Wara Sushi - Newstead

Lunch with a couple of friends last Saturday and we decided to check out Wara Sushi at Gasworks. Recently I've seen that they had opened quite a few shops around Brisbane, I made a point to try them out. Like I had mentioned previously, I find it a good benchmark to compare all Kaiten Sushi places with Sushi Edo, which I consider to be the baseline of good quality for value. 

Arriving fairly late for lunch at about 1pm, there were quite a few tables finishing their meals but we were seated quite promptly. Like all the Kaiten Sushi places, there were a selection of sushi on the conveyor belt, but we could order from the whole menu from the ipad on the table. Service was very fast and friendly. Compared to Sushi Edo, the dishes were not fixed in price.

First to arrive was the salmon avocado hand roll. It was smaller than ones I am used to but it also came with tobiko and a piece of lettuce for extra crunch. Although smaller, I liked the combination of flavours and the ratio of toppings to rice though. The toppings were also quite fresh.

Tobiko was a bit different to how I had expected it. With a full amount of rice and a small amount of tobiko on top, this was definitely not worthwhile when other places offer a far larger portion of flying fish roe.

This was the crab stick nigiri. They crab was fairly standard store bought variety which I often get at home and I find it quite delicious. In terms of avocado it was thinly sliced and could have been far more generous. 

This was definitely the case for the salmon avocado nigiri. Although thinly sliced at least the avocado pieces were a bit bigger. The salmon itself was also very thinly sliced and left me wanting after the dish.

Another hand roll we had was the soft shell crab hand roll. Like the first one we had it was a bit smaller than expected but with the addition of tobiko and lettuce there was the added crunch factor which made up for it quite a bit.

Rounding off with a dish of salmon ikura, the salmon was again quite thin and there was a lot of rice to go with that. The ikura was fresh and popped in our mouth, but the price was fairly steep and we thought that sushi edo represented far better value. Unless something drastic happens, we will continue to go to our regular instead.

Price Range: $25 - $35pp

Taste: 6/10

Value: 5/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10

Choi Korean Cuisine - Sunnybank

Along Zamia Street is a little strip of Korean restaurants, grocery stores and bakery. I had recently seen that there was a new opening that had quite an impressive stack of meaty korean hot pots that have been on my online feed. We checked it out last Thursday night for some dinner after a fairly hard day's work.

 

We took out one of the last tables that night and it was very busy. The menu was not all that extensive and the focus was evidently on hot pot style dishes, both for sharing and individual consumption. Compared to other Korean restaurants, their share pots did not come with rice on the side.

On complimentary sides, there was pickled raddish and kimchi. These tasted fairly standard and I was a little disappointed to not be provided with a tofu dish or a pasta dish.

Usually rice doesn't get much of a mention, but we ordered a side of rice to go with our stew and rather than being provided a bowl of white rice, we were provided with purple five grain rice. Not having this for a long time, I was expecting a very coarse and dry bowl, but this was surprisingly smooth and not overly hard. Without looking at it, it didn't taste that far off from white rice.

Between the two of us, we had a medium pork stew to share. Coming out it was super impressive with a huge meaty stack in a giant bowl of enoki, veggies and noodles. We had to demolish the tower by pushing it down into the pot to make sure the pork was adequately heated. Although the pile was very dramatic, the actual quantity of meat in the dish was  minimal. If I had to guess, over 90% of the pile consisted of pork spine and minimal amount of flesh that clung to it. The broth itself was tasty enough and the meat was quite tender, but when it takes over one hour to pick off the meat from the bone, it became a very tedious and one dimensional by the end. Although it looked really interesting in photos, this dish is not one that I would recommend for a small group. Might come back later to try other dishes but would not be in a rush.

Price Range: $25 - $30pp

Taste: 6/10

Value: 6/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 6/10

Meet Sweet - Sunnybank Hills

As of November 2020, in the tiny little shopping strip that is Centro Pinelands, there are not one, not two but three bubble tea shops. The most recent opening, Meet Sweet doubles up as both a bakery as well as a bubble tea shop, making for a nice hangout spot in the afternoons. 

Cakes were fairly cute, I hadn't seen the lying down bear range anywhere else in Brisbane. 

There was a small selection of breads also available. They seem to be at double to triple the price of what you can get at Bread Top, but I had heard very mixed reviews about the quality, so I steered clear of this.

The drinks menu was available at the counter, there were quite a lot of fairly modern options including the very popular new mochi topping. Next time we're definitely trying that one out.

Between the two of us, he obviously ordered the Oreo Frappe whilst I had the Orange Tea. Sweetness and I could be adjusted but there was only one size option for each.

His Oreo Frappe was quite sweet the way he likes it with a lot of decadent chocolate around the side of the cup and a good amount of oreo cookies blended within the icy chocolate concoction. He quite liked it.

After a relatively big lunch, I wanted something lighter and went with Orange Tea. Regular readers will know that my favourite would be Orange Tea in Sunny Park. Comparatively it was not as sweet but tasted artificially so. It was sweet but didn't have the tartness one would expect from orange. Regardless it was fairly refreshing and I wouldn't be opposed going back.

Price Range: Under $10pp

Taste: 7/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 8/10

Sushi Deli - Brisbane CBD

Quick weekday lunch in the City, I wanted to check out another sushi place rather than my usual at Sushi Delite. Wandering through Wintergarden, I stumbled upon Sushi Deli, which had been there for quite a long time, but I had never tried out yet, so it was time to finally give them a taste.

All sushi rolls were priced at $2.80, which was fairly modest for today's pricing. The options were fairly standard with fish, chicken, prawns and other vegetarian options. Service was quite slow but I got served eventually.

Grabbing five rolls to go, two were salmon avocado, one was chicken avocado, one was tempura prawn and the final was karaage chicken. Compared to my usual, the fillings weren't as crunchy or firm and fresh the rolls were not packed as tightly either. The rice was less seasoned with vinegar but tender and the fried fillings were still crunchy. I did appreciate the ripe avocado though. Although not great, it was not bad, and I wouldn't be opposed to returning should my usual be unavailable.

Price Range: $2.80 per roll

Taste: 6/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: N/A 

Fill the Bowl - Brisbane CBD

Hadn't been to Fudo Dori for a while and we decided to grab a quick bite before heading to the movies. These days there are quite a few options for Malatang in the city, but it was still quite a good fit for the Asian cuisine in fudo dori.  

 

By now the process is almost automatic. Grab a bowl and a pair of tongs, pick up whatever you want and then line up to have it weighed and pay. The range was fairly extensive but of course not the most extensive I've had before. I like the fact that it had a good variety of veggies, seafood and offal on top of your usual meat, noodle and tofu options.

Filling our bowl to our heart's content, it was hard not to over order.

At $31 per kg, the prices were fairly standard. I was grateful that there were options for reduced spicy soup.

Getting a buzzer after we ordered, we picked up our bowl when it went off. There was a very small sauce station with one of the most limited condiment stations I had ever seen, so I didn't go for too much other than soy sauce.

With a mild amount of spice, it had just the right amount of zing, but the soup was definitely comparatively bland and one dimensional. The potato starch noodles were cooked al dente with good bounce to it. The beef was a bit overcooked but the mushrooms and veggies were quite well done. I don't consider this to be a stand out option in the city, but it was a fairly decent meal for the price.

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 7/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10

Winghaus - Brisbane CBD

Grabbed a late lunch with some friends after completing an escape room game at Escape Manor on Edward Street. Famished after the considerable exertion of brain power that we used up, we were keen on grabbing food nearby. Stumbling on WingHaus, a sports bar that focuses on wings and burgers which was highly recommended by colleagues, we went to check it out. 

Much like my experience with El Camino, they haven't done physical menus since covid and we accessed the menu and ordered online via their QR code on the serviette box. There was a good selection of burgers, wings and sides with a large variety of beers and other drinks. 

One friend had the chicken burger which she said was done really well with a fluffy bun, crispy chicken, fresh salad and a fairly generous portion of fries. 

Not wanting to miss out on trying the wings at Winghaus, I got some boneless wings to share with Korean and Teriyaki sauce. The pieces were very small and it was hard to discern whether one piece equated to one wing or whether one wing was broken up into many pieces. The batter was a bit thick but very crispy and not oily. Sauces were a little sweet for my liking.

We also had a serve of fries to share. These were drenched in bbq and ranch sauce. Like the chicken it was freshly fried and cispy. The sauces weren't particularly compelling but there was nothing wrong with them either. Would definitely come back at a later point for after work drinks with colleagues. 

 Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 7/10