Muffin

The month of May seems to be going out in really chilly temperatures, the dusty heaters have been rustled out from the back of the storeroom, I’m just hoping I don’t have to use them yet. But even the boots are out in play, so maybe I should stop being in denial.

We’ve been visiting Burswood a lot lately, besides being in close proximity, the restaurants inside the casino are pretty great too. This weekend it was dinner with Jason and Wendy at Sirocco.

The food at Sirocco was light and simple, our favourite was the seafood paella which was fresh and tasty.

Dessert was thyme creme brulee with honey wafer, I couldn’t really taste the thyme in the creme brulee but I still like creme brulees

I met a Muffin over the weekend, not of the edible kind but of really cute toy poodle variety. Muffin belongs to Jason and Wendy and is seriously cute and cuddly, just like a toy teddy. Really, the pictures don’t do it any justice, so cute. Ok, one more week to go before the end of May, 7 days and counting ….

2 weeks blitz

It’s been more than a week since my last blog post! It definitely wasn’t due to lack of blogging material (I still have so many food places that I haven’t blogged about not to mention the Japan posts which have been overdue for a year *gulp*), I think I’ve just been feeling a little blue due to work. But at least the Easter holidays are almost here! I can’t wait.

This post merges my past two weekend eating. Last last weekend, we went to the trendy Venn for breakfast. I would probably never have discovered Venn (even though it’s so near work) if it wasn’t for Jaso. I don’t know how he finds out about all these up and coming places but he’s a great source of foodie information.

It’s worth going to Venn just to check out the gorgeous architecture and interior design of the building. The old flour mill factory is split into three stories, the ground level being the art studio, street level being the shop (selling cool and expensive knick knacks) and the bar/cafe, and the second level being an art gallery. I really liked how they made use of the light and the tall ceilings, it was a comfortable and airy space.

Back to the food, the breakfast menu wasn’t extensive so there wasn’t much to choose from. Both Jaso and HC has the poached eggs on toast which came out looking very healthy and green. Nothing spectacular but not bad at all.

Calv and I both had the roast beef bagel. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the mysterious hole in the middle, but I really like bagels. This bagel was one of the best bagels I’ve had in Perth, it was soft without being too soft, chewy and yet had a crispy lightly toasted exterior. Cal and I really enjoyed our bagel.

The coffee was good. Pretty milk patterns are always a plus (^___^). All in all, a good find so thanks for the recommendation Jas.

Venn
16 Queen Street
Perth, WA 6000 Australia

While I usually plan my dinner and lunch venues ahead(this includes checking out the menu and already choosing what I’m going to have), sometimes unplanned foodie adventures can be the best.

The couple Jason and Wendy were the ones that introduced me to Chime. They told us about how they planned to go to Chime restaurant  for lunch, but since it was not open, they ended up heading across the road to Phi Yen for good Vietnamese instead.

It was the exact opposite scenario for us. We headed to Phi Yen for some pho, but the restaurant was busy and the waitresses didn’t bother to serve us. So we headed across the road to Chime for lunch instead! The restaurant itself is located in the newly refurbished Northbridge Hotel, it was a lazy Sunday afternoon and we were the only table besides a couple of ladies enjoying a bottle of wine and a late lunch.

R had the premium sirloin with mash and pepper sauce. The steak was more medium than medium rare in some places, but otherwise the pepper sauce was tasty with the steak.

Even before my caramelised pork belly arrived, the two ladies sitting behind us who both ordered the pork belly were already making ‘mmmm’ sounds with every bite. It was quite funny. The asian style pork belly came with yellow turmeric rice and condiments like fried shallots, chilli vinegar sauce. The rice itself wasn’t heavily spiced and lacked taste, but that was fine because the pork belly was richly flavoured, sweet, beautifully caramelized, sticky and chewy. A heavily spiced turmeric rice would have overpowered the taste of the pork belly.

It really was delicious and a sinful indulgence. In hindsight, I think the flavours were a little bit too intense and strong, causing me to feel rather thirsty afterwards, but I could totally understand why the ladies were making ‘mmm’ sounds throughout their meal.

With a buy one main get one main free deal from our entertainment card, it was a great deal and a surprisingly lovely lunch.
Chime Restaurant
210 Lake Street, Northbridge, Western Australia 6003
(cnr Brisbane Street)

Cooking from last weekend. This was Penne Marinara which I tossed with fish fillets, mussels and prawns.

The pork belly from Chimes was so nice that it inspired me to cook pork belly the next day. Mine was nothing like Chimes though and very Malaysian with the usual soy sauce, star anise flavours.

Sometimes simple meals like stir fried broccolli and carrots with grilled chicken wings can be nice for dinner. My chicken wings were marinated with hoisin sauce, honey and five spice powder.

We received a whole bagful of plums during the weekend. Not eating them fast enough, I decided to use them in a dessert tonight, the only problem with Plum Tarte Tatin? They’re not as pretty as Pear tarte tatin or apples.

Two more days to Easter and counting!

Bistro Felix

Bistro Felix, or Atlantic as it was known back then, was one of the first fine dining restaurants that I dined at in Perth. I remember sharing a lovely and generous seafood platter for two and feeling like a duck out of water amongst the men in suits and fine dressed ladies.

Fast forward many years, Bistro Felix has changed ownership, the interior has been repainted and is dark wood elegant. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable in fine dining surroundings but still worry that I may break a wine glass or two. The surroundings are dim, refined and quiet, the tables candlelit and romantic, quiet couples are dotted around and yes, they still dress up here.

We were served complimentary bread rolls with butter at the start, there’s something about butter at fine dining establishments, they always taste exceptionally good and Bistro Felix’s butter and bread wasn’t an exception.

I already knew what Richard was going to order. The young man is passionate about his steaks and we’re now on the hunt to find the best steaks in town. While we haven’t sampled the obvious steak experts such as Char Char Bull, Tony Roma’s, Victoria Station etc., they’re definitely on our very long list of must-eat Perth restaurants. It’s funny how so many Perth restaurants get steak wrong, I don’t really cook steaks myself, but I’m guessing the key is the timing and the right temperature, many times we’ve chewed our way through tough overdone steaks or slimy underdone steaks, I can’t decide which one’s worse. But Bistro Felix’s Harvey beef eye fillet ($42), fondant potatos, confit onions, cavalo nero, with sherry glaze was really very good. Richard’s eyes lit up and we both knew ‘finally… a good steak’.

Despite being very thick, the chef managed to cook the fillet perfectly (we asked for medium rare), the meat was blushing pink tender and succulent and the sherry glaze was the perfect accompaniment and absolutely delish.We savored every bite of this.

My choice was a healthier version of the fish of the day which was the kingfish, ratatouille, asparagus, béarnaise sauce and kipfler potato ($40). My fish was really lovely as well, everything was light, tasty and went well together.

We were both pretty stuffed but decided we couldn’t leave without trying a dessert. Whenever there’s Crème brulee on the menu, it’s a must order for us custard lovers. Our crème brulee came with almond biscotti which we used as spoons to scoop up the delectable wobbly and smooth custard. There was something special about this custard, I can’t remember, hints of peach or some kind of fruit. At one point I left to go to the ladies and I knew I hadn’t been missed while I was gone because Richard was still attacking the crème brulee with a glint of satisfaction in his eyes that he didn’t notice my return. It was actually quite funny to watch.

I should mention that the service was good, our waitress wasn’t overly friendly, but she was polite and attentive. Our entertainment card gave us ‘buy one main get one main free’ but they didn’t scratch off my card allowing us to return again, and return we shall, after we’ve made our way through the other Perth restaurants. Surely, Bistro Felix is amongst one of the best in town.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food: 7.5/10

Service: 7/10

Bistro Felix
118-120 Rokeby Rd
Subiaco 6008 WA
Phone: (08) 9388 3077

http://www.bistrofelix.com.au

The Grey Hoodie Boy Part 10 : Dinner at Seizan

I was the first person at work today.

I walked into the office and it was all darkness. Since I brought my camera today, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the empty office. The weather was terrible today, raining heavily and strong buffeting winds.

My favourite  ledge in the lunchroom, I like sitting there chatting to T while she makes her cup of tea and drinking my glass of water. But T wasn’t at work today, she’s off sick, so  it was a very busy, hectic work day with no friendly colleagues around (-___-).

I wanted to shop around the city before meeting up with Grey Hoodie Boy, but I only managed to leave work late and was rushing to meet him on time. Luckily he was off work late as well. We walked to Seizan together. Seizan is Grey Hoodie’s Boy top three favourite restaurant in Perth, in fact, he told me that he only went there last week. I thought it was interesting that he booked us for seats at the teppanyaki joint instead of a normal table, he told me that he had never tried the teppanyaki there so thought it would be special.

He greeted the chef in Japanese but he was from Malaysia (=^^=), in fact, from Kuching! Still, he was a very skilled chef and entralled us with his skills and twirly utensils. Really fun to watch.

Grey Hoodie Boy ordered as a Seizan Teppanyaki set each ($65) which in hindsight we should have just ordered one set to share because there was so much food. First up was the simple salad which was light and vinegary, a real eye opener.

Tempura with sweet potato, pumpkin and prawn. I thought the tempura wasn’t great because the vegetables weren’t tender enough, but the batter was light so that was quite good.

Sashimi which Grey Hoodie Boy loved because he said it tasted really fresh. I couldn’t tell really. He is the second person I know who is a salmon fanatic, the first being Richard, so maybe we can try the sashimi here next time Rabbit?

Teppanyaki seafood which had medium rare salmon, scallops, oysters, prawns and beansprouts. I’ve never been a real fan of teppanyaki (or any form of grilled food really), all the seafood was tasty but I think next time I’ll try their normal menu.

Teppanyaki crayfish which lots of grilled garlic. This was quite tasty but not much meat. Grey Hoodie Boy was very puzzled and stared at the crayfish saying ‘emm this crayfish is very weird, it’s very small, more like a baby crayfish’.

There was also rice, miso soup and dessert which was vanilla icecream, very ordinary stuff. Grey Hoodie Boy was so stuffed that he rejected dessert. It was a rather nice dinner, I think Seizan is actually a nice quiet place to have an intimate cosy dinner with friends, I’m sure their ordinary menu will be much better so I would love to return some day.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food 6/10

Service 6.5/10

Seizan Japanese Restaurant

566 Hay St
Perth WA 6000
(08) 9325 5980

I know it was suppose to be a Grey Hoodie Boy post but I couldn’t resist blogging about the food . Truly, I had a nice time with Grey Hoodie Boy, he is still the perfect gentleman, letting me in through the door first, ordering for me etc. He also refused to let me pay the bill telling me that I can treat him next time.

While waiting for the cashier to round up the bill, he made him atm card disappear from his left hand and appear in his right .

During dinner we chatted a lot about different cultures, cooking and I told him that I think Indonesian girls are very pretty. He said ‘I think Malaysian girls are prettier.’

It was raining heavily when we left the restaurant and we had to share my teeny umbrella which he carried for me. We still ended up getting drenched anyway. Even though I told him that my house was a short walk from his place, he insisted on going over to his place first, picking up his car and driving me home. It was either that or he walked me home from my bus stop.I was so tempted to take a photo of him in his grey hoodie jacket but I thought he would think I was mad, so here’s a side shot of him instead. I think he’s pretty cute.

We had to wait for his windows to defrost, so we sat his car for a while listening to Fang Da Tong and the heavy rain outside.

He sent me home and I thanked him for dinner and the ride. Will we go out again? Maybe. I think I’ll bring him for Chinese next time.

Ninniku Jip

I really must remember to bring a notebook when I eat out, by the time I get round to blogging about these restaurants, I’ve forgotten most of the dishes and what they taste like. So fellow foodies, please remind me next time you go out ‘fooding’ with me, or even better, help me bring a notebook and pen.

Before I continue with Ninniku Jip, I must admit that Korean is probably one of my least favourite cuisine, maybe I haven’t eaten really good Korean food but I just don’t love it the way I love Japanese or Thai. Instead, I associate it with bbq-ed meats, lots of smoke and smelly clothes afterwards (-___-).

Ninniku Jip means the Garlic House in Korean, although it advertises as a Korean restaurant, a lot of the food on the menu was Japanese. One thing that struck me about their menu was, not much choice. Everything sounded similar to each other just different ingredients like chicken, beef or seafood. Many of the dishes came with side dishes and rice, we all liked the kimchi which didn’t have that ‘dish liquid’ taste that I dislike.

We ordered a hotpot for two, opting for the Bulak Jungol ($22.50 per person) which came with beef, baby octopus, tofu and veges. This hot pot was pretty spicy and tasted quite nice (see this is what happens when I don’t bring a notebook). Rather large portion for two as well, luckily we were all sharing.

When our dishes were served, I was pleasantly surprised to discover no ‘smoking’ effect. That’s until the Sizzling garlic chicken bulgogi ($22.80) arrived, we pretty much smoked out the entire restaurant and some people from the other tables were coughing.  I thought this dish would be really good since the Garlic House must serve great garlic chicken, but really, it didn’t taste of anything much and was very bland.

The Ishiyaki vege bibimbap ($21.50) was pretty bland for me, but I think the rest of the foodies  quite enjoyed it. I think maybe I didn’t add enough gochujang paste in the bibimbap.

The Sizzling chilli squid ($22.80) was easily the favourite of the night, it was spicy and tasty and went well with rice, the texture of the squid was nicely done too. If I ever return to Ninniku Jip, this will be a reorder.

We ordered the Seafood yakisoba ($15.80) because we were running out of things to order, the menu rotated around various bibimbaps, hotpots, sizzling dishes and noodles. So we had one of each. This yakisoba was quite ordinary, slightly sweet and not too oily.

With our entertainment book discounts (25% off), the meal was quite affordable otherwise I doubt I will return for the prices and food. Except maybe for the chilli squid.The rest of the foodie gang gave the meal a 6.5 (and perhaps 7 for the chilli squid) but I think in comparison to Hanami (which scored a 6.5) Ninniku Jip wasn’t as good so I gave it a 6. I must mention that their service was really excellent though.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food: 6/10 daitaohas

Service: 7/10 daitaohas

Ninniku Jip
867 Albany Hwy,
Victoria Park, WA 6010
Tel: 9355 1988

Karaoke, hot chocolates, tigers and pizza

I’m so behind on all my posts! But here’s a recap of last weekend.

Thursday night we all went to Utopia to support Wui Hao at the Karaoke Singing competition. Do you like the signs I made? I designed and printed them out by stealth at the office!

The two brothers came to support Wui Hao as well.

Wui hao waiting calmly for his turn to sing.

Wui Hao relieved and happy when he was done. He sang Show Lo’s Wo Bu Hui Chang Ge and he sang really well, I was impressed. But… he didn’t get in the next round. Bah. I would have been fine if the contestants who made the next round were good, but there were some really dodgy choices. My tip for the next competition, just choose any Hokkien/Cantonese/Malay/other language besides Mandarin songs, sure can get in.

Jason asked me ‘what’s new in Perth?’ so I took this picture for him. New light up stool sculpture thingys in Northbridge!

Saturday hot chocolates at Tiger Tiger.

I really like the ‘hidden’ atmosphere for Tiger Tiger, it’s a reprieve and secret hideout from the city crowds.

Calvin cradling his hot chocolate like a precious baby. I believe he would move to Melbourne just for the chocolate bars.

Their menu looked pretty good as well, I think I spied a nutella, banana and cinammon bagel somewhere.

Sunday brunch at Delizioso Cafe in Carillion city. Delizioso is a small bright and cheerful cafe (they also have a branch in Subiaco) serving pizza, pizza, a bit of pasta and pizza. They have nice coffees too.

Can’t remember the name of this pizza but was mostly mushrooms, pretty yummy.

Caprese pizza slice ($5.20) with fresh tomato, mozarella, basil and pepper. Light and crispy, nice.

My favourite has to be the Mushroom Trio ($5.20) with button mushroom, Italian famigliole and chiodini marinated mushrooms with mozarella, ricotta cheese and parsley. Sometimes it can be a little oily but most of the time it’s really nice especially since I really like mushrooms.

Overall Delizioso pizzas are really nice for a snack or a quick bite while strolling around the city.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food: 6.5/10

Service: 6/10

Delizioso Cafe

Shop 45 Carillion City Perth

94 Rokeby Road (Cnr Churchhill Av)
Subiaco 6008 WA

p/s Entertainment voucher gives you buy one slice get one slice free

TGFFF: Perth Good Food & Wine Show + they’re engaged!!

I wanted to blog about the Good Food and Wine Show tomorrow but it’s 1am and I’m still not asleep, so here goes. Even though it was a Friday night, it wasn’t a TGIF (won’t have one till Jaso comes back  boo ) but it was a TGFFF – Thank God For Fellow Foodies night! It felt as if all Perth foodies were at the Good Food and Wine Show because the line to get into the convention center was waaaay long.

We were almost not going to go but a check of my entertainment book newsletter revealed that it was a buy one get one free special for card holders so to the Good Food and Wine Show we went. With the rest of Perth.

We were in the queue when Bryan suddenly said ‘Isn’t that Jason and Wendy?’ The cute couple were there too! Jason says that he was just mentioning to Wendy ‘should have asked Diana to go, she would be interested’ and Wendy said ‘Too late already lah’ when they saw us. I am a bit shy that friends immediately think of me when they think of ‘food and wine’, lately I’ve noticed that my colleagues have started asking me for dinner venue recommendations (=-_____-=), I think my forehead spells ‘GREEDY FOODIE’.

I think one of the reasons why the show was so popular is because the Masterchef phenomenon has just ended and the show was featuring most of the judges/celebrity chefs. Of course I only watched the finale and had no idea who was who. But I do know Tobie Puttock from Jamie Oliver’s shows and it was his show that we watched. There were no tickets left for the Masterchef judge Gary’s show, see how huge Masterchef is in Australia.

Alistair Mcleod warmed up the crowd and introduced Tobie. I didn’t understand most of his Irish accent but I like Alistair because I used to watch Ready Steady Cook where he’s a regular.

Tobie Puttock demonstrated three dishes including a spinach and ricotta rolled pasta dish, rock salt dough wrapped beef and actually I can’t remember his third dish, I think it was a dessert. He was alright but the crowd didn’t seem to like him much and he didn’t like the crowd much. Haha, I wasn’t very impressed.

All the cooking made us hungry and we headed out into the main arena hunting for free nibbles and wine tasting. There were veggie chips, olives, sausages, cheese, wine, wine and wine. We all like Brown Brothers because they have sweet and very drinkable whites. I pretty much stuck with rose the whole night and walked towards pink liquid like bees to honey.

I ate a very interesting cheese which had a slight hint of durian, how is that possible I don’t know, it was some chives and coconut crumbly cheese, but had a strong durian-y aftertaste. My favourite was this Tasmanian cheese stall, Brio and Richard both bought the show bag from this stall which was $15 for three different cheeses, very cheap.

The cute couple and their wine glasses, we bought wine glasses for $2 and went around to all the stalls to try their wines.

But enough about wine, we were ready to eat! All the Australian celebrity chefs, Tobie, Alastair, Gary Mehigan and Matt Moran had their own stall which sold an entree, main and dessert and we had to buy ‘dining currency’ vouchers to pay for the dishes. Mains were $24, entree $16 and desserts $8.

I think after all the wine and cheese, we were all craving something sweet and ended up ordering all the desserts! The only one who had a main was Ligament King a.k.a. Richard the Dentist. None of the desserts ended up looking like anything in the pictures, haha, so don’t believe recipe book glossy pictures in the future, they don’t look the same in real life.

We thought Gary’s Clotted Cream Mousse with Ginger Nut Crumble was a 6 daitaoha rating, it was quite nice but a bit rich for me even though there was quite a bit of lemon and lime in there to curb some of the richness.

Matt Moran’s Raspberry Tart with Champagne Sabyon was very pretty but rated a 6 as well. I’ve never had sabyon before so I was expecting some custardy egg tart-ish texture, but the sabyon was a bit difficult to eat because it was so runny and the pastry dough while sweet and tasty was a little hard.

Alastair Mcleod’s Chocolate Creme Brulee, Irish Whiskey Roasted Strawberries and Almond Biscotti was one of our favourites, we gave it a 7 rating (btw guys, if I’m wrong with the ratings please correct for me coz I’m forgetful!) The Creme Brulee was sweet but not too sweet with a hint of bitterness from the dark chocolate. Went really well with the caramelised strawberries with whiskey and strawberry coulis.

My favourite dessert was Tobie’s Caramelised Brioche with Forest Berries which looked nothing like the picture. The rest of the guys liked it too and gave it a 7 rating. I’m partial towards french toast and this caramelised brioche was very similar in terms of preparation and ingredients. Spiced with cinnamon, nugmeg and cardamon, dusted with icing sugar and served with my favourite mascarpone and a handful of berries, it was very very nice and something I would love to recreate at home.

I must admit I wasn’t expecting anything amazing from the mains thinking that all the mains offered were mostly braised dishes which hinted that nothing was cooked on the spot and probably pre frozen. But Ligament King couldn’t resist the ligaments of Tobie’s Veal Osso Bucco and it blew us away. I’ve had a look at the recipe (the recipes are all on the website plus we were given a little booklet of recipes) and the ingredients are nothing extraordinary, very simple everyday stuff like thyme, flour, celery, carrots and tomatoes so this is probably recreateable at home. And it tasted homemade, as in gorgeous homemade cooking, hours of braising, oh-so-tender veal, hearty flavourful gravy served with creamy polenta.I think this is comfort food.

I tell you, flowers were coming out of Richard’s head.

We were given free glasses of wine with our food, with the wine and all that sugar, we were a happy bunch. Time flies when you’re drinking tipsy having fun, and it was close to the closing time of 9.30pm by the time we were done. We continued with our wine tasting and discovered some really great wines, even as I’m typing, I know Richard is researching Brown Brothers online.

The wine stalls were extra generous with their wines when it was time to close they just poured the last drops of their wines into our glasses saying ‘there, have all of it since we’re closing’, which explains our smiles at the end of the show

Wine makes you hungry and we headed to Northbridge for a late Chinese dinner. On the way out of the convention center, Wendy whispered to me conspiratorally and showed me this:

the cute couple are engaged!!!! I’m really happy for them, actually we all were even though the guys were less expressive while I was checking out her lovely Tiffany ring and asking about the proposal details.

It’s a bit scary to think that I’m reaching the age where my friends are starting to get engaged, get married and I am still well, alone. But looking at Jason’s happy and proud face while he was giving a speech, Wendy’s shy but glowing face, I couldn’t help feeling nothing but thrilled for them. So congrats cute couple, very very happy for you two I’m sure there will be nothing but happiness, adventure and lots of love ahead.

Villa Roma Ristorante & Pizzeria

Sometimes it’s difficult deciding where to go for dinner. It doesn’t help when your friends have standard answers of ‘Anything’ ‘Up to you’ ‘Also can’ when you ask them what they want to eat. Somehow or other, I always end up making the decision which can be good or bad, good because I get to go to the restaurant of my choice, bad because I always feel personally responsible if the food turns out bad.

As usual it was a ‘up to you’ night with the only request being ‘can the restaurant be an entertainment card thingy’. Since we were planning to go to San Churro in Fremantle for their chocolate desserts, I picked Villa Roma in Freo for our dinner venue. It was once voted one of the top 55 restaurants in Perth by STM so I was quite hopeful.

The restaurant itself was warm and bustling, we had to wait about 10 minutes for a table which is usually a good sign. The waiter recommended Linguine Al Pollo ($19.90) to Adrian which came with chicken, mushrooms, roasted capsicum and cream. I didn’t try this but I think Adrian said it was alright but not flavourful enough.

Amy had the Risotto Al Pollo ($19.90) which was a tomato based chicken and mushroom risotto. This tasted just ok texture wise but I’ve been spoilt by risotto at Ciao Italia and this just didn’t make the cut.

Bryan’s Risotto Pescatore ($21.90) was seafood risotto with garlic, butter and tomato sauce. Taste wise it was rather bland, but worse of all, the portion was so miniscule, it really was just a thin layer of risotto and that was it. Just compare it with the portion that Amy had!

Mine was the Scaloppine Marsala ($28.90) which is thinly sliced fillets with marsala wine sauce with a side of salad and roasted potatoes. The salad and potatoes were ordinary, but I quite liked my fillets which were tender and the marsala wine sauce which was sweet and savoury.

The start of the night was Richard’s Lamb Shanks ($24.90) which was braised lamb shanks with roast potato and asparagus in red wine and mushroom jus (one of Villa Roma’s most popular dishes). The portion was generous and the lamb shanks were braised till tender, the red wine and mushroom jus was nice too, but I would have preferred stronger flavours. Still, it was a good and hearty dish.

We all shared the Tiramisu (the website says $6.00 but I think it was more $8.00) which was made with mascarpone cheese (I hate it when people use cream as a substitute) but the sponge fingers weren’t soaked well with expresso and it was just missing that something that makes tiramisu so yummy.

Overall the guys thought that Villa Roma deserved a 6.5 in terms of food but a 7 for their lamb shanks and 8 for their service. I must mention that their service was great, the waiters were personable, attentive and very friendly. I also liked it that they asked us whether we prefer tap water or bottled water, unlike the Italian restaurants nowadays that serve you mineral water ($3 – 4 for a bottle) when you ask for water.

I’ve decided to give Villa Roma a 6 instead just because I feel the food was really just average (but the lamb shanks deserve a 6.5 – 7), and Hanami was really a lot better compared to Villa Roma.Haha, I can’t believe I’m taking this ratings thing so seriously.

p/s Entertainment voucher gives you 25% of the meal to the value of $35

Daitaoha ratings:

Food : 6/10

Service 8/10

Villa Roma Ristorante & Pizzeria
9-13 High Street, Fremantle
Tel: 9335 3664
http://www.villaroma.com.au

Brunch @ Coode Street Cafe

Even though we only left Xinlong’s place at 4am, we still managed to make it in time for brunch at Coode Street Cafe. It was also the first meet up with Jason after more than a month. Sigh, Jas will be leaving this Saturday, another 2 months before we see him again.

Coode Street Cafe is located at the corner of a quiet residential street, you end up driving past little houses  and leafy trees thinking ‘am I lost?’. Then you notice cars lining the street, the buzzing crowd and the full tables and you’ve reached the cafe. Great and relaxing atmosphere for a good breakfast.

Coode Street Cafe has nice coffees! Lately I’ve developed a liking for good coffee, there’s something really nice about spooning up smooth, velvety milky froth and drinking hot fragrant coffee. Unlike my Aussie colleagues, I don’t feel the need for a daily coffee fix (my manager drinks 3 a day!) but I do enjoy having a really nice coffee during the weekends.

I already knew what I was going to order before I went to the cafe. Jo and I shared the popular ‘grilled peaches with fresh ricotta served on fig and fennel toast’ ($11), the grilled peaches were topped with big strawberries served on top of fig filled toast, it was beautiful and really scrumptious. Great combination which makes me want to try Jamie Oliver’s grilled peach salad recipe.

A close up of the grilled peaches breakfast.

This is Jason’s ‘artistic’ shot of the peaches and toast. Nice or not?

H’s egg benedict with ham  on toast, he said it was really nice. The poached eggs were good and the yolks burst at the prick of a fork.

Jo and XianZhang shared the giant ‘Who needs lunch?’ big breakfast ($18) with bacon, eggs (Xianzhang chose to have his eggs scrambled), chipolatas, tomatoes and mushroom served with toast. Everything was really tasty, Jo said she never had such nice bacon before and I tried the chipolatas and mushroom, very yummy!

Look at happy Xianzhang digging into his breaktast. Coode Street cafe was a really fantastic find and one of my favourite breakfast places now. I can’t wait to return!

p.s Entertainment card voucher gives 25% off the whole meal!

Daitaoha ratings:

Food: 7/10

Service 6/10

Coode Street Cafe

24 Coode Street (cnr Third Avenue)

Mt Lawley

Tel: 9371 9900

The Left Bank @ Fremantle

While blogging about our Freo day out yesterday, I realised that I’ve yet to blog about the Freo food laden day that we had when Jan and Andy were in town. I’ll wait till I’m given the ok to put up their funny photos, but first, I want to blog about our dinner that night at The Left Bank. Even though it was quite some time ago, I think the Left Bank is deserving of a review, so Jan and Jo, try to help out with the description of the food hor!

One of the must trys for Jan and Andy in Perth was the seafood in Perth. Therefore, I did a bit of research and came up with the usual suspects such as Kailis Brothers, Bluewater Grill, Red Herring etc. I even downloaded the menus in advance to peruse the menu items. In the end, I decided on The Left Bank because

1. both H and I had entertainment cards which gave us a great one main course get another main free deal (which meant we could get 4 mains and only pay for 2! This deal is still on for the 09/10 card*looks at Jason and Wendy*
2. great reviews
3. nice views and conveniently located in Fremantle

The Left Bank boasts a pictureque location right by the Swan River, the ground level of the historical building houses the cafe which hosts gigs and has a more casual feel. A stairway leads to the upper level of the restaurant which has a more formal candlelit setting. Even though we were quite early, the cafe was already doing a roaring business with lots of noisy chatter and Friday night after work drinks. It was quite amazing that the noise level did not reach the restaurant level at all and it was peaceful and quiet upstairs.

Before I start on the food, I should mention that most of these nice photos are taken by Jan with her DSLR, it makes me want to get a DSLR too, but I doubt I could take such nice pictures anyway.

First main was the rump (or was it sirloin steak?) steak with pancetta and leek potato cake, tomatoes, asparagus and red wine glaze ($36.00). We asked for the steak to be medium rare but it came out more medium. Otherwise, the steak was delicious and everything else tasted good too.

The star of the night was the seafood platters (we ordered two!) which came with oysters, smoked salmon, prawns, a bowl of chilli mussels, calamari and barramundi fillets ($39.50 for a seafood platter for one).  Probably one of the best and most affordable seafood platters I’ve had in Perth, the oysters were very fresh, the prawns sweet, and the chilli mussel sauce while not spicy, was drinkable good. I think the calamari was probably our least favourite of the lot, but the fish.. the fish was very very good. This is taking into account that we just had fish and chips at Cicerellos in the afternoon. Beautifully batterd, a wonderful fragrance of good olive oil, the barramundi fillets were great.

We were wanting something different and not overly heavy so opted for the Coconut King Prawns (usually an entree) for our other main. The prawns came with mango chutney and a tomato, cucumber and peanut salad ($31.00). It was actually a good choice because the prawns were not heavy with a slight coconuty taste and the salad was very light and refreshing. Nice.

We were really quite full and wondering whether to skip dessert. But there’s always a different stomach for desserts so we shared an orange creme brulee (can’t really remember the name). The brulee wasn’t fantastic but I always like custardy brulee texture so I still liked it.

Overall I was glad I chose The Left Bank, I’m not sure we would have enjoyed ourselves if we were in an overly posh and super expensive restaurant, the Left Bank offers an in between setting, great and affordable seafood. I definitely want to return for their Wednesday ‘buy a seafood platter for two (usually $67.0) but pay for a seafood platter for one ($39.50)’ deal (cafe only). Anyone want to go?

Daitaoha ratings:

Food 7/10

Service 6.5/10 daitaohas

p.s I’ve adopted Jan’s suggested and changed my rating system to 10 daitaohas instead.

The Left Bank Restaurant
15 Riverside Road
East Fremantle 6158
Tel: 9319 1315