More (possibly not so recent) dining out experiences

All of these are from prior to my trip away, so my visits were most likely over 4 months ago. I do just really want to clear my desk of notes about places (there is around a half dozen places still to go...)

Last Bus to Kathmandu

A local Nepalese restaurant that we ended up at when neither of the Thai locations were open yet and we were hungry already. They have a more open frontage than some of the other places in the area, with the window mostly being clear (just had the menu stuck up in it for passers by to look at. Inside there are tables along both sides of the narrow room, with an aisle up the middle that leads back to the counter and kitchen.

I decided upon ordering Puri Chat and Goat Saagwala, with a side serve of rice. I was dining with my partner, and I believe she had Butter Chicken. We also had a Butter Naan and a Garlic Naan, which we remembered at the last minute to remind them to send out in separate baskets. Garlic Naan will turn Butter Naan into Garlic Naan just by sitting on it, as we found out at one of our previous places. Not an issue for me, but Catherine isn't a fan of much garlic.

I'd been wanting to try Puri for quite a while, and the description of this one sounded interesting. "Deep fried crispy pastry served with yogurt, bhujia sev, sweet tamarind sauce and spices".

^{This didn't come served how I'd expected, but it was quite interesting}

When it came out, it was a plate with 6 golden balls (puri) around a large pile of a yellow/tan mixture (bhujia sev it would seem). The first surprise was that the puri didn't come filled, or even with holes in them to stuff the filling in through. This gave it a very do-it-yourself feel that I enjoyed, and allowed for personal adjustment of how much of the mixture and how much of the tamarind sauce I added. Creating the hole in them involved bashing the end of the spoon into the ball and enlarging the hole to a suitable size. The second surprise was that the mixture was cold. I'd really not expected that at all.

They were however quite incredible, with the potato, carrots, chickpea and spices coming through quite well. There was a bit of heat to them, but nothing really concerning unless you really can't do any heat. The sauce complemented the mixture well, and I found it best to spoon it into the hole after the filling and then putting the whole thing in my mouth at once to prevent the liquid making the puri soggy and more fragile.

I'd also really been feeling like having goat again, so when they offered many of their dishes in either lamb or goat options, I thought it was a good time to try their Goat Saagwala. It was very similar to an Indian Saag, which was to be expected from the basic description (lamb or goat cooked in chopped spinach). As with the description, it was fairly plain, and certainly nothing special. Some of the goat could have been cooked better, but for the most part it was quite well done and easy enough to eat.

^{It didn't occur to me to take photos until after I'd started eating, which is quite unlike me}

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Menu

Chat Thai, Westfield CBD

I went here on my way to gaming one Thursday, as it had been on my list of places to eat for a while, having come from the 50 meals list I've mentioned before. They didn't have the actual dish that is on the list, but I'm less concerned by that the more time since the list was published, as I recognise menus change over time. I wasn't sure what to order, so after a brief chat with the staff member that greeted me at the entry, I ended up ordering Gaeng Nuea Yaang, or "Grilled beef coconut curry with betel leaves", and a rice to go with it.

It was quite wonderful, and well worth the price. I'd like to return sometime when I've got more time to actually take my time over a full meal and maybe then I'll remember to take a photo of the food as well. I could have sworn I did, but it would seem not. For a chain thai place, which I'm sure has variability between the stores (as they seem to have a variability in their menu also, as well as style of dining), it was quite surprisingly good.

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Menu

Rocksia Hotel

Over the last year, I've been here 3 times, twice with my partner and her parents, and once with just the 2 of us. It's a pub with quite reliable meals, and you get a 2 for 1 discount voucher that's valid for a month when you aren't using a voucher (though we did get them when I used the Entertainment book voucher the first time we went!) This is a place that I'll go back to if someone wants to go out, but wants something more fancy than the RSL, but doesn't actually want a restaurant.

So, what have I eaten? I've had their steak sandwich when we all went there for lunch one time. Everyone else had one of the burgers this time. I found that the steak could have been slightly more tender, but it was really just trying to find something to pick on at that point. It was great, and came with a surprise of 3 onion rings on the skewer holding it together.

^{Seems that this is now $21, which might be a bit above it's value, but not much. Thought it was less when we were there.}

Another time, I had their Pork Belly with roast vegetables, which turned out to be more "Pork Belly with Roast Pumpkin". As a kid, I hated pumpkin. If pumpkin had been cooked like this for me as a kid, I'd never have taken 25+ years to work out that I loved it. It was the best pumpkin I've ever had. The pork belly was pretty good too, but I kept going back to the pumpkin (well, there was so much of it!) I think afterwards I even said to Catherine's dad that I was glad there was so much pumpkin.

^{soooo much pumpkin!}

I'm pretty sure the first time we went, I had the Chicken Schnitzel, which was also a pretty decent meal. As a result of these, I'd certainly suggest going there if you're a fan of a pub meal and are in the area.

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Menu

Ichiban Boshi

I do love my Japanese foods, and on my way to gaming on Thursdays I've twice grabbed ramen from Ichiban Boshi. The first time was in the food court in the basement of The Galleries, while the second time I went upstairs to their restaurant opposite Kinokuniya (which is a pretty awesome bookshop).

^{So strange having something deep fried on top of a liquid.}

The first visit I settled on Kaarage Ramen. This takes their classic soy based broth and noodles, and adds 3 pieces of Kaarage Chicken to the top of it. They sit partly in and partly out of the liquid, so when you eat them, you get a nice blend of the crunchy coating, the chicken, and a softer coating that has been flavoured by the time spent in the soup. I ate them first, so they didn't get too long in the liquid for the coating to turn to mush, but still had enough time that they had picked up some of the flavour of the broth. The rest of the bowl was as expected from a chain in a food court. It was tasty, and did exactly what it needed to. It wasn't spectacular, but still good. Plenty of noodles and a lot of broth.

^{much fancier upstairs in the restaurant}

This time I went with their Kimuchi (Kimchi) Ramen, which comes as a serve of their Shio Ramen with a bowl of kimchi on the side that you can add as you desire to the broth, or just eat as a side dish. Shio Ramen is a salt based broth, as opposed to the soy based one that I'd had on the previous visit. This broth seemed to have a better depth of flavour to it, even before I added most of the kimchi to it. I say most as I tried it first to check the heat before dumping it all in. As with the first ramen, there was a decent amount of noodles and a decent sized bowl of soup. Quite a bit of sweet corn kernels and in the only disappointment, only 1 piece of good sliced pork. I'd certainly have this again, but it would have been nice if there was 2 (or 3) pieces of pork.

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Previous dining out posts

Alphabet St, 360 Italian, Mary's, Sushi Rio
A local cafe