Pizza Caffe - UQ St Lucia

With my friend visiting, one of the many places that we decided to visit was UQ. In deciding were to have lunch, a friend suggested that we go to the Pizza Caffe, situated near the main refectory. 

There was quite a line up when we arrived at around 1pm. The crowds were chatty and the atmosphere was quite light. It really reminded me of  my uni days.

For a pizza joint, I found the menu to be quite extensive, with 26 pizzas each named after a letter in the alphabet, and a selection of traditional pizzas and sides. 

Between the two of us, we shared a Pepperoni Mozarella and a Fellini.

Of the two, my favourite was undoubtedly the Fellini. I liked how well the smokiness of the salmon went down with the tangy cheese. It didnt have the heaviness of the regular meat lovers pizza that I usually order. The salmon was really fresh, but of course my personal preference is to have it raw, but in this case the flesh wasnt too coarse for my liking due to the added oil of the cheese, which definitely added to softening the texture of the salmon.  Additionally, I really appreciated the base. Usually, I am more of a fan of deep pan pizza bases, because I find the thin and crispy ones too hard and sometimes injure my mouth on them, but I found the freshly made base to be very delicious and crispy.

The Pepperoni Pizza paled in comparison to the salmon one, but was still very good though. The pepperoni was nicely seasoned and quite spicy. I had tossed up ordering more cheese but I was pleasantly surprised to find it had quite an ample amount of cheese. Again, I loved the freshly made pizza base.

Price Range: $10 - $15 per person

Taste: 8/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 6/10 (counter service)

Environment: 6/10 (was difficult to find seating)

Embassy Hotel - Brisbane CBD

One of the things that has become exceptionally popular with my colleagues lately is Gastro and Pub Food. With so many locations around the CBD, we could probably go to a different bar every day and it would take us over a month before we needed to repeat.

In this instance, we decided to grab lunch at the Embassy Hotel, a short walk from our work.

It was interesting to see people line up single file along the counter, despite there being two cash registers at the counter. It meant that the line got cut half way and we were served rather quickly.

The store was pretty dimly lit, and had a really rustic wooden kind of feel to it.

We got drink, as usual, Lemon and Lime Bitters. This time it was rather sweet, and not very bitter.

We got a number, and after around 15 minutes, our food came, which was quite the wait, considering we were constrained by the lunch hour.

My colleague ordered the crumbed flat head. She said it was nice and fresh, and the tartare sauce was delicious. 

Another colleague got the steak lunch, with mushroom sauce. He enjoyed his meal very much.

I ordered the steak lunch as well. I ordered it rare, with pepper sauce. For a rare, I found it to be cooked more towards medium rare. The pepper sauce was an interesting pale shade, which was a bit milder than I am usually used to. The chips were nice and crunchy and the salad was quite fresh. I didn't like beetroot in it, but other than that, the sauce was pretty tangy and delicious.





For a quick lunch, I found the meal at the Embassy to be very satisfying and worthwhile for the price. With the number of pubs near it, I can see why it still manages to set itself apart from its competitors.

Price Range: $12 - $25

Taste: 7/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 6/10
Environment: 7/10

I Heart Brownies - Fortitude Valley

With all the hype about Bakery Lane in Fortitude Valley, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I had to go. With my friend visiting, I took a couple days off to take him around the city. One of the places we stopped by was Bakery Lane, off Ann Street in Fortitude Valley.

Bakery Lane is a winding alleyway like those you would find in Melbourne.

On that day, we decided to take try out "I Heart Brownies", which has been featured by a number of sites online. I found the shopfront to be very adorable, with a very pink theme.

There were a number of flavours available involved Mint, Raspberry, Coconut, Jaffa, Turkish Delight, Salted Caramel and Original. 

We bought the mint and the original to share. We found the brownies to be nice and chewy and rich. I liked how it wasnt excessively sweet. The textures were also really intricate, with crunchy chocolate chips within the chewy brownie mixture. Needless to say, I really enjoyed it, although when shared with my companions, some of them did say they found it to be too rich.

Price Range: $4 per brownie

Taste: 6.5/10
Value: 7/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 8/10

Three Monkeys - West End

Without a doubt, I am what you'd call a night person. I hate waking up early and I love staying up late. The sad thing about living in Brisbane is that other than bars and clubs, its actually very hard for me to find a nice place to go late at night. Usually my friends and I dont do much other than Passion Tree, or Bonsai Botanika. But one night we decided to be a bit more ambitious, and strolled over to Three Monkeys in West End.

Three monkeys is quite an icon in West End. It is often quite packed. Particularly late at night. It looks pretty small on the outside, and I was seriously concerned about finding an empty table, but that proved to not be an issue.

I found the interior to be really quaint, and nicely decorated. I particularly like the hanging lamps, which added a lot to the atmosphere.

As most people would know. I was drawn to the cake cabinet immediately. As you can see, I was pressed with quite a number of choices.

I found it interesting that almost the whole wall was covered with photographs. At least it will give me plenty of interesting stuff to look at.

I found it really interesting that they had an indoors water fountain for patrons to fill up with table water. Thankfully, it was chilled though. 

My friend's Chai was served up first. I was really impressed with the size of the serving. It was really generous, being the size of a rather large bowl. It was served with a packet of honey rather than sugar. My friends were saying how authentic the chai at three monkeys was, so I guess it must have been pretty awesome.

I got to try the Iced Coffee, which had a scoop of really smooth vanilla ice cream in it. I liked how it wasnt very sweet. I found it to be very refreshing on a hot summers night.

Another associate tried the Irish Breakfast. I was surprised that it managed to fill up three cups.

I had the vienna, which was sufficiently strong, and the whipped cream was nice. It did not overflow the cup when I stirred it in, which was a definite plus.

We ordered three slices of cake. The first one we tried was the Ebony and Ivory Cake. I found it to be very rich, but not too sweet, which made it very delicious.

We also tried the Mud Cake. My confidant suggested that it may have been overly rich, but in fact the mud cake wasn't over the top. Since I asked for it heated, we found it really warm and comforting. 

Actually, we found the coffee ricotta cake to be the richest. It had a really strong cheesy taste, but unfortunately I found it quite lacking in coffee taste. It was lucky that we shared it around with a number of people rather than have one person eat the whole slice of cake.

I can see why Three Monkeys is one of the most popular cafes in Brisbane, it definitely has a wonderful ambiance, solid drinks and a nice variety of cakes. I'd definitely like to go back some time to try the main meals, or another after dinner drink.

Price Range: $5 - $15 per person

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 8/10

Harajuku Gyoza - Southbank

With the new food precinct being built in Southbank, Harajuku Gyoza was one of the first to go up. Needless to say there was really quite a lot of hype about it, so I went to try it out as soon as I could.

Harajuku Gyoza is situated on Grey Street, not far from the bus station. Having been to the other branches, its definitely not anything you could miss. It looks almost exactly the same as the Fortitude Valley and Indooroopilly branches.

As mentioned numerous times, I really appreciate having a menu outside, so that I can consider whether I want to eat at a place before going in. Harajuku Gyoza does that.

We went at around 2 in the afternoon to find the store to be still more than half full. What really struck me though, was the decor. It was really fabulous. I loved how they had plates stuck along the walls and the gorgeous ceiling lights. 

The usual condiments of soy sauce, vinegar and chilli were provided.

Table water was also provided promptly after ordering.

To start us off, we shared the Grilled Pork Gyoza. It was almost the perfect. The skin was just the right thickness, and the bottom was caramelized just right. The pork and veges were really well flavoured and delicious. The only improvement I would suggest is that it would have been better if the insides were more juicy though.

My companion ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry. Personally, I'm really not a fan of curries, so luckily he was quite the curry expert and could give me an understanding of what he felt about it. He said that the rice was of really good quality, and it was really excellent that they used large amounts of chicken breast (as opposed to chicken thigh). The downside though was the curry sauce. He said that it was really quite salty, and would prefer to have chunks of carrot and potato in it like a lot of the other Japanese places.

The main I tried was the Shoyu Tonkotsu Ramen. Unfortunately I was quite disappointed with it. The soup felt like a cross between clear soup and creamy thick soup. It was neither Tokyo style, nor Hakata style, but a weird in between mix. I would have liked it more if it were more clear like the ramen I had in the Fortitude Valley branch. The egg was definitely the redeeming factor in the noodles, it was cooked really nicely, with a liquid yolk. I found the meat to be one of the coarsest meats that I've had in a ramen though. I found the noodles to be able in quality, but because the soup needed a bit of improvement, I didnt enjoy it as much as I would have. 

Overall, I find that Harajuku Gyoza at Southbank definitely has really excellent gyozas, but next time, I would try for different mains, or stick to just ordering gyozas for the whole meal.

Price Range: $15 - $25 per person

Taste: 6/10

Value: 5/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 8/10