It was some stir fried flat rice noodles, with egg gravy, prawns, fish cake, chicken, vegies and shallots. I also found the serving size to be quite ample in this dish. The noodles were well caramelised, with the slight burnt bits that I enjoyed, whilst the egg gravy was warm, smooth and comforting. Toppings were considerable and generous as well. Taking into consideration that it costs a bit more than your average Sunnybank fare, I did find the quality of food was also above the average.
Taste: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Environment: 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment