Metro Kitchen - Sunnybank

Locals of Sunnybank would have noted the closure of Suncrop several years ago. In its place is the new Metro Butcher and Seafood Market. With quite an assortment of fish including sashimi, it might be one to rival Sunnybank Fish Market soon. Anyway, they opened a small restaurant next door Metro Kitchen, which obviously is affiliated with the market. I had been meaning to go there for a while now, being unable to make a reservation for some time but been unsuccessful given it only has five tables and apparently no dining time limits each night. But after many attempts we finally made it.

After being seated, we were given a menu. The dishes reminded me a lot of the authentic street style dining I had in Taiwan, where the food was a fraction of the price though. 

Further to the paper menu, there was also a seasonal seafood menu. It turns out that the deceptively cheap quoted prices are "cooking fees" which you pay on top of the item of seafood you get from next door.

So we walked over next door and picked a fish to die for our dinner.

While we waited for our food, we had a lot of fun with the tea setup on our table. Apparently it is a stove, which boils water as needed. The pot on the side is water for washing hands. There should have been water coming from the tap but that wasn't working though. We also were able to add as much tealeaves as we wanted, so I made sure we had a strong brew going all night.

Our first dish to arrive was of course the large sashimi. Although the plating is nowhere near as good as Japanese restaurants, or arguably myself even, the fish was undeniably fresh. It comprised of mackerel, salmon, arc shell, scallops and tuna. My favourite of the night was the sweet scallop. Despite its presentation, it represented good value for money and we would come back and have it again.

One of my all time favourite dishes is seafood tofu pot. The tofu was deep fried and then braised as is the custom, but surprisingly there was no fish fillets in the pot. The veggies, calamari and prawns did soak well in the oyster sauce base though and it all went well with rice.

Next up was the Braised Beef Pot. It also came in a sizzling boiling saucy stone bowl, the beef was tender and juicy, the tofu skins absorbed a lot of the juices and there were even slippery tendons to go with it too, another crowd favourite to go with rice.

One of our vegetarian dishes of the night was the stir fried eggplant. I'm not usually a fan of eggplant but this was done quite well, the eggplant was deep fried first and then stir fried with an oyster sauce base along with the other veggies.

One of the more obscure dishes on the menu, which is one of my favourites is the deep fried pork intestine. I love the chewy taste and the salt and pepper goodness that it comes encased in. The veggies were also crisp and countered the pork flavours well. I just wish there was a bit more intestine.

We couldn't resist getting a serve of scallops seeing as we were at a seafood restaurant. These were steamed with a generous amount of garlic and vermicelli to soak up the juices. The scallops weren't too big and perhaps they were over-steamed a little bit, but they were tasty nonetheless.

Our penultimate dish was the fish that gave its life for our dinner. It came out braised with a soy based sauce. The sauce was a bit thick for my liking and I suppose for a freshly killed fish basic steaming would have been a better option, but we wanted to try this instead and it wasn't bad. The fish was soft and tender without any excess fishiness given how recently it was killed. 

We also had a token dish of stir fried veggies, it was served with some salt and garlic, sufficiently flavoursome and crunchy but otherwise not particularly special.

All in all, we had a good time at Metro Kitchen, I can definitely see why it is always booked out. It is a restaurant I would recommend coming back to with family.

Price Range: $50 - $70pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10

Apandim Uyghur Cuisine - Sunnybank

Have had cravings to go back to Afanti Uyghur after our last time, however as with many restaurants recently, the original store at Sunnybank Hills had closed down. Thankfully, they had a second store opened at Sunny Park, which is where we went for our weekday date night. Little did we know that even on a weekday night, it was very difficult to get a table without having first made a reservation. It took us only 20 minutes to get a table, but larger groups took considerably longer. 

 

Once we got a table, we realised that ordering was done via our phones through their QR codes, but payment was still done at the counter afterwards. The menu was decidedly a lot more Chinese and less Uyghur than their original store, with a large assortment of dumplings on their menu. Prices were also definitely not good value as I had remembered. Notably the lamb skewer with bread dish was $25 last time I went, but now it is $38.

Despite my cravings for Uyghur food, when presented with the option of beef noodle, I will always gravitate towards comfort food. It came as a set with a drink, some pickles and a braised egg. The pickles and egg was fairly ordinary, the egg was a bit rubbery but didn't stand out. The beef noodle was fairly standard also, the taste wasn't very different from what you would find in a regular Chinese restaurant. The bowl was big but there wasn't too much by way of noodles, meat or veggies though, instead being filled with mostly soup. The noodles had good texture but there was definitely a lack of meat in the bowl. Taste wise, it was still wholesome and warming as I had expected, I just wish there was more.

Our other dish was the Lamb Skewers with bread. We had really enjoyed this when we had it last year but found that this iteration was a bit worse than we had remembered. The seasoning was strong and peppery like previous, but the meat texture was definitely a downgrade, being quite tough and chewy. The portions were very generous, but this has to be taken into account given the increase in price. The bread was surprisingly served at room temperature and not warmed, while the sauces gave it the much needed sharp tanginess which I really liked. Overall though, I think that what made Afanti stand out as a venue has been lost at Apandim, and I will be in no rush to return.

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 7/10
Value: 5/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 5/10

Ginga - Fortitude Valley

When you think about authentic Japanese food in Brisbane, Ginga would probably not get into the top ten in my rankings, with a lot of their dishes having been quite Westernized to suit their client base. Having said that, when I heard that Takashiya's sous chef, Leon had taken up residence there, I made a point to go check it out the next time I had the opportunity because I knew I would be in good hands. 

It just so happened I had a vegetarian event earlier in the evening with Jenny and as a non vegetarian, we decided that we needed something substantial to round off our evening. Arriving at around 8pm on a Thursday, we were surprised at how full the restaurant was so late in the evening. We were quickly shown to a table and provided menus.

The main menu was as I had expected, not very authentic, with an assortment of main meals, sushi, side dishes and even dim sim. We ordered one sushi roll from the menu, but we were definitely here for something else.

It took me asking the waitress a few times before showing her Chef Leon's photo of their toro offerings before she went behind the counter and took out their secret blue fin tuna menu. For $49, their greedy set was excellent value and apparently the only thing on the menu that hadn't been put up in price. 

 

We put our order in our food came out very quickly after, on the super adorable robot waiter.

 

The greedy set was a sight to behold, with two pieces otoro sashimi, two pieces chu-toro sashimi, four pieces akami sashimi, two pieces of otoro nigiri, two pieces akami nigiri and mini amkami roll, it made for excellent value. Whilst the tuna was a little bit chewy, it was very fresh and buttery, the slices were thick and generous and the sushi rice was well seasoned. All in all, a very satisfying platter of sushi that I would come back for.

Our other dish was the wagyu roll. It came topped with thinly sliced aburi wagyu, was filled with cucumber and topped with crispy garlic chips. As you can see in the photo, the beef was sliced very thin, although it was quite tender and buttery. I particularly liked the crispy garlic chips on top but wish there could have been a bit more substantial toppings and fillings in it. 

Overall, a good experience at Ginga, we weren't hungry enough today to try out their nigiri sets but that is something I'll definitely come back for in the near future. 

Price Range: $25 - $35pp

Taste: 8/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 7/10

Old Street Claypot - Sunnybank

Quick weeknight dinner out this week and we stumbled on the Old Street Claypot on their opening night. With the long queues, it had my attention, and with the other places we were intending on trying out either closed or booked out, we got in line.

Despite being quite early in the night, the Bak Kut Teh was already entirely sold out, which meant half the things on the menu were already not available. The only thing left was its namesake, clay pots. So rather than ordering one, we got both meals as clay pots.

 

Claypot dishes are known to take a bit longer than usual, this meant that it wasn't really suited to a mass scale volume production that was being demanded that night. With roughly a dozen gas stoves, it took close to half an hour before we got our meals, and at that point one of them was already cold for being done long before the other. Being in a densely populated open air food court also meant that it was quite dangerous to carry a steaming hot clay pot back to our table without being at risk of walking into small children on our way back.

I had been most interested in the Chinese Sausage Claypot Rice. As a huge fan of lap cheung, there is nothing more that I enjoy more than eating it with rice. In this iteration, whilst the overall portion was fairly big, there was definitely not enough sausage or soy sauce to go with the rice at all. The rice was cooked through but it was definitely underdone and didn't have a sufficiently crispy bottom either. I could probably make better myself at home.

Our second dish was the claypot laksa, which was for some reason listed under the claypot rice heading. By the time we received it, it was barely lukewarm, having been made long before our sausage rice. There was an adequate amount of noodles in the pot but only two pieces of chicken. The flavours were quite good but I found the substance to be quite lacking. Unless drastic improvements are made, I don't see any rush to return in the near future. 

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 6/10

Value: 6/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 6/10

Espresso and Matcha's Eighth Anniversary

 Dear Readers,

Another year has passed and as always, I am pleasantly surprised to be able to share this anniversary with you. I think this year's reflection should be focused a on self care. You may have noticed I took a short hiatus a few months back, and have recently recalibrated my posting schedule. 

Little had I known that after all these years of writing, I had become a bit burnt out. Coupled with the rolling lockdowns at the start of the year, which then fed into the closure of a lot of places I wanted to try, along with some very persistent inflation when dining out, I had spent a lot more time learning to cook at home, to some success. Of course this meant my operations on this blog have had to scale down a bit. 

In the end, my goal for writing a blog has always been to provide quality content to the reader, and in writing less, I have been able to write with some renewed passion. Hopefully everything will pick up sooner than later when thing stabilise a bit, otherwise who knows, maybe one day this will become a cooking blog  (^.~)☆.

Anyway, as always, thank you for reading and joining me on my dining adventures.

-by Hsiaofu

Haeduri - Brisbane CBD

So it actually took several attempts after being turned away each time before we were finally able to get a table at Haeduri in the City. Despite being situated a little out of the way, from the real centre of the city, it's always packed every time we go. This time we finally decided to bite the bullet and take a 40 minute wait just to satisfy our curiosity.

 

Having to wait for such a long time definitely allowed us to go through the menu. There wasn't too many options but we had our hearts set on KFC. By the time we had our table, we were also immediately ready to order.

 

That day we tried their mint choco soju, which was on sale. It was without a doubt the worst soju I've ever tasted, like drinking mouth wash. This is coming from someone who loves mint chocolate and mint choc ice cream. It was very lucky we had three people to share it around, otherwise we would have wasted the majority of the bottle.

A friend of ours wanted the seaweed rice balls. There isn't too much to say about this other than it didn't come with as much rice as I would have imagined, an abundance of seaweed and a lot of mayonnaise. It was very tasty but we could have done with more, and the mayonnaise was fairly unusual in this dish.

We also had a serve of Korean steamed egg. Having mastered this art at home, it was fairly standard compared to what I could make. They either made it with water or some very light broth and wasn't as flavoursome as chicken soup would have made it, but the texture was quite nice regardless.

Our main event of the day was of course the Korean Fried Chicken. By the time we ordered, most of the flavours were already sold out. We settled on soy, original and spring onion. Ironically when we asked them for an extra serve of mayonnaise in which to dip the chicken (because it was so dry), we were advised that they had no mayonnaise, despite how much was put on top of the seaweed rice. Anyway the chicken was quite dry on the outside, a little bit more moist on the inside but could do with more flavour. All in all, I've definitely had better chicken at other places. Despite the crowds, I really think that Haeduri was not worth the hype, next time I'll just stick to momo chicken instead.

Price Range: $15 - $25

Taste: 6/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 6/10

Fika - Brisbane CBD

It's been a short while since I've been quite excited about an opening, but I was absolutely thrilled to see the completion of Inter/Section on Charlotte Street. Comprised of Coffee Anthology, The Whisk and Fika, I've already gone there a couple of times for the croissants but waited for an opportunity to have their food. Luckily for me, I had the company of fellow foodie, Yenny who came out to the city to catch up on her day off.

We were navigated to a booth quickly upon arriving and given a menu. This comprised of food and drink from all three shops. I liked the highly specialised drink options as well as the asian fusion cafe food from fika and pastries from the Whisk.

 

I had a cold brew and Yenny had a mocha. Both were well received. Having already enjoyed a milk based coffee earlier in the day, this was a refreshing change. Cool and crisp without being too bitter or acidic, it was very smooth and definitely hit the spot.

I ordered the Tuna salad “nicoise” which came with torched tuna, green beans, potato and some fried dough. I liked the tuna which was fresh and generously cut. Although the salad wasn't particularly big, it was wholesome and didn't leave me hungry, largely because of the generous amount of potato in the dish. I liked the fried dough, which was quite flakey but not too light either. 

Yenny had the lamb gnocchi which I was lucky enough to try. Again the portions weren't too big. If I were more hungry, I think it would go well with a pastry from Whisk. Anyway the gnocchi was pillowy soft and soaked up the lamb juices well. The lamb was also tender and not gamey. I would probably rate it higher if there was more and if there was more lamb to go with the gnocchi. 

We had a really good time at Inter/Section and I'll definitely back for both mid morning snacks as well as their main meals.  

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 8.5/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10

Lune - Burnett Lane

Ever since Lune opened its doors at South Brisbane, I have still been able to exercise some level of self constraint in not going there too regularly to blow out the diet. This was largely due to the fact that the location still wasn't entirely convenient to me. Unfortunately this all changed when they decided to open their satellite shop in Burnett Lane, which is right in the middle of my trek from the bus stop to my work. Alas, it may be time to increase my gym routine soon. What's more enabling is the fact that there isn't much of a queue and you can go in and out easily within 10 minutes. 

In this instance, I went for a quick breakfast with Dr L before his most recent exam. We opted to dine in for our meal at the small bench made available for patrons. Our food and drink came out within 5 minutes of ordering.

Drinks wise, I had the filter coffee whilst he had the mocha. My filter was dark and strong bodied with a good hit of caffeine. His mocha was sweet and not too strong with a rich frothy milk. Both drinks were really good and a strong contender for the competitive coffee scene in Brisbane.

As always, I can't go past a pain croissant. This was flakey, rich and buttery without being too oily. The size was perfect and every layer was light and delicate. I could have at least five of these.

Originally, I was inclined to get the August blue cheese special, however as we were lining up, we noticed that the pain au chocolates had just come out of the oven, so we made a last minute decision to change our minds. This was definitely the right choice. Straight out of the oven, it was warm and crisp with a fluffy interior and rich bittersweet chocolate. Suffice to say it was without a doubt the best croissant I've had in a very long time. Next time I'll definitely have to stake out whatever they make fresh again.

Price Range: $10 - $20pp

Taste: 9.5/10

Value: 6/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 8/10