Thursday, January 31, 2008

Brisbane Pub 3.5 stars

Surprisingly nice space, great outdoors area

Service is great generally, although the drinks guy did the old, I have run out of change and never came back with my change that kind of disappointed me later when I remember, I wonder if the manager knows he is doing this.

Tasty Food, Chicken Salad and falafel where excellent and generally people in our group seemed very happy.

We will return, remember to book on the weekend - (08) 9227 2300

Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Belgium Beer Market (2.5 stars)

The Food and Fluid
On the minus side we have the platter special of the day - very poor. For $25 you get you get 2 shrimp, 1 sausage, a few olives, 2 peaces of Feta (nice feta) a bit of pesto and some bread. All in all, lots of gaps on the plate. Food was very slow to come even though it was not busy.
On the plus side the burgers looked good and the chips where excellent.

The beers are nice, but expensive - $15 for a pint of Wheat Beer

The Facilities
The Inside is nice, but don't go outside, its hot and poorly ventilated.

The Fervice
Not bad.

The web site - http://www.belgianbeer.com.au/home.html is one of the worst I have seen for a while. The rediculious graphics get in the way of the basic required information.

Summary
I guess I will probably go back, but not regularly and not for a while

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Veit Hoa Vietnamese Rest, 349 William St, Northbridge, 3.5 stars out of 5

The typical tackie decor and service that is not super attentive. My favour decorating choices are the plastic plants hanging from the ceiling and the speaker support treatment (duct tape).

The food is tasty and still great value. BBQ pork and wonton soup and hot and spicy pork and beef are both great and a good meal for two for $18 (inc free tea) is rare these days. The prices have recently increased and apparently the portions are a little less genorous which is a little disappointing, but still this place is great food and a good price.

All in all it is great busy, good value place.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Mundaring Weir Hotel (2 out of 5)

This place has great potential, but it is in serious need of a clean up and a lick of paint. We did not try the 3pm roast which sounds good, but the other food is really poor. The seafood platter was not cooked properly and obviously bought in frozen stuff. The salad on the plate was going brown.

Why cant they see that the place needs to be cleaned up? Halls are used for storage and old bbq's dumped in clear view, they are stuck in the 80's. Do these people have any self respect?

The location on the other hand is really great. If you are out this way for a Sunday driver or bike ride and stop here for lunch, perhaps at 3 ish for the roast. Don't expect to much.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Salt (was Oyster Bar ) - On the Beach (4 out of 5 stars)

Ok we only went for a coffee and toast, but it was great. Coffee was excellent (sadly rarely) and the toast and jam was tasty.

Newspapers on all the tables and nice relaxing service, great after a walk on the beach.

We will definitely be back at some point.

UPDATE-
Turns out the menu is new as of around Jan 22, and not great. Coffee is still good.

UPDATE 2 - make sure to go to the restaurant part not the cafe - the menu is reasonable

UPDATE 3 - the view is just great and they have really worked on the service.

UPDATE 4 - change hands and name - still excellent

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Silk Road, Applecross 2 stars out of 5

Summary - OK, not great

Wednesday night at 8pm, not busy a little over half full and got seated next to the toilet on one of the few tables for 2 left. Why can they not see beyond the basics. I assume that if I return on a empty Monday I will again get to sit by the toilet. Although this is unlikely as I probably will not be back for awhile.

Negatives:
  • $8 corkage on the wine we had is way to much for such a little, basic place.
  • Overall the mains did not really taste of much.
  • The water glass was really small so they have to come to the table a lot to refill it (I like to drink water with my food and freely available tap water is part of the service in my opinion)
Positives:
  • service was comfortable and efficient, the waiter had a nice sense of humor
  • The food arrived promptly
  • the curry starter was excellent
  • the decour is nice enough
Overall:

At The Bridge restaurant down the road the food is better if you want Thai like food although the service can be slow. il Ciao is still the best Applecross restaurant for a quick and tasty and fun mid week meal.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Left Bank, Fremantle 2.5 Stars

Nice location

A Little expensive on the beer front but good place

Update: Actually kind of ordinary, ordinary food and ordinary beer and kind of dirty.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Coco's, South perth 3 stars out of 5

Summary, Ok, but would not pick this place if I wanted a nice meal out

The location is great, although the views of Perth in summer are almost completely lost behind the plain trees.

On the plus side the food was excellent, nicely cooked tasty food. The whole 2 sizes for most dishes is a nice touch also.

On the other side this place feels commercial, advertisements in the menu are just to much and not at all in keeping with the place trying to be up market. The lack of pricing on the cocktails in an interesting strategy also. At $15 each perhaps they are just to ashamed to put the price down, especially for mediocre cocktails. Do people really not notice?

The lack of service is the biggy here. I know I talk about this a lot in Perth, but when you are spending $100 each ($1,000+ between 10 of us on this occasion) I would really like my water glass filled reasonably regularly without having to ask. We where told specifically that we could not have water on the table, we had to be waited on so wait we did. Why do they think that stupid rules will bring me back here again? The service did improve as the evening progressed. Perhaps they are just to busy at the start of the evening. On looking around I realized there are a lot of wait staff so the poor early service is not readily explainable. Whatever the reason this needs fixing, along with removing ads from the menu.

In summary the food saves the day for these guys.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

The Cross, Applecross 1 star out of 5

Summary: Don't eat here:  New owners apparently in the last 6 months. Won't last long.

I had to get up and get an menu after being ignored for 10 minutes, then again to order. It looks like a mother, daughter team are serving and they are new a this as they don't seem to have a clue often disappearing into the kitchen for several minutes at a time. The daughter cannot carry the plates properly, they are possibly to heavy for her, it is difficult to watch.

A Caesar salad with chicken, how difficult is that, apparently to much, the worst Ceasar I have had in years, possibly ever.

Unfortunately I cannot go back here. I predict that they will not be in business long. Hopefully someone good will take over.

UPDATE: This place note longer exists it is now a Cinnamon Club