Taro's Ramen Cafe

www.taros.com.au

We’ve had a couple of failed attempts to try and eat at Taro’s, but I have been dying to sample the ramen here for AGES. Now I have to say we are by no means ramen fanatics as some people are... chasing the ideal ramen, but we are definitely fans. Unfortunately, our experiences are limited to that of Ajisen Ramen on George St in the city, which is sort of the McDonalds equivalent of the ramen world, so I have heard. 

What we were impressed about with Taros is that ingredients seem to be topnotch and sourced locally, for example, use of Bangalow pork, and eggs from a farm on the Darling Downs. The noodles are all hand made. 

There are other items on the menu, such as Japanese curry, and also Shoyu ramen; a broth made of chicken, seafood and vegetables but what we were here for was the Tonkatsu ramen, the soup being rich and cooked for 2 days with Bangalow sweet pork. 

I had sussed out reports on Urbanspoon and realised that each bowl of soup only came with one piece of char siu (thinly sliced pork), so we both ordered extra, another $1.80 on top of the ramen price.

I ordered the plain Tonkatsu ramen for $14.80, whilst L ordered Fire Tonkatsu ramen ($15.80), obviously being the spicier choice with chilli oil and homemade chilli sauce.

Vue Lounge

www.vuelounge.com.au

Knowing how much my sister likes to eat breakfast, when we proposed to take her out for lunch on her birthday I had to find somewhere that served all-day-breakfast. I found out Vue Lounge at New Farm serves breakfast until 2.30pm every day and so we headed there.

Vue Lounge was busy enough even though it was a Monday morning, with plenty of people ordering takeaway coffees. There was a cabinet displaying various cakes and varieties of macarons. It wasn't a particularly stylish cafe on the inside, chairs and tables are a bit wellworn and shabby. Lacking in atmosphere might be a better descriptor.

We quickly looked over the lunch menu and then all decided to order from the breakfast menu. Both menus have a wide variety to choose from and I had a hard time deciding on what to order. 

L ordered a latte (Vue Lounge uses a DiBella blend), which was unfortunately quite bitter. I have started tasting all of the lattes that L orders even though I don’t drink coffee in order to know what he is talking about and compared to the last few I have tasted even I definitely noticed it.

Symposium Cafe

www.symposiumcafe.com.au/site/

L and I decided upon Symposium Cafe for a quiet Monday brunch the other week. Reading a lot of mixed reviews, they were mostly positive so I was expecting it to be decent. 

I ordered a banana smoothie and L had his usual latte. L loves Veneziano coffee so he was happy, and the latte was well made. My smoothie was really thick just the way I like it, but quite yoghurty. 

Brew

www.brewgroup.com.au

We've known about Brew for a while but up until now haven't ventured down the laneway to visit. Silly us, for missing out on this super cute funky place all this time!

We only ordered beverages, a latte for L and a T2 Brisbane Breakfast tea for me. The latte was well made with a couple of little chocolate coated coffee beans on the side, a nice touch. 

My tea was, well, a tea, but I was pleased to see a cafe with some other teas on their menu besides the usual English Breakfast and Earl Grey. 

La Via

www.lavia.com.au

We visited La Via for a quiet Saturday night dinner.... Quiet because it was freezing cold outside and we were just planning on getting there, eating and getting home again... brrrrr.

Luckily we were seated at the back of the restaurant away from the cold, but as there were outdoor heaters at the front, it wouldn’t have really mattered anyway. 

La Via has a great sounding pizza menu and a short menu of Italian main meals to choose from. All sounded really delicious so it was difficult for us to choose. 

La Via is licensed, so we ordered a glass of wine each, with Pinot Grigio for me. L's was an Australian red wine blend, Sons of Eden GSM, which apparently stands for Grenache, shiraz and mourvedre. You learn something new every day!

Our shared entree was the speck mac and cheese arancini with black truffle aioli. I didn’t really pay that much attention and thought we were just ordering normal arancini with risotto centres, so I was surprised when tiny bits of macaroni exploded from the centre. L thought it was a bit bogan to have mac and cheese, however I really liked it. The truffled aioli was tasty however when put together with the mac and cheese made for a little bit of a gluggy combination in your mouth.

Pourboy Espresso

www.pourboy.com.au

A couple of weeks ago we visited Pourboy Espresso in the city for an early lunch, but unfortunately not early enough to catch their breakfast menu (before 11am peeps).

The cafe is situated on Wharf St in the bottom of an office building and is rather plain and nondescript. The menu is small but has interesting sounding choices. 

L ordered a latte and I ordered an English Breakfast tea. We all ordered from the sandwich menu. 

No surprises here, but L was extremely pleased with his latte, citing it as one of the best he has had in a long time. Pourboy is definitely THE place to go in the city for a good coffee thats for sure, and has recently been announced as one of the best coffees in Brisbane in a recent Courier mail article.