Cicada

I used to work in the old Brisbane Administration Centre building behind City Hall.  A few years ago, they moved us over to Brisbane Square, which is now the administrative centre of Brisbane City Council.  The old building was kind of chewed up, Telstra has gone into 69 Ann Street and they’ve built another building on the Adelaide Street.  A few new cafe/restaurants have sprung up around the shopfronts of the new building.  From Firefly, which has pizza (very good pizza in fact) to Chocolate Soldier, which is all about chocolate and coffee (great chocolate, mediocre coffee).

On the Adelaide Street side is a new restaurant called Cicada, which looked really promising at first look.  Modern, open and glossy, the decor looks inviting for lunch, dinner or a coffee or drinks.  There is also a take-away section that I had seen had lots of good looking salads, paninis and pastas.  But I hadn’t tried it out yet.

Last week, we booked it for a work get together lunch on Thursday.  When we booked, we weren’t asked whether we would like a table indoors or outside, just that it was a table for eight people.

When we got there a couple of people from our party went to the salad/panini area to purchase something from there for lunch, and a waitress came and asked me who booked the table.  I pointed out the lady, and off the waitress went to talk to her.  The lady came back to our table to tell us that she had been told that when someone books the tables inside the restaurant, they’re not allowed to order from the salad/panini area.  She insisted we would have been told this on booking (we weren’t – nor did we request particularly to be inside) but said she would allow it “this time”.  So this at first left a bit of a bad taste in our mouths.

I ordered the gnocchi from the menu, others ordered the tuna, the lamb souvlaki.  When my gnocchi arrived, I actually wondered if there was gnocchi in there.  It was literally six pieces of gnocchi, a little cream sauce, a swirl of barbecue sauce buried under about three large handfuls of  what I would call garnish.

What little there was there was delicious, but it was such a small amount I was looking for something else.  Strangely though, the other dishes served were all much more sensibly sized portions.

This was the last we saw our wait staff other than them reaching over us to whisk our empty glasses away (which they never asked if we would like another drink during the whole hour we were there) and remove our plates.  We were not asked if our meals were satisfactory, nor were we offered to order more drinks or even coffee.  As soon as we had finished eating what was in front of us, we got the distinct impression that we were meant to leave.  I know at least three of the party would have had coffee, and I probably would have had some cheese or a dessert, given the small size of my meal.

We paid our bill, weren’t thanked or made feel welcome at all, and left.  I dashed over the road and got something else to eat to finish my lunch and a coffee.

If you’re thinking of giving Cicada a try… give them a miss.  I certainly won’t be going back.

The Willow – Moorooka

Today I had planned to go to lunch at an Italian restaurant over at Tarragindi, but when we got their they had closed, so instead my friends suggested The Willow over at Moorooka.  It’s the pub on Beaudesert Road, at the bottom end of the shops.

They have a lovely big “beergarden” area, not really a beergarden but an outdoor kind of deck that is a restaurant.  Huge, spacious and cool once all the doors and windows are open, it’s a nice area to sit for a Sunday lunch.  I ordered the steak sandwich.  It was HUGE!  Good tender steak (and not a scrawny thin bit either), bacon, egg, cheese, beetroot, onions, tomato and lettuce, served with battered chips and a side salad.  The side salad was a tad bland but there was so much of the chips and steak sandwich I couldn’t eat everything so I didn’t bother about it.

After a couple of hours sitting and talking with friends we decided to have coffee and dessert, so I ordered one of their two dessert choices (they could use a couple more choices really), which was chocolate mud cake with berry coulis and ice cream.  Absolutely divine.  The mud cake wasn’t too sickly but was still fudgy, it was good quality vanilla ice-cream, and the berry coulis was made with real berries.  Really scrumptious, and they do a fairly good coffee too.

All in all, a pretty good find in the suburbs.

Lock n’ Load – West End

Went to the Girl Geek dinner last night, a group of awesome women who meet up to celebrate, network and encourage geekiness, as well as have some social time.  I’ll blog more about that on Sleepydumpling’s Big Adventure later.

The dinner was held at Lock n Load bistro at West End, right on Boundary Street.  Google Map here!

What a little gem of a bistro.  Tucked away amongst the shops (as most cafe’s and bistros are in West End), Lock n Load has great food, friendly staff, well priced and is a fantastic venue.  They have the restaurant downstairs (which had a live jazz trio playing), a garden out the back and then a lovely room upstairs which seats about 30 people, and has a wide screen plasma on the wall perfect for talks and presentations.

The dinner last night had a set menu, with Turkish bread for starters for all, then several choices for mains, and also salad and shoestring fries served to the table for all.  I had crispy skinned barramundi with chorizo, potatoes and olives.  YUM-O.  The barra was beautifully fresh, cooked to perfection (the seasoning on that crispy skin was divine) and the olives and chorizos really offset the mild flavours of the fish and potato.

I really liked the feel of the place too.  Relaxed and friendly, and looks like it’s been built into an old Queenslander house.  The staff were really helpful, the wine was good (and well priced) and the room upstairs a perfect venue for lots of discussion.

I’ll certainly go back there.

Kung Hei Fat Choy

As well as being Australia Day tomorrow, it is also Chinese New Year.  And if you wish to celebrate the wonderful multi-cultural country we are, open to new experiences and celebrating diversity, perhaps instead of eating lamb (which I can’t do anyway, I’m allergic) you could go for a Chinese meal somewhere.

On Friday night, I went with a group of fabulous friends to Ben’s Chinese-Vietnamese Restaurant at Woolloongabba.  All this weekend they are having special celebrations for Chinese New Year, with a special banquet for $39.95, lion dancing, fire crackers and lucky door prizes, as well as their usual karaoke.  I normally hate karaoke, but I got a few laughs out of Friday night’s efforts.

Ben’s is a favourite restaurant of mine in Brisbane, the food is absolutely exquisite there.  Their salt and pepper squid is like no other – soft and tender, super fresh with a delicate seasoning that just compliments the squid perfectly.  They didn’t have it on the banquet on Friday night, but they had salt and pepper quail instead, which was seasoned with almost the same thing.  Divine.

I have to say I’ve never had a bad meal there, and I’ve been there a lot.  The service is always prompt and friendly, the food as I mentioned, divine and the prices are reasonable.

One of the great things about Friday  night for us was that we won the lucky door prize at our table.  A $40 gift voucher for the restaurant and a bottle of champers.   What I really liked was the lovely presentation of the gift voucher, in this lucky envelope.

Yum-Mi!

I’m having one of those grumpy “I hate summer why do I live in Brisbane” days today. But I need to blog so I’m going to talk about the rather lovely lunch I had yesterday.

My friend took me to Cafe Mi, which is at Sunnybank Plaza shopping centre. My friend knows all the great Asian restaurants around Sunnybank, she eats out in that area at least twice per week.

Cafe Mi is on the left hand side of the entrance of the cinema. It’s tucked away at the back and is frequented mostly by Chinese people, which tells you the food is good. It’s pretty much a cafeteria style setting, but it’s reasonably priced and the food is plentiful and really good. We had honey BBQ pork, braised beef with Chinese mushrooms and flat rice noodles and a special fried rice. I think it’s possibly the best fried rice I’ve ever eaten, light and fluffy and with plenty of the bits that make it “special” – prawns, ham, egg, chicken, bbq pork. The BBQ pork was divine too, my friend often buys it by the kilo to take home. The braised beef could have been a little lighter in the sauce but it was tasty and there was plenty of it.

If you are looking for a good reasonably priced eat that will fill you up, Cafe Mi at Sunnybank Plaza is worth giving a try.

Mmmm… Lovely

Christmas is almost here, which means a lot of socialising for many of us. Restaurants and cafe’s are really busy, pubs are thronging, parks and pools have lots of folks in attendance.

One thing to remember during this season while you’re out at all of these places is to have a little patience. Hospitality staff are working their tails off at the moment, cut them a little slack. This is their busiest time of year.

Anyhoo, the real reason for this post is to talk about a bit of a Brisbane Institution… The Pancake Manor in Charlotte Street. You know it, that’s the one in the old church. It has been there for donkeys years. The menu hasn’t changed, nor has the decor. I can remember back in the 80’s, when it was the only place in town you could get a feed after a hard night’s nightclubbing!

It’s not a flash place, not fancy at all. Nor is it one of those hip places to be seen. But the tucker is REALLY good. Here’s a photo I found on Flickr…

Pancake Manor
Originally uploaded by lightsight

Not sure why it’s posting on the right, but hey, you can see those tasty pancakes. I’m REALLY fond of their breakfast deals where you can get pancakes with bacon and eggs, maple syrup and a cup of coffee. And the pancakes with strawberries… good GOD they’re divine.

If you want a really good feed, that’s well priced, hearty and always delicious, and available 24 x 7, the Pancake Manor is one of those “old reliables” you can always go to in the CBD.

Brunch – It’s Not Quite Breakfast, Not Quite Lunch and Comes with a Slice of Melon at the End

I’ve been to brunch twice in two days.

Yesterday was planned, I met my lovely friend Jim at Ned’s Cafe in Yeronga. It was so sticky and hot (that’s one thing I do not “heart” about Brisbane!) that I grabbed a little table in the back near the refrigerators, which was a wise choice. Much cooler and more comfortable there than anywhere else.

I had the French toast and a skim latte (two in fact) and both were delicious. Jim had the gourmet eggs which I am determined to have next time I go there – scrambled eggs with various add ins like mushrooms and onion and stuff. We sat in our little corner of Neds and talked for a good few hours.

Today my friend Rosie called me up on the spur of the moment to ask me if I wanted to go to brunch with her at the Melbourne Hotel at West End. I hadn’t been there since they have refurbed, and had heard they’d done a great job, and I love brunch, so of course I said yes.

I’m well impressed! It’s funky without being too cheesy modern, very comfortable and the food and service are excellent, as are the prices. Being hot still, we sat inside in one of their amazing booth tables. It’s kind of like sitting in a muffin tin. You’re cupped into the booth and you can’t really feel or hear any of the tables or anything around.

We both had the Melbourne Big Breakfast, of steak, chipolata sausage, bacon, eggs your style, toast, mushrooms, tomato and a tiny lamb cutlet for a bargain price of $9.90 and a huge coffee for about $4.50. It was delicious and plentiful and arrived promptly. I wouldn’t mind trying a dinner there sometime.

If you have a favourite place for breakfast/brunch, leave me a comment and I’ll add it to my list of places to try.

David’s Chinese Restaurant

Last week was my monthly book club meet up, and we go to dinner at a restaurant in the CBD on the third Wednesday of each month.

This month, we chose David’s Chinese Restaurant in Elizabeth Street.

I’ve been there before and was impressed, so I was more than happy to go back. Last time we went we had one of their banquet meals, which was delicious, reasonably priced and plentiful.

This time, I had hot and sour soup as a starter, and it was really delicious, and had real prawns in it, which you don’t often find in hot sour soup in Australia. For main course I had steamed whole flounder with shredded pork and Chinese mushrooms, and steamed rice. The flounder dish was HUGE. There was no way I could make my way through all of that. Really delicious too, and steamed to perfection.

Followed by the old traditional fried ice-cream for dessert (which isn’t even Chinese really, but boy it’s good!) and a coffee.

David’s is a really good quality Chinese restaurant, with beautiful fresh food, excellent service and a lovely setting. It’s not my favourite Chinese restaurant in Brisbane (I’ll blog about that one another time), but it’s up in the top 5.

A Riot of Purple

As you may have guessed by the header of this blog, I absolutely love jacaranda season in Brisbane. Jacarandas just scream “home” to me, even though I believe they are native to South Africa.

I love that gorgeous purple colour, and how they leave a carpet of purple underneath them when they are in flower. Even though they shed blossoms everywhere, and then those said blossoms do rot all over the place, I think they’re one of the most beautiful features of Brisbane.

On Saturday night just passed, it was my birthday. I went to Kapsali’s restaurant at South Bank with a group of girlfriends (the Brissie Cysters). We were seated at a table outside, right under a jacaranda tree, shedding it’s gorgeous blossoms all over the table, the chairs and of course us. Sure, there were a couple of flowers fished out of wine glasses and cleavage as the night passed on, but I didn’t mind, they’re so beautiful it’s worth fishing them out of various places they land.

I’ve always said, when I get married, it will be under jacaranda trees in full bloom.

There’s something special about this time of year, driving through Brisbane (or in my case, travelling on the bus) and seeing that riot of purple all over the landscape. It’s stunning.

Incidentally, the photograph I have used for my header comes from Brisbane Images, a digital image collection through Brisbane City Council Library Service. If you go to their catalogue website eLibCat, you can click on the “Search Brisbane Images” button and then use the search engine to find pretty much anything Brisbane related right back to the mid-1800’s.

I Think I’m Turning Japanese

Last night I went out for a belated birthday dinner at Wagamama in the Wintergarden with a friend.

I really enjoy Wagamama. I know some people shrink from the idea because it is in fact part of a franchise, but I really believe it’s the least franchise-y of all of the franchises.

Wagamama’s food is simple, tasty, nourishing and reasonably priced. They do the best ramen I have ever eaten (super-duper fresh ingredients are the key) and it always arrives at your table quick sticks. Last night I tried one of their spring cocktails, a concoction of mango, apple and mint with Absolut vanilla vodka. It was absolutely divine. Fruity and fresh and deceptively potent. I reckon two or three of those and I’d be under the table.

So last night I had the sweet potato kusabi, which are a thinly sliced sweet potato chip with wasabi mayonnaise, chicken ramen, which has REAL chicken breast and fresh vegetables and banana katsu and coconut ice-cream for dessert. Delicious, every morsel.

The only thing I’m not fussed on at Wagamama are the bench style seats. I don’t mind the big communal tables, and I wouldn’t mind bench seating if they weren’t so PAINFUL to sit on longer than half an hour. They’re just at the wrong height and depth. I’m not short and actually have longer legs than my body, but still I find myself with my feet in the tippy-toe position on the floor on those bench seats, and it’s never comfortable. I’d enjoy my dining so much more if I didn’t get fierce cramps from the seating!

But that said, it is worth the uncomfortable seating just for the food. It really is high quality and well priced to go with it.