New Farm Deli Cafe - New Farm

As readers will have noted lately, I've been making an effort to get through quite a few brunch places that have made my list for some time, and I hadn't gotten to, one of which is the infamous New Farm Deli Cafe, which has been quite well established in the area, apparently long before I was even born. Having heard of how popular it is, I strategically planned an arrival at 9.45am to get in before the 10am crowd. Thankfully this paid off well with my being able to secure a table before the crowds came and so we didn't need to queue up to get a seat.

Being seated inside, I did appreciate how spacious the restaurant was, with considerable indoor and outdoor seating. The black and white tiled floor was especially striking and gave it quite a classic vibe.

As staff were extremely busy, I picked up the menu from the counter myself. The selection was quite traditional, but had a strong Italian influence, with quite a few Italian inspired dishes on their brunch menu. 

 

Given how packed the cafe was, it was only natural that service was via the counter. Given how popular the cafe was, it took a good 15 mins before I could put down my order, but staff were friendly and efficient.

Just as efficient as counter staff were, as were the baristas. Our coffee came out super promptly after I sat back down.

 

My two companions ordered lattes whilst I ordered a cappuccino. The coffee that New Farm Deli Cafe served was Vittoria blend, as its signature, it was full bodied and quite bitter with a low acidity. It was quite strong and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

A good 20 or so minutes after our coffee arrived, our food came out all together.

My first companion wanted to try something unusual and opted for the Sicilian Brekky, which contained Sicilian-style pork & fennel sausage sautéed with roasted capsicum, onion, spinach & potato and served with poached eggs and toast. My companion found this breakfast to be an exceptional flavour hit. The capsicum and onions had a wonderfully tangy sauce that was both sweet and sour, making it a wonderful topping for the crusty sourdough toast. While he had expected a bit more by way of sausage content in the dish, he did enjoy the perfectly runny poached egg.

My other companion ordered the Funghetto which comprised of sauteed field mushrooms, topped with herbed butter & Meredith goats fetta, it was served with avocado and baby tomatoes, garnished with balsamic and served on sourdough. She loved how wonderfully buttery and well seasoned the mushrooms were, giving them a deliciously smooth and robust taste. Coupled with the tang of tomatoes and feta, this made for a perfectly balanced dish. The avocado was also perfectly ripened.

Opting for a more traditional favourite, I settled for the Deli Brekkie, with smoked salmon, avocado, poached eggs, potato cakes, rocket and tomato. I also added an extra slice of toast. Like my companion, my avocado was perfectly ripe. The potato cake was fried, but the batter could be crispier, however it was very well seasoned. I was surprised though at how little salmon was in the dish, not more than one full slice. Other than that, my bread was crusty and delicious and the tomato was also tasty.

Between the three of us, we also had a side of bacon to share. This was thin cut as I like it, had a crispy edge around the side and wasn't overly fatty. It was very well received.

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 7.5/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 7.5/10

Lady Marmalade - Stones Corner

Saturday mornings are always a good time for brunch. In fact, these days, there is very little that would be worth me getting up early in the morning for other than a good brunch. I was especially excited last week as the friend I was meeting suggested we check out the very famous and very popular Lady Marmalade at Stones Corner. Being as excited as I was, of course I wasn't able to sleep well the night before, my mind being filled with fantasies of bacon and eggs, which of course meant that I overslept the morning after and ran late. Thankfully my companion arrived early and waited to secure a table for us, resulting in my rushing in and forgetting to take an outside shot.

The menu was was comprehensive and allowed for a customizable meal too, with breakfast being available all day and lunch being served after 11. Service was prompt and we were able to make an order soon after our arrival.

Water was also provided without delay, an efficiency that I found quite pleasing.

Our coffees were also served promptly, my companion had a latte and I had a cappuccino in a mug. Both coffees were smooth and rich with a delightful nutty flavour. Milk was rich and silky, but I would have preferred more care been made to the cocoa on top of my cappuccino which was overconcentrated in the centre, without any on the edges.

Our food came as we were halfway through the coffees, and they were definitely a sight to behold.

My companion ordered the Sweet Potato and Butternut Pumpkin Bowl which was served with kale, topped with a poached egg, crumbled feta and toasted almonds. Despite the feta, she found the flavors to be somewhat bland and uninspiring. Perhaps this could have been improved with some sort of herbs to give it some variation. Whilst this could have been debated as a matter of opinion, what couldn't was the fact that her single poached egg was quite overcooked, to a point where the middle of the yolk was barely gelatinous and didn't run at all and the outer rims of the yolk were fairly hard boiled, which I would consider to be fairly indefensible for a cafe specialising in brunchy food.

On the other hand, I had The Biggie Carnivore which comprised of double smoked bacon, lamb sausage, roast tomato, mushrooms, sweet potato rosti, caramelised onions and poached eggs with toasted sourdough. Whilst most of my meal was quite enjoyable with well caramelised haloumi and mushrooms as well as a decadent and well seasoned potato rosti, both of my eggs were also sadly overcooked and the yolk inexcusably hardboiled around the edges. The lamb sausages also had quite a chewy skin which wasn't ideal either. For the record, given the state of the eggs, I would have raised it with staff if they had asked me how my meal was going, but given how busy it was, no one asked me how our meal was until we paid, and unfortunately that itself was met with a mere "oh".

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 5/10
Value: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Environment: 7/10

Isle Lane - Brisbane CBD

For those who have been fairly active on social media, it would be hard to have missed the fairly recent opening of Isle Lane in Brisbane City, next to Post Office Square. Offering cafe style food in the morning and gastro pub food later, it is definitely very versatile, and given that flexibility is such a highly sought after, there is no doubt why this venue became so popular so quickly. Always on the hunt for a good brunch venue, especially in the CBD, I decided to take an early break and go down before brunch service was over last Friday to kick start the weekend. Arriving at 11am, the restaurant was fairly empty but it still took a fair while for me to get the attention of staff to be allocated a table.

Opting for a table inside, I was given one that was inconveniently placed behind a barrier of greenery, which, whilst aesthetically pleasing, meant I had extreme difficulty in getting staff attention throughout my meal.

Menus were provided, along with water. As usual, I do appreciate menus that are insightful and provide a bit more by way of background and context, and this menu did just that, by introducing where their ingredients are sourced. I quite liked the breakfast menu, which contained a fair number of dishes that I would have liked to try, in the end of course, I could only settle for one, and after a good deal of flailing my arms in the air I was able to get the attention of the wait staff to put down my drink and food order, as it would have taken too long to call them back to put down an order a second time. 

My cappuccino came quickly enough and was fairly bold and strong in taste with a strong bitterness to it. The milk was frothy and foamy which I quite liked. I also liked how the cocoa was dissolved into the milk so as to prevent any awkward embarrassments with me inhaling and choking on the cocoa.

My food came shortly after, which was pleasing because I was comfortably able to finish my meal and get back to the office with 20 min to spare.

Anyway, back to my meal. I ordered the full english and exchanged baked beans for avocado (gotta satisfy those millennial needs). It came with a slice of sourdough, mushrooms, bacon, lamb sausage, butter, poached eggs, avocado and tomato chutney.

I had very mixed feelings about my brunch. The portions were large and generous, and being able to exchange baked beans was really quite impressive given the no alterations policy at quite a few other cafes. Having said that, the toast was overly burnt, quite bitter and hard, the eggs sat in a pool of water, and the bacon also sat in a small puddle of black oily bacon grease, which was quite unappetizing, it was also very salty. Other than that though, the mushrooms were well marinated and tender, the avocado erred on the side of being unready and was firmer than I would have preferred, but the sausage was well seasoned and quite tasty.

Another thing I felt noteworthy to mention in my experience too was that I had considerable difficulty in finding clean cutlery. Going through all my options on they table, all were quite cloudy with residual grease. Considering how hard it was to get staff attention and the fact that I needed to leave on time, I opted to go through and pick the cleanest of my options, which really wasn't ideal.

Price Range: $20 - $30 pp

Taste: 5/10
Value: 5/10
Service: 5/10
Environment: 6/10

Akai Ushi - Underwood

Keeping on the hunt for ramen, I found myself in Underwood the other day, having done some shopping at the local favourite Big Hanaro Mart to stock up on some kimchi. Walking around the area, I noted the newly opened Akai Ushi - Fusion Noodle Bistro, which definitely piqued my interest. Feeling in the mood for yet another bowl of hot soupy noodles, I decided to give it a shot and see what they had to offer.

Stepping inside, the store was fairly small, and all the seats were at that point, occupied. We were advised though, that as a matter of efficiency, they would take down our offer first at the counter, so that when a table became free, our food would be served most promptly. Valuing efficiency above all else, this definitely impressed me greatly.

As the name suggests, the noodles served here are very much fusion, with soups from Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, each bowl could be customised in terms of base, stock, noodles and further toppings. There were also two rice options. For just over $10 a bowl, I found it to be excellent value for money too.

 

We were seated pretty soon after. I noted a slot on the wall which was no doubt for ipads to order food. It had yet to be installed, as you can see, but no doubt the ordering process will become even more efficient when it does. Cutlery was already provided on the table. I noted that the chopsticks were huge.

My first companion's bowl of fish cheek soup with vermicelli noodles came first. She commented that the broth was extremely intense flavoured, with a very thick fish taste that was almost to the point of being gelatinous. There were quite a few pieces of fish cheek in the soup, and this was contrasted with the crunchy deep fried fish skin that topped the bowl. The noodles were brisk and served al dente, the way that vermicelli should always be served, but despite my companion's appreciation of the bowl, in the end, the flavours were too intense for her to finish it all.

Another companion had the Wagyu beef cutlet with curry rice. Having seen the immense popularity of crumbed wagyu beef cutlets in Asia lately, I was definitely super keen to see how this would turn out, as I am a massive fan of crumbed pork and chicken. Unfortunately, whilst the photos depicted a piece of wagyu cooked rare with an evidently pink centre, this beef was cooked well done, tough and chewy. The curry tasted like Japanese packet curry, and rice was pretty standard.

Having had my fill of ramen lately, I opted for the Pork Cutlet with Udon in Tonkotsu soup. Having experienced quite a few top notch tonkotsu soups lately, this had nowhere near the depth of flavour and dimensions of the other soups. It was quite salty, a little watery and overall quite disappointing. I was not able to identify whether the pork was one piece or two, as it was served cut up and served in a small pile. The pork was quite fatty greasy and relatively bland, but at least very crunchy and freshly fried. I enjoyed the udon which was quite tender and smooth with a good bounce. 

Lastly we ordered a serve of honey pork jowl as a side. They tasted very sweet, with bbq sauce and a side of honey, and were also extremely fatty. The portion was quite small though, even for side standards.

Price Range: $10 - $15pp

Taste: 6/10
Value: 9/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 7/10