Wara Wara - Brisbane CBD

Wara wara has long been an establishment in the Korean food scene in Brisbane. The last time I had eaten here was at least over five years ago and the food was moderately disappointing, which is why I had never been back, especially because Madtongsan was so close by. Last Friday though, I decided that it would be time to give it another shot, so we headed upstairs for some dinner. 

 

Waitstaff were friendly but the online ordering system was definitely not user friendly and there were a number of technical difficulties in ordering and missing food items that we had paid for (in addition to having an undisclosed surcharge). Nevertheless, staff were gracious and apologetic for this, which I appreciated.

 

Our soju took around half an hour to show up and took us chasing it down twice until it arrived. Our sides took a while to come but they were fairly standard with some creamy pasta, kimchi and seasoned seaweed. 

Our mains though were all very delicious. The first one was the Marinated Raw Salmon Rice Bowl. This came with an egg yolk and salad atop a small bowl of rice. The salmon was wonderfully seasoned with soy and sesame. The texture was firm and it went well with the rice. I only wish that there was a bit more for me to enjoy.

We also shared a dish of Sizzling Karaage chicken. It came on a hot plate and the chicken was fresh out of the fryer. Served super crisp, it was very delicious with a juicy moist interior. Kewpie mayonnaise is always a win when it comes to accompaniments too. Again there wasn't too much rice, but it was adequate and at least there was a fairly generous amount of chicken to go with it.

Our Kimchi Pancake came last, the ordering system conveniently forgot to put our order through, so it took close to an hour before it arrived at our table. Despite the delays, this was a really delicious pancake with a crispy exterior and just the right amount of spice in the kimchi filling. I really enjoyed the food here and if the online ordering system improves, I will definitely be back here more frequently.

Price Range: $25 - $35pp

Taste: 8.5/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 7/10

My Pho House - Southbank

Another week at the office means another day of food deliveries. This week I decided to try the Rare Beef Pho at My Pho House from Southbank. Unlike other Vietnamese restaurants I've eaten at lately, they didn't take special requests. Delivery was fast and smooth though.

Even without special requests, the soup was served separate from the noodles and there was also an extra serve of hoi sin sauce on the side. Both arrived very hot.

Without the option of special conditions, I was unable to ask for my noodles to be served without sprouts, and much to my chagrin they were mixed in with the noodles. There weren't too many noodles in the bowl as it had been bulked up with the sprouts but they were still quite soft and smooth. There was a good amount of beef in the bowl but this was definitely not rare, nor was it too tender. Being unable to ask for special conditions, it also had a decent amount of chillis which I had to pick out of the bowl before eating. Given the other options available via delivery, this is one that I will not be circling back to. 

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 5/10

Value: 5/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: N/A

Hunter and Scout - Graceville

One of the first brunches of the year and some friends decided to go check out Hunter and Scout at Graceville. This was a long time coming as we had heard a lot about the brunch offerings at Graceville, but being limited by travel hadn't had the opportunity to go. It was lucky we did though. 

As an immensely popular cafe, the wait was substantial but at least we got seating inside. There was a drinks menu, a breakfast menu and a lunch menu filled with options that we would really enjoy. Service was friendly but food and drinks did take a very long time (over 40 mins) to come out.

 

Having already enjoyed a morning coffee prior, I enjoyed the Red Ruby with watermelon, apple, strawberries and lemon. It was lightly sweet and very much thirst quenching during the hot summer's day. Dr L had the Chocolate Oreo Cookie Milkshake because he is obsessed with chocolate, especially oreos. Trying some myself, it was not too sweet but very rich and chocolate-y. 

He had the Scrambled Eggs with Spanner Crab Croissant. I had half because it was so delicious. With a generous amount of deshelled spanner crab mixed with egg and scrambled it was flavoursome and rich without being too heavy. The seafood flavours were light but still flavoursome and the croissant was toasted to a crunchy flaky perfection. 

I had the cheddar cheese and chive hash brown benedict with salmon. Although the dish appeared quite small, the hash was dense and substantial. The hollandaise was rich and creamy whilst the portion of salmon was also very generous. The only thing was that the eggs were a little overdone, but this could easily be rectified. I definitely enjoyed this dish and will be back to try others.

Price Range: $25 - $35pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 7/10 

Friday's - Brisbane CBD

Haven't had a good happy hour deal for a while and we had heard of the deal at Fridays in the early evening during January, so we decided to book a table and check it out. Was definitely busy due to this promotion and we were lucky to have booked ahead of time.

Ordering a round of drinks first, our rose and beer were fast and satisfying after a long week of work. Ordering was done via the app and service was fast.

As expected, Dr L had the fish and chips. This was a steal with the discount. Comprising of two fish fillets, ample chips and a salad, there is hardly any better value for money in the city. Sadly though, both the chips and salad came unsalted, which I expect was an omission, but it still made a huge difference. With how busy the restaurant was, we were also unable to flag down a waiter to fix this. Other than this though, the fish and chips were crisp and the salad was fresh and he found it quite satisfying.

My main was the chicken parmigiana. It came with napoli sauce atop a deep fried chicken breast and was topped with mozzarella. The chicken was crunchy but the batter was fairly thick and underneath it was moderately dry, the napoli sauce was also dry and didn't add much by way of moisture either. The chips were fairly standard, as was the salad. The value was good but I definitely have had better elsewhere.

Interluding with drinks, these required a bit more manual labour to create, so they took a bit longer than expected.

Dr L said that he was fairly hungry so we had a serve or karage chicken as a side as well. Again these were fairly light on the salt and the batter was very thick.. At least it came with some kewpie for us to dip it into and the portions were very generous. The side salad was really enjoyable too.

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 6/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10
 

Mad Burger - West End

Caught up with Iron Fist over the weekend and we decided to hit up a beer brewery for lunch. Food wasn't served on the day so we had to source our own and we decided to grab some from Mad Burger at West End.

He had the cheeseburger whilst I had the MAD burger. Given that this was the more basic of the two, it was fairly large and executed well. Iron Fist really enjoyed it.

I opted for the signature Mad Burger. This came with a double patty, cheese and chips. Having had smash patties for the last couple of instances in which I had burgers, this was a pleasant change. Although the patties were all cooked through completely, they weren't overly dry but quite mince-y and quite well seasoned. Salads were fresh and overall I quite enjoyed the burger especially the potato chips.

Speaking of chips, we had a trio of chips to share. This included fries, sweet potato chips and onion rings. They were surprisingly dry and crisp and still warm despite the ride. All were lightly seasoned with salt and would have been more enjoyable with herbs or some form of dip, but I still really enjoyed them.

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 7/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: N/A  

Impressive Dumplings - West End

Sunday afternoon I woke up late after a long night of binge-ing Racheted on Netflix (it's really good). Decided against having to cook and opted to check out what my options were on DoorDash. We settled on some comforting Asian food and got Impressive Dumplings from West End, which allegedly has a better reputation than the one at Sunnybank Hills.

As with our experiences on Doordash, food arrived slightly before the estimated time and special instructions were adhered to.

This was the fried scallion pancake. It was more toasted than I had expected and a lot oiler than others I've had. It was however very flavoursome and had a good flakiness to the pastry but not too much by way of scallions folded within the pancake.

We had a pork and chive pan frie dumpling, a classic and one of my favourites. Like their Sunnybank store, these dumplings appeared too identical for me to think that they were made by hand, however they did travel quite well. The base still retained a bit of crunch and they weren't over-steamed by the trip. In terms of the pastry, I liked it more than the other store. Fillings were juicy but not soupy and quite flavoursome and mincey in texture.

Those of you following along may be wondering what my special instructions were, it was to keep the soup and noodles separate in the beef noodle soup so the noodles didn't go soft. Portion wise it was far more generous than the other store with a good amount of noodles and beef, although it still only had one leaf of greens. The soup was hearty and had a lot of depth whilst the noodles held their texture. Beef was also soft and tender. Definitely had a better experience with this branch than the other one.

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: N/A
 

King Arthur Cafe - Fortitude Valley

Had some errands that I was running last weekend and we met up with some friends for brunch on Saturday. Was in the neighbourhood so we decided to try out King Arthur Cafe. 

It was very busy, being peak brunch hour, but we managed to score the last indoor seat. Water was provided quickly and service was fast.

Their menu was quite innovative and there were quite a few things that I was keen to try, but I started with a more conservative option for my first time.

Having already had two coffees earlier in the day, I decided not to overload and opted for a pineapple juice which was not too sour and unbelievably refreshing.

My friend had the ice coffee with half a shot. It was sweet and mellow but fairly small, served with a scoop of ice cream.

She went for the Chorizo Hash which came with poached eggs, roasted potatoes and chorizo. The potatoes were done well as were the eggs but she found there to have only been five small pieces of chorizo in the dish, which was not much for the price of the dish.

Not having had brunch out for a very long time, I opted for eggs on toast with a side of avocado to keep it light during summer. It came with one and a half pieces of sourdough, which was a little odd for me. Eggs were quite delicious and had a runny centre. It would have been nicer if it came with some sort of relish, but luckily I had half an avocado which was quite ripe and soft. Next time I will definitely  have to try something more unique off their menu.

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 6/10

Value: 4/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10