Mu'ooz

Mu'ooz
197 Beaudesert Road Moorooka
2/5
I have to admit that Mu'ooz was a new experience for me, the anticipation of eating something new and interesting was enough to get me giddy all week. So to fill in why that sentence makes sense, Mu'ooz serves Eritrean cuisine, for anyone who doesn't know where Eritrea is here's the wiki page. So with a not quite sure what it will be attitude i made a booking for 7 people on my normal blog dinner night (Thursday).

With an open mind our party made their way to Moorooka (which isn't too hard) and after finding the place fairly quickly (it could be tricky as it is downstairs at the end of an arcade). The first thought i had was the quietness of suburban restaurants, it seems to be endemic that outside of particular special events suburban restaurants are impossible to get noisy or rowdy (outside of the individual table of drunk guys). The atmosphere of Mu'ooz is that of the many a suburban restaurant, which a beautiful restraint that many inner city restaurants forget when decking the place out to a stylised perfection. The suburban atmosphere of Moorooka and Mu'ooz actually reminds me of the time i have spent in Newtown in Sydney, which i can say is a positive aspect of the experience of eating in Moorooka.

So onto the main part of the review, the food. So for dinner due to our large party of seven people we ordered what on the menu is called the platter, providing a mixture of different dishes (5 for 4 or 3 for 2), providing us with every main on the menu (except the lasagna) and came with Enjera (a sort of flat crepe style bread). It took a reasonable amount of time for the food to come out, i think this may have been due to the large variety of food required and of course the large quantity of food required. When the food came out it was all stews of some description, similar in texture to an Indian curry, however only two of the dishes had any heat to them and the majority were really pleasant mild dishes. The main point i would have for anyone eating East African stews in this manner is not to use cutlery. This is due to the fact that cutlery results in large ratio of stew to bread and is less fun than using your hand to grab the stew in bread.

My only complaints with the restaurant were that one of the waitresses was shy and inattentive, and that the platter servings were slightly too small, but otherwise i believe that this restaurant is worth revisiting, especially considering that it is a community run operation.

Our dishes cost $82 for the 4 person platter and $41 for the 2 person platter. There was a $3 per person corkage for the whole night (we drank several beers each)
Mu'ooz have a website with a full menu at http://www.eatout-brisbane.com.au/Southern-Suburbs/Moorooka/Restaurants/MUOOZ-Eritrean-Restaurant-and-Catering.html

If anyone knows of any other African places worth visiting i would like to know. Put a comment in with the place and address and ill check it out.

The Boatshed (Regatta Hotel)

This article was written prior to the renovation and may no longer apply to current restaurant.
The Boatshed
543 Coronation Drive Toowong
0/5
I never really planned to go to the Regatta's attached restaurant, but sometimes you just need to get a steak before getting really drunk and that's what happened. To begin the Boatshed is quite literally that, a big shed with clear roller doors for walls. Not very flash, yet like everything at the Regatta has an air of pretentiousness that it may be something more or different than just a pub. Unfortunately for both the Boatshed and the Regatta hotel in general that reality falls well short of what the hotel thinks of itself.

The Boatshed sells itself on steaks (The same way that every other Brisbane pub does) and what else would i order at pub in Brisbane than a steak, so i order a 400grm rib fillet with far too many details(eg grain fed for 120 day etc etc) medium rare, with mushroom sauce (written as ragout on the menu), chips and vegetables. There was a substantial wait for the steak, luckily as this was a pub i could pass the time by drinking, with jugs of beer available at only moderately inflated prices.

Now onto the steak, here's just a quick word to Coles and Woolies hotel divisions (Liquorland & ALH) STOP using 1824 meat, i have hundreds of steaks in my life, lots of those in pubs, and not one 1824 steak has been a good one, alot of above average 1824 steaks but never a truly good one. So on from that i congratulate the kitchen staff on cooking the steak perfectly to what i ordered, which for some peculiar reason happens so rarely in the pub steak scene that you would think that the art of cooking steak was endangered to be lost to humanity. Although it appears that something so simple as using mushroom instead of pepper sauce is beyond your abilities as at least somewhat trained professionals. The steak itself was tough and chewier than many of the "budget" steak i have bought at Woolies or Coles, and flavour wise was just regular with no particulary nice or stronger flavour than again budget steaks at the supermarket.
The side dishes of the food were boring and left me unfulfilled. A hand full of steamed vegetables (of which there were only two kinds broccolini and squash) and chips that tasted like i was eating dust wrapped in potato skin.

At the ridiculous price they were charging for said meal i think i would have expected better.
The Steak was $36.50 and was a 400grm rib fillet.
The Jug of XXXX Bitter was $14


The Boatshed Restaurant has a website at http://www.regattahotel.com.au/eat_boatshed_restaurant.html

Huong's

Huong's Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai
83A Vulture St West End
3/5
Huong's is an old favorite of mine, I've been there many times over the years and not once has it disappointed me. So when i organised this weeks dinner i had high expectations for similar quality food to the other times I had been here in the past. (Sorry to anyone expecting Korean, but the place i had planned on going to was closed) And Huong's again failed to disappoint me, with some of the best Vietnamese food i have eaten in the past decade. (I am of the belief that at Huong's the only food worth eating is the Vietnamese. But if you are better informed about the other dishes on the menu please enlighten me.)

Covering the environmental aspects of the dining experience. Huong's has a great vibe to it, being up a narrow set of stairs between a fruit shop and bakery. With the interior adorned with tacky red Chinese lanterns and fairy lights. These decorative aspects invoke both the stereotypes of 1980's Australian Chinese restaurants and in my eyes the restaurant scenes featured in many Hong Kong action films. Just quickly, the service at Huong's was especially prompt, having our requests fulfilled surprisingly quick especially considering we were in an isolated corner of the dining room.

Now onto the most important part of the review, the food. Beginning with entrees we ordered the Spicy Quail, Shrimp and Pork Cold Rolls and Sam Choy Bow. The Quail is standout in this situation being the most perfect Quail i have had anywhere in Brisbane so far. The main reason i thought it was so good was the fact that it was missing the trademark bone dryness that most Quails have in at least half of the meat. That's not even mentioning the slow build spiciness that made the dish so pleasantly interesting. The Cold Rolls are also worth special mention with the serving size being truly massive. On their own the Cold rolls were mildly unpleasant due to the overpowering flavour of mint. But when combined with the sauce they are served with the mint flavour is neutralised providing a pleasant if nothing else experience. The Sam Choy Bow, was nice but otherwise was an unmemorable dish.

Onto the Mains, for mains i had Beef Noodle Salad, my partners had a Beef Pho, and a Seafood Hotpot, i tried all these dishes and apart from the hot pot ( i had just eaten some of the Pho with chilli preventing me from tasting anything else) all were very fragrant and well balanced (again except the chilli added to the Pho by my dining partner). The Beef Noodle Salad had a remarkable fragrance, and flavour that more than anything else was refreshing and revitalising, that is all i can say on the flavour of it. The Pho was great with a wonderful interesting aniseed flavour in the broth that complimented the fresh flavours of the contents, and after the addition of chilli, had a delightful finish of heat following the recession of aniseed on the tongue.
Unfortunately the Hot pot was overpowered by the lingering of aniseed and chilli when i ate it and i was unable to formulate an informed opinion on it, however my dining partner assured me that it was quite good.

Overall Huong's has failed to disappoint on every occasion i have been there, and i will most assuredly be returning there in the future.

Our entrees cost between $5 and $10, with the most expensive entree almost being a meal in itself. Mains cost between $11.50 and $22.50 with two of the mains being on the lower end of the band.
Corkage is $2 a head and Huong's is BYO. There are several Bottle shops within walking distance of Huong's including The Melbourne Hotel bottle barn and the Boundary Hotel bottle shop.
Huongs have a website with a full menu on it at www.huongs.com.au and are open for dinner 7 days a week from 5:00 pm to 10:00pm

Verve Cafe-Bar

Verve Cafe-Bar
109 Edward St Brisbane City
1.5/5
I've been to verve before, once looking for a job, and another time to have a drink before a show upstairs at the Metro Arts centre. One thing is to be said of Verve and that is, it has the best grungy aesthetic of anyplace I've been in Brisbane. The place has the feel of older parts of Sydney or Melbourne, not at all like the expansive open bars or restaurants that dominate the Brisbane scene.

Anyway this is a food review not an aesthetic design blog, so with my bias already in this places favour (it still is to an extent) i went to this place to have dinner. (It was either this or one of the Asian joints around, however I'm reviewing a Korean place next week and didn't want to focus to heavily on Asian cuisines to the exclusion of other cuisines) It was good to go to a place with a specials board, something i rarely see outside of the community clubs.

The service at this place was either difficult or again I'm overestimating the amount of time it took due to my solo dining experience (seriously eating by yourself is boring outside of the actual eating/drinking part) Admittedly if it were to be described as slow, it was probably due to the table in the centre of the room with at least 20 people at it. After difficulty getting the attention of a waiter, i ordered a coopers pale ale (Schooner on tap $6) and one of the specials (Spinach and Feta Ravioli with Swiss and shitake mushrooms in a cream sauce $21.27). It was surprising how quick the food came out with me barely having a sip of my beer before it was rushed out in a very presentable manner (also noticed that the table of twenty people had all of their meals delivered at the same time).

Pasta and other dishes with many elements are difficult to describe due to the importance being balance rather than simply looking to see if the natural strength of a main element has been exploited, but here's my attempt anyway.
This dish failed and succeeded on many levels, although the Ravioli appeared to made in shop the flavour of the spinach and feta added nothing to very little to the dish being completely overpowered by the natural sweetness of the cream sauce, and i believe for that particular cream sauce a more powerful flavour was needed for the ravioli. The mushrooms on the other hand added a much needed flavour body and the earthiness countered the sweetness creating a rather pleasant flavour. There was probably a tad too much garlic but compared with the sweetness the garlic was unnoticeable. Overall the only flavour that lingered was that of the cream which was disappointing due the pleasantness of the mushroom flavour.
Main was $21.27, Beer was $6, most mains under $20, Beers start at $6
You can visit their website at www.vervecafe.com.au

Makanan Indonesia

Makanan Indonesia
59 Hardgrave Rd
0/5
At first glance Makanan Indonesia looks like my kind of place. An old room opening straight onto the road with plastic everything and the wait staff consisting of a single old guy sitting in the corner reading the newspaper, the only thing i like more is a Chinese restaurant that hasn't been changed since 1987. So upon sitting down the wait staff, ask me if I'm dining in. I am, this being a good sign considering that it is 2:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday. Due to the fact that i haven't eaten Indonesian food before (at least not in the non-dried noodle form) I ask the waiter/owner?, what on the menu is distinctly Indonesian, and upon suggestions i order an entree and a main. The Entree was a Bala Bala which is some kind of mixed vegetable patty, and the main was fresh potato crisps with bits of chicken and covered with a sticky sweet sauce.
One Word can describe all the food i ate that day, Oil. I'm pretty sure its because my lack of knowledge resulted in me ordering the two most oily dishes on the menu, but the level of oil in both these dishes made an oil well look dry. The entree came out very promptly, even feeling quick considering i was dining alone. Aside from the oil the Entree was nice enough, and the sauce accompanying it blended well with the flavours in the patty. The main was massive and came with rice and the while i couldn't fully appreciate the flavours of it due to the oil, the sauce seemed to have an interesting flavour, especially when combined with the bits of chicken and some rice to draw the oil away.
While i believe this visit was unfruitful, i believe that i will be visiting this place again to try something else in the hope that i accidentally stumbled across the two most oily dishes on the menu.
Makanan Indonesia is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Sunday, BYOB, and is halal.
The entree cost 6.50, the main cost 13.5.


To Greg Urbanspoon rocks.

Mundo Churrasco

Mundo Churrasco
63 Macgregor Terrace Bardon
2/5
Mundo Churrasco is most definitely a mans restaurant, even the prospect of such a restaurant sounds like the place a man would like to go (guys go around with barbecued meat on swords and slice it onto your plate). That's not even mentioning the fact that its pretty much all you can eat. So i went to this restaurant with three friends (all guys) and i would certainly say that this is the kind of restaurant you want to go to with a small group, due to the way food is laid out and the restaurant design. Upon arriving for our reservation at 7:30, we were attended to very promptly by the staff of the place and within 20 Min's of sitting down had been asked by staff if we needed anything several times (which for Brisbane is a good thing). Before long we had our drinks and the guys with meat on swords were frequently our table so often that it was impossible to eat the food that came before another sword of meat came. The meat was usually cooked to the right level of perfectly pink, however it should be recommended that you avoid eating the outside of the meat all the time as the salt will make you regret eating it. The first half of our dining experience was very pleasant however after 8/8:30 the swords of meat became less frequent and the red meat (the main reason to ever come here) was non-existent, this was disappointing as due to my process of having a mid meal digestion break i missed out of eating my fill, however in future visits i will change this process, or go earlier than 7:30.
The sides are mostly barely mentionable and are mostly there to break up the meat flavours, The salsa being the only one of positive mention (i liked the combination of the salsa with the red meat and rice), however the others were either bland, not worth mentioning or in the case of the Falafel, not worth it.
All in all i believe this place is worth visiting, purely for the red meat, the drinks (especially those with the Brazilian spirit cachaca) are wonderful, but an early wind down makes this place reasonable but not one of my favourites.

The main meal they serve the Churrasco, costs 35 dollars a head and is all you can eat. imported beer is 6.9 dollars and a caprianha is 8.9 dollars

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.