Gourmet Star -Review

Rating: 1.5 / 5 stars

Well this place was just such a let down. I really was tempted to give it a fail rating but then it is still a new place and the char kweh trow was not bad. But jeez it was just terrible. The location of this new restaurant was the old Satay Mu, a place that our family recently used to haunt as its on the way from where I live to Perth. We normally call by this restaurant and this time we had found it changed owners and was now the Gourmet Star Restaurant. It actually had a lot of customers, my only reasoning was that it was cheap, it had a good location, or the day I went it was just an off day. It served dim sum, in which we ordered a wide variety of dumplings, and the usual chicken feet and char siuw pow. They were awful, the dumplings especially, they had obviously been frozen dumplings. The dumpling skin was thick and chewy and not fun to eat, the filling was tasteless, and there was no delicious freshly cooked smell. The combinations were actually gross, I didn’t even finish mine, one bite was enough, I even gave it the benefit of the doubt and tried a bite from each of the dumpling types we ordered and they all were awful. The chicken feet was ok, the car siuw pow was not brilliant, with more covering then actual filling and their “chinese donut rice flour roll” had a badly balanced sauce, and for some reason was really really oily. The lunch menu however was better, the char kway teow was good and the noodles was not too bad, so hopefully they either really improve the dim sum menu, or just scrap it completely and focus on a good, fresh lunch menu.

Either way I won’t ever be back, and will mourn the loss of Satay mu.

Merrywell – Review

Merrywell is fantastic, american, pub style food. We visited the place for mum and dads wedding anniversary and the food was great. Quick service, fun atmosphere and lovely finger food. This is a new branch restaurant at Crown Casino and it is great! The only problem here is the parking! Never go on a day when there is a play on, music event on, or pretty much any event on…or take the train or bus.

Rating: 3.8 / 5 stars

This is a great place to relax and unwind to with a group of friends. A lot of the food is shared like the juicy, succulent mini slider burgers that just fell apart in your mouth. Lolipop buffalo wings with blue cheese fondue, fiery mojito lamb chops – which were delicious by the way, and featured above, and New England Lobster Rolls which were just bursting with flavour. This was a great place for us as we love sharing food and trying lots of different dishes together.

Ten Ten Kitchen Review

Rating: 3.8 / 5 stars

Jeez so much fat bleugh- not here, sorry don’t mean this place at all- this place is great, I am talking about my lab class. I have a dissection class and gross!!!!!! Seriously you do not know how much fat is in the human body, and it just oozes and goes everywhere, it looks just like custard. I delightfully managed to flick myself in the face with bodily fluids (lost my grip of the forceps) and ugh, it ended up all over me. I couldn’t even go home to shower straight away as I had back to back classes till 6pm, my own smell made me nauseous. Later that night I even sneaked into the laundry room at my old college as no way was that fluid filled lab coat going into my washing machine- absolutely NO WAY! Not that I don’t enjoy the class, it’s my favourite out of all my classes, its soooo cool 🙂 I managed to dissect out the sternocleidomastoid muscle today, I also got the chance to dissect around the skull, and found the frontalis muscle and superficial temporal vein. I know this sounds gross so I better stop before I put you off your food! Anyway at the moment I’m writing this up instead of doing my prelab- seriously if I have to do any more study on the scapula I’m going to need 17 cups of coffee! (Favourite number- not just a random number of cups of coffee that I drink, I only average 5 a day!). Before I start rambling again I better get on with the review, so here it is!

mmmlaksa, delicious! This is one of our family’s favourite haunts, it tastes great, the price is really good and don’t forget the easy parking at the back! Seriously though I’ve been eating the laksa for years, its got the perfect balance of flavour, with just enough coconut milk to make you come back for more. I honestly don’t even remember what other dishes that I commonly eat here because all I ever order is the laksa! Lol we did eat here a week ago though so lets see what I remember… the beef rendang is standout and will have you mopping up the sauce with your rice until there’s no more, and my brother just loves the noodles. The Hainese chicken rice is popular and very tasty and I love the fact that they put sambal in the fried rice 😛

The service here is hilarious though “You want, you don’t want?” in other words they’re rude and obnoxious…. but the food’s great! Its not so much rudeness, but asian brashness I think, because sometimes they’re not too bad, it really depends on the day. Also their opening days vary, and don’t ask the staff because they don’t know thenselves, one time we wanted to go on one of the public holidays and we specifically asked the owner if she was opening that day, she said yes, we drove all the way there only to find it was closed. Then somedays when they told us they’re closed we’ve driven past and found the restaurant packed like sardines!

Anyways, regardless of all this it is still one of our family’s favourite restaurants, and we’ll always keep coming back as long as the food stays brilliant and the sun keeps shining away!

Broken Hill Hotel restaurant Review

Rating: 3 / 5 stars

The road to broken hill is hilarious! So my grandma wanted to go shopping in vic park, and because it’s holidays and we all have nothing to do, we figured why don’t we all come along and then all have lunch together. My brother is very much a steak person and so we figured why not try out the balmoral hotel. So being the avid food OCD researcher, I googled the place and checked out what it was rated etc. The one idiotic thing that I forgot to do was research where the hell the place was…. not so bad if you’re pretty ok with directions and can do it on the run (i.e. like all normal people out there) I on the other hand get lost everywhere. Somehow I inherited no sense of direction, seriously, friends have to pull me in the right direction when exiting lecture theatres as I always go the wrong way! Anyway after shopping, my mum – who thought she knew where the place was pulled up behind the hotel and we went in through the back. Because Vic park is relatively small we thought it had to be the place, because two hotels so close to each other would be silly right……apparently not. Now being the unobservant people that we are, we ordered while chatting away, and thoroughly enjoyed lunch, it was so good we figured why not check out dessert (while patting ourself on the back for discovering this place). The menus come back and then we realise…holy crap we’re at the wrong place!!!!! It was hilarious, we were all pissing ourself laughing afterwards, we’d managed to eat an entire meal without realising where we were, thank god the food was good, otherwise we never would have order dessert, and I would have probably written a terrible review on the wrong place!

Anyway I’d better write about the food now otherwise you’ll think I’m just a crazy, no sense of directions, unobservant person (which I pretty much am, but hey at least I still manage to find good food at the end of all my crazy journeys!).

So we ordered the fish and chips and…..gasp it was actually fresh! flaky, and delicious, their homemade tartare left something to be desired but the dish overall was great, with plenty of flavour and a nice salad to go along with it. The crispy pork belly was much too sweet for my liking though, and the crackle missed that teeth hurting crunch. Their prawns with lemon and chilli dressing was very nice and light (beware the garlic though! good thing they give free breath mints at the end!) and the steak sandwich was perfect pub food. It was odd that this place was so empty though – maybe because it was a Monday but it was great for us as the service was fast, and the staff were great.

For dessert we shared the sticky date and rum pudding, which was mmmdelicious. They managed to make it so it wasn’t over sweet, and it wasn’t too heavy. It really finished out the meal nicely, overall I really liked this place and would definitely stop by again the next time we’re in that direction.

Wise Wine Restaurant Review

Rating: 0.5 / 5 stars

It is unwise to eat at Wise today,

For tongues may writhe in bitter salads plate.

Parchment is moist compared to veal’s dry way

and polenta is shaped like ugly weights.

—

Poor little duck, its life destroyed, for what?

An average dish, with bland green flan and pears.

Its wine detracts, but beers ideal ? Give up!

A winery that can’t match wine, BEWARE

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Pasta’s black ink can strike the artists eye,

But clumps and scorched small prawns destroy the taste.

Only the view inspires my mind to fly,

or Shakespeare’s wit to write reviews when spaced.

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Bad food, and little cost? mmm… no such luck 😦

In other words, refrain, don’t go, it sucks!

Top left: Margaret River venison with polenta. Top right: Nero Tagliatelle mare. Bottom: half duck, spinach & truffle oil flan, caramelised pear.

…….. please excuse the sonnet its been a long dull day………… anyways in case it wasn’t clear it sucks.

The Studio Bistro & Art Gallery review

I finally found it! A place that has the mmm factor. It has it all, the charming location, delightful staff, and delicious food.

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Hot smoked Tasmanian salmon, waldorf salad, and apple jelly

It was two hours of pure bliss, I was in foodie heaven. It had the perfect amount of deliciousness and atmosphere, that my family just loved. It was exactly what we needed for a relaxing holiday lunch. We managed to arrive 20mis early – as the kitchen doesn’t open till 12, which was actually perfect timing as it gave us a chance to check out the art gallery. It was beautiful, with many landscapes by local artists that captured the South West idyllically

So lets start with the entrees, the salmon was delicious. It had that melt in the mouth texture, the perfect crunch from the apples, and the correct sweetness from the jelly. It was truly  a dish that fell together. With four of us sharing two entrees, it was gone in the blink of an eye. The second entree that we ordered was one of the specials – note to any future eater of this restaurant- Don’t order the specials.Both the main and entree specials that we ordered lacked the panache of the menu based orders. The entree was a prawn and sardine dish, however the prawns were not brilliantly cooked, and did not seem particularly fresh, tasting extremely fishy- whether they were poorly cleaned, old or were just cooked weirdly idk. The sardines however were great and the salad average. However with 33.3% of the dish being a let down I wouldn’t likely go for this dish again.

The barramundi was superb- it was a flaky and succulent fish, matched with a artichoke puree and grapefruit salad that just dissolved into a salivating mess in your mouth. The Tenderidge fillet steak and royal blue chips with Cafe de Paris and roasted mushroom had a mouthwatering sauce, and the wines matched brilliantly. The special- crispy pork, unfortunately was a little overcooked and loaded with beans to try to coverup this dryness, and regardless of how crispy the crackling may have been the result was not satisfactory.

The desert was a delight. The chocolate and prune tart was just plain mmm, and the pistachio creme brûlée exceeded my wildest expectations, with the rhubarb compote perfectly countering the brûlée’s sweetness.

Crisp skinned Cone Bay Barramundi, Jerusalem artichoke puree, grapefruit and crab salad

Warm chocolate, prune and brandy tart, creme fraiche Chantilly and chocolate custard

From the top left clockwise: Pistachio creme brûlée, mandarin tuile and rhubarb compote. Prawn and sardine entree. Crisp skinned barramundi(shown in picture above). Crispy pork main.

This is definitely a restaurant that I would come back to!