Sakura & Obaltan

Sakura 3.5/5
Obaltan 3/5
This double post is born out of the fact that i have been too lazy to post in a long time, also in the future i am going to take a camera with me to enhance this page from just text.

Sakura
9 Gladstone Road Highgate Hill
Sakura could be described as in Highgate hill, but by foot the best way is from South Bank Station (Vulture St) and on the corner of vulture st and highgate hill.
Sakura is easily one of the best Japanese restaurants in Brisbane, and i would say in my opinion has some of the best sashimi the capital has to offer, apparently being run by an ex-sumo makes your sashimi the best around. The staff are attentive and efficient, and the Ala carte food good, however in both times i have been there i have failed to get the hot pot (i suspect being the best part of the restaurant) however whilst the individual dishes are not the greatest to be found in Brisbane, starting off with a plate of sashimi will leave memories of fantastic food that will last beyond the above average mains. Additionally Sakura is fully licenced with a wide selection of Japanese beers (Yebisu!!) Sake, and also Shochu (Shochu Calpis highball!!). Also Sakura has the option of buying a bottle of Sake and if failing to finish it on this visit allows for the holding of the sake until your next visit (up to six months i think). Prices range from $15-$50 for food
3.5 out 5



Obaltan
91 Elizabeth St Brisbane City
Obaltan is a Korean style BBQ place in the row of Korean restaurants around where skinnys music used to be. From outside or inside the restaurant it appears to be well designed, with a nice aesthetic and at lunch or dinner a fair number of diners. Forgetting the main dishes on the menu other than charcoal BBQ (why go to a BBQ place for anything else), the food is quite good, with tasty and substantial cuts of meat ready for you to cut with scissors onto the grill. Oh i forgot to mention the grill sits over a tub of burning coals providing the meat with charcoal flavour, this is opposed to other BBQ places where gas is used to heat the grill. The table bells (a regular feature of Korean restaurants) assure prompt service, and the presence of Hite beer on tap provides many a pint to have over lunch, particularly recommended over lunch is cucumber soju, as its cool refreshing taste combines well with the bitterness in Hite, all of which combines well with the charcoal flavour of the meat and spiciness of the kimchi. My only real problem with this place is the price, which will undoubtedly end up over $50 each, however for a great dining experience i recommend it with a 3/5.



I've also eaten at Hunan Chinese restaurant recently, and while it was alright, and the service was excellent (admittedly we did eat at 3:30 on a Sunday) i wouldn't recommend it due to the presence of better restaurants in the area, and the food was just alright.

I need fellow diners to try out some restaurants I've been meaning to see for a while.
Contact me

Madtongsan 2

Madtongsan II
85 Elizabeth St, City
3/5
The rating i gave this place is probably a little out of whack. Mostly because i love bibimbap and everybody who knows me, knows that the two madtongsan's in the city are two of my favorites. especially for lunch and now with the presence of tap hite (which at least madtongsan II you can get by the jug) which makes the idea of spicy hot Korean food even more appealing, just writing this post makes me want to go back.

Madtongsan 2 is a fantastic restaurant evidenced by the fact that most of their single dish menu is under 15 dollars and most of their hotpots (for two or more) are under or around $30 and the fact that on Sunday lunch time it is difficult to get a table for more than two people.
So on this particular Sunday lunch time my lunch partner and i were able to get a table for two at about 1pm. When you are seated at your table, they usually bring round the complimentary Kim chi, and provide you with chopsticks and a spoon, service is easy due to the use of call bells on the table that bring the waitress to your table and the presence of jugs of hite beer (13 dollars a jug at a restaurant???!!!) means your first order is always known (unless of course you like soju)

We proceeded to order with no hesitation, knowing exactly what we wanted from the menu, two bibimbap's (mixed vegetables and rice with raw egg and chilli paste) and a jug of hite, the beer coming almost immediately, food a little longer, for those who haven't had Korean food before i know of nothing better than kimchi and beer. upon arrival of the food the usual stirring up of the bibimbap and the devouring that comes soon after proceeded as normal for me with my cold non stone pot bowl, my company however took longer due to the furnace like heat emanating from the stone pot ("dol soot" and the heat is a good thing) the dish came in. The food was of its usual high quality. i would recommend going here anytime you have free.

again my blog writing is rubbish, however hopefully ill learn to write better soon enough.

23/05/2010 Update

A couple of things, firstly i apologize for the terrible writing of the bishamon entry, first go's eh?
secondly i have been talking to some (all) friends about this blog and some of them are keen on guest reviews, and seeing how a lack of money (credit) has stopped me from getting out to review establishments worth eating at there hasn't been a review in a while. Which brings us to today's scathing review of James st Bistro in the valley. Yesterday i went out to James st to have lunch for my cousins birthday. Personally i would not have chosen the place after about 5 seconds of perusing their menu (i'm pretty sure they classify themselves as modern australian gah!) but everyone knows family events. i won't deny that family events are hard to cater for, christ you need to cater for all tastes, because in all family's there is guarenteed to be at least one vegetarian, one person who only eats red meat, and at least one person who doesn't eat red meat and prefers not to have the vegetarian option (its sad but most places only have one or two vegetarian options unless they are a designated vegetarian place). heres the rating for people who don't won't to read a page of text.
James St Bistro
unrated

if you're curious why i didn't rate, only restaurants of a reasonable level get 1 /5 , and service at this place would have been 0 on a regular reviewers scale, i can remember waiting up to 20mins for a drink and then informed that they didn't have that bottle of wine and waiting another 15 mins for the wine to arrive, on top of that there was at least 10-15mins where there was no water on the table, and i can remember quite vividly the look that our somewhat deshevelled party incurred upon entrance to the establishment.

onto the food, whilst the tapas tasting plates that we started with we're of passable quality a lack of oysters ruined the anticipation of such a plate to arrive, with its lack of stand out members to show any value for the 40 dollars it cost for 8 of the tiny plates, but somehow the tasting plate turned out to be the highlight of the day, for the mains (they only do mains at lunch and are still somehow a bistro?) i ordered the wagyu beef burger, and the people around me ordered steak sandwiches and one the vegetarian option which amounted to parsnip and carrot and almost nothing else. the wagyu burger was somehow tough and tasted dry even though the centre of the burger was appropriately pink, the duck egg being the only redeeming feature of the burger(the duck egg on the burger was the highlight of my dining experience). the people who had steak sandwiches suffered from the problem too many brisbane steak sandwiches suffer from, steak so tough (overcooked as well) that the provided steak knife has as much trouble as it would through a piece of fried blade. all in all the food was not of the necessary standard to even consider eating at.

Bishamon

3/5 Bishamon is a Japanese restaurant at 500 Boundary St Spring Hill
approx $20-$30
Sorry if this entry is a bit vague but I'm operating on blurry memory. I went to Bishamon a few weeks ago on a Monday night and arrived fairly late (for Brisbane on a Monday) at about 8:30 pm, at the start the service was pretty fantastic and our beers (Yebisu) were very prompt, we were also given a complimentary egg cube? with some sort of onions which was somewhat tasty. we skipped entree due to the lack of finances at the time and instead one of my partners and i ordered the Shabu Shabu (a sort of group beef hot pot) our waiter informed us that the shabu shabu could come as a single hot pot or with unlimited meat and vegetables for only a few dollars more, we optioned for the unlimited hotpot, our other friend ordered an entree alone (vegetarian).
The Shabu Shabu came out quite quickly and with a giant tray of vegetable and another entirely made of meat, the only fault being that the vegetable tray wasn't entirely mushrooms. all in all 3 and half trays of some of the finest beef i've had in Brisbane were eaten between my friend and i with a significant portion of the food uneaten we left to have our inevitable meat sweats.
as the night went on the service got worse but that may have been caused by my personal raucous attitude that night or by the fact that we got there approximately an hour before closing time.
regardless of any failures Bishamon is a fantastic restaurant definitely worthy of revisiting in the near future.

Introduction

Hey, this is my new food blog i'm writing up, i am reviewing all the restaurants i go to from this day forward and posting it in my blog. ill also be reviewing anything else i think needs to get out there, like butchers, bakers and the sort for the quality of their food. If you think i should review a place go ahead and tell me about it, food is the most important factor in a places rating, service and decor take a far second place.
thanks and i hope you enjoy reading this blog.