Rice Paddy

I go out of my way to support neighbourhood restaurants, so after seeing a few ads for the Rice Paddy in our local newspaper, we popped in for dinner on the weekend.

The Rice Paddy is in a fairly innocuous block of shops on South Pine Road at Everton Park. If you didn't know it was there, you'd probably drive right past it - luckily we were looking out for it. The main reason I wanted to visit was because there were dishes on the menu that were different from the regulars you usually come across at suburban Thai restaurants around Brisbane.

We arrived to be greeted by a couple of friendly staff, who showed us to our table. We were offered menus straight away, and two glasses of water were brought to the table. A wine cooler was brought out in a stand next to the table, with plenty of ice, and two glasses of wine were poured. By this stage, we felt very welcome.

The entrees didn't jump off the menu at me, so I ordered satay chicken, my favourite Thai starter. Other entree choices include vegetarian spring rolls, golden bags (rice pastry filled with stir fried chicken, coconut, corn & oyster sauce), fish cakes and Thai dippings (roti pastry served with chilli jam and satay sauce).

When I saw the size of my four satay chicken skewers, I was very concerned about how I would ever finish my main course. They were four very generous satay skewers, with plenty of chicken. Although a couple of bits of the chicken were a little gristly, they were otherwise tender, properly cooked and covered in plenty of Thai peanut sauce. Even though I didn't need to eat them all, they disappeared off the plate.

We also ordered a serve of the crispy tofu. These were little squares of tofu that had been deep fried and served with a peanut chilli sauce. When this dish arrived at the table it was obvious that it had only just come out of the deep fryer. The outside of the tofu was beautifully crisp, while the inside was still delicate and soft - they'd been perfectly cooked. I've had some great tofu dishes recently and this is another very impressive one (they were also great to dip into my satay sauce).

If none of the entrees are your bag, order a soup instead - tom yum (lemongrass, mushroom, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice and chilli) or tom kha (coconut cream with lemon juice, mushroom, galangal and chilli). Each of the soups can be served with chicken, king prawns, seafood or vegetable & tofu.

Main course is where the menu gets more interesting. I went straight to the house specials, which include stir fried fish with ginger, duck garden, chicken kaffir lime leaves, king prawns tamarind, king prawns clay pot (sauteed king prawns with glass noodles, fresh ginger, black peppercorn and sesame sauce) and crying tiger (BBQ beef marinated with Thai herbs & oyster sauce, served with crushed roasted rice and spicy & sour sauce).

There were also some eye catching salads, like the lime pork salad (spicy pork cooked in lime sauce mixed with fresh vegetables), Rice Paddy golden salad (fresh salad greens with tofu and boiled egg served with peanut sauce and crispy sweet potato) and the prawn salad (cooked fresh prawns with lemon juice, fresh herbs and seasoned with chilli & lime dressing). I'll have to go back for the salads.

As much as I loved the sound of the crying tiger and the salads, I opted for the duck garden, thinking it might be presented in some very impressive fashion. Although there was no magical presentation, no-one would be disappointed by the size of the serving - it was huge. Unlike some duck dishes at Asian restaurants, this one was full of tender duck pieces. There were also plenty of vegetables - zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, carrot, sweetcorn, celery and cauliflower. While there was a distinct sesame flavour to the sauce, it didn't overpower the duck. A good (but not great) dish.

My wife ordered the stir fried vegetable & tofu with basil and chilli. As soon as it hit the table I could smell the amazing aromas of Thai basil. I only had a quick taste, but it was a lovely dish. The sauce was excellent - a bit of chilli kick complemented by the fragrant Thai basil. Plenty of vegetables and some more well-cooked tofu rounded off a delicious dish.

There are numerous other main courses, many of which you will find at your local suburban Thai restaurant - red, green, panang, massaman, yellow and chu chee curries, together with ten or so stir fry dishes. Most of main courses can be prepared with tofu and vegetables, so there are loads of options for non-meat eaters.

We both had so much of our main courses left that we asked for a couple of take away containers, not wanting to waste the food. The staff happily obliged and packaged them up with the coconut rice we didn't manage to eat either.

Service was terrific and friendly throughout the night. Our waitress happily re-filled my wine glass continually (which is almost unheard of at a BYO restaurant) and we were never short of water on the table. There was a good, comfortable space between courses, which we really needed because of the amount of food. All up our dinner was $55 (which included a Thai style iced tea), so it was a great value meal.

Although I wouldn't say the Rice Paddy is the best Thai food I've ever had, its a solid suburban Thai restaurant that I'll happily return to, so I can explore the rest of the menu.

What does all this mean? Well priced, tasty Thai food with very friendly service. Worth a visit to try interesting Thai dishes you don't often see around Brisbane.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Great
Ambience - Casual suburban restaurant, with Thai decorations
Value for Money - Great
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Great

Rice Paddy
Shop 5, 544 South Pine Road
Everton Park 4058
P - 07 3162 5219

Indonesian Festival 09 Pesta Rakyat

It's the perfect time of the year for outdoor festivals and the next one coming up is the Indonesia Festival 09 - Pesta Rakyat, which is being held at Southbank on 26 September 2009.

Pesta Rakyat features Indonesian music, dance, fashion, games, food and crafts. The day part of the festival is free, but night-time tickets are $45, or $35 if you pre-buy them. I plan on wandering in during the day to try and find some delicious Indonesian food. You'll find more information on the festival website.

Indonesian Festival 09 - Pesta Rakyat
Saturday 26 September 2009, 10am to 10pm
W - http://indonesianfestivalbrisbane.com/

Desi Dragon

After reading a couple of reviews for Desi Dragon, I was keen to give it a try. Desi Chinese is a term given to Chinese food cooked in India, adapted to Indian tastes. It's thought to have first originated from the large Chinese population in Kolkata. Desi Chinese uses spices such as cumin, coriander seeds and turmeric, together with ginger, chilli, garlic and yoghurt, to give the food a whole new range of flavours.

Anyway it all sounded very interesting to me, so we headed off to Bardon. Desi Dragon occupies a great location on MacGregor Terrace, which has fantastic views out over the suburbs. This spot has been the home of numerous restaurants over the years, but hopefully Desi Dragon will stick around.

The room itself looks great. There are a few decorations around the walls and a couple of cool light fittings, but the most impressive things were the quality tables and chairs. No cheap, crappy tables here - lovely, extremely comfortable high-backed leather chairs and solid tables means the interior of Desi Dragon is streets ahead of most suburban restaurants.

We wandered in with our 6 week old daughter in her little baby capsule. The waiter was about to take us to a table in the main part of the restaurant when the manager spotted our little bub and ushered us over to a quieter, more secluded part of the restaurant - great start to the night.

Anyway, on to the food. Entrees include paneer & pea wontons (crispy wontons filled with cottage cheese, crushed peas, ginger & coriander - $7), salt & pepper prawns (fried prawns dusted with Szechuan pepper & salt) and the creatively named lamboo tikki (lamb & bamboo rissole with secret aromatics - $10).

There were only two gluten free options in the entrees, neither of which really took my fancy (one was Szechuan potato fries - not particularly Chinese or Indian sounding) so I opted for a soup instead. The soups on the menu are sweet corn, hot & sour or Manchow (light soya soup with diced vegetables & egg). Each of the soups can be prepared with vegetables ($8) or chicken ($9).

I took a stab and ordered the hot & sour soup with chicken. I found the first few mouthfuls a bit heavy going, because it was made in a much richer style than one usually finds in a Chinese or Asian restaurant. Anyway, my tastebuds adjusted, and I really enjoyed it. It was a powerful, rich soup, with plenty of chicken, egg, mushroom & tofu. I'd ordered a glass of sauvignon blanc and it turned out to be a really good match - the acidity and zing of the young sauvignon blanc really cut through the big, heavy flavours of the soup.


My wife ordered the mixed vegetable spring rolls ($7). These were two enormous rolls, reminiscent of a couple of very serious Cuban cigars. They had been sliced in half on the diagonal, which made for good presentation. The julienned vegetable filling had obviously been freshly prepared, and wasn't overpowered by the delicate Indian spicing. The pastry was crispy, which meant overall these were excellent spring rolls. Good value too, given their size.

The menu is split into three when it comes to main courses. There are four "Desi Dragon Exclusives", which are chilli chicken ($25), goat shank Szechuan style ($25), chicken Manchurian (chicken dumplings tossed in soya garlic shallot sauce - $25) and vegetable Manchuran (vegetable croquettes tossed in soya garlic shallot sauce - $21).

The second part of the main course selections is a make your own affair. First you pick between chicken, beef, lamb, barramundi, king prawns, vegetables, paneer or tofu and then select one of the sauces. The sauces on offer are Szechuan, satay, chilli garlic, sweet & sour, Hunan black bean and ginger & lemongrass. These range between $18 and $23, depending on your choice of ingredients.

Finally, there are a few rice and noodle dishes, which didn't really appeal to me, given how interesting the rest of the menu was. After all I was here to try something new. The rice & noodle dishes are $11-$13, or extra if you add chicken, prawns or beef to them. It's worth noting that all of the main courses (other than the noodles) are gluten free, which was great for me.

As much as I liked the sound of barramundi with ginger & lemongrass, I thought that ordering one of the specialties would be the best way to get a handle on desi Chinese flavours. So it was the Szechuan goat shanks for me. This came out as a huge bowl, with two pretty large shanks, vegetables and plenty of thick sauce - it looked excellent. There were slices of fresh chilli and fresh coriander mixed through the dish. The goat shanks were extremely tender, and easily broke off the bone. The sauce again had a fairly rich flavour, although the fresh chilli and coriander helped add a good, lighter contrast. The goat didn't have the strong flavour which I was expecting (and really like) - which I assume was the result of slow cooking. I really enjoyed this dish, but be warned it's a very generous serving. Although I ate all the goat, I didn't manage to clean up the sauce and vegetables.

We also ordered the vegetarian Manchurian. Although I didn't try the croquettes, I did get a taste of the sauce, which was a lighter, more fragrant sauce than accompanied the goat. I'm told that the croquettes were very tasty, full of vegetables and had the lightness of a fritter - they weren't heavy or doughy.


There's a small wine list, which doesn't have a lot of options by the glass. I had a couple of glasses of sauvignon blanc, which were very reasonably priced at $5.50 a glass. The first pour was a bit stingy, but the second one was fine. Unless you're only going to have a glass, it's probably a good idea to bring your own wine ($2 per person for corkage). There is a bottle shop in the same complex as Desi Dragon, which is very handy.

Service was very friendly throughout the meal. The restaurant wasn't particularly busy, but there were no long waits between courses. After our entree, a waitress came and asked when we would like the main course, which I always appreciate. Our drinks came out snappily, and all of the staff were very welcoming.

As far as I'm concerned, Desi Dragon is a welcome newcomer to the Brisbane restaurant scene. I think it's terrific to see new restaurants opening based on a specific cuisine. Sure, I haven't been to a real Chinese restaurant in India, so I can't say how authentic the food is, but I've certainly not had anything like this before. Desi Dragon is a bit pricier than your average suburban Chinese or Indian restaurant, but the surroundings are of a high quality, and servings are very generous - so the slightly higher prices are more than justified.

Desi Dragon has a few good deals on at the moment. On Tuesday nights if you buy one main meal, you get one free. And there's also a two course lunch offer with a glass of house wine or light beer for $12.50, which sounds like great value to me.

What does all this mean? Tasty Chinese food with subtle Indian spices and flavourings, big serves and lovely surroundings.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Great
Ambience - High backed leather chairs and a lovely view over Bardon
Value for Money - Good
Wine - Tiny list or BYO
Vegetarian - Good
Gluten Free - Great

Desi Dragon
1/60 MacGregor Terrace
Bardon 4065
P - 07 3369 9558
W - http://www.desidragon.com.au/

Dakbla

It was Saturday night and I had a craving for Vietnamese. But I wanted to eat somewhere new. Then I remembered that we hadn't yet eaten at all the Vietnamese spots along Hardgrave Road at West End, so after some googling I narrowed the choices down to Dakbla or Trang. I picked Dakbla, pretty much out of the blue, and booked a table. It turned out to be terrific - I should impulse dine more often.

Finding a park around the restaurants on Hardgrave Road always takes a while. After driving around the block once, I fluked one just around the corner from the Tibetan Kitchen. When I walked through the door of Dakbla, the place was packed - usually a good sign. I found our table and noticed that they'd printed out a place card with our name on it - a nice touch. After a quick flick through the menu I was wondering why I'd never been here before.

Although the menu was extensive there weren't many entrees which really grabbed me. I ended up ordering the san choy bao roast duck. These were really good. The duck filling still had a bit of bite to it, and was a lovely consistency - lacking the oil which can drip out of inferior san choy bao as you bite into it. The lettuce leaves were crunchy and fresh, with a layer of crunchy noodles on the bottom. So far so good.

My wife ordered a serve of the veggie and tofu soup to kick off her meal. This is comically described on the menu as "ideas for vegetarians with veggies and tofu". It was ok and full of tofu, but wasn't overwhelming our tastebuds. There are probably better entrees on the menu.

If you're looking for alternatives to the soup, other entrees include spicy chilli quail, Vietnamese spring rolls, prawn & pork rice paper rolls, grilled skewered pork and chao tom (minced prawn wrapped around sugar cane, deep fried and served with fresh lettuce, herbs and vermicelli).

There are a huge range of meals for main course. I won't even try to cover them all, but the menu is divided up into omelettes, vegetarian, seafood, chicken, pork, beef, house rice, noodles and chef's suggestions (always my favourite).

Meals that took my fancy out of the chef's suggestions were mud crab with tamarind, fresh pippis with rotti bread (apparently a must try dish according to the menu), bird's nest seafood, Vietnamese chicken salad, green mango and papaw salad, and ca kho to (silver perch or cat fish slowly stewed in a clay pot with pork belly).

Because of the overwhelming amount of choices, it took me ages to decide what to eat. I eventually went for one of my favourites, and ordered pho. It sounds a bit boring, but we'd been to Paniyiri for lunch, where I'd filled up on octopus, cabbage rolls, haloumi, rice pudding and Greek wine. By this stage of the night I was after something clean and healthy. The pho was good, but not memorable. It was made in a more delicate style, where the soup didn't overwhelm everything else. A side dish was brought to the table with bean sprouts, lemon, basil and chili sauce. This was exactly what I felt like for dinner, but I didn't quite manage to finish it.

We also ordered the lemongrass tofu salad style - tofu marinated with seasoning, lemongrass and chilli, then deep fried and tossed with fresh garden salad & lime dressing. While my pho was enjoyable, the tofu was superb. I would have happily eaten it for a main course. There were three huge pieces of tofu, which all carried the flavours of the spicy marinade. Although it had been deep fried, the tofu still had a lovely texture, mainly because the chunks were so big. The fresh garden salad turned out to be a delicious, fresh coleslaw with a really zingy dressing. I'm not a vegetarian, but this was one of the best tofu dishes I've tasted in a long time.

Before our main courses arrived (but after we'd ordered), the couple next to us had an amazing dish brought to the table. It looked and smelt so good I just had to ask what it was. Turned out it was the deep fried flounder. It was served as a whole fish and our neighbours proceeded to completely devour the entire plate. Next time it will be deep fried flounder for me.

Although the menu is mainly Vietnamese, there's a smattering of Chinese, Malaysian, Singaporean and Indian dishes to keep your options open.

Dakbla is BYO and our meals went down extremely well with a Cape Mentelle semillon/sauvignon blanc. My wife had the home made lemonade, seeing as our new bub was only a couple of days away.

Service was snappy throughout our meal. The room at Dakbla isn't very big, and it's mainly wood. Given that the restaurant was full, it was fairly noisy - it's not the place you'd want to be wandering into for a big date on a Saturday night. Two courses each and the lemonade only came to $40, so it's excellent value.

If you haven't eaten Vietnamese food before, Dakbla is a great place to start. And if you are a fan of Vietnamese, book yourself a table this weekend. As someone who enjoys Vietnamese food, I was excited by the scope of choice, and will be going back as soon as I can.

What does all this mean? A huge range of interesting, fresh and tasty Vietnamese food that's great value and BYO.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Great
Ambience - Casual, lots of wood
Value for money - Great
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Great

Dakbla
65 Hardgrave Road
West End 4101
P - 07 3844 0594
E - Dakbla65@yahoo.com

Little Singapore

During my one hour of freedom at lunch I've been slowly working my way through the Asian eateries in and around the Elizabeth Arcade. My favourite spot so far is Little Singapore.

Little Singapore is on Charlotte Street, between the Elizabeth Arcade and George Street. I've been there twice for lunch now, and really enjoyed the food. On the first trip I ordered the crispy pork belly rice ($11.50). I'm an absolute sucker for pork belly, so it wasn't a hard choice. Although I found the pork belly a little on the cool side, there was plenty of it. The pork belly is served with a bowl of clear soup and a big mound of rice, which is topped with a sweet sauce that I can't put my finger on. I know it doesn't sound adventurous, but I enjoyed the pork belly so much I ordered it again on my second visit. I wasn't able to finish it on either trip.

If (unlike me) you can manage to look past the crispy pork belly, there are loads of other lunch choices. Particularly exotic sounding dishes include Assam cuttlefish with rice ($12.90), Nasi Lemak (rice with fried sole, fried peanuts, pickled vegetables, curry chicken & beef, cooked egg and sambal sauce - $11.90) and beef brisket & tendon rice ($10.50).

The interior of the restaurant has been set up to look like Old Singapore, around the 1950s. The room definitely has character, although the giant TVs obviously weren't around in 1950.

Don't miss the drinks menu - there are some wonderful sounding options like jackfruit moussy drink ($4.50), passionfruit punch ($4.50) and winter melon tea ($3.30).

Service here is the no-fuss variety. You walk in and wait for a table to become available. A waitress then shows you to a table, and you're left with food and drink menus. Once you've worked out what's for lunch, you wander down to the back counter, to order and pay. Take your number back to your table, and the meals come out pretty quickly. If you get a chance while you're ordering, have a look into the kitchen. I was amazed how many chefs were in there, bustling away.

For me, Little Singapore is a terrific lunch spot. The food is good, servings are very generous, it's cheap and meals come out pronto. Amazingly, until about 2 weeks ago I didn't even know it existed. I love stumbling across new places like Little Singapore. And if you live on the Southside, there's also a Little Singapore at Market Square, Sunnybank.

What does all this mean? Cheap, tasty Singaporean food served in a flash.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Ambience - "Old Singapore" meets giant plasma TVs
Value for Money - Top Shelf
Vegetarian - Good

Little Singapore
42 Charlotte Street
Brisbane 4000
P - 07 3211 1177
E - lsgc@littlesingapore.com.au
W - http://www.littlesingapore.com.au

Chinese Hot Pot

I've had a reader ask me to recommend a Chinese Hot Pot restaurant in Brisbane.

I don't know of any myself, and my googling hasn't thrown up any obvious places. I've been to plenty of Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants in Brisbane that have hot pot dishes, but none that specialise in it.

So if anyone knows of a specialist Chinese Hot Pot restaurant in or around Brisbane, can you let me know? Then I can go and try it out as well.

Mandarin Palace

After a few drinks at the Elephant & Wheelbarrow in the Valley on the weekend, a group of us headed off to dinner at the Mandarin Palace.

To be completely honest, the main reason we picked the Mandarin Palace was because we had a big group, and we were looking for somewhere in the Entertainment Book.

In all my 15 years or so of eating Asian food in the Valley, I'd never been to the Mandarin Palace before, so I didn't have any spectacular expectations. I also have to admit that by the time we arrived at restaurant, I'd had a few drinks, so keeping any kind of decent notes was out of the question.

We were shown to a big table in the back part of the restaurant, past the fish tanks containing lobsters and live fish. We sat right next to the karaoke machine, which unfortunately wasn't working. On the other hand, it was fortunate for the restaurant, otherwise we might never have actually left.

We ordered a few of the usual suspects when it came to entrees. I had a couple of the Malaysian chicken satay skewers to kick off the night ($5.80 for two). For some reason I always find it hard to go past chicken satays. Anyway these turned out to be ok, but the chicken wasn't exactly tender. There was plenty of sauce though, which was very tasty. Around the table we also had san choy bau with Chinese sausage ($8.40 for two) and vegetarian spring rolls ($4.40 for two). I didn't get to try any of the other entrees, but were told they were good.

There were some great sounding main courses on the menu, including lobster with ginger & shallot (market price), braised abalone with Chinese mushroom & Chinese vegetable ($49.90)and the more affordable crispy roast duck ($19.80).

We ordered about 7 main courses, which spun around the giant lazy Susan in the middle of the table. Why don't more restaurants have lazy Susans? They are perfect for sharing food in a big group. Anyway I'd picked the home made crackling roast pork ($19.50) mainly because the picture looked so good. It turned out to be excellent. It arrived exactly as it looked on the menu - thin slices of well cooked pork (which were still tender and moist) that had a great layer of crispy crackling on the top. It was so good I could have eaten this dish all night.

Other main courses that impressed the table were the Ma Po bean curd with no pork ($12.80) and the deep fried bean curd with salt & pepper ($11.80). The Ma Po bean curd was very good - the silken tofu was in small cubes, rather than the more crumbled style which I've had before.

Our meals finished with fortune cookies for all. Unfortunately, I lucked out on my fortune, which sadly wasn't "You will definitely win the lotto on Tuesday".

Service was friendly and helpful throughout the night. Considering the amount of food we ordered, our mains came out in good time. There was also plenty of steamed rice for all of us around the table.

After approaching Mandarin Palace with little expectation, I left the restaurant with a new place in the Valley that I'd be more than happy to visit again.

What does all this mean? Good, fresh & tasty Chinese food with interesting options outside the usual suspects.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Ambience - Classier than your average Valley restaurant, but with tanks featuring live seafood
Value for Money - Good
Wine - Compact selection
Vegetarian - Good

Mandarin Palace
11 Duncan Street
Fortitude Valley 4006
P - 07 07 32523636
W - http://mandarinpalace.com.au/

Av-a-Chat Cafe

I was thrilled when I recently found out that Av-a-Chat Cafe, a local Blackwood Street eatery, had undergone a change of management and become a Vietnamese restaurant. No longer do I have to drive to the Valley to get a fix of good Vietnamese food.

At this stage I've only had a few takeaway meals from Av-a-Chat. At the moment, the current takeaway menu is pretty compact, with 6 appetizers ($6-$7), 7 main courses (all $11) and 5 desserts ($4-$8). They've told me that they're still working out the local market, and hope to increase the takeaway menu options in the future.

I've had a couple of the Vietnamese rice vermicelli salads, and my favourite so far is the grilled pork salad (pictured). Along with the obvious grilled pork and vermicelli, the salad also includes cucumber, lettuce, carrot and plenty of fresh mint, with some fish sauce to pour over the top. It's great value at $11, and is currently my number one emergency dinner, when I get home too late or just couldn't be bothered cooking anything. At least I can convince myself it's healthy.

If you eat in (which I will sooner or later), there's a bigger menu to choose from. Av-a-Chat also does breakfast and lunch, which I'll have to try out. In the meantime, it's great to see a new Vietnamese restaurant opening on the Northside.

Av-a-Chat Cafe

6/48 Grovely Terrace

Mitchelton 4053

P - 07 3855 1328

Cam Ranh

My quest to visit as many of Brisbane's Vietnamese restaurants as I can this time led me to Cam Ranh at Darra. We had tried to get into Que Huong, but it looked packed and when we arrived a Chinese dragon was dancing through the restaurant to the sound of some great drumming. I was starving, so we walked around the corner to Cam Ranh instead.

It turned out Cam Ranh was pretty much full as well, but they did find us a table out on the footpath. As soon as we sat down, a thermos of jasmine tea was brought to our table, which was really thirst quenching on a steamy summer night.

My attention was quickly grabbed by the hand written sign on the front door, which said "Mud Crab $35/kilo". Last time I had mud crab at an Asian restaurant it was about $60 a kilo, so the price at Cam Ranh sounded like a bargain.

The menu at Cam Ranh is enormous, with over 200 dishes to choose from, covering both Vietnamese and Chinese food. The menu is broken down into entree, soup, Pho, Hu Tieu (clear rice noodle soup), Mi (egg noodle soup), congee, rice, rice vermicelli, rice paper rolls, chow mein, Hofan noodles, pippis, clam, sweet shell (I wasn't exactly sure what that was), oyster, soft shell crab, mud crab, fish, lamb, chicken, duck, beef, pork, prawn, scallop, calamari and vegetables. You could eat here every week for a year and not even get close to trying all the dishes.

Before arriving at the restaurant, I'd already decided I'd have a soup for entree, so it was just a matter of picking one. There were about 25 to choose from, which meant it wasn't the easiest of decisions. After weighing up interesting soups like crab meat & asparagus, Pho tai gan (rice noodle soup with tendon) and Hu Tieu tom thit (prawn & pork clear rice noodle soup), I ordered the Pho tai (rice noodle soup with sliced beef). Sometimes I just can't go past a good bowl of Pho.

The Pho tai came out in a big bowl, with plenty of flat rice noodles. The soup was served with a separate plate which contained bean sprouts, sliced red chilli, basil and lemon. That way you can make the Pho as hot or as tangy as you like. I loaded it up with a handful of bean sprouts, a few bits of chilli and plenty of basil. As hungry as I was, I didn't manage to finish it. The soup had a lovely beefy, slightly salty flavour and was great. The other reason I didn't finish the Pho is because when I was about half way through the bowl, my huge plate of mud crab arrived at the table.

We also ordered a serve of the rice paper rolls with vegetarian spring rolls. Again, this turned out to be a big serving. The fillings were rice vermicelli, lettuce, mint, bean sprouts, cucumber, pickled carrot and radish. I made up a couple of rolls (I can't resist a rice paper roll on a hot summer night), but we still got nowhere near finishing the plate.

There are so many choices for main course on the menu, I won't even try to go through them. Some of the dishes that appealed to me were pippis in XO sauce, soft shell crab in salt & pepper, Vietnamese fish hot pot, duck in Son Dong style, camp fire beef with rice paper salad and the chilli scallops. Although they all sounded great, I couldn't go past the Singapore mud crab. I know it's not Vietnamese, but it's not every day you walk into a restaurant with such good value mud crabs, so it would have just been wrong of me not to order it. If Singapore mud crab isn't your thing, there were about 8 other mud crab options, which are no doubt equally as delicious.

When I ordered the mud crab, the waitress asked me if it was just the 1 kilo. Maybe she thought I needed a bit of fattening up, but there was no way I was going to get through 2 kilos by myself.
As it turned out, almost everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be eating mud crabs. The three young Vietnamese kids sitting at the table next to us with their parents were tucking into a huge platter of mud crabs, which was just making me hungrier by the minute.

Anyway, as with all the rest of our meals, my mud crab was huge. We found out later when we paid that it was all one crab, that was actually 1.2 kilos. I don't think I've ever eaten so much crab in my life before. The mud crab had been broken into plenty of manageable bits, and was absolutely coated in the Singapore sauce. There were no crab crackers, so you either had to dig the crab meat out with a chopstick (which worked pretty well) or just crack them in your teeth, which is what all the locals were doing. The mud crab was excellent. It hadn't been overcooked, and had plenty of crab flesh. There was so much that, despite my best efforts, I just couldn't finish it. I hadn't even ordered any rice. By the way, the reason there's no photo of the mud crab is because my hands were covered in sauce by that stage of the night.

I've already mentioned that my mud crab came out before I'd finished the Pho. Actually, both our mains arrived while we were still munching away on our starters. It was a hot night, so neither of them were going to go cold, but it didn't give our stomachs a chance to have a break before the next round of food.

Our other main course was a soup with tofu, herbs and vegetables, which my wife had ordered from the steamboat section of the menu. Although this looked great when it arrived, it turned out to be full of pork, which wasn't mentioned on the menu. When my wife checked with the waitress, she was told that it wasn't meat, it was pork. Anyway they were good enough to take it away and replace it with a plate of stir fried vegetables in oyster sauce. There were plenty of snow peas, Chinese broccoli, carrot, mushroom and corn, which were piled up on the plate. I didn't actually try any, because I was too preoccupied with my mud crab, but I'm told it was very tasty.

I eventually admitted defeat on my mud crab. By that time both my hands and probably half my face were covered in the Singapore sauce (not to mention my shirt). Luckily for me though we still had the hot water bowl from the rice paper rolls and we'd both been given hand towels, so that was all cleaned up pretty quickly.

By this stage of the night we hadn't actually managed to finish one of the dishes we ordered, so dessert wasn't an option. All up, our dinner was $72, which included a lychee drink and a fanta. When you consider that my mud crab was $40, the food at Cam Ranh is great value.

Cam Ranh is BYO, and there is a bottle shop just around the corner. The inside of the restaurant looks very similar to many suburban Asian restaurants around Australia. It was definitely preferable to the footpath where we sat, which was pretty much devoid of any ambience at all. But the food was good, and that's why we'd made the trip out to Darra in the first place.

If you're looking for a new Vietnamese restaurant to try, Cam Ranh would be a good start. It has such a huge menu that it would be the perfect place to take a bunch of friends and order a whole heap of food you've never tried before. Or you could just order about 5 different mud crabs in and be in seafood nirvana for the rest of the night. Be warned though, if everyone orders a dish each, you'll never get through them all.

Although the decor and surroundings at Cam Ranh are pretty basic, and service is of the quick, no fuss variety, the food is good. I'll definitely be going back, even if its just for more of their delicious mud crabs.

What does all this mean? A huge selection of Vietnamese and Chinese food, with an emphasis on seafood, at very reasonable prices.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Ok
Ambience - Not much out on the footpath
Value for Money - Great
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Ok

Cam Ranh
23 Railway Parade
Darra 4076
P - 07 3375 4348

Quan Thanh

I love Vietnamese food, so I'm determined to try out as many of Brisbane's Vietnamese restaurants as I can. This time I was off to Quan Thanh at West End. Quan Thanh is on the strip of restaurants at Hardgrave Road that includes Tongue & Groove, Wild Pepper and the Tibetan Kitchen. There are 4 Vietnamese/Chinese restaurants just in this little patch, all of which seem to be fairly busy.

Quan Thanh has a few tables out the front, but most of the restaurant is inside. We didn't get there till about 8.15 on a Friday night. At that time the place was pretty packed, so we ended up at a table right at the back of the room near the kitchen.

There are two sides to the menu - one has all the Vietnamese dishes, the other is Chinese. Although I love Vietnamese food, I've got a couple of favourite dishes that I usually order to see how a restaurant stacks up. Normally it's either pho or a similar soup for entree, followed by a rice noodle salad for mains. I know its a bit boring, but I love the flavours and textures of those dishes so much.

Anyway this time I broke away from the usual order, because Quan Thanh has a pretty large Vietnamese menu, which you don't often find in Brisbane. I ordered the steamed rolls with pork loaf, which sounded intriguing. I like ordering things off the menu when you're not quite sure what they are going to be. There were 4 of the steamed rolls, which I'm pretty sure were rice paper rolls. But because they had been steamed, they were much thicker, with an almost spongy texture. That also made them pretty hard to eat with chopsticks, because they just broke into pieces. So I gave up on the chopsticks and ploughed in with my fingers instead. The rolls were filled with pork mince, and were served with slices of pork loaf (which looked like a type of processed sausage), bean sprouts, chopped mint leaves, fried shallots and fish sauce. They were pretty tasty, especially when combined with the bean sprouts, mint and dipping sauce. They were also really filling. I didn't get through all four, because I knew I'd never get through my main course. I also didn't eat all the slices of pork loaf - I think you'd really need to be a big fan of processed pork.

The other entree we had was make your own rice paper rolls with tofu. These came out with lettuce, mint leaves and coriander to fill the rolls, along with a fish sauce. As usual, there was way too much for one person, so I managed to steal one or two. There's nothing quite like the texture of a crunchy rice paper roll. It has to be one of my favourite foods from any cuisine.

When it came to main course, as hard as I tried, I just couldn't resist the rice noodle salad with marinated beef. This came out in a huge bowl, and there was no way I was ever going to get through it after the size of the entrees. There were plenty of bits of the marinated beef on top, which was in fairly big chunks. The salad was made up of noodles, lettuce and bean sprouts. I stole a few bits of basil from our other main course to add to the flavour of the salad. The salad was ok, but not one of the best I've ever had. I couldn't put my finger on what it was missing, but maybe it was just that the fish sauce was a bit bland.

Our other main course was the vegetable rice noodle soup. My vegetarian guest was pleasantly surprised when the waitress asked if she would like the soup made on vegetable or chicken stock. Unfortunately the soup was a bit disappointing. It was a big serving, but most of the vegetables had been overcooked and the stock itself was a bit bland. Luckily the soup was served with a side plate of bean sprouts, basil, lemon and chilli, so we could spice up the flavour a bit.

There are plenty of other Vietnamese dishes you can try, including pho, spicy Hue pork & beef noodle soup, broken rice with pork chop (which I almost ordered just to find out what broken rice was) and a range of other rice noodle salads. There is also a full menu of Chinese food if you're not a big fan of Vietnamese.

The decor inside is pretty basic, in line with plenty of other suburban Vietnamese/Chinese restaurants. Service was attentive and very friendly throughout the meal. They didn't appear to have any wine coolers though, so our bottle of white just sat on the table. I always think that if a restaurant is going to charge you corkage, they should at least be able to give you a wine cooler, but that's a pretty minor complaint. There is a bottle shop right next door to Quan Thanh, which is very handy if you're in need of a drink or two.

Prices at Quan Thanh are very reasonable. All up our dinner was $38, so a trip to Quan Thanh isn't going to break the bank.

Overall our dinner was solid, but not great. I think the food I had at Kim Thanh (about 25 metres down the road) was probably better, based on my recent visits to each restaurant. I'll have to try the other two Vietnamese restaurants on this little strip though, to see which one is the best.

What does all this mean? A solid BYO restaurant with a good range of Vietnamese food, big servings and friendly, attentive service.

food bling ratings
Food - OK
Service - Great
Ambience - Fairly basic decor
Value for Money - Great
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Good

Quan Thanh
5/75 Hardgrave Road
West End 4101
P - 07 3846 3849

Ginga

After the disaster at Viet de Lites before our last trip to the opera, this time we went back to Ginga, a tried and trusted Southbank dinner spot. Ginga has been at Southbank for as long as I can remember and I've eaten there plenty of times over the years. I should start off by saying that I don't eat a lot of Japanese food. That's not because I don't like it, it's just that the gluten free diet really cuts down my menu options.

Ginga has two parts to it - there is a more formal restaurant, which has some great booths to sit in along the back wall, as well as a more casual, sit outside/takeaway part. It wasn't exactly warm the night we were there, and it was raining, so we sat inside.

Even at 6pm (which is very early in my books to be eating dinner) there were a good few people in the restaurant. When we told our waitress that we had to be out by 7pm, she said it would be no trouble, and took our orders straight away.

My favourite thing about Japanese food is ordering lots of little dishes. If you go with a big group, you get to plough through about half the menu. Tonight there was only two of us, but we still managed a good selection from the menu.

To start with, we had a plate of edamame (soy beans) which were $6.90. I can't go to a Japanese restaurant without wolfing down a few edamame - they are so moreish. They came out almost straight away and were demolished equally as quickly.

I ordered the maguro (tuna) sashimi ($16.00). I didn't used to be the biggest fan of sashimi, but I've had some really fantastic sashimi at Sakura and now I'm hooked. The sashimi came out as about 5 pretty big chunks of tuna, served with a soy based dipping sauce and some wasabi. I don't think it was as good as Sakura's sashimi, but it was tasty nevertheless.

Keeping on an (almost) raw theme, next I had the beef tataki ($12.90) which was served with ponzu sauce and pickled ginger. I also ordered some steamed rice ($2) with the beef tataki, as I didn't know how big the serving would be and I didn't want to have my stomach grumbling during the opera. Beef tataki is beef which is only just seared around the outside, then sliced very thinly. It was delicious.

Our meals were being brought out as soon as they were cooked, which is exactly what we needed for a quick getaway. We also ordered the Shojin bento ($19.00), which is a tray made up of vegetable tempura, steamed fresh vegetables & tofu, vegetarian sushi, miso soup and steamed rice. The vegetable tempura was probably the winner from the bento plate with delicious fresh pieces of broccoli, mushroom & asparagus. The miso was also particularly good.

Like any good Japanese restaurant, there are plenty of other things to choose from. The menu is split into sashimi, sushi, maki sushi (nori rolls), temaki, salads, robata yaki (grilled meals), tempura, noodles, sets, hot plates, bento and a few dishes which are called a la carte.

There is a fairly compact, but good, wine list. We had a couple of glasses of the Jim Barry Watervale riesling ($7.50 a glass) which was a great match for my raw fish and beef. We also had a yuzu sour ($8.90), which was vodka with yuzu juice (or some kind of yuzu drink). The yuzu sour was a super drink - sour, tangy and refreshing. It would be hard to stop drinking them on a hot summer night, believe me.

Service throughout the night was excellent. Our food came out extremely quickly. A waitress was never far away, and our bottle of water was replaced with another as soon as it was empty.

Ginga is a good, reliable option for lunch or dinner at Southbank. It's deservedly popular with both locals and tourists. That's why Ginga is still going strong after all these years.

What does all this mean? A great selection of Japanese food at reasonable prices, with excellent service.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Great
Ambience - A Japanese feel inside or relaxed outdoor seating (try to sit in a booth)
Value for Money - Good
Wine - Compact, but good selection
Vegetarian - Good

Ginga Japanese Restaurant
Shop 11-12, Little Stanley Street
South Bank 4101
P - 07 3846 2313
W - http://www.gingarestaurant.com.au/

Singapura

Earlier this year I rounded up a bunch of friends and headed to Singapura for my birthday dinner. I'd tried to go for Chinese New Year, but they were completely booked out.

Singapura is one of those few restaurants where I've only ever had great food. I hadn't been there for a year or so and had been dying to go back. Last time I was there the table next to us had this giant pile of crabs that looked so good I wanted to invite myself over and eat their dinner.

As you'd guess from its name, Singapura serves Singaporean food, together with some Malaysian dishes. This is the place to go if you like sambal, but there is also a great selection of seafood dishes.

Because it was my birthday, keeping notes of the food I ate was pretty low on the list of priorities for the night. So if this post is a bit hazy, you know why.

To start with I had the lettuce wraps. These were like san choy bau. They were tasty enough, but I found them a bit sloppy. There was too much sauce in the wraps, which meant that by the time I'd finished them, they were all over the table in front of me. I also tried the sweet corn soup, which was a tad salty for my liking.

After a few glasses of wine, it was on to main course. Ever since I saw the Food Safari episode on Singapore, I have been dying to try Singaporean chilli crab. I had my heart set on ordering one, until I saw the dreaded "market price" on the menu. I asked our waitress what the market price was. After she made a quick trip to the kitchen, I was told it would be $60. It took me a few minutes to decide whether I really wanted it that much, but it was my birthday after all, and I thought Singapura was probably one of the best places in Brisbane to give it a try. So after checking I actually had enough cash, I ordered the chilli crab.

The crab was delicious. It wasn't mind blowing, but I think that's just because I had been dreaming about how good it would taste ever since the one they cooked up for Meave on Food Safari. It sure looked like a lot of pieces of crab. The crab had been broken up into manageable bits, and every single piece was smothered in the beautiful chilli sauce. If you do order this, be prepared to have bits of crab and sauce all over your face, hands, arms and the table in front of you by the time you finish. That's because you'll end up slurping every last bit of crab flesh off the shells and legs. The crab was good, but I still don't know if it was $60 worth of good. No matter how much it cost, I'm glad I got to try it.

If you want to have a crack at cooking Singapore chilli crab at home, here's the recipe from Food Safari. It's not too complicated, and there's even a video you can watch on to help you put it all together. Believe me, it will be worth the effort.

I was too busy slurping away at my crab to eat too many of the other main courses. The salt and pepper tofu was delicious though. I love silken tofu, especially at Japanese restaurants, but otherwise I'm not the biggest fan of fried tofu. This was an exception - the tofu was crispy and really tasty. I was told that the spicy eggplant was also great. Eggplant isn't something you come across at many Asian restaurants, so we ordered it out of curiosity. It turned out to be delicious, spicy and unusual. The mixed vegetables in oyster sauce was ok, but tasted like the oyster sauce had just been poured over the top after the vegetables had been cooked.

There are a few desserts on the menu, including the ubiquitous deep fried ice-cream. By this stage of the night we'd all had a few drinks, so we ordered the agar agar with rambutan, just to see what it was. I had tried rambutans before, but not agar agar. Wikipedia tells me that agar-agar is the Malay word for jelly, and is derived from seaweed. Although it sounded wildly exotic, it turned out to be a bit of a letdown. The agar agar didn't taste like much and the three rambutans tasted like they'd come straight out of a tin. Maybe I just had high expectations after the chilli crab.

The decor at Singapura is pretty basic, although if you sit in the back part of the restaurant there are these cool landscape cut-outs against the wall. It's hard to describe them in words, so you'll just have to go and see them for yourself. Singapura can also get pretty noisy, as the place is usualy very busy, and it's popular with groups. Singapura is BYO, which means that a night of delicious food here doesn't end up costing too much. There is a handy bottle shop just on the other side of Milton road.

Service is usually friendly and efficient, although things can get a bit hectic when the place is full. Prices are excellent, unless of course your whole table decides to go for the chilli crab.

I think Singapura is one of the better Asian restaurants in Brisbane, where you can always count on a tasty feed. I certainly don't know of too many restaurants in Brisbane that specialise in Singaporean food, so its definitely worth a visit.

What does all this mean? Tasty Singaporean food and a great range of seafood at low prices.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Ambience - Fairly basic, but keep an eye out for the landscapes at the back of the room
Value for Money - Great
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Good

Singapura
Shop 3, 524 Milton Road
Toowong 4066
P - 07 3870 2266

Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant

Its been a while since I've eaten at Jakarta - I haven't been in for dinner since the restaurant moved from Paddington.

Anyway it seems to be going well in New Farm. I went along on a Saturday night with a few friends and the place was pretty much full, which is usually a good sign.

Once I opened the menu, I realised why it was full. The food is cheap. The entrees are between $3.90 & $6.90 and the mains range from $10.50 to $16.90. If the food's good, the place will always be packed at those prices.

Satays are my big weakness when it comes to Indonesian food, and I just couldn't go past them for an entree. If you can resist the call of sweet, tasty satays, then other entree options include Lumpia Sayur (vegetable spring rolls - $3.90), Perkedel Kentang (potato & corned beef fritters - $5.50) and a variety of soups (such as ox-tail - $5.90).

The chicken satays ($12.90 for eight) were absolutely delicious. They were not the biggest satays you've ever seen, but the chicken was tender and perfectly cooked. Once you've covered them in satay sauce, it's pretty hard to stop eating them. Luckily they were gobbled up by the rest of the table pretty quickly. We also had a serve of the Perkedel Kentang and one of the mixed entrees ($6.90).

When it comes to main course, there's a wide selection, covering satay (of course), vegetable & egg dishes, chicken, meat, seafood and rice/noodle dishes. Some of the more interesting sounding ones are Telor Belado (specially cooked eggs in red chilli sauce - $10.50), Ayam Rica Rica (I didn't ask what Rica Rica is, but it sounds good - $14.50), Ikan Bakar (whole sole marinated and char grilled - $19.50) and Semur Sapi (sauteed beef, tomato and fried potato in an Indonesian stew - $14.50).

We had five main courses between us, and some of them were particularly good. The Rendang Sapi (beef rendang - $14.50) was probably the star of the night, with its rich flavours and meltingly tender beef. Knowing how good beef rendang usually is, three of us tried to order the Rendang Sapi, but table rules prevailed and we ordered a few non-rendang dishes instead. The Opor Ayam (marinated chicken cooked in lightly spiced coconut milk - $14.50) was recommended by the waitress and was another distinctively flavoured dish. The Gulai Kambling (Indonesian lamb curry) was fine, but didn't have the wow factor of the beef rendang or Opor Ayam. We also had a serve of the mixed satay ($14.90) which didn't last long (nor did the satay sauce).

Steamed rice is $2 per person, or you can try the Nasi Kuning (yellow rice) instead for $3. If you want a couple of Indonesian side dishes, there's Acar (mixed vegetable pickles - $3), Serundeng Kentang (roasted peanuts and potatoes - $3) and sambal (hot chilli sauce).

By this stage of the night we were struggling to finish off the last few bits of the main courses, so dessert wasn't an option. If you manage to get through mains and are still feeling peckish, then its time for an Indonesian dessert. Some of them sound great - Es Cendol (a drink of tear drop shapes of rice jelly, served with brown sugar syrup, jack fruit and coconut milk - $4) or longan, lychee and rambutan with crushed ice ($4). If you really want to try something new, there's always the Es Cincau - diced grass jelly in cocopandan syrup - $4.

Jakarta also has Indonesian food for sale, in case you get hooked and want to take some home. It's both licenced and BYO wine. Corkage is $2 per person, and there's a bottle shop about 20 metres away, which is pretty handy.

Service throughout the night was friendly and efficient. Our waitresses were happy to make recommendations, which turned out to be delicious. The restaurant is decorated with Indonesian touches, and has a fairly casual, relaxed feel to it.

Jakarta is definitely worth a visit, especially if you've never tried Indonesian food before. The food is not only delicious, but its priced extremely well. We walked out paying $25 each, including corkage, and had loads of food. No complaints from me after a dinner like that.

What does all this mean? Tasty and interesting Indonesian food at crazy prices, with relaxed, friendly service.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Good
Ambience - Casual, with Indonesian touches
Value for Money - Top Shelf
Wine - Licensed & BYO
Vegetarian - Good

Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant
2/702 Brunswick Street
New Farm 4005
P - 07 3358 5715
W - http://www.jakarta.com.au/

Sakura

I've already done a post about Sakura at Highgate Hill.

I've been told by a few friends that eat there all the time that Sakura is no longer BYO, so I've updated my earlier post. It's still worth a visit, and if you've got a decent sized group, book the private room for a great night out.

Sakura
9 Gladstone Road
Highgate Hill 4101
P - 07 3844 9935

Viet de Lites

We headed off to Southbank the other night for a pre-opera dinner. In the past I've had no problems getting a quick dinner at places like Campari, Ahmets, Satay Hut and Ginga. After all, if restaurants can get people in at 6pm and out by 7.15, they're happy, because they can take another booking for 7.30pm.

Campari was our first choice, but the menu seems to have recently changed away from Italian food to more of a steak place (which is a shame, as I've had some great Italian food there in the past). As steak wasn't particularly appealing to my vegetarian dinner guest, we looked for somewhere else.

I thought we'd give Piaf a go, but it was pretty busy even at 6pm, so I didn't like our chances of a quick dinner. Instead we wandered into Viet de Lites on Little Stanley street, which only had about 4 other tables of diners when we arrived. I hadn't eaten there before, but I'm always willing to give any Vietnamese restaurant a try.

When we were shown to our table, I explained we had to be at the opera by 7.30. "No problems" said the waitress. We ordered two serves of rice paper rolls for entree, and two rice vermicelli salads for mains. The waitress assured us we'd have time to eat and still make the opera.

The rice paper rolls came out pretty quickly, as did a couple of glasses of white wine. I had ordered the prawn and pork rolls (which were pre-rolled). There were 4 pretty large rolls. They were clearly fresh, but didn't have a lot of distinctive flavour. The vegetarian tofu rolls on the other hand were much tastier.

It was after we had finished our rice paper rolls that things started to go downhill. Since we had arrived, the restaurant had started to fill up. Service didn't seem to be coping, and there were a number of tables where people were jumping up just to grab a waiter's attention.

Our finished plates sat on the table for what seemed an eternity. As time was ticking by, I grabbed one the waitresses to remind her we had to be gone before 7.30. She came back to tell us that our orders were "running a bit late". At that time I told her that we had to go in about 10 minutes, so if the food didn't come out soon, we'd just have to leave. She relayed that to the kitchen, and came back a few minutes later to tell us that the chef could start cooking our meals in 5 minutes. That's when we got up and left. I paid for the entrees and wine, but made it clear to the guy at the counter that we'd been assured there would be no problems with getting our meals out in time, which obviously didn't happen. No discount was offered to us.

The most annoying thing was that there were 3 or 4 tables that had arrived about 10-15 minutes after us, but had eaten 2 courses while we were there. We'd only ordered rice paper rolls and rice vermicelli salads, so there wasn't even much cooking involved.

I don't often get annoyed eating out, but lots of restaurants only get one chance with new customers. There are so many other restaurants at Southbank that are able to get food out quickly when they need to, that I won't be back to Viet de Lites in a hurry.

We headed off to the opera with our tummies rumbling and munched on emergency snacks of chips and Byron Bay cookies at the interval. Luckily for us, the opera was great.

Viet de Lites
Little Stanley Street
Southbank 4101
P - 07 3844 8979
E - contact@vietdelites.com.au
W - http://www.vietdelites.com.au/

Red Hot Thai

Red Hot Thai at Kingscliff is one of those restaurants that always seems to be busy. Usually that's a good indication of the food quality, and its certainly the case here.

Although Red Hot Thai covers the usual Thai suspects, there are also a few dishes that you don't always come across on your standard Thai menu. Their starters include crab and chicken steamed dumplings ($8.50), deep fried spicy fish cakes served with sweet chilli or plum sauce ($8.50) and spring rolls ($8.50).

I ordered the satay gai to get the evening going - chicken marinated in Thai herbs, served with peanut sauce ($8.50). I really am a sucker for Thai chicken satays and these ones were great. Over the years I've come across a lot of chicken satays where the chicken was so overcooked that the resulting satays were chewy and tasteless. These, on the other hand, were tender, covered in herbs and had a lovely delicate flavour. They were delicious, served with both a mild peanut sauce and a tangy, clear Thai sauce. They were quickly demolished.

We also ordered a serve of the pak tod for entree - fresh vegetables in tempura batter, served with sweet tamarind and ginger sauce ($8.50). Again these were great - fresh cauliflower, broccoli, beans, mushrooms, capsicum, zucchini and shallots fried in a light, crunchy tempura batter. The tangy sauce was also a winner. Admittedly these were more Japanese than Thai, but they were fresh and tasty.

When it comes to mains, the menu covers curries, soup, salads, seafood, stir fries and noodles. Some of the salads sounded particularly tempting - like the yum nua (char grilled beef with fresh lemongrass, lime juice, coriander and chilli) and the larb gai (spicy minced chicken, Thai herbs, lime juice and ground roasted rice).

We were at the beach, so I went for the gang penang prawn curry ($22) as a main course. This was a creamy red coconut milk curry, which was served with broccoli, carrot, fresh kaffir lime leaves and roasted peanuts. It was a beautiful dish, in the fragrant, lighter style of Thai curries. There was a generous amount of prawns in the dish and the sauce was so good I ended up dunking loads of rice into the bowl to soak up all the delicious flavours.

We also had the vegetarian Red Hot Thai noodles as a main - wok fried egg noodles with tofu, chilli, shallot and basil ($15.50). Although there were plenty of fresh, crunchy vegetables in this dish, it was a bit bland, and could have done with a bit more of a flavour kick. There were a few red chilli bits through the noodles, but not enough to really give them a distinctive taste.

Red Hot Thai is both licenced and BYO. Corkage is $2.50 per person if you do take your own wine. Although we had to ask about 3 separate waiters for a wine cooler and some glasses at the start of the night, after that small hiccup the service was good. Red Hot Thai does get very busy during school holidays and on weekends, so it's always a good idea to book ahead.

What does all this mean? Well priced, tasty Thai food in a relaxed, friendly setting.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Good
Ambience - Relaxed indoor & outdoor seating
Value for Money - Good
Wine - Licenced & BYO
Vegetarian - Great

Red Hot Thai
80 Marine Parade
Kingscliff NSW 2487
P - 02 6674 5299

Pho Saigon

Finding ourselves at the Gold Coast for a couple of nights, I was amazed at how many restaurants there are in Broadbeach now. They pretty much cover every cuisine you can think of, and there are even a few BYO places.

Anyway I'd been lucky enough to have a big lunch at Harvey's, so I was really looking for something relatively light and healthy. We'd pretty much checked out most of the places on offer at Broadbeach, before stumbling upon Pho Saigon on Albert Avenue. It's right next door to the always popular Manolas Brothers Delicatessen (or MBD as its known around here).

Pho Saigon only had about 2 tables of diners when we arrived, but we didn't let that put us off, as we were determined to gobble down some tasty Vietnamese. The menu is pretty comprehensive, and also covers a few dishes from around Asia.

For entree, we ordered the Vietnamese hot & sour chicken soup ($5.50) and the vegetarian rice paper rolls ($10). The soup was tasty, but not exactly what I was expecting. There was plenty of tasty, tender chicken, together with a few vegetables and 5 or so chunks of pineapple. It was a good soup, but a bit too sweet for my liking. It really needed a bit more sourness and heat to counteract the sweetness of the pineapple.

The vegetarian rice paper rolls were very fresh, with good quality tofu and were served with a spicy peanut dipping sauce. There were four very good sized rolls, so this was a pretty filling start to the meal. We only just got through the four of them.

For mains, we went with a Vietnamese beef salad ($14.50) and the Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce ($7.90). There are plenty of mains to choose from, with the menu split up into categories of lemongrass & chilli, curry coconut milk & lemongrass, sizzling garlic butter hot plates, sizzling hot plates with satay sauce, ginger shallots with oyster sauce, beef noodle soup, egg/rice noodle soup, laksa, congee, vermicelli, rice dishes, stir fried noodle, salt & pepper, sweet & sour, vegetable and salad. None of the main courses are over $18, so they are all pretty good value.

Again, my main course was not what I was expecting. The beef salad was more like Thai salads I had eaten in the past. It consisted of strips of beef, with plenty of bean sprouts, some cucumber, red onion and a bit of chilli. The salad was served with a fish sauce dressing. It was ok, but left me disappointed - as with my entree, if the flavours had been tweaked a bit, it could have been much better.

Our other main was the Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce. Unfortunately when it came to vegetarian options, the menu was very limited. There were only three dishes listed on the menu under the "Vegetable" section. We asked the waitress if there was anything else, but were told that the three dishes were it. As good as the Chinese broccoli was, it's a bit hard to eat an entire plate of it.

Service was ok on the night we were there. Our bottle of riesling sat on the table for the whole meal, with no coolers in sight. A bit more friendliness and attention to customers would greatly improve the service at Pho Saigon.

Pho Saigon is licenced, with a limited selection of wine. Alternatively it's also BYO wine, with a bottle shop not far away.

Overall, our meals at Pho Saigon were ok. The pricing of the meals though makes Pho Saigon very good value, especially considering you can bring your own wine. If you're staying at the Gold Coast and looking for some good Vietnamese food, I think you'll find The Rice Paddy in Surfers Paradise a definite a step up in flavour.

What does all this mean? Solid Vietnamese food at good prices, with BYO wine.

food bling ratings
Food - OK
Service - OK
Ambience - Casual, with seating inside and out
Value for Money - Good
Wine - Licenced (a limited list) and BYO wine
Vegetarian - Very limited options

Pho Saigon
Shop 17B, Aria
Albert Avenue
Broadbeach 4218
P - 07 5592 3393
F - 07 5592 3340

JJ Jackson

I've been lucky enough to eat at JJ Jackson's twice in the last week or so. You wouldn't guess it from the name, but JJ Jackson is a Korean restaurant in the city.

If you're fortunate enough to stroll in when the place isn't full (which isn't very often), you'll probably notice is the two video screens pretty much straight away. When we were there today we had Christina Aguilera featured for most of our lunch. I'd rather be watching a video screen than another boring restaurant wall, so its fine with me.

Anyway, we weren't here for Christina, we were here for the great Korean food. JJ Jackson has one of those handy menus which has a picture of most of the meals on it. It's great if you're not entirely sure what the octopus ball might turn out to be. At least you can get some kind of reassurance that it looks ok in the picture.

The menu offers a good selection of Korean food. If you are looking for something fairly safe, there's the Korean style marinated chicken fillet with vegetables on steamed rice ($10) or the beef stir fried udon noodles ($11). But if you're looking for something a bit different, then JJ Jackson is going to oblige. Try the octopus ball ($7), grilled eel with rice and salad ($19), BBQ beef with rice, kimchi, seaweed and flying fish eggs ($15) or the steamed pork hock with special sauce ($28).

Last time we were here for dinner I tried the Korean style marinated beef fillet with vegetables on steamed rice ($10) which was a good, tasty meal. Most of the meals are garnished with what looks like shredded beetroot, but I think its actually coloured vegetable noodles. Today for lunch I went for the Korean style marinated chicken fillet, vegetables and rice cake with spicy sauce on steamed rice ($12). Yes it sounds very similar to the beef fillet I had last time, and yes it tasted pretty similar. But it was a good meal, so I'm not complaining. The rice cakes though made for a contrast in textures, which always adds a little extra to the dish.

In my last few visits we've also ordered the Korean style marinated pork and vegetables with spicy sauce on steamed rice ($12), the vegetarian stir fried sweet potato noodles ($10) and the salt and pepper squid salad ($13.90) all of which quickly disappeared off the plate. The sweet potato noodles in particular were excellent, and not something you come across every day.

Most of the meals are served with kimchi, which I find severely addictive (luckily it only comes out in small dishes).

The best thing about JJ Jackson is the low, low prices. Most of the meals are between $10 and $12, and the servings are very generous. It's the perfect place for a quick lunch or dinner.

If you really want to round out the whole Korean experience, order some of the Korean alcohol. I've had the rice wine a couple of times now, with a tiro mixer, and it makes for a refreshing change.

Service is friendly and efficient. The staff here are more than happy to explain the menu (and the Korean alcohol) to make sure that you have a great meal.

Unless you aren't in a hurry, it's a good idea to book ahead. JJ Jackson can get very busy at both lunch and dinner, so don't expect to walk straight in and grab a table. Also, the meals are very generous. I'd be surprised if you could eat more than one of the meals off the menu, so its not the kind of place where you will spend hours lingering over your meals.

What does all this mean? Tasty, interesting Korean food at excellent prices.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Ambience - Modern furnishings with music videos in the background
Value for Money - Top Shelf
Vegetarian - Limited

JJ Jackson Restaurant & Bar
Shop 4, 120 Edward Street
Brisbane 4000
P - 07 3210 0007

Kim Thanh

My search for great Vietnamese food most recently took me to Kim Thanh at West End.

The first thing you notice when you step inside Kim Thanh is just how big the room is. It's enormous. The next thing I noticed was the noise. We ate here on a Friday night, and it was very busy. The noise didn't worry me at all, I only mention it because its not the kind of restaurant where you should plan on a romantic dinner for two. On the other hand, if you're going out for a big group dinner, its perfect.

Once you sit down, you'll see that the menu is just as big as the main dining room. There is certainly no shortage of options, covering both Vietnamese and Chinese meals. My quick count of the items on the menu came to just under 200, and that's not including the specials up on the wall. So there's no excuse for not finding something tasty.

Anyway, we were here to eat Vietnamese. The Vietnamese entrees include spring rolls with salad or rice vermicelli ($6.50/$6.90), Vietnamese pancake ($6), deep fried quail ($6), rice paper rolls ($11.50) and a variety of rice noodle salads.

We ordered the bbq pork with rice vermicelli ($8.90) and the deep fried spring rolls with rice vermicelli ($7.90). The bbq pork was of the traditionally deep fried variety, chopped into chunks which were served on top of the salad. It was ok, without being memorable. On the other hand, the spring rolls were very good, filled with tasty vegetables. The salads were served with a fish sauce dressing (which is optional for the vegetarian salad).

There are so many options for main course I won't even try and summarise them all. The Vietnamese section of the menu covers seafood, pork, beef, chicken, duck & vegetables. The dishes which tempted me were the combination seafood steam boat ($38.50), braised scallop with kai-lan ($13.80), chilli prawns in hot pot ($13.80) and the crispy skin chicken, fried kai-lan and special sauce ($10.50).

I ordered the braised prawns with kai-lan ($13.80). This was a pretty generous serving, with clean flavours, so as not to overwhelm the prawns. The crunchy kai-lan was a good match with the stir fried prawns (of which there were plenty). I'd eaten so much of my salad for entree that it was hard work finishing off this main course. I probably enjoyed my main course more than the salad, mainly because I don't come across kai-lan as a star ingredient very often.

We also ordered the mixed vegetables with rice noodles in tom yum soup ($6.90), which was delicious. It was a huge serving, and although it wasn't chock full of vegetables, it was extremely tasty. The tangy, spicy and hot flavours all combined well to make this dish a winner. Even though we were both full by this stage, I kept slurping away at this soup right up until our meals were cleared away.

Service at Kim Thanh is of the efficient, no-fuss variety. We had hardly ordered when our entrees came out, and we had no trouble catching a waiter's attention whenever one was needed. The staff however were very concerned at the start of the night when my wife showed up at the restaurant by herself, offering her the use of the restaurant's phone to find out where her non-existent date was. Apparently they weren't entirely convinced when she explained I was just at the bottleshop buying some wine.

On the basis of this visit, Kim Thanh offers dependable Vietnamese food, with the option of ordering off an enormous Chinese menu as well. It was very popular with big groups on the night we ate there, so be prepared for a bit of noise. Kim Thanh is both licenced and BYO, and there is a bottle shop about 20 metres away, which is pretty handy.

What does all this mean? A big Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant, serving a huge menu of well-priced food, with no-fuss service.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Ambience - A big, fairly noisy room, with not a lot of decor
Value for Money - Great
Wine - Licenced and BYO
Vegetarian - Great

Kim Thanh
93 Hardgrave Road
West End 4101
P - 07 3844 4954
W - http://kimthanhrestaurant.com.au/kimthanh/

The Rice Paddy

Being a big fan of Vietnamese food, I've been meaning to eat at The Rice Paddy in Surfers Paradise for a couple of years, but never made it there until just recently.

The Rice Paddy is on the Gold Coast Highway at Surfers Paradise, just south of Cavill Avenue. The restaurant has a dark, modern minimalist feel to it, with a few Asian touches.

We ate there on a Saturday night, and the restaurant was surprisingly quiet. A couple of tables left before ordering, perhaps because The Rice Paddy is priced a little above some of the other Asian options in the area, and is also licenced, with no BYO option.

I wasn't about to leave though, as there was plenty of delicious food on the menu. Entrees cover a range of soups ($7), spring rolls ($9), rice paper rolls ($9) and san choi bao ($8), together with options like spicy quail ($10), beef in betel leaf ($12) and sugar cane prawn ($10).

We weren't ravenously hungry, so both went for rice paper rolls - one serve of the prawn and one vegetarian (both $9). These were pre-made, and each serving consisted of 3 very large rolls. The prawn rolls were disappointing, lacking any distinctive flavour. The prawns were tiny and I think the flavour of these rolls could be improved with some fresh local prawns. Unfortunately mine just tasted like lettuce and rice noodles. On the other hand, the vegetarian rolls were excellent - having not only a great flavour, but also a lovely contrast in texture. The mushrooms and Vietnamese mint really added to the flavour of the rolls.

As I've already mentioned, the menu is pretty wide ranging. There are plenty of house specialties, including caramelised pork belly with egg ($20), spicy tamarind prawns ($22),
spicy wild boar ($25) and Vietnamese salad with prawn & pork ($20). If the house specialties don't take your fancy, there is also a range of stir fry dishes and noodles. There are 10 vegetarian dishes included in the stir fry section, giving vegetarians a good range of options.

I ordered the grilled pork spare ribs ($22) from the house specialties, which were described as a
rack of pork ribs marinated with garlic, ginger, lemongrass, salt & chilli, grilled and sliced, then served on a bed of lettuce. There was plenty of pork, and the ribs had been chopped into bite size chunks. It was served with a great clear sauce, tasting of fish sauce, chilli and garlic. I really enjoyed this dish, and it was a generous serving.

We also had the snow peas with Chinese mushrooms ($15) as a main. This dish had a tangy ginger flavour and a tasty sauce to soak up the rice. The snow peas were plentiful and perfectly cooked, contrasting with the texture of the Chinese mushrooms. It was a good vegetarian dish.

There is also a great wine list here. Happily, there's a whole page devoted to riesling, which I think is a terrific match with Vietnamese food. We had a bottle of the 2007 Mountadam Eden Valley riesling ($38) which was limey and crisp - perfect with our meals.

Other wines that caught my attention on the list as a good fit for Vietnamese were the great selection of German rieslings (ranging from $40 up to $440 for the 2001 Trimbach Clos St Hune riesling), Craggy Range Te Muna Road Vineyard sauvignon blanc ($55) and the Vinoptima gewürztraminer ($72).

The wine list covers an interesting range of premium wines, including 1999 Louis Roederer Cristal ($540), 2004 Domaine Leroy Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru ($1990), 2004 Domaine Leroy Gevrey Chambertin ($890), 1998 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon ($305), and the 1991 Penfolds Grange Shiraz ($820). I'm not convinced that some of the wines on the list (like the Italian varietals, grand cru white Burgundy and Australian shiraz) complement Vietnamese food, but wine is of course an individual choice, and they're on the list if you want to spend up big. By the same token, there are plenty of wines under $50, so don't think its all just big ticket items. I've used the version of the wine list available on the website, so not all vintages may be available on your visit.

Service was very friendly throughout the meal, and the staff were happy to make food or wine recommendations during the night.

Overall our meals at The Rice Paddy were good, and I'll definitely be back to sample some more of the Vietnamese specialties next time we are at the coast.

What does all this mean? A great range of Vietnamese options at reasonable prices, with a very adventurous wine list.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Great
Ambience - Dark, modern & minimalist
Value for Money - Good
Wine - Great
Vegetarian - Good

The Rice Paddy
Shop 1, 3100 Gold Coast Highway
Surfers Paradise 4217
P - 07 5592 1390
E - ricepad@bigpond.net.au
W - http://www.thericepaddy.com.au/