Embers - Milton

A while we had to go out for a special occasion of sorts. Where better to go than Embers in Milton? I had actually wanted to go there since my uni days when I often hung around Milton after buying textbooks.

Embers is situated on Park Road, it is quite hidden, you'll find it when you follow a cobbled laneway behind La Dolce Vita Σ(♡＠﹏ ＠☆)ﾉ”. It is dimly lit, and gave off quite a sophisticated and romantic ambiance.

As you can see from the menu, the price of the steaks start from $30, with other mains over the $20 mark.

This is the bread. It was my favourite sourdough ciabatta, so things were very promising indeed. The bread itself was fresh and the butter was lightly salted. My personal preference though, would be if the bread could be slightly toasted before serving, but I appreciate that the majority of restaurants do not offer to toast your bread.

Note the nice cutlery. <(￣︶￣)>  

We ordered the T Bone with pepper sauce

Rib fillet with mushroom sauce

A side order of roasted veges

Sirloin with pepper sauce

Pumpkin and feta salad

Now in terms of critiquing Embers, I'd like to put it out there that I had entered with a very high expectation. At that price range, I usually have my steaks at Breakfast Creek Hotel, Norman Hotel or Morrison Hotel, so I was expecting either the same or better quality.

The steak itself was very good, not mind-blowing, but a solid well rounded steak that was tender and cooked to your required level. What I did find a bit disappointing was that everything had to cost extra, meaning that if you only ordered a main, you'd get your steak and potato. Sauces cost $2 per portion, and there was no garnishing salad on the side of the plate. From a consumer perspective, it would have made me feel better if prices were all increased by $2 and a sauce was included by default. It just feels quite petty to have to be charged extra for sauce when you are already paying in excess of $30 for a main.

In terms of garnishing salad as well, having been used to dining at Breakfast Creek, Morrison and Norman Hotel, in the same line of thought as the sauce, it would have been nice to have a small portion of perhaps Caesar Salad provided with the main rather than having to order it separately on the side. 

In terms of taste, as mentioned, the steak was quite good, and the sauces were creamy. The chips and baked potato were pretty average, other establishments are able to do more creamy baked potato. The salads had a nice interesting flavour to it, the feta and pumpkin was particularly nice. However all up, we paid in excess of $200 for four peoples' food (without counting drinks), which was not cheap. 

Overall it was a positive experience, especially considering I had been itching to go there for so long, it had satisfied my long term curiosityヽ(。_°)ノ.

Price Range: $50 pp approx

Taste: 7/10

Value: 4/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 9/10

Bonsai Botanika - Brisbane CBD

Bonsai Botanika has been a regular meeting place for myself and my food buddies since its opening last year. (*^o^)人(^o^*).

We were particularly excited when it opened, as we had been walking past there for weeks and watched as the construction and refurbishment took place. So of course, it has priority when it comes to blogging. (ｏ・_・)ノ”(ᴗ_ ᴗ。).

 The first thing that draws you to the place is its distinctive setup. I was particularly drawn to the cafe being split into three separate levels, as it reminded me of the cafes you'd normally find around Asia. The setup was very trendy and unique as you can see:

The interesting thing to note when it comes to Bonsai, is that you order drinks in the downstairs counter, but you order food in in the upstairs bar, which was quite confusing to begin with. (屮゜Д゜)屮. 

I had heard many good things about Bonsai's Chemex Brew, and since the first time I've had it, its been the regular order for me. For me, what sets Chemex apart from all the regular coffees that you get in other cafes its that its a truly full bodied coffee, not complicated by any extra foam or chocolate. Its a more effective caffine hit than a lot of the popular energy drinks.

My associate ordered their Ecuador Hot Chocolate, which was served in a very unique fashion. On the right, you can see a glass of frothy milk, whilst on the left is a flask of melted chocolate. The best way to describe their chocolate, is like the inside of the Lindt chocolate balls (who else is drooling at the thought ヘ（。□°）ヘ  ). From my associate's experience, it was a very rich drink, thankfully it wasnt too sweet.

In terms of food, we ordered two mains and two sides, comprising of the following:

Black Wagyu Ramen

Takoyaki

Char Siu Ramen

Soft Shell Crab

As you can see, the meals were presented in a very artistic messy kind of way. It was definitely very exciting to look at! That was all we could say about the ramen though, because when we tasted it, we could swear that it was in fact pasta in soup, rather than traditional Japanese Ramen.
The sides however, were really quite good. Particularly the Soft Shell Crab, which was served with a bit of salad dressing to give it an unusual Zing.

In summary, Bonsai Botanika is definitely one of my favourite meeting places, if not for the food, definitely for the drinks!

Price Range: $25 - $30 pp

Taste: 4/10 for food, 7.5/10 for drinks
Value: 6/10
Service: 6/10
Environment: 8/10

Sushi Kotobuki - South Brisbane

After multiple recommendations from a close friend, I ventured to Sushi Kotobuki in South Brisbane last Friday, as a sort of reward for finishing the week.

Needless to say, I was very excited ☆*･゜ﾟ･*\(^O^)/*･゜ﾟ･*☆.

Initially we were skeptical with their offerings, but were both pleasantly surprised. Usually, prior to going to a restaurant for the first time, I have a practice of finding the menu online and perusing it to ascertain whether I like what they offer, in addition to affordability of the food. Normally for long established places it isnt that hard to find a menu, but I was unsuccessful in my quest. So for my dear readers, I have taken the liberty of taking a snap of the menu if any of you are interested:

Between the two of us, we ordered the following:

Lion King Roll

Salmon Sashimi ヽ( ★ω★)ノ

Spider Roll

Unagi and two Salmon Hand Rolls

Kotobuki Roll

There are several things that I usually rate a Sushi joint on; first and foremost is the freshness of the fish. Given the huge line of customers and constant turnaround of stock, the fish was definitely fresh, and yummy. The second thing I judge is the texture and flavour of rice. There is nothing worse when you're expecting to bite into vinegar-ed sushi rice, to be stuffed with a mouthful of bland plain rice. Thankfully, I have only experienced this a few times at different places. The rice at Kotobuki was cooked nicely, and flavoured nicely.

After Kakuson, this would be the second place in Brisbane that I have encountered sushi with melty cheese on it. The lion king roll here is arguably better in taste than Kakuson, however I would have really enjoyed it a lot more if they had something like raw salmon in the middle of the roll.

One particular thing I did like about Sushi Kotobuki was the value of its hand rolls. At $3.80 for a Salmon Hand Roll, it is a similar price to Wagaya, but it offers a significantly larger portion size. The Unagi was also nice, but for $5 for two pieces, it was not as good value.

There are two things that I do think need improvement. I had high expectations in terms of Kotobuki roll, particularly because the shop named the roll after itself.  I was quite disappointed with the starchy fried sushi that was served. Given the menu said it was "Tempura Sushi", I was actually expecting sushi with assorted Tempura inside of it. My companion was also quite surprised, and commented that it tasted a bit like fried potato (」゜ロ゜)」. Other than that, I do believe that Kotobuki could improve by offering a larger menu to choose from.

Overall, I found the experience to be quite pleasant, and the food was very nice, however the waiters could be a bit more attentive.

Price Range: $15-20 pp

Taste: 7.5/10. 

Value: 8/10

Service: 5/10

Environment: 6/10 

Kakuson Sushi - Kuraby

So the first couple of blogs will be a catch up on the material I have amassed recently, along with new material I gather o((*^▽^*))o. This falls into the former category.

A while ago, I went to Kakuson Sushi in Kuraby with my two usual food buddies.

ヽ(○´∀)乂(*´∀`*）乂(∀`●)

It is situated in quite a suburban area in Kuraby, near the train station.

Upon ordering, every table is given a portion of Edamame. It was a promising start.

We ordered quite a substantial number of things from their menu, including the following:

Aburi Salmon Roll

Salmon Roll

Scallop Roll (might have been called sunrise roll)

Salmon Sashimi

Salmon Fusion Roll, note the melted cheese on top.

Unagi Roll

Tempura Prawn Roll.

There were several highlights in the meal, firstly it was my first experience with melted cheese on sushi. This is definitely a new twist, and I found it very likable. But to enjoy it at its best, you have to remember to eat it whilst the cheese is still hot, otherwise you'll have trouble separating the pieces of sushi and the cheese.〜(￣▽￣〜) . Other than that, I would say that whilst Kakuson are very generous with the sushi fillings, they could probably work on making the toppings (i.e. the unagi on top of the unagi rolls, or the salmon on top of the salmon rolls) a bit more substantial. At the moment it was a bit underwhelming. Perhaps not as good as Oishi or Wagaya.

Generally speaking, the fish was fresh, the rice was a good texture and the service was alright. There is a bit of room for improvement in terms of environment, but this could be attributed to the fact it is run by Taiwanese and not real Japanese. A big plus however, is in their price, which given their portion sizes makes them significantly better value than other sushi joints, such as Oishi. This isnt somewhere you would impress your first date, but its a nice cozy place with good food to catch up with friends.

Price Range : $15 - $20 pp

Taste: 7.5/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 6/10
Environment: 6/10

Meat and Bread Co. - Brisbane CBD

So Meat and Bread Co opened up a second store in the CBD a few days ago(ღ˘⌣˘ღ). Since it has long been on my list of places to try, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to go(≧∇≦)/. As quite a decisive person, it took me quite a while to decide which of the four options to try, eventually I decided upon the Beef Brisket Dip, with a side of Canadian Poutine on the side, take away.

Considering all the hype that I've been reading online about this place, I expected to be blown away by the food. In the end, I can say that I was not disappointed. 

The brisket was soft, juicy not oily, the bun as commented by a colleague, was of very high quality, but it was a bit bland in terms of only being a cheese and beef burger. It could probably improve with some coleslaw or salad inside, like their other options. The same can be said for their Canadian Poutine, which was slightly too salty, but had a nice gravy and very stringy cheese.

In particular, kudos to the waiter at Bread and Meat Co. As everyone knows, good service can really make your day.

All in all, it was a good lunch at a reasonable price. I was probably hyped up after the other reviews, but it is well worth trying.

Price Range: $7~15 per person

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