Capri Cafe bar, FORTITUDE VALLEY

Capri is an Italian & pizza restaurant located within the stylish emporium complex. I’ve always known Capri to be there and it became a place I said I would try, but never made it around to going, so when Dimmi’s offered a 50% off you food bill sale, I jumped at the opportunity. I was also aware of the recent negative reviews on Urbanspoon prior to visit and to my delight; I’ll have to disagree with those reviews.

We were looked after that night by a friendly gentleman who was attentive and very knowledgeable of the menu and really helped us picked the perfect dishes and serving sizes. We were seated with our menus and table water and then left to peruse through their extensive menu which consists of several entree/share menus, mains and a long list of pastas, risottos and pizzas. We eventually agreed on the beetroot and walnut arancini, followed by a belinni pizza and sand crab and scallop risotto to share.

The arancini was served with a bed of roquette and side of feta cheese. The colours on this dish were spectacular and although I was quite sceptical about the choice of ingredients, the flavours were nice together and the size of were very generous; 4 large arancini per serve which is more than enough for two people. The arancini could have been a bit crispier on the outside, but all in all a decent dish.

Beetroot and Walnut arancini with roquette and feta (minus 1 i already started eating)

While we waited for our mains, our water was refilled and we were offered a 2^nd round of drinks. They have a few interesting choices when it comes to international beer which we loved as other restaurants' beer choices are getting a bit samey and you don’t ever get the chance to try something new.

Our mains arrived and we were quite impressed, if not a little overwhelmed, by the serving sizes.  The pizza was pretty big and barely fit on the large dinner plate and the risotto, although not visible at first (or evident in my photo), fills up a deep plate-bowl.

Bellini: Air dried beef rib fillet, mushrooms, bocconcini & mozzarella

I was quite impressive with my pizza with the base being one of my favourite pizza bases to date. It was rolled at the perfect thickness and cooked until entirely crisps on the underside and crust yet still remained soft in the centre. Biting into the base was similar to the amazing sensation of biting into grilled Turkish bread; not something you often get from fast food pizza chains. Toppings were tasty and we enjoyed every bite of it.

The risotto had great flavours and real pieces of crab and scallops. The only downside to this dish was the rice being slightly undercooked which made the texture a bit unpleasant, but it wasn’t far off from the mark and was still quite delicious so we were happy to keep eating it. Flavours were excellent in this dish and the scallops were cooked perfectly.

Sand crab and scallop  in a seafood bisque risotto topped with roquette and Grana Padano cheese

After mains, we were stuffed and had to turn down the offer for dessert. Our tables were cleared and even though we were no longer ordering anything, the wait staff kindly continued to top up our water glasses while we sat and let our stomachs settle.

We thought the service was excellent on this particular night. Our waiter, and the female trainee nailed the sequence of service and was timely and non intrusive with their table checks. Everything we could want was offered to us and we never had to get anyone’s attention for anything. The waiter’s menu knowledge was great and he was friendly and helpful and remained patient while we decided. I liked to point out that it wasn’t a very busy night, but from what I saw, I was impressed.

I am glad decided to give this place a go, even though certain aspects of the meal could be improved, overall I sill had a very pleasant experience.

Food: 7/10
Service: 10/10
value: 7/10 (not based on vouchers redeemed)
Atmosphere: 8/10
Overall:  8

-wd

Motto motto, GARDEN CITY

After much anticipation, I finally made it around to Motto Motto to see what all the fuss is about.  Motto Motto sets out to be casual Japanese dining, offering quality meals at affordable prices so if you’re after a quick and hassle free meal, but wanting something that is a step up from fast food, this is the place.

The menu is quite simple but still offers a variety of ramen, rice bowls, breadrolls, salads and several sides to choose from.  It is also a licensed venue and has a few Japanese beers on offer along with non-alcoholic flavoured fruit ciders.

Watermelon & Peach fruit cider 

I was extremely excited about these fruit ciders and was expecting the most amazing drink in the world...turns out they were just cute bottles of carbonated water with artificial fruit flavourings. They were tasty for what they were.  

On this particular visit, we started off with some chicken karage followed by red ramen and the wagyu beef roll on brioche. The chicken karage was a bit of let down. It wasn’t crispy, lacked flavour and was very dry.  There were times when I was taking bites of batter that didn’t contain any chicken pieces at all. I don’t usually leave food behind, but my partner and I struggled to get through that one. Luckily our main meals weren’t a disaster.

Chicken Karage & Kewpie mayonnaise

  

The wagyu beef roll was delicious and looked great. The marinated beef was soft and tender while the salad was fresh and crisp – all in a lightly toasted brioche. Filling to bread ratio was perfect, which as we all know, makes or breaks a sandwich of any sort.

Wagyu beef roll on brioche

Red Ton-kotsu ramen was served with couple of pieces of pork belly and half egg and pickles on the side. The soup, advertised as “12 hour pork superstock”, was tasty and full of flavour with mild heat to it. Although it isn’t the best bowl of ramen I’ve had, it was very filling and satisfying and would make the perfect comforting meal for a cold night after a long day at work.

Ton-Kotsu Ramen (red)

The venue is set up to be fast paced and although turnover is generally quick, the venue does has limited seating and gets quite full during peak lunch/dinner hours, so if you aren’t prepared to wait a little while (or sit against a glass wall facing another diner awkwardly) then opt for takeaway and sit on the beach chairs just outside in Town Square. Service is good for the type of venue, its super quick, super efficient and friendly enough to make you feel welcomed.

It might not be my first choice when it comes to casual Japanese food, but it’s good enough that I’ll definitely be popping back in to try the rice bowls the next time I finish work late and too lazy to cook dinner.

Food:  7/10
Value: 6/10
service 7/10
Atmosphere: 4/10
Overall: 6.5

-wd

Baguette Bistrot + Bar, ASCOT

Baguette is a long time French restaurant residing in Ascot. It doesn’t look like much from the outside as you first step into the venue and enter via the bar, but it opens up to a spacious yet intimate seating area. We were seated between a large shelf showcasing their wine list and a beautiful garden with fairy lights and water feature to set a relaxing ambience.

Sticking to popular French cuisine, we started off with the Foie gras parfait which was served with caramel apples, feijoa relish and crostini. The parfait was soft and fluffy and spread across the toasted bread with ease, it was smooth, full of flavour and delicious that paired well with the sweet caramel apple. I didn’t really enjoy the feijoa relish but I believe that just came down to personal preference as my companion seemed to think it tasted fine.  The only downside to the plate was the crostini was a little burnt around the edges but that really is was a minor issue in a great dish.

Duck liver & foie gras parfait, apple caramel, feijoa relish, crostini

Up next, I ordered the lamb rump served with garlic risotto and cabernet sauvignon jus. I thought this dish was excellent.  The lamb was beautifully pink in the center and was tender and juicy all through while the risotto was cooked perfectly; rice was not too hard or too mushy, which is somewhat a common problem when ordering risotto. Fava beans added a nice texture to the dish which i really enjoyed.

Rump lamb, wild garlic risotto and fava beans, Cabernet Sauvignon jus

Thoa ordered the fish (being salmon on that particular night) with king prawns, artichoke, baby potatoes and chorizo. I had a sneaky taste of the fish and though it was good. The fish and lemon sabayon sauce are amazing together however the she mentioned that it would have been nicer if the skin was crisps all through. It wasn’t advertised as crispy skin salmon but i guess you expect it seeing as most places do it and it works so well with salmon.

Sautéed king prawns, artichoke, baby potatoes, chorizo, spinach, lemon sabayon

The flavours and seasoning were excellent in both mains, not once did we even had to think about adding salt or pepper to our meals. Serving sizes were big as well, big enough that after entree, wine and mains, we were too full to have dessert, which is something I’m still regretting. I’ll have to order something lighter next time so I can fit in dessert and possibly some cheese.  I do hope that next time I dine here though, there will be a bigger selection from their fromage menu as I only recall a choice of four cheeses.

The service was good; we were treated well from the moment we arrived to when we left. Wait staff were attentive and friendly and did everything correctly and promptly. Everything was offered to us and we never found ourselves wondering where our food was or asking for our water to be refilled. We even got some friendly byes from the chefs behind the pass on our way out. All in all a very pleasant experience at Baguette and is definitely a place I’ll be revisiting in the near future.

Food: 9/10
Service:10/10
Value: 8/10
Atmosphere: 8.5/10

Overall: 9

-wd

Hatch & Co. GARDEN CITY

My partner and I took a stroll around the relatively new dining precinct at Garden city. Hatch & Co was one of the few restaurants that stood out from the crowd being the most aesthetically pleasing. We sat outside next to the water features and coloured lights which were gorgeous and romantic especially on a quieter night. We had high hopes for a good night but sadly the service and food was not up to scratch.

View of garden city's town square from out table

Prices for the mains were reasonable, cheaper than we were expecting for a place such as hatch & Co. I was however a little confused about their share menu, apparently most of the items were sold as a single piece and you had to order multiple ones before you can share it..which really defeats the purpose of a share menu. I hope they were decent in size at least because $5 for a single leek and Gruyere croquette seems a little hefty. We ended up choosing the lamb dumplings and some chips to start.

Dumplings were presented nicely and I quite enjoyed them. The lamb and yoghurt is always a great mix, spices and seasoning were on point. The chips with chilli salt and aioli were amazing and probably some of the best hot chips I've had in a while. I am aware that they’re only chips but the amount of times I’ve been served undercooked and soggy ones, I no longer take good chips for granted. For $9 however, I was hoping for a slightly bigger serve.

Spiced lamb dumplings with herb yoghurt 

My crumbed pork wasn’t the most visually appealing dish, but it was a decent size cut which was crumbed nicely and stayed crispy till the end. The pork itself was a tad salty and only got saltier the further I cut into it and made it hard to enjoy. I thought the fennel slaw that was served with it would balance the saltiness of the meat, but it was heavily dressed with a vinaigrette of some sort making it really sour and the dish only harder to eat. Now, I am also aware that pork can be served pink, but the pork was a little too pink for my likings which wasn’t evident till I was more than halfway due to the very dim lighting.

Parmesan and Thyme crumbed pork cutlet with fennel slaw and aioli

I can’t say much about my partners woodfire ½ chicken, nor am i able to provide a picture, but from what I recall of it the ½ chicken was very much on the small side and the potato bake it was suppose to come with was literally three slices of potato garnish. The stand out of the dish would have been the fried kale, but even then the kale wasn't too impressive.

Service could do with much improvement- it was practically non-existent that night. 

For starters, after requesting a table by the water and the waitress agreeing to set it, she was in no rush to and forgot to come fetch us afterwards so we were left waiting at the entrance not knowing what was going on. After finally being seated, it took about 10 mins before any menus were brought over and despite ordering drinks well before deciding on food, we only received them along with tap water a minute before entrees came out.

After entrees, nobody came back to reset our table so we were left without cutlery when our mains arrived. We had faith in the waitress noticing after dropping off our food and waited for her return, but after a few minutes we realised no one was coming back so I got up to get someone’s attention. Wait staff noticed me getting out of my seat but failed to see if I needed anything so I ended up having to approach the gentleman behind the bar. Our water glasses were eventually refilled by a disgruntled waitress who made it quite evident that she did not want to be serving us.

We decided not to stay for dessert and asked for the bill..but we would have been fools to believe one would be sent out to the table so we got up and went straight for the counter. It wasn't a busy night; there were only 10 other small tables and four people on the floor, so it was a bit disappointing that the wait staffs weren't a bit more attentive. No one was doing any checks or making any real effort to serve us. No one was even around in our section during our time there.

Overall, I found the whole experience to be very underwhelming, especially having paid $75 for dinner and two drinks and the best thing to come of it was a small bowl of chips. I could have gotten more and better elsewhere but it was worth a try. Would I come back here? Not any time in the near future, but if I had to it would only be for a drink so I could make use of the seating area.

Food:  5 /10
Value:  4.5 /10
Service:  2 /10
Atmosphere:  8 /10

Overall:  5

- wd

KU-O, SUNNYBANK

KU-O is an adorable Japanese restaurant on the edge of busy Market Square with beautiful decor, intimate booths, and colourful Japanese paintings along the walls. The place isn’t sleek and stylish like most modern Japanese restaurants, but looks more or less traditional and offers a comfortable and cosy atmosphere. It’s a lot more quiet inside compared to other restaurants in the area and really makes you forget about the manic scrambling to find a car park along with the notorious crowds of Market Square just outside.  There is limited seating and I can see this being a problem for peak dinner time and weekends, but for a Friday lunch, we had no problems getting a booth.

True to Japanese hospitality, we were greeted enthusiastically by all the staff as we entered, shown to our table by our waitress who offered us menus and left to let us ponder over the choices. KU-O offers a variety of meals such as Donburi, Yakitori, Oden, Sashimi, Agemono and Udon noodles soups. They even have meal sets to choose from as well as a couple of salad options.

We started off with a serve of cuttlefish oden and crab meat croquettes. There were only two pieces of cuttlefish balls but costing $3 we weren’t expecting any more than what we got. I still think it was a good choice as they were tasty and left us with a nice hot bowl of soup to accompany the rest of our meal. The crab meat croquettes were crispy but I was a little disappointed in finding them mostly hollow with only a small amount of a paste like consistency within. The texture and lack of crab flavour made them a little sickening after one, which was a shame as I was really looking forward to them.

We were just after some simple lunch so decided on rice dishes; fresh salmon donburi for my partner and seared salmon for myself. The serving sizes were quite generous and both came with their own side dishes consisting of various pickles. I quite enjoyed my dish, there was a decent amount of seared salmon atop the rice along with more mayonnaise than any other restaurant would offer, free of charge. I had a sneaky taste of my partner’s raw salmon and believe it could benefit from being a little fresher, however, the flavours were still good and there was nothing to really complain about.

As for drinks, I do not recommend this place for coffee, my partner’s latte tasted like it came out from a domestic espresso machine with about 5 teaspoons of sugar added to it. I found it more amusing rather than disappointing though, it seems like it’s placed on the menu for variety and that nobody really orders coffees from there anyway...well, apart from my foolish boyfriend. They have a nice list of hot and iced teas as well as their “famous” frappes. I was a bit deterred from ordering a frappe due to the price, but they do look amazing and are gigantic.  I suggest maybe sharing with a friend if you were to order one.

Overall, I was quite satisfied with my experience. Service was pleasant enough, especially compared to what you usually get from elsewhere in the square. The waitresses were friendly and competent and food came out before I could even finish admiring the decor. There is definitely room for improvement but I was content enough with my food that I’ll quite happily pop back in for lunch (and a frappe) if I’m around the area.

Food: 6.5/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 7.5

- wd

Bucci, FORTITUDE VALLEY

Thoa and I dined here out of chance a couple of months ago. The restaurant we were intending to go to was closed for an unknown reason so we took a stroll around the area and were drawn in by the impressive decor and style of the place.  The restaurant was quite packed for a Monday night but we were seated promptly without a booking.

My initial thought after being seated was to do with how close we were to the tables on either side of us; it really took away from the intimacy of the place. I felt like I either had to speak louder so that Thoa could hear, or lean over so our conversations could be kept private. Perhaps ask for a corner table when making reservations, or one near the open plan kitchen if you’re not big on conversations.

It took a little while for someone to come back to take our orders but when the time came, we decided on starting off with some bruschetta from their share menu. The waitress then rushed off before I could place a wine order..maybe I don’t look old enough to be ordering wine? Whatever the reason was, it was only after we received our entree that we were offered drinks other than tap water.

House made sour rye flat bread brushed with evoo & garlic, topped with dressed local tiger prawns, avocado, herbs, roast corn & smoked chilli preserve

 I wasn’t quite sure what to think about the bruschetta, the sour rye flat bread just didn’t do it for me. I’m not a big fan of flatbread in general  so that might have influenced my opinion but it felt more like i was eating toppings on some hard rye crackers than eating bruschetta. I was also expecting more “smoke” and or “chilli” taste from the preserve, instead it was quite sweet and i would have mistaken it for a fruit preserve if I wasn’t informed otherwise. The flavours as a whole was very good though, they worked well together but still felt like it was missing a bit of kick. The gentleman next to me ordered the arancini, and I’ll have to say, i had food envy and that would be the first thing I’d order if I were to come back.

For mains, i had the gnocchi and Thoa ordered the cannelloni. I really enjoyed my gnocchi, the gnocchi itself was made perfectly; most times I’ve ordered it, it’s either had too much flour and was tough and doughy or had too little flour and became lumps of watery mashed potato that were falling to pieces. The dish was quite simple but full of flavour and the lemon oil cuts through the cured trout nicely.

Home made parmesan gnocchi with cured ocean trout, spicy Tuscan fish stew essence, lemon oil, woodland sorrel & lemon balm

The cannelloni looked great, I only managed to have a little taste of the actual bug filling and thought it was quite tasty, however my friend made a comment that the dish as a whole was lacking an element. The truffle & lemon wasn’t that evident in the dish and the dill was overpowering and didn’t balance out too well with the other ingredients. I believed she still enjoyed her meal overall though, as I certainly did with mine.

Moreton Bay bug cannelloni, oven baked with truffle, lemon & tomatoes

Our plates were cleared quite some time after finishing our meals despite the restaurant being half empty at that point.  We were not offered dessert or another drink so we had the impression that the waitress had enough for a Monday night and no longer cared about serving us so we made the decision to settle the bill and leave. Hopefully i’ll have something to say about dessert next time as the Bombolini (rhubarb compote filled doughnuts served with vanilla custard) and saffron Panna cotta (served with dark chocolate and anise crumble and gooseberry) sound quite tantalising. 

Food: 8 /10

Atmosphere: 7 /10

Value:  6/10

Service:  5/10

Overall:  6.5/10

- wd