Fratelli Restaurant - Paddington

Valentines day 2024. I wanted to do something about it but didn't want to be boxed into committing to an overpriced set menu. It took a while before we decided to try our luck (for the third time) at getting a reservation at Fratelli Restaurant which has been on my list for some time now. I guess third time is the charm because we ended up getting a table 

Sitting down, I noted their attention to detail in having a floral candle as well as rose petals on the table, a nice touch that I really appreciated.

 

Service was a little slow during the evening, given that it was super busy, however staff were extremely friendly and helpful throughout. We were provided menus promptly. It focussed on pizza, which we were there for, with a small selection of pasta as well.

Our entree was the Burrata tartufo which was interestingly served alone without bread or crackers. Our serve of Rucola (a side salad) also came with the entree. The Burrata was delicious, chilled and creamy with complimentary tastes of truffle and honey. The rocket salad was fairly interesting as it had a lot less of a bitter aftertaste than other ones I've previously had, the leaves were a lot more soft and tender also.

Our pizzas came shortly after our entrees, fresh out of the pizza oven.

Our white based pizza was the Tartufata, topped with fior di latte, porcini, truffle salsa, mushrooms and oregano. The truffle taste wasn't as strong as other funghi pizzas I've had previously, but I do really like the delicious earthy meaty taste of porcini. The base was probably the best I've had in Brisbane, light and fluffy without being overly soggy. I would come back for this reason alone, however I do think that there could have been more toppings on the pizza itself though.

Our red based pizza, the Fratelli, came topped with tomatoes, fior di latte, porcini mushrooms, pork sausage, gorgonzola, onion, and basil. Again there could have been a bit more by way of toppings but it was more generous than the tartufata. I loved the flavours of the pork sausage complimented with the tangy sugo and again the base was outstanding.

Although this is a little bit more pricey than other places, notably my favourite, Julius, I consider their pizza base to be superior and would come back for that alone, especially because parking is easier. Can't wait to try their other pizzas.

 

Price Range: $40 - $50pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 6/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10

Sushi Train - Underwood

Long before there was Sushi Edo and Ichiban Sushi, there was Sushi Train. Looking back on my childhood, I had fond memories of waiting for their anniversary sales where all plates would be $3 or $3.50 and we would queue up and eat to our heart's content. Perhaps I haven't been paying attention for sometime, but I was thrilled when I saw that they were having a $3.50 sale for the grand opening of their new Underwood store, so we trekked out there to line up half an hour before opening. We arrived to see a small group of people gathering at the door and we seated just before their scheduled opening time.

The setup was quite modern and the restaurant could accommodate quite a substantial amount of people. I had considered the kaiten sushis which had ipads to order dishes to be fairly modern, however this Sushi Train was even more modern with QR codes on the table to order from your personal device.

To their credit, they kept the train very well stocked and not just with the cheaper end of the menu, there was a good variety of fish and non fish options as well as cooked and non cooked dishes. As you would expect, we ended up getting a lot of food, so I will only provide brief commentary on each dish. 

First up was the aburi salmon, the fish was thick cut but a bit light on the caramelization. I also found the rice to have been a bit under seasoned, which is surprising when most sushi trains are fairly consistent.

Next up was the akami tuna, this was fresh and thick cut. Again (and in all other dishes) the rice was under seasoned. 

The tobiko ship was good, there was a generous amount of tobiko on top. Seaweed was fresh and crispy.

 

The salmon nigiri echoed the tuna nigiri, thick cut and fresh. I found the Salmon Tobiko ship to be fantastic value, especially for the sale price given there were two pieces per dish.

The salmon avocado ship was also delicious and creamy with the avo being just ripe enough.

This was our first serve of ikura salmon. There was confusion because it came as two pieces in a serve which caused us to order many more but it was in fact one serve per dish. There was however a generous amount of ikura but it would probably not be worth the standard price.

Probably my only regret that day was to order the salmon avo hand rolls. This was mainly because there was a huge amount of rice in the roll and I filled up more than two dishes of nigiri. Otherwise the avo and salmon were delicious but I would have liked the seaweed if it was more crispy.

This was the negi toro ship, it was fairly standard and there was a good amount of minced tuna in the dish.

The same can be said for the negi salmon dish. It was the first time trying it but I don't think it was memorable enough to order again.

 

I've always considered sushi train to have a fairly high standard of wagyu and Underwood was no different. The unagi roll was also well received.

One of our final salmon nigiris was the salmon avo nigiri. Ordinarily the avocado pieces are a bit bigger at other restaurants, otherwise it was fine.

 

Rounding off we had a serve of unagi nigiri which was very delicious and the unagi was fairly generous in size. The best dish of our meal came last, and was a thinly sliced wagyu nigiri topped with uni. Although it was only one piece per dish, the toppings on it may as well have been generous enough for two pieces. The wagyu was buttery soft and melt in your mouth while the uni was fresh and creamy. Definitely finished our meal on a highlight and I wish I could have had more of these.

Overall we had a fantastic time at Sushi Train Underwood. It definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of consistency and freshness, no doubt we will be back in the near future for more.

Price Range: $3.50 per plate (opening special)

Taste: 8.5/10

Value: 9/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10 

Holy Hock - Underwood

So I had noticed a little while ago that Holy Hock was opening in Underwood. As far as I could tell it focused on braised pork dishes much along the same lines as Tasty Rumour and Gang Nam. I hadn't intended to go try them out super soon after opening, but after a nearby restaurant that I was wanting to go to decided not to be open (despite their opening hours saying they would be) and we were stuck looking for a restaurant that opened later than 8.30pm. As with many Korean restaurants, Holy Hock opened later, so we went to check it out.

Other than us, there was only one table. The waitress was very attentive to us throughout the evening and answered any queries we had.

As mentioned, the menu was largely pork based however there was a notable addition of bulgogi which I don't remember seeing in any of the other braised pork restaurants. We had originally wanted to try a Half and Half along with the Bulgogi Hotpot however that night the hot pot was not functional. They did offer to pre cook the meat for us and serve it, but rather than detract from the experience, we opted for one Jok Bal and one Bossam instead.

Our full size Jok Bal came out first and it was definitely a sight to behold. I found the pork to be very flavoursome with a delicious soy flavour that infused the meat all the way through. The meat was tender and the fat had been rendered off it but the collagen under the skin remained. We really liked it, especially with the dipping sauces and the refillable sides. 

We also had a serve of Bossam. Although it looked smaller than the Jok Bal, given there was no bone, the amount of meat was comparable. I found the taste to be a bit milder in the Bossam than the Jok Bal, but it had a light miso taste to it which was complimented by the root kimchi that it was served with. Again a lot of the fat had rendered and there was substantial meat and collagen left with the skin. It went well wrapped with lettuce and other pickled sides. 

Both of our large dishes came with a side of miso based soup, this also had a considerable amount of onion and cabbage in it. We found it nourishing and wholesome with a slight acidic tang that we haven't had before in other miso based soups.

 

We ordered two other dishes to try, one was the tulip chicken feet and the other was the seafood pancake. The tulip chicken feet was quite impressive because they managed to remove all bones except for one, which was how I got to eat my first ever chicken foot. Other than for the novelty, it tasted more or less like chicken skin and collagen. I found it to be on the spicier side. I really rate the seaweed and pickles with rice balls that it was served with, these had a delicious sour and umami flavour throughout and were very moreish. I consider the seafood pancake to be the weakest dish in the meal, it didn't have too much by way of seafood and also it lacked flavour without the dipping sauce, so I probably wouldn't order that again.

Price Range: $25 - $35pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 7.5/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10

Ikkaku Yakiniku - Sunnybank

So readers would have known about my deep affection for all forms of table top cooking. Among these, Yakiniku holds a substantial portion of my heart. I'd like to say that I've gone to almost all of the yakiniku places in Brisbane. One that remains outstanding on my list is Ikkaku Yakiniku, which had opened last year on the bottom level of the new building at Market Square. I notice it every time I walk past but reviews have been mixed and recently a friend of mine had been and mentioned that it was expensive and he barely left full. Anyway, that is why I saved it for a special occasion to justify the expense. With a recent work achievement, we finally had reason to go last week.

We made a mid week reservation just in case, but this turned out to be unnecessary as it was only about half full the whole night. The setting was considerably more refined than the sunnybank average and it was dark, moody and romantic. The menu and ordering was available via an ipad. There was a selection of set menus and a la carte. I didn't particularly like the options provided on the set menu so we ordered individually.

Starting off with beers, these were delightfully cold and accompanied our meat heavy meals very well.

 

Our order was served fairly quickly. Of the non meat dishes, we had a serve of potato salad and cabbage salad. Both portions were small for the price paid. The potato salad was arguably three mouthfuls worth and there wasn't too much by way of other vegetables outside of potato and a small number of carrots. So essentially it was three bites of buttery mashed potato. I could easily make better potato salad at home. The cabbage salad was a lot more tasty, with a generous dash of sesame dressing, tomato and alfalfa. Again, we wished there could have been more, especially given how easy it is to bulk up a dish of shredded cabbage. 

Meat was of course our main focus and we definitely ordered the wagyu platter to share, opting for the thin slice version. We enjoyed the chuck flap and oyster blade however the brisket was definitely overly fatty, even for wagyu and around a third of each slice was just pure fat, detracting from our enjoyment of the meat. Otherwise if you don't count the brisket, I would say the meat quality is generally of a high standard, on par with Maru or Yido, however prices were substantially higher.

Other individual dishes we ordered included a serve of oyster blade and pork jowl. Both were presented beautifully, however I did note that when I ordered on the menu, there was no indication of how many grams each serve would be, and I found that to be annoying. Both dishes were delicious and again the meat was of a high quality, I particularly liked that the jowl wasn't overly fatty but had its signature crunchy texture. 

At this point I have to make special mention of the grill, unlike KBBQs they have gas stoves that ventilate at the edge of the grill so that our view doesn't need to be obstructed by any ventilation exhausts and we didn't leave smelling like grilled meats.

Rounding off our initial order was the foil wrapped enoki mushrooms. This was a decent portion and grilled with butter. I would have liked a bit more by way of salt and pepper but it was fine. Dr L liked it but it was priced at a premium for a very standard rendition of the dish that I could easily whip up at home. 

 

I had expected to be full after our first order, however this was not the case so I added on two more portions of meat being the ox tongue platter and some chicken thigh. The ox tongue was fairly delicious and I liked how it was served in both thick and thin variations as well as the additional spring onions to garnish the meat while cooking. The chicken thigh was marinated with sweet soy and this was fairly standard compared to other BBQ restaurants, but it ensured that we were full.

Overall, our meal came to more than $220 (when factoring in the CC surcharge) and we left not hungry. Given we didn't order any carbs to fill us up, I expected that the salads would have done more on that front. Whilst I appreciate being finally able to satisfy my curiosity about Ikkaku, Whilst the meat quality was good, I have serious doubts about ever coming back, given there are far better places at that price point.

Price Range: $100 - $120pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 3/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10