DeClub - Calamvale

"This is the best Bingsoo in Brisbane", I was told by a fellow foodie. Ever since hearing those words, I knew that I had to pay DeClub a visit. Although located right next to my gym, I have been trying to not "reward" myself with indulgences every time I work out, so it took a little planning to go with Dr L after a dinner nearby, for us to finally go there for an after dinner dessert.

 

We arrived to a nearly full cafe. I suppose that this would have been its peak business hours at roughly 8pm on a Saturday. We got one of the last seats and a menu. Desserts were decidedly Asian style with a focus on snow ice and sweet soy pudding as well as waffles. It didn't take much by way of deliberation as we were only here for one thing.

We ordered a single straw melon bingsoo to share. It took more than 40 minutes for us to receive our order, even after following up with staff, who brusquely replied "do you want a refund instead". Dr L had a lot less patience than I did and by the time it arrived, he was already very annoyed. When we asked for two sharing bowls so that we didn't have to lean in or have it drip over the table between us, staff declined. This essentially was the last straw for him, regardless of how good it tasted.

To be fair to DeClub though, it was actually the best bingsoo I had ever tasted. Given, I hadn't really had all that much before, but this was light, milky and had a generous amount of flavourings and toppings all the way throughout. At the bottom was an assortment of popping pearls, pearls and puffed rice kernels for texture. The strawberries were fresh and sweet and I liked the crisp watermelon too. It's a shame that service was so atrocious to the point where Dr L has stated that he will refuse to go there ever again, but one can only hope that they improve on this front.

Price Range: $10 - $20pp

 

Taste: 8/10

Value: 6/10

Service: 2/10

Environment: 6/10

Beijing BBQ House - St Lucia

One good Chinese BBQ calls for another. I was recently reminded of a fairly good experience I had at Beijing BBQ House when they had a store along Pinelands Road. That shop has long closed but they still have one along Hawken Drive near UQ. Apparently it is now very popular among uni students and that's always a good sign of delicious food at a value price. We went for a drive out after work on a weekday to check it out.

The shop was fairly small, the owner was very friendly and hospitable but also a bit overwhelmed by having to take orders and do the waitering for all tables. 

The menu was fairly simple, one side consisted of largely bbq dishes. The other side was for main dishes such as rice and noodles. We ordered on the menu itself with a marker and taking it up to the counter.

First to arrive was the chilled pickled cucumber. This is a fairly standard dish that I make at home occasionally. The portion was generous but the taste was fairly mild, it wasn't as salty or sour as it could have been but I did like the fresh crunchy cucumber.

From left to right, we have lamb skewers, pork belly skewers and beef skewers. These were fairly pricey at $2.50 each. My favourite was again the lamb, because the flavours complimented the peppers and cumin most. The beef was a bit dry and chewy but the pork was moist and tender. Overall I still really enjoyed these skewers, they were notably less salty than Mr 7, and Dr L who had spent a few years in Beijing noted that the saltier versions were more authentic.

We had two garlic chicken wing skewers also. These were grilled really well and deliciously charred, however they were a bit lacking in garlic, which was a bit of a letdown.

I couldn't go past a serve of intestines. These were served perfectly crispy without a hint of bad smell. Again the spices were a bit weak, for Chinese BBQ, but it was by no means bland. I would have liked to have a bit more intestines on the skewer also, given the price.

Like at Mr 7, I also had a serve of scallops. The one on the right was done well, retaining its juices and was topped with vermicelli and garlic. The one on the right was unfortunately overdone so that the scallop had been quite dried out and the vermicelli stuck to the shell. 

 I remember having a really delicious serve of enoki wrapped in foil back in their Pinelands store. This was no longer available, but Dr L loves enoki so we had some grilled enoki to share. This was lightly charred and seasoned. I would have preferred the wrapped ones with more garlic.

Overall, we enjoyed our experience at  Beijing BBQ House. I'm in no rush to return but would also not hesitate to come back too but would be keen on trying more different BBQ in the area.

Price Range: $25 - $35pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 6/10

Kengu Ramen - Robertson

Ramen fanatics would have remembered Kengu Ramen, a small store which had opened briefly in Toowong in 2021 and then closed down. From the end of last year, they reopened in Robertson, and I've made a mental note of trying it out sometime. We had this opportunity last week after picking up some friends from the airport and arrived just in time for opening.

The restaurant is really small. So small that the totality was four tables with four chairs each in a small room. There was no counter to order and it only connected to a kitchen out back. The sign wasn't very clear but there were limits for dining time, a minimum order of one bowl of noodles per customer and no adding to orders after ordering. The menu was quite short, but allowed for a free upsize when ordering (rather than asking for extra noodles after you get your meal). Once you go in, staff come out and take your order and charge you at the table.

Dr L ordered the Kengu Signature Bonito Tonkotsu Ramen This was served with thick noodles topped with wood ear fungus, char siu, shredded onions and runny egg. He quite enjoyed the bowl, especially the thick noodles since he prefers noodles with bite. The broth was rich, thick and creamy, being more akin to the offerings at Taros rather than Genkotsu.

 

I ordered the Black Garlic Tonkotsu Tsukemen for variety. The noodles and toppings were the same as the Signature, however soup was served on the side and was topped with black garlic oil. Overall the portion was generous, I liked how the thick soup could cling to the noodles, I also really enjoyed the fragrance of charred black garlic. Other than that, the eggs were cooked really well. The noodles were thicker and firmer than I would have liked, next time I'll probably try their thinner option. Otherwise it was a solid bowl of ramen, but doesn't particularly stand out in the crowd of competitors. I would have no objections to coming back but have no urge to go out of my way to have it again.

Price Range: $18.5 - $19.5 per person

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 7.5/10

Service: 7/10

Environment: 7/10

King Palace - Broadbeach

These days, when people ask me where I recommend for Yum Cha in Brisbane, I can only offer a despondent 'nowhere is particularly good'. It is quite a sad affair to see that prices have gone up exponentially while the quality has correspondingly dropped. Gone are the days when my parents could take me out for a casual family lunch on the weekend and we could get delicious hot dimsim for a fair price, nowadays it costs a moderate to high price for dumplings with thick skin or deep fried items which are served to you cold. As such, my search for a good quality yumcha continued, and we decided to venture down to the Gold Coast in search of hope. This is why we ended up at King Palace, after doing some reviews, it seemed promising and we went with a few friends.

I didn't know if there would be much of a crowd, so we made a reservation. Arriving at the opening time of 11.30, there was only one table other than ourselves. Service was efficient and a bit loud, reminding me of the yum cha places from back in the 90s. The menu covered everything you could want except for congee and offal. There were no trolleys but we gave our order to the friendly waiter.

Fresh Tieguanyin tea was served, it was strong and fragrant. They definitely didn't skimp on the tea leaves. 

It didn't take long before our table was filled with baskets upon baskets of steamed dim sim 

Starting off with the signature har gow and siu mai, these were freshly steamed to order. I like that the dumpling skin wasn't too thick. The prawns weren't overcooked, retaining a plump and moist texture. The same could be said for the siu mai. I liked how they topped it off with some flying fish roe as well.

My favourite steamed bean curd roll was done exceptionally well. There was a good ratio of meat to prawn in the filling, the bean curd was fresh and the sauce was flavoursome and light. This was undoubtedly the highlight of my meal. The beef tripe was done well and very tender. It was a shame they didn't have braised beef offal on the menu too, I would have enjoyed that. The BBQ pork bun was fairly standard though and didn't taste very different from the usual.

  

We also had turnip cake and BBQ pork rice paper rolls. Both were done well. There was ample turnip in the turnip cake but I would have preferred the rice paper rolls if they were a bit thinner. 

Although a tad thick, the rice paper rolls were undoubtedly fresh and fairly soft. They complimented the crispy deep fried bread sticks they were served with and are undoubtedly better than the other options we have in Brisbane right now.

I didn't get much from the deep fried options, noting that my favourite deep fried taro balls were not on the menu. We did however have a serve of baked bbq pork puff. The pastry was light and flakey with a sweet meaty filling that we all enjoyed.  

 Just like the BBQ pork puff, the egg tart was equally flakey. Although not served straight out of the oven (as evidenced by the fact the centre has dipped a bit and pulled away from the shell), it was still warm when we had it and the layers were unbelievable. It made for a perfectly buttery finish to our delicious meal.

I can't say that I've had such a good yumcha since I last went to Sydney, or even further back when I was last in Hong Kong. King Palace is definitely heads and shoulders above the current Brisbane offerings and even the drive down becomes worth it, given the prices are notably cheaper than Brisbane too. I will definitely make time to come back.

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 8.5/10

Value: 8.5/10

Service: 8.5/10

Environment: 8/10

Mr 7 - Sunnybank Hills

Chinese BBQ is really not something that I have all that frequently, preferring Korean and Japanese usually, however most recently one opened up near my home and I am often tempted by the fragrant smell of garlic and cumin as I pass by daily. I was interested in going, however the place looked really shady and there were no menus and a string of fairly disastrous reviews online. Wanting to try for a safer alternative, we headed over to Mr 7 at Sunnybank Hills, which has long been a local favourite for some quality skewers.

The restaurant was nearly empty when we arrived for a mid week dinner. The waiter was therefore able to be very attentive to our table throughout our meal. Ordering was interesting because we were given a menu but also told to scan to order via QR code. This however also followed with paying at the counter at the end.

  

I'm not particularly familiar with North Eastern Chinese Cuisine, so I just ordered a random assortment of their skewers, main dishes and sides. Prices were not as cheap as I had initially envisaged though, but not unreasonable.

It's not really north eastern BBQ without beer, right? Tsingtao was the perfect pairing for our grilled meats.

Our meats were served individually as they were ready to our table. 

First to arrive was the Taiwanese Sausages. I'm not sure that this is North Eastern fare, but it was delicious, with a lightly crisp skin, a firm texture and a sweet garlicky filling. Having said that, these were undoubtedly store bought and of the same variety as the ones in my freezer, and therefore not worth the $3.80 price tag each.

Next to arrive was the pork belly. This was fairly fatty, and surprisingly quite thinly sliced. It was doused in peppercorn, cumin and fennel though, making it addictively more-ish. Although somewhat expensive at $3 each, I did really enjoy this.

Our larger bundles of skewers came all at once. The darker ones were the lamb skewers and these were a delight to eat. Fatty and tender, they were infused with just the right amount of spices to be very strong but not overwhelmingly so. These were definitely addictive and I could have had more than ten of these alone.

Although the beef was given the same seasoning, it wasn't as tender as the lamb. Although fatty, it had quite a few parts that were fairly chewy. We still liked the beef, but next time will probably rather more of the lamb instead.

To temper the heat of the bbq, we had a side serve of cold spicy noodles. As you can see, it was drenched in soy and chilli. This was also intensely flavored but still cooling, despite the chilli. I really enjoyed its soft slippery texture and would come back for this.

I also opted for a dish of stir fried beef and pork tripe. As with the other dishes, it had copious amounts of peppercorns, cumin, soy and chilli. The flavour profile really worked well with the chewy offal texture and it would compliment a bowl of rice or noodles perfectly.

Detracting from the numbing spicy flavours, we had a bowl of Wanton Soup for variety. This came in a light chicken broth with seaweed. The wanton tasted fairly average, more or less like the frozen variety you get in the supermarket, but coupled with the chicken broth and sesame oil, it really hit the spot for us. 

Rounding off our meal were the grilled scallops. I love a good north eastern scallop because it always comes covered in garlic and vermicelli to soak up all the garlicky flavours. These were executed well and the scallops were large and plump. Overall we had an enjoyable meal at Mr 7. It made for a nice foray into north eastern BBQ, and I would be keen to try other restaurants of similar nature soon.

Price Range: $30 - $40pp

Taste: 7/10

Value: 6.5/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 6/10

Barra Boys - East Brisbane

On the rare occasion I am too busy to cook for a weeknight dinner, we get takeaway. I've actually wanted to go check out Barra Boys for ages, and when some errands ran overtime, I knew it was the perfect opportunity for me to grab some to feed the Dr who loves fish and chips.

Ordering online, I arrived just at the organised pick up time but it took a further 10 minutes or so after that for my order to be ready. In the meantime, I was able to peer longingly at the other fish they had on display while my tummy grumbled away.

The drive home was a quick 10 mins and we ate it immediately for optimal taste.

To share, we had a Tacklebox for two. It comprised of 2 cod, 4 calamari, 2 prawn cutlets, 2 sea scallop, chips, lemon and tartare. We added two pieces of potato scallop for good measure (because we missed out the recent McDonald's promo). Starting with the cod, we had it with a tempura batter, this was surprisingly disappointing as the batter had been steamed quite badly by the time we got home. The fish was also not as big as I would have imagined. It was surprising how steamed it was, given everything else retained its' crispiness. The calamari was a highlight for me, given how tender it was and the prawns were quite plump and juicy too. We really liked the crisp crunchy chips with chicken salt too. Next time we might have to try the crumbed cod rather than tempura, but there's no doubt I'll be back soon.

Price Range: $20 - $30pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value: 6/10

Service: 6/10

Environment: 7/10