L'Academie

www.lacademie.com.au

For those not in the know, L'Academie is a training restaurant for students of the Shaftson School of Hospitality. The place is quite large, with a restaurant, cafe at the front, bar, and upstairs areas for functions. We went there as part of a large (65 people) group booking for L's graduating uni year.

Our experience at L'Academie was basically a lot more miss than hit. Sure, there was a lot working against them as we were a massive group of mostly tipsy students, and of course, the kitchen staff are not professional chefs, however this shouldn't really be an excuse for very average food.

Dinner bookings at L'Academie involve a three course meal, however for some reason there was a giant mixup and we recieved our mains before our entrees. We were seated at 7.30pm, and found there was not actually enough seats for our group, so that other patrons of the restaurant had to be moved around unfortunately, and a few other tables and chairs had to be found. There was quite a reasonable wait for each course.

The mains were as follows; Tasmanian rosemary lamb rump on sweet potato mash with tomato, bulgarian Fetta & mint salsa, Moroccan chicken supreme with new season blood orange sauce on warm couscous salad and finally Cold water slipper lobster with brown rice pilaf, braised leek and chive beurre blanc.

On paper, this sounded amazing, however we did not find it to be so.

La Vosh Deli - Anzac Square

Being from a Jewish family and also originally from Melbourne, L had not had a good bagel since moving to Queensland 5 years ago. We read on Miss Morags Morsels that LaVosh patisserie definitely had the best bagels in Brisbane, being authentically made (boiled first and then baked). The original Red Hill location was difficult for us to get to though, so when I heard the news that a new LaVosh deli had opened in the Anzac Square arcade food court, we wanted to go and have bagels immediately!

Bagels there are sold separately to take home, or come pre-prepared with meats and salads, or you can make your own combination up. There are also plenty of sweet goodies available as well, including macaroons and little petit fours. 

L had a smoked salmon poppyseed bagel with capers, cream cheese, onion and rocket, whilst mine had pastrami, rocket, tomato, cheese and a nice relish. 

Alchemy

www.alchemyrestaurant.com.au

L and I don't often visit fancy fine dining restaurants, so L's birthday definitely called for something a little bit special. Perusing various menus, we both decided on Alchemy. Alchemy is located in a prime spot overlooking the Brisbane River and the Story Bridge, a perfect spot for a lovely romantic dinner. Unfortunately the place is a little difficult to find for first-timers, leaving us arriving in a fluster and somewhat late. 

The atmosphere inside was welcoming, although the restaurant is fairly dark inside, it was full of happy diners and didn't have that stuffy fine-dining ambience that we were expecting. Walking into the bar area, we were greeted warmly and taken to our table. I immediately noticed the cool red chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, soooooo want one of those hanging over our dining table.

We aren't particularly expert in wines and we usually reach straight for a Sauvignon blanc, however having tried most of the sauv blancs on the menu we asked for something a bit different. Our waiter sent the sommelier over to our table and he kindly pointed us in the direction of a Domaines Schlumberger Pinot Blanc, a French white which was very easy to drink, crisp but not terribly acidic. 

We were presented with complementary bread and whipped butter and decided on our meals. 

Little Saigon Grill

Brisbane city is ridiculously difficult to get around when its raining and you are without an umbrella. We were in the city one weekday trying to locate somewhere to eat for lunch when it started bucketing down. We ducked into a small arcade (Rowes arcade) in Edward street, which connects with Post Office Square, and found Little Saigon Grill. 

Familiar with Vietnamese food after our trip to Vietnam earlier in the year, we were happy with this find. 
The usual suspects are on the menu, including banh mi (meat filled baguettes), pho, rice paper rolls and grilled meat with rice noodle salads. 

My banh mi had a super crunchy exterior to the baguette, but the bread was nice and soft on the inside. Delicious sliced pork with plenty of herbs made for a great lunch. The only fault was having to pick off the chewy rind from the pork. 

Verve Restaurant Bar Cider House

www.vervecafe.com.au

Apparently Verve's actual title is longer than we thought, Verve Restaurant Bar Cider House is certainly a mouthful. Located in the basement of the Metro Arts Centre on Edward Street in the city, its certainly more difficult to find than we thought as well. After a performance at La Boite Theatre on a weeknight, we were looking for somewhere to eat in the city and thought we might try it out. 

They certainly nailed the basement look. Descending a staircase, the restaurant is brick walled and very dark. The place was noisy and we got a student vibe from the patrons. Seating involves plastic orange chairs, but tables are plenty. There is a bar up the very back,  not that we ventured far. 

Verve serves up italian food, and also has a considerable cider list. We aren't sure, but there must not be many bars in Brisbane with such a variety. I ordered my glass of usual sauv blanc, however L decided on a Bulmers pear cider (500ml, $10). Served on ice, it was most refreshing. Other varieties sound quite interesting, including Rekorderlig strawberry and lime, and St Helier pear and blackcurrent and I regret not trying one of these.

Nagomi

www.nagomibento.com.au

Brought to you by the owners of Sono Restaurants at Portside and in the City, Nagomi has been open at the Eagle St Pier for quite a while and clearly caters to city workers for a quick and cheap lunch option. 

We visited Nagomi after the usual lunch rush, so at about 1.30pm on a weekday and found ourselves in an almost empty place. I've walked past before at about 12pm though and found the place completely full. 

Nagomi offers sushi, Bento boxes, Donburi and salads which are easily either eaten in or takeaway. 

L and I ordered Bento boxes, which start at $12.90. They come with rice, pickled vegetables, gyoza, cream croquettes, salad, and edamame. They are available in Chicken teriyaki, Chicken karaage, Pork or Chicken katsu, or Teriyaki hamburger patty. There are a couple of 'upgrades' available, $1 extra to have japanese curry sauce or teriyaki sauce on your rice, or $2 extra to have sushi rolls or fried rice instead of plain rice. I went for the base bento box with pork katsu, and L had chicken karaage with an upgrade from rice to sushi rolls. 

Ben's Alibi

www.bensalibi.com.au

Ben's Alibi is a newish breakfast and lunch spot in the city. We've spotted it when driving down Turbot street, so I googled it and realised they served Moroccan and Middle eastern influenced food. 

We didn't realise it was just outside the magistrates court until we arrived there for lunch, and then figured out how they got their name... cute. There is seating indoors, and then larger tables outside, however be wary of catching cigarette fumes from people smoking outside the courthouse. Indoors, the tables and floor could be a bit cleaner I thought, particularly for a place thats not that old.

Lunch items include spicy sausages, Moroccan themed salads, pizzas and sandwiches, pies and pastries. Other extras include various dips, bread and sides, or their sharing platters, which is what we decided to opt for. 

Ben's vegetarian tasting platter for two is priced at $20.80 per person, and can be made to include meaty items (pastries) for an extra $4, so not really a cheap lunch. 

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.

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. 

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. 

Brisbane Winter Festival

www.winterfestival.com.au/brisbane

The Brisbane Winter Festival is currently on now and until the 26th of June when it heads off to Sydney and then Melbourne. 

L and I decided to head there last night as there promised to be mulled wine, lots of food and free chai!

A large outdoor ice skating rink has been set up in King George Square in the city. We didn't partake in skating because a) we cannot iceskate and would have looked like the many feeble would-be skaters edging their way cautiously around the rink and b) the ice looked a bit melted and after 30 minutes of the session being underway, there was a large cut up section resembling snow instead. Our friends, being super skilled ice hockey players went out instead, and we watched them from the side. 

Sake Restaurant

www.sakerestaurant.com.au/brisbane/

Okay so maybe we have been a little late with jumping on the Sake bandwagon, but last week we finally went there. We decided to go in order celebrate our negative-1-year-anniversary. Yes, thats right, we can’t actually remember the date of our anniversary, so seeing as we are getting married in May next year, decided to just start using that. We were actually asked at Sake if we were celebrating any occasion, and when it was awkwardly explained to the waitress, I am 100% sure she thought we were weird. Oh well, onto the review.

 

We actually were so organised we decided what we were ordering when perusing the menu at home on their website. Drinkswise, L ordered a glass of red (no idea which one, and its not that significant for the purposes of the review), whilst I ordered a cocktail (yes, a cocktail on a school night). The cocktail list is full of delicious creations, all using something Japanese, whether it be sake, umeshu (plum wine) or shoshu (a Japanese spirit). I had the Shimpei San, strawberries smashed with sugar and lemon, shaken with shiso leaves, vodka and shochu. It was fruity and tangy and thoroughly delicious. I had to stop myself from drinking it all in 10 seconds flat. 

Jude

www.judecafes.com

I caught up with my sister for lunch on Monday, as she was her on way to uni... haven’t seen her in about a month as she has been stuck inside-living in her pyjamas-majorly frazzled-studying her bum off. 

She wanted somewhere that served breakfast although it was 11.45am, I told her that wasn’t an option as I don’t think there is anywhere in the city that serves all day breakfast on a weekday. We instead headed to Jude at Eagle St Pier. I went to go there with L once, however it was a weekend and they were closed....

Jude is such a cute place with interesting burgers, “Jude balls” (Moroccan lamb balls, thai chicken balls, risotto balls), salads and fish and chips on the menu. There is also a soup of the day, curry of the day and cassoulet of the day. Ordering is at the counter, you can help yourself to drinks from the fridge, and there is a cutlery/napkin station. The location is nice and breezy being on the river (well tucked around behind the coffee club a bit).

Wah Korean Restaurant

Today was Easter Saturday, being one of the only days this long weekend that shops were actually open we decided to head into the city to do a bit of shopping. I had a list of places to eat that I wanted to try and blog, however NOTHING WAS OPEN!!! I was bitterly disappointed having walked all the way from the mall to find both Pourboy Espresso and Taros Ramen Cafe (we were hoping to eat at one of these places) closed for the weekend. 

We traipsed back to the mall and pondered on what to do when we walked past the tiny opening off the mall that leads to Wah Korean Restaurant. As I didn’t want to eat yet again at Little Singapore (our other option), we decided to try it out. 

Wah definitely has a blink and you’ll miss it entrance, being just off the mall near the entrance to the Myer Centre. The restaurant is down a couple of flights of stairs, and was full of Korean people, a good sign. We were presented with a couple of menus after being seated, which were $9.50 lunch specials and $13 stone pot specials. 

Madtongsan

On Valentine’s Day, L and I met my little sister in the city for lunch. We knew we wanted to eat at somewhere in the Elizabeth Arcade however didn’t really know where. We originally intended to eat at CityWok which is on the corner near the Charlotte Street entrance, however they have renovated their restaurant in the last six months or so and have a different menu... Everything is now Taiwanese cuisine whereas they used to have Singaporean items and also a Vietnamese menu. 

We decided on a whim to walk into Madtongsan. Korean cuisine is definitely not something I am familiar with, my previous experience has been limited to a Korean BBQ restaurant we used to frequent on the Gold Coast. So, we took a little while to decide what we wanted to eat, and I had a somewhat confused look on my face for the whole time whilst ordering, which I am sure the waitress found amusing. 

The Tea Centre

www.theteacentre.com.au 

I am obsessed with tea. No, scratch that, completely in love with tea. To me, tea is so much subtler and more refined than a ‘punch you in the face’ cup of coffee (not a coffee fan at all here). To me, nothing at all beats a good cup of tea. 

I have also converted L from a coffee fan into a tea fan and am rather smug about this, particularly as he loves his coffee and worked as a barista for a long time. At home, we have numerous types of teas, ranging from flavoured black teas to white and green tea blends. 

Most of them have been purchased at The Tea Centre. There are a few different branches of the Tea Centre around the place, with two in the city and one at Robina down on the Gold Coast, however the branch in Albert Lane in the city also serves cakes and food and is a great place for an afternoon cuppa. 

Bavarian Bier Cafe

www.bavarianbiercafe.com/home/

After spending a week or so in a massive post-holiday depression, what better than to snap us out of it and cheer us up than a meal at the loud and friendly Bavarian Bier Cafe?

Bavarian Bier Cafe has 8 or so branches, one being up here in Brisvegas at the Eagle Street Pier and the other 7 being down in Sydney. As soon as I’d heard about it opening, I’d been wanting to visit... who couldn’t go past fatty pork, sausages, schnitzel and steins of beer? This was the kind of stuff to put hairs on your chest... errr if you want them that is. 

We toddled over there with an 8pm booking on a Saturday night. I had heard that this was probably the busiest and loudest time to visit, and my sources were clearly not mistaken.... The place was packed out and full of loud red-faced happy people. 

Little Singapore Uptown

http://www.littlesingapore.com.au/

We’ve already blogged about Little Singapore at Sunnybank, the main branch of the Little Singapore chain. The owners have two other restaurants in the city, one located on Charlotte St and one in the cute little Albert Lane wherein also lies Vapiano and The Tea Centre.

I always complain because there seems to be a lack of places open on a Sunday to eat in the city. All the places I want to go or try are usually shut. On this occasion it was also raining so we didn’t want to hike too far in the wet. I suggested that we walk down to Ajisen Ramen but this idea was quickly shot down by a major downpour. We ducked into Albert Lane and so our choice was made.

The Euro

www.urbanerestaurant.com/the-euro/

It was my birthday last week and I decided to treat myself by convincing L to book us in for dinner at The Euro. We pretty much never go out in the city for dinner and after driving around a few blocks looking for a park, we passed a few interesting looking restaurants and so I’ve decided we need to expand our horizons and try a few of these city options in future.

The Euro is situated right next door to its more expensive sister restaurant Urbane. So we treated ourselves to dinner, but we didn’t TREAT ourselves to dinner! Dinner at Urbane probably requires a more special occasion than my birthday!

Thats certainly not to say The Euro is the ugly stepsister to Urbanes Cinderella. The Euro has a quite impressive menu and a stylish interior. Inside, its a long narrow restaurant with dining areas at the front and rear, separated by a bar area. The ceiling has interesting fluoro red and yellow coloured light fixtures which looked really cool. Unfortunately because of the dark lighting throughout the restaurant and of course me feeling self conscious with the camera as usual, I didn’t take any photos of the interior. All the photos that follow in this post are really dark, sorry!

Vapiano

http://www.vapiano.com.au/

Vapiano has been reviewed just about to death already but I still plan to add in my 2 cents as this was our first visit.

This restaurant is located in Albert Lane, a very cute extension off Albert St in the city, which contains several interesting and yummy choices for eating and includes one of my favourite shops, The Tea Centre (but that’s another story). 

We headed to Vapiano, keen as mustard, with 2 of our good friends for lunch on a Saturday. Upon entry you are presented with a card each. Instructions were to head to each counter for pasta, pizza or salads as we desired and to swipe the card when ordering. At the end of your meal you head to the front counter to swipe your card again and pay, this is a massive bonus if you have a group of people and need to split the bill. There is also a full bar inside as well in case you fancy an alcoholic beverage.