Yamagen

I love Teppenyaki. Yamagen did not disappoint.

The girls and I headed out for a nice dinner and ended up here, mainly as it was part of the hotel we were staying at and therefore rather convenient.

Our cook was hilarious, and made the evening memorable with silly jokes and great fun on the hot plate!

We chose an $80 set menu and a bottle of Pinot Gris to keep us going until we made it to the bar at Stingray.

Again, I highly recommend this place. The favourite part of my meal would probably have been the scallops and the steak fillet. The food just keeps on coming and you can’t keep up with it! I couldn’t finish my fried rice and was left with a very full belly. Not complaining!

Unfortunately, as I am lactose intolerant I definitely got the worst end of the deal when it came to dessert. While Lauren and Alescha got to enjoy brandy snaps, I was dished up some lemon sorbet with a sprig of mint. Ah the joys of dietary requirements.

Great service, very attentive waiter, a hilarious cook and delicious food makes for a very enjoyable evening. 

How Bazzarr

This place is just gorgeous. Located upstairs in QT hotel, you must go here for breakfast and I am sure that the other meals will be just as fantastic.

Set out as a market it is amazing just to look at the way the food is presented.

Imagine what you would like for breakfast... It’s there. HUGE variety.

I loved the way their juice section was set out, with daily juice bottles set out for you to choose. Fresh and full of flavour I could have sat there all day nibbling.

I had a few hot options – bacon, scrambled eggs, tomato, hash brown and then headed off for some museli with fresh berries and heaps of strawberries washed down with a daily juice. Was full and happy as can be. Perfect way to start the day! 

Kinsei

I hate bad service. It's even worse when there's only a few customers around and staff are obviously not doing anything.

Finally got their attention to seat us and they basically said go wherever you like and left. They then forgot to drop off menus and I spent ages trying to get someone's attention to being two for us.

Then they didn't take our orders... Again, finally got their attention and made out orders.

Took ages for our entrees to come out. They were quite good, scallop with apple sauce and pine nuts.

My main came out first and Celia motioned for me to eat. I held off a while then got into it as I presumed hers wouldn't be far away. I was wrong. She had ordered the pan fried salmon and a waitress came out to say sorry, that the chef was just filleting the salmon so it would be a while. I was half way through my mean at this stage.

My meal was poor. I had the Kinsei Bamboo Basket - supposed to be a risotto with Brie and seafood, it was just gluggy rice with 2 mussels, 2 prawns and a piece of calamari. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.

When Celia's eventually came out, I had massive food envy. Salmon was cooked beautifully.

Complete opposite to my last experience here which was good service & good food.

Won't be going back!

Celia's Meal

Harajuku Gyoza

Awesome interior - Harajuku Gyoza

Sake Sake SAKEEE!!!! Summimasennnnnn!!! Sometimes I can't tell if they actually have something to say or whether they're just yelling for Vacuum bags are amazing!!!! fun of it. I expect the latter.

I LOVE the atmosphere at Harajuku Gyoza, it's just so fun and exciting! Between staff yelling, dancing, the music and the design you're never quite sure where to look in case you miss something.

A huge open kitchen allows you to watch with a watering mouth as your Gyoza is cooked. You can choose to sit at a private table or at the bar surrounding the kitchen. Both are good.

Dumplings are made to share so grab a buddy and choose a whole bunch. I usually go for prawn, duck and pork. Pan fried mmmm.

I usually get the cucumber miso salad to accompany it with some edamame and a Kirin, delicious beer to complement the Gyoza. Mouth is watering just writing this.

I made an amazing discovery here the other day. Basically it's tempura eggplant. Holy wow. Melts in your mouth. Try it.

The other awesome thing is the dessert dumpling. Yup you heard right! You can choose from Nutella an banana, deep fried with ice cream - my personal fave or the peanutbutter an white choc with ice cream. Also yummy.

Guess where I'm going to have to head for dinner now I've written this?!

Do yourself a favor when you visit, order Sake. Even if you don't want it or like it - it's just fun :)

Prawn & duck gyoza

Kirin

Bad dumplings

Ran out of time when we were running around Melbourne and so headed in here after I could't find any Sushi!

It's cheap, very cheap, and there is a reason why. Service was slow and food was horrible. The dumplings below were in a strange batter, not sure what but tasted like an under cooked pancake.

The next lot of dumplings we had were better but still not nice at all.

I wouldn't return.

Best on Hamilton Island - CoCa Chu

CoCa Chu - Hamilton Island

CoCa Chu - best on Hamo!

I can not even describe to you how amazing the food at CoCa Chu is.
My mouth is watering just thinking about it. If you're on Hamilton Island you MUST visit.

Coca Chu is an Asian infused restaurant, fine dining in a casual area, right on the waterfront.

While it can be a little difficult to find the place (maybe it was the two mojito's I had earlier and my obvious lack of geographical knowledge) but is worth a little wander in some beautiful tropical gardens to find.

Lobster mmmm

We were lucky enough to be friends with a great guy who had been invited by the Chef to check CoCa Chu out, he in turn invited us and next thing I know there is a table of 16 of us making our delectable way through an 8 course tasting.

I had no idea about this restaurant, what food it served, what style or what to expect and due to dinner the night before being less than average I suppose I didn't have high hopes. If I had had high hopes, even these would have been exceeded. The food is superb and the service outstanding.

As we had a tasting menu, I have no idea what half the things we ate were, however I will try to explain. All dishes were served in the middle to share.

Dish 1: lobster with herbs & spices. You took the lobster and spooned some into a leaf which you wrapped up and ate. I'm a huge seafood lover and they were off to a fab start!

Dish 2: Soft boiled Duck? eggs, crumbed and with a barbeque like sauce. As you can tell I have no idea really what this was. I wouldn't have even tried it I it weren't for the Swashbuckling Pirate egging (get it?) me on. She thought it was great. So I put the half serving in my mouth, and was pleasantly surprised. Not only did I like it, I wanted more. I ave now learnt that these are called Son in Law Eggs.

Dish 3: Next up, steamed pork gyoza. I'm a huge gyoza fan and have become a little picky. These were amazing. I had Swashbuckling pirates share too.

Whole deep fried snapper in Chinese herbs & spices

Dish 4: Corn fritters with a. Sweet chili sauce. Not sure I'm doing these justice by calling them corn fritters.

Dish 5: Rabbit curry with rice and pickled cucumber & mushrooms. Must admit this was my least favorite dish but only because I'm not a huge rabbit fan. I wasn't concerned though as there was more than enough of the other plates to go around!

Dish 6: This was up there with one of my favorites. I'd never tried it before and I loved it so much that I am going to attempt to make it! Pumpkin curry with vegetables. Oh my wow. I'm in awe of this dish.

Gorgeous Gyoza

Dish 7: Whole deep fried snapper in Chinese herbs and spices with a tropical salad. Chef's specialty - and I know why. Yumm!!!!

Dish 8: Fresh lychees, raspberry & mango sorbet and green tea ice cream. Perfect finish to a scrumptious meal

Complements to the Chef!!

Near demolished desert

Most amazing Pumpkin Curry, pic doesn't do it justice.

Sushi Tram Station

Thought I would check out the $3 sushi train night at Sushi Tram Station in Stones Corner.

Not all that impressed. Had to wait a while to be seated, then our table was quite far from the train and closer to the other tables.

Sushi was average, gyoza was below average, edamame was cold and the service wasn’t attentive.

Verdict: Won’t be back.

Fat Noodle - Brisbane Treasury Casino

Heard a lot about this place, being Luke Nguygen’s newest baby and all but I wasn’t that impressed.

Interior is very casino.. it looks like it belongs there. The strands hanging from the roof with woks were interesting and my friend mentioned they looked like ‘falling noodles’ which would make sense really!

I wasn’t that impressed with my meal.. pork and prawn wanton noodle soup. Big servings, and the wantons were nice but the broth and noodles were average. Pete had the Singapore noodles which he really enjoyed.

Service was good. We had to wait to be seated but once we were they immediately bought over a steaming tea pot of green tea and were attentive.

I did love the lychee and lemon soda however – they have an interesting drinks selection with sour plum lemonade also on my list to try!

Ginga - average at best

We visited Ginga on my Birthday, after roaming aimlessly around South Bank and deciding on Japanese.

Really disappointed.

Edamame was over cooked. The shell was falling apart.

When I enquired as to whether someone had an iPhone charger that I could place my phone on the staff looked at me like I was crazy.

Staff weren't attentive, I had to keep asking them to come over, very stand offish.

We ordered bento boxes and with the amount of cheap, fresh and delicious Japanese places around Brisbane you would assume you woulf get something decent for $30.
The teriyaki chicken was very dry and mine was partially cold. The tempura tasted oily and the dipping sauce has little flavor. Miso however was nice and so was the scallop.

I wouldn't eat here again, especially with so many other nicer places around South Bank.

 

Cha Cha Charming

Cha Cha Char lives up to all that I have heard. It's a nice restaurant, with great, attentive service and fantastic food.

You will notice that half the pics I have here have already been slightly demolished. The meals were so scrumptious I kept forgetting to take pics!

We chose a bottle of New Zealand (of course, I'm ever patriotic) pinot gris, and by we, I mean Sean chose us a lovely bottle of wine!

We were given a complimentary tapas plate.. not sure what it was now but it was a nice gesture.

The wait staff were lovely, and always filling our wine glasses. Maybe that's why I liked them so much? Luckily they ensured my water glass was always full too.

So we started by sharing an entrée of half a dozen oysters, done in pairs in different ways. There was the 'natural oyster' with lemon, a wagyu oyster which was topped with minced chilli wagyu... surprisingly nice, I liked it considering I don't enjoy mince or much chilli! And of course your kilpatrick oyster, done to perfection. Could have easily gone another half dozen! Or three...

For my entrée I had the scallops with chorizo and mash. Equally as delish as the oysters. Scallops melted in my mouth and I even enjoyed the chorizo and mash which aren't usually high on my list!




For my main I went for the crab ravioli with morton bay bugs. As far as I was concerned that was all that was on the menu. I know it's a 'steak' restaurant, and don't get me wrong, I love steak. But put something like that in front of me and I'm gonna choose it! It did not disappoint. The pasta was perfectly cooked, the filling amazing and the morton bay bug perfection. Needless to say I was pretty impressed with my meal.

Not sure if I need to put a disclaimer on about drinking half a bottle of wine and perhaps my senses being partially blurred here.. however I do think if I had it again minus the bottle of wine I would still be just as impressed.

Sean, of course, went for a steak. He was impressed, and the man knows his steaks! He even liked the sides that accompanied his meal. Maybe that was the wine too?

Sean was most impressed with the ceiling fans.. they ran on a connected belt across the ceiling. Not entirely sure why this was impressive but men like strange things so I guess we will just put it down to that!

We mmm'd and ahhh'd about desert before finally deciding on the choice we both knew we would eventually come to, yes we would indulge. I chose the toasted marshmallow with warm poached pear... mmm it was like being at a camp fire but without the cold wind, wet ground and with poached pears... perhaps not so much like being by a camp fire at all.

Worth a visit if only for the crab ravioli and oysters!