Himalayan Cafe

Himalayan Café

640 Brunswick St New Farm

Value: Adequate

Quality: Adequate

Atmosphere: Good

I went here for the first review night in ages, and it was a good start to the program again.  Himalayan Café is extraordinarily popular – it appeared to be a full house on a Wednesday. Whether this is a symptom of being in New Farm or that people recognise that they are doing a good job is hard to say, but I would definitely lean towards the latter. The place has done a great job of making itself unique in its design and atmosphere, the bright colours and obvious Tibetan theme makes for a pleasant and interesting environment to eat in. The only complaint I have about the atmosphere is that we were next to the speakers in the restaurant and I could hardly hear my dining companions in conversation. Nonetheless, I am tempted to go back to the restaurant so I can check out the back room there with its apparently traditional Tibetan setup. The service was alright – it was really busy and at times it could be difficult to get someone's attention, – however this was entirely understandable, and the food usually arrived promptly. 

This brings us to the main course of this article, which is, naturally, the food. The best description I can think of the for the food here is that it is a distillation of the subcontinent curry idea. Indian curries frequently become confusing, with many clashing flavours and heavy flavours that can at times make them a difficult meal. The curries served here were far lighter in profile, with some sourness and chilli making up the dominant flavours. Portions were reasonably sized, although if they had been smaller I would have had some hesitation. The entrees were interesting too; if a little confusing (as in how should I consume this?). All the food was of a high quality (at least insofar as I could tell) with the goat dish surprising in its lack of toughness (a difficult trait of goat meat). The other dishes were interesting; however I didn’t eat enough of them to comment on any in particular.

Himalayan Café is open Tuesday to Sunday from 5:30pm to around 9:30-10pm. The main meals range from $15-$30 with entrees being around the $10 mark. Himalayan café is fully BYO. There is also banquet option for groups of six or more.

Himalayan Café does not currently have a website.  

By the way anyone who would like to join me on review nights there will be a Facebook event put up the days beforehand; however there will be issues with numbers which almost screwed us last night.

Jakarta

Jakarta
702 Brunswick St New farm (Same Building as Alibi Room)
3/5
My visit to Jakarta was another of these family events, where finding a place that suits the tastes of people coming is difficult due to the fact that they all have contradicting tastes. Jakarta performed well in that regard, as it did in most aspects. So after making a booking for 5 people at 7:30pm on a Saturday I was surprised by the fact that it appeared that booking may not have been necessary (I have been burnt in Brisbane before for Saturday night walk-in), the table that had been reserved for us was obvious, being the only odd numbered setting in the restaurant.

The decor, while suffering from the fact that it feels a little like you’re in strip mall, is wonderfully decorated with rich earthy colours that create comfortable ambience (excepting the honking cars on Brunswick st). The Service is of an acceptable level, while lacking the attention that many restaurants have, it was not hard to get a waitresses attention, besides too much attention can be a bad thing. The promptness of the kitchen however was silly quick with our food appearing shortly after ordering, and the timing of banquet dishes was nigh perfect with our table just finishing a dish before the next dish came out.

That only leaves the food, which was delicious. We ordered a banquet ($32 pp incl’g dessert) for the entire table, which allowed me to taste several different dishes. Again as with last time with Indonesian, I still lack the knowledge of what is good and not. But this time I believe that the dishes were better, with the dishes having a significant flavour of ginger and citrus tones as the only overarching flavours present in all dishes, Sate that tasted less like peanuts and rather had an earthy smoky character that more likely to be in good scotch than food. The food seemed like it had real sense of sweetness without being ridiculous and being pleasant overall.

I would return to Jakarta and suggest that everyone visit it, purely because Indonesian food is fantastic as far as I can tell, and we need to support cuisines in this city that aren’t just steak, dodgy Chinese and dodgy Thai.
Jakarta has a website with a full menu at http://www.jakarta.com.au/menu.html
Beer cost under $6.5 with imports such as Bintang (Indonesia’s most well known brand) being the most expensive, there is a wine list however as Jakarta is BYO wine and there is a Liquorland next door I would suggest BYO

Vue Lounge

Vue Lounge
85 Methyr Road Newfarm
1/5
I don't know why I'm rating this place or giving it a review because simply put, it was quite mediocre. I tend to have a rule now days that the swankier a place looks the more mediocre the food is, and 8 times out of 10 this is true.
So i went to this place after a night out and crashing at a friends house at 6am in New Farm. Mostly i went there because i was near Methyr village and needed breakfast and was on the search for eggs Benedict, so after a that weird quiet walk you have when hungover and tired i found a place that had coffee and eggs. It was pretty full which is always a good sign, and i was served pretty quick considering i was spaced out. So i ordered my eggs and coffee (they have three selections for eggs Benedict ham,bacon and salmon). The coffee came out pretty quick as did the bottle of water and ice. The coffee however tasted like it had been roasted in a blast furnace (not really but it was slightly burnt) and while it may have actually been rather quick the eggs felt like they took an eternity. The eggs came out later and while poached rather fine, the sourdough toast they were served on was under-toasted and was difficult to cut with a knife, the most disappointing part of the equation though was the Hollandaise, which tasted like watery mayonnaise without any of the mild tang required to make it Hollandaise.
The lack of wait staff visiting the outside tables also led to me having to go inside to pay the bill, which may be a minor concern, but still adds up to a mediocre experience. However i believe that this place may be worth revisiting.
Eggs Benedict was $15.80 due to my hungover state i didn't read any other prices



In other news, i have determined that Toowong village meats in the Toowong village shopping complex has consistently good meat. I have eaten steaks and other meat bought from there several times in the past few months and have confidence that next time i get meat from there it will be of similarly high quality.