Dreamy Donuts and Little Caesars

Anh and I discovered more ways to get fat last Friday.

Dreamy Donuts

So glad Anh was told about this place.  These are my new favorite donuts now.  They are nice and fluffy and have quite a variety available.

I like these more than Krispy Kremes because they're not too sweet.  Dreamy Donuts are still sweet, but they don't make my teeth ache with sweetness like KK donuts do.

Plus their boxes have handles.


Little Caesars

When Anh and I visited Litlle Caesars in Mundaring we were blown away by their dessert pizza.  So our expectations were quite high when we checked out their new store in Leederville.

The shop was absolutely packed last friday!  People were lining outside to get seats.  We didn't want to wait so we ordered take away (and also took home the pizza shop smell in our clothes).

The Roman Empire

Jane's Addiction

The pizzas were only so-so dough (get it?).

Maybe it was the italian sausage and the prosciutto but we found the pizzas a bit too salty.   I mean, they tasted okay, but nothing mind blowing.  Nothing so different to other gourmet pizza stores.  Perhaps its just their dessert pizza's that are good.

The Caesar salad that walked past us looked good dough (get it?)

20 Under $20 - Mighty Quinn

I've already been to Mighty Quinn before this 20 Under $20 review. I went for a workmate's farewell lunch and from what I remembered, the servings were HUGE and was quite good value for money.

Located on 112 Wanneroo road, the Mighty Quinn had three sections. The front footy section were patrons enjoyed their pints whilst watching Ben Cousins make finger gestures to the camera. There was the live band section. And there was the back most area which was isolated from the tipsy moms jumping around on the dance floor.

That's where we sat.

Note to self - don't order pint sized softdrinks. Huge.

When our orders arrived we were both "OMG that's HUGE!!!" But we didn't sit around admiring the generous servings for too long. We were famished and quickly got into our foods.

Anh's steak is what you call a MAN MEAL!

Carbs galore.

It has wedges.

It has mash potatoes.

It has potato cake.

It even has egg!

I, on the other hand, had the girly meal. Smoked salmon with capers and oysters (I was watching my figure?!)

At first, we were just wolfing down our food.

But when the hunger subsided, we realised we weren't impressed with what we were having.

Anh's steak man-meal was really generous, but the potato cake was something we avoided. It just tasted strange (plus we already had the double carbo loading!) And although the gravy was good, it tasted way way way way way too similar to Gravox gravy.

But I think I was most disappointed with my meal.

The oysters kilpatrick had onions which left a funny taste in our mouths. The salmon was also hard to enjoy. It just didn't have the saltiness and texture I'm familiar with (the salmon looked paler than usual too).

But the bacon bits on the Caesar was the one that broke the camel's back. They used the cheap cubed bacon bits you get from the supermarket rather than real bacon pieces.

My bad for ordering girly food in a pub! But still, we just felt a bit cheated that we weren't getting good quality ingredients. Which is a shame because we both wanted to enjoy our Mighty Quinn experience. The staff were friendly, the place was family friendly (for a pub) and the prices were quite good.

So in the end we decided to give this Irish pub a thumbs down on food, but thumbs up for value.

20 Under $20 - Ninniku Jip

Welcome to another 20 Under $20 post!

Today's restaurant of choice is Ninniku Jip on Albany Highway, Victoria Park.

To be frank, the name "Ninniku Jip" is quite hard to say, let alone remember.

I remember getting on the phone with my brother trying to get him to look up the address.

"Whats it called?"

"Err... Jikki... Yup? Nukki Jip? Ninni Kup? Hmmmmm... .."

Ninniku Jip is a modern cafe-restaurant which offer a wide selection of Korean and Japanese food.

And when I say wide, I mean really WIDE!! So wide that Chicken Schnitzel and garlic bread are also in the menu!

Ninniku Jip uses chairs from a previous restaurant (I think its Red Rock Noodle Bar)

I ordered the Garlic Chicken Bulgogi and Anh ordered the Chilli Chicken Bulgogi (both $10.80). We picked from the lunch menu because they were the only meals under $20.

Spot the difference?

The dishes looked awfully similar and tasted similar too.

But then again, with any chicken or dolphin dishes - they all taste the same!

So the food was okay, but Anh and I agreed it's not something to come back for.

Value-wise $10.80 was alright, but we found most of the items in the menu (which probably tasted better) breaking the 20-buck limit.

So with that, Anh and I gave Ninniku Jip, no-thumbs for taste and no-thumbs for value.

20 Under $20 - Llama Bar

I've only been to Llama Bar a couple of times.  

My last memory was stopping over during a Subiaco Pub crawl with my brother, cousins and Anh.  We went from one club (or pub) to another and I remember ordering a shot of WasabeVodka at Llama.  

And yes, it was as disgusting as it sounds.

Thankfully this trip to Llama Bar, Subiaco was not for another round of Wasabe Vodka.  

Its to try the infamous $10 steak in our 20 Under $20 list!

First thing you need to know is its technically not $10.  You need to buy a drink at the bar first, where you can then order your meal. 

I bought a vodka-lemonade for $8.

So $18 for porter house steak, mashies, swanky-sophisticated subi atmosphere and an alcoholic drink - that's pretty steakaliciously good value!

Speaking of atmosphere, you definitely get that yuppie feeling at Llama's.  The modern furnishing, the turntable pumping chill-out tunes and the mood lighting.  The place fills up quickly with young professionals.  Well, except maybe for the old couple who sat at the corner who was obviously only there for the cheap steak.

Though I must say, the chill-out music was not very chill-out. It was actually quite loud. Conversation with Anh was spent mostly asking her to repeat what she said and her telling me to repeat what I said.   Maybe we're just getting old (like the couple in the corner).

There's a stage for stand up comedy and live performances later that night 

The food came out quickly and looked fantastic! The steak portion was generous and was cooked beautifully.

Anh's mushroomly saucy steak

For its price, I'd give the steak 9/10 for awesomeness (I would give it 10 if it made me lose weight... and made me richer...  and more attractive)

The potatoes I'd probably give a 3/10   :(

Not that it tasted bad.  It just came out room temperature cold.  Both Anh and I got cold potatoes :(

My afterwork look.  Apparently I look like a waiter.  A fellow customer started giving me her orders whilst I was waiting.  I think she was drunk.  Or maybe she was trying to pick me up.....

Now if your imagination is as colourful as mine's, then thinking about why your mashies would be cold would ruin your appetite.  

This was a real shame because the cold potatoes took the thunder from an otherwise awesome steak meal.

So for the Llama Bar $10 steaks, thumbs up for value, but no thumbs for the food taste.

And still a thumbs down for Wasabe vodka.

20 Under $20 - Mak's Place

Hello to another 20 Under $20 restaurant review!  Today's restaurant of choice is Mak's Place on William Street, Northbridge.

 

Handsome devil...

Anh picked this restaurant coz she really really really craved for chicken satay.

So you could only imagine how devastated we were when told they've run out!  

Thankfully the menu at Mak's Place provide for good alternatives.

 

Murtabak is really nice with the curry dipping sauce.

Mak's Place doesn't offer a super comprehensive menu, but a few dishes done well is better than many done badly.  

And food done well is definitely what Mak's is. 

Kway Tiah Goreng

Anh enjoyed here Kway Tiah Goreng.  It was light, refreshing and sauteed with a lot of fresh vegetables.

Nasi Lemak

For me the nasi lemak hit the spot.  The chicken was only a wing, but the very coconutty rice together with the peanuts, dried fish and the sambal were a great combination. 

 

We really enjoyed our meal, but were disappointed with the satay chicken shortage.

The waitress told us they simply couldn't make enough satay sticks to last the day! They need more hands to meet demand.

So we we came back another time and again they ran out!!  So a word of warning - the satay sticks are always high on demand!

When the owner saw the tears well up on our eyes, he decided to make some fresh ones for us! 

Yay!!! 

 Yummeh!

And we weren't disapponted.  :) 

Thumbs up for value and food.

20 Under $20 - Gypsy Tapas

Gypsy Tapas is the next restaurant in our 20 Under $20 list.

Its located in Highgate Court in Fremantle.  If you know where mini-roundabout close to Myers Fremantle, then its about ten paces from there.  Just follow the drums and music and it will lead you there.

 The live music was great.  All that was missing was the monkey in the red vest

Visiting Gypsy Tapas was a fun experience.  

There was festive music playing in the background and quirky way the restaurant presents itself really takes you to another place (somewhere in Europe I think.. I'm not that familiar of Gypsy history).  

The restaurant reminded me of times playing Quest for Glory 4, where I had to go to the gypsy camp and get my fortune told.  Shame I'm not really a Level 14 Thief with magic skills.

 

The staff is friendly and with the 30 odd choices on the tapas menu, you really get that 'anything-goes' easy-going vibe. 

 

But we were there on a food mission. We were to check if the place was worthy of the 20 Under $20 crown.

 

Now every item on the tapas menu is $7.50.  If you do a little multiplication you will find that on a $20 budget, you can really just have two dishes.  

Anh and I made it a combined $40 price cap to get us an extra dish.  But five dishes were not really substantial for two people.  You really want to do the $30 all-you-can-eat tapas to get your fill.

So with that (and my simple mathematics) I gave it a thumbs down for value for money.

But how about the food and taste?

Sadly, we didn't really enjoy the food either.  The dishes were either too bland or too strong in flavour. 

The brie salad was so overpowering it killed my taste buds.  Even the giant meatballs with cheese were uneventful.  

Meatballs with cheese!! Imagine how disappointed I was!

Preserved fish with aioli. Preserved fish is VERY salty

 

With nothing really outstanding on the menu, Anh had to give the food the thumbs down.

 

My unflattering picture of chicken drumsticks

So with great regret, we gave Gypsy Tapas a double thumbs down.

Regrettable because the fun and friendly atmosphere made us want to like the place.

Barrel tables! Where's me pirates? argggg!

20 Under $20 - Poppo

Poppo is another restaurant in our 20 Under $20 restaurant quest.

Poppo is conveniently located across the adult stores in Barrack Street in the city, so its easy to duck inside for lunch if you're a city worker or a stop-over before Sunday shopping.  Anh and I made a visit during them hot summer Sundays.

You order at the counter but they bring the food to you

They offer both Korean and Japanese dishes in a fat book they call a menu.  It was a struggle to pick a dish because they all looked so good! 

Salmon sashimi with almonds!  California rolls are massive! And I'm pretty sure I saw sushi with cheese!  We have to come back and double check.

And coming back shouldn't be a problem because the food and value is fantastic.  

My bimbimbap was yummy (although its a huge dish - best shared!) and Anh's tempura and cold soba was really refreshing.  Definitely a step up from the greasy fast-foodish jap from Mr Samurai and Takka's (which are also on the same street).

The Bimbimbap bowl was as big as my head

Anh's given the food the fat thumbs up.  I've value for money a fat thumbs up as well.  So its a double thumbs up from us.

The other cool thing about Poppo is its located next to a Korean convenient store where you can get all sorts of Korean stuff.  

We were there for quite a bit because there were so many Korean snacks we wanted to try!

20 Under $20 - Kulcha Cafe & Noodle House

The first restaurant Anh and I visited in our 20 Under $20 restaurant quest is Kulcha Cafe & Noodle House located in Boas Avenue, Joondalup.

We went on a friday afternoon when they had some cycling competition.

Our dining view included men riding tight tight pants

We got lost because I was following the GPS and all the roads were closed off.   Add to that my awesome sense of direction :P

We eventually found the place, albeit half an hour late.   

Kulcha Cafe does get packed so make sure you book!

We ordered the Kway Teow, Fried Squid and the Chicken Karaage.

The signature Karaage was not what we expected.  Its a different style of cooking. We were expecting big chunky orangey-browny-red fried chicken. But we got convoluted strips of chicken which was pilled on and served with Jap mayo and soy sauce.  

To me Jap mayo automatically makes it a winner.

The other dishes were tasty.  

In fact,  maybe toooooo tasty.  

Anh reckons its a bit salty.  I would agreed with her on that.  

We would categorise this as 'almost authentic' type of asian restaurant.  Its a little bit geared to cater for western tastes, where the flavours are rich and you get a lot for what you pay.

I gave it a thumbs up.  Anh gave it a 'no thumbs'.   

The Vibra-train sign made the Kulcha sign small.  Vibra train?!! WTFBQQ?!

The nice thing about Kulcha is that its close to Joondalup Library and a short stroll to Joondalup lake. The park there is quite nice.  Its inhabitted by kangaroos at night if you wanted to do drive by kangaroo (camera) shooting. 

So if you ever end up in Kulcha, head to the park to walk off excess seasame oil.

Duckies in the park.    Hmmm.. San cho bow...

20 Under $20 - Perth's Best Eats

Over dinner last Friday, Anh and I discovered our friends are going through some pretty intensive physical training to lose weight this year. That is their mission for this year they said.

Personal trainers, daily gym sessions and Kokoda Track runs. They even have weekly 'weigh-ins' with financial penalties!

I was sweating just listening to their stories.

Thankfully, Anh and I have embarked on a far less sadistic mission for this year.

In fact, its one that is gastronomically more enjoyable :)

Presenting the Perth 20 Under $20 best eats!

Anh and I have decided to do a 'journalistic' check of the 20 eateries suggested by Fleur Bainger and give our own personal review on each.

Our credentials include me being an absolute cheapskate (so I can vouch for the under $20 value-ness of meals) and my girlfriend being a constant fussy pants (so if she likes it, then they must be doing something right).

The list is below and I'll link each restaurant as we go along. If you guys have personal experiences on these restaurants, let me know and I'll post it on the reviews too.

• Tra Vinh - Vietnamese Chinese Special Noodle House
  
• Annalakshmi Restaurant
  
• Sparrows
  
• Morley Ale House
  
• Mak's Place
  
• Alfred's Kitchen
  
• Mondo's Butchers
  
• Takas
  
• Llama Bar
  
• Viet Hoa
  
• Poppo
  
• Gypsy Tapas
  
• Kulcha Cafe & Noodles House
  
• Ninniku Jip
  
• The Prophet
  
• Tida Thai
  
• Santa Fe Restaurant
  
• Sunflowers - Couldn't find this restaurant!
  
• The Mighty Quinn
  
• Angkor Cafe
  

Journalistic work at its tastiest!

Valentine O Ate

3Willings
1) Guitar Hero 3
2) Jordin Sparks - Shy Boy
3) Computer upgrades

I'm kicking myself.

I was pretty sure I was gonna up the ante on Valentines Day this year.

Something classy.

Maybe a candlelight dinner


with KFC and rice or something.

Sadly my baby and I are on a 'no-fast food diet'. So that's no good.

Plus my baby is far away for work.
I guess you can't have a valentines day date if you don't have a date. Go figure.

Im spending Valentines Day house sitting my girlfriend's house because her family have krabi.

It weird sleeping in this house all alone. Its like she's here but she's not.

Then again, I really should stop going through her things and underwear.

Anyways, here's some photos our last date.

I love the ketchup bottle

Dam! The burgers at FAB are huge!

Angry!!!! How am I suppose to eat that?!

Food Adventurer

'How do I know if the place is good?' I asked Tim.

'Well.. what the Chinese aunties do when they visit a new restaurant is order somethin` really basic...

Just like what we did, chicken rice.

If they can make something this simple taste good, then you know you have a winner'

'oooohhhh.. '

I see said the blind man.

Mental note.. make simple good.

Tim has become my mentor in Restaurantonomy (A word that I just made up). And he's given the Red Teapot in Northbridge a thumbs up.

But to tell you the truth I was very worried.

From the outside, a Chinese restaurant with no asian dining-in says a-lotta.

But I chose the Red Teapot because it was said to be one of the better asian eateries in Perth.

And luckily Tim was there to help me critique the place objectively (actually Tim critiques everything).

I like the Red Teapot because they serve china-town tasting cuisine and their menus have pictures. Takes the guess work out of 'braised duck it special sauce'. (Special sauce?! Crem of sumyanguy?)

Now Tim's been everywhere, I think. He's lived in Hong Kong, Malaysia and is well traveled. He's tried everything from snakes and crickets to US$200 all-you-can-eat-made-to-order buffets in Japan. He knows a-plenty about food.

But Tim's not a chef. He works in a comic book store and has the cooking skills of a cement mixer.

He's lazy and refuses to cook and ends up dining-out every single day. So I guess that's where his food expertise comes from.

Now I'd like to think I'm food-adventurous. I'm keen to try new places all the time. But when I visit a Japanese restaurant I ogle at the chicken katsu and the mayonnaise accompaniment. Tim will wonder at the beef Tataki. That's the difference in our food adventuring skills.

Now I dine-out with my girlfriend quite often. She's more akin to places that remind me of lava lamps and fancy mobile phones. Modern, chic and stylish. Very Subiaco, very in-crowd. But I often wonder if the food is really good or is just well-packaged.

Thus I also regular the 'Man-dinners'. Man-dinners drop the metrosexual packaging in search of 'cheap and tasty' places. Beer afterwards is an optional requirement.

Problem with the 'cheap' Man-dinners is that they are limited to kebabs, Chinese and places within a 50-meter range of a pub.

So I'm glad to have met Tim, the food adventurer.

He's someone who'll hang with the hawkers to enjoy a stick of fishballs but will also happily sit with the Fab-5 to enjoy a $54 tasting plate of soft shelled crabs.