Stolley's Grill @ Ballajura, 6066

Stolley's Grill = tasty affordable meals :)

*ceebs reading? Scroll down to the bottom for a short summary!*

 

After purchasing a scoopon/groupon voucher for this place last year..it is now one of my favourite local cafe/restaurant. It's a place where you want cheap tasty comfort food. The menu has changed a bit and now Stolley's menu consists of maily burgers. A bit sad because I enjoyed the other items in his previous menu such as the "gym junkie food options"

Everytime I have eaten here it has always been consistent but enough about that :P 

Lets review the food!

Came here on a Wednesday evening with my sister-in-law and nieces (Foodie adventure with MIRI!)

Is the place kid-friendly? Besides the high-chair there were no plastic bowls & cutlery for the kids which was a bit disappointing. I was really worried that Miri would break the plate! xD

Ribs with mash & salad - $16.90

One of the main purpose coming on a Wednesday is for the lamb ribs for only $16.90 comes with mash and side salad! 

My sis in law ordered that, I did try a bit of it though, the meat was not the fall-off-the-bone type ribs but it was soft and tender. The sauce was BBQ flavoured - nothing special about the sauce (kinda tasted like BBQ sauce from the bottles) but it tasted ok but I don't think I'll order the dish for myself though (I am quite picky about how ribs should taste like!). My sis-in-law enjoyed it a lot though and it satisfied her ribs craving! 

I would definitely recommend this dish especially for the price, flavour and serving! Totally worth your money IMO!

Stolley's Fried Chicken (6) Meal (small german frites & 350mL drink) - 

The chicken - it was fried nicely, crispy on the outside and still tender in the inside. The skin was covered in seasoning & spices which gave it a bit of saltiness and flavour but I think it tastes better when you dip it in the Stolley mayonnaise.

The german frites - tasted like your normal chips you can get at your local fish&chips store but covered in different spices. A nice twist to boring old chips!

Stolley's burger $9.90

Stolley had a special promotion for the week after discovering the perfect beef bacon! So if you were to order a burger/sandwich you can request to add bacon for free!

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it because it was for take away as my midnight snack hehe.

I was a bit upset when I realised they forgot my bacon but meh, I'll be back to try it :D

Unfortunately for my burger it was missing onions..but I didn't mind..would taste nice if there were some though. 

When I took a bite, you can taste the creamy and spiciness of the mayo, sweetness of the balsamic glaze and a juicy char grilled patty on a toasted turkish bread with fresh iceberg lettuce and tomato.

The burgers are tasty - I particularly like it cos' you can see the chopped onions and spices in the patty. 

Summary:

Service: do not expect fast service as most of the time it's a one man show doing everything - cooking AND serving you especially in the evening. When it's not busy, he'll come up and talk to you... check if everything is fine.

Food: 

• Lamb
• Pros: cheap, good value for money
• Cons: Soft but not fall-off-the-bone (I don't eat much lamb though, so maybe it's just the type of meat?). Sauce kinda tastes like the bottled bbq ones.
• Stolley Fried Chicken Meal (6)
• Pros: chicken is crispy yet still tender inside, not so oily - chips: a nice twist to boring old chip
• Cons: needs a bit more seasoning if were to eat it without dipping the mayo
• Stolley's Burger:
• Pros: nice burger size
• Cons: nothing so far :)

Overall: It's my one of my local favourite. Definitely give this place a try if you want tasty cheap eats. They serve halal food, and have chicken wing eating challenges!

 

Food: 4 /5
Atmosphere: 3/5 

Service: 3.5/5
Will I go back? Yes!
Recommended? Definitely! Cheap tasty food! why not?! So if you live around the block, give this place a try!

 

Click here for Stolley's Facebook page : He updates his page regularly with specials of the day or if the shop is closed due to off-site catering!

 

 

Red Opium, Thai-inspired tapas @ East Perth, 6004

Located just the opposite of The Perth Mint is an awesomo hidden gem, a Thai-inspired tapas restaurant - Red Opium.
If I were to walk down this street, I don't think I'll ever notice this restaurant.
My friends and I came here on a weekday evening. We were excited to try this place out because:
#1 it's in the entertainment book ;P (cheap asians hauhauah)
#2 they had a tapas menu
#3 unique names for their dishes

They say, never judge a book by it's cover. So don't be fooled by the entrance, you'll be amazed once you enter the restaurant. 

These photos does not do this place justice ! (I need a camera :( Someone want to donate ;P? ) The concept and decoration of the little restaurant is amazing. It felt like you were in a different part of the world :)

What was so cute about this place is that there was a mini chalk board with my name on my reserved table. 

Now lets talk about the food & drinks :)

Cold Thai Milk Tea - $4

My friend ordered this but I did have a sip of it. It tasted nice haha that's all I can say. But my friend said it tasted like Teh-C

Thai Iced Coffee - $4
Personally, the coffee didn't taste strong at all (which I like) and it was super sweet (just how I like my coffee :D) Definitely give these drinks a try!

Small Plates: Yin & Yang Dips - $12.80

The Yin & Yang dips comprised of: Papadum, creamy prawn & minced coconut dip, fresh cucumbers, minced pork and tomato dip and crackles.

One word: AWESOME!

A great sharing starter. I was expecting a strong sweet coconut flavour.. but there was none.. and I was glad that it didn't as well. 

The minced pork and tomato dip had a slight hint of spiciness but I wished it was spicier!

The manager kindly offered more papadum after we finished ours.. and surprisingly we said no thanks.. what were we thinking? (totes lost our inner asian-ness :P HAHAHA) 

Small Plates: Petite Satay - $7.80

They came out in 4 mini skewers. I have had a few bad experience with chicken satay sticks. Usually the chicken is dry or the sauce is just crap but not at Red Opium! It was soft and tender and definitely not dry. I recommend this :)

Small Plates: Mixed Entrees $10.80

So this is what you get; Vegie spring rolls, potato wrapped around a prawn, crab claw and steamed chicken. Honestly, there wasn't anything amazing about this mixed entree but what I really enjoyed was the crab claw ! Unlike the few crab claws I have tried which are stringy, floury and tastes fake xD The crab claw at Red Opium had the flakey meat yay!

Other than that, there wasn't anything special. Everything was fried til it was crispy and they drained the oil enough :)

Soup: Tom Yum (Extra Spicy) - $7.80

I like spicy stuff and from my experiences.. When I order something extra hot... It really isn't that hot but daymn..don't be fooled by the clear broth of this to yum soup! It is packed with flavours and boy..was it spicy..delicious spicy! So for you tom yum spicy lovers out there this soup will not disappoint you at all!

The waitress offered me some cucumber cos' she saw me struggling finishing the soup since it was quite spicy ..and to think I wanted to grab extra chilli as well....

Big Plates: F-Duck - $23.80

I've only tried this type of curry once before and it was a crappy experience (and I was put off fro ordering this dish ever again from any restaurant) but after reading all the rave about this dish I just had to give it a try!

And I was glad I did! I can't say much about the dish...you have to go try it out yourself :P

Big Plates: Pad Thai - $14.80

So we order the vegetarian one.. taste wise - it was okay, no wow factor and nothing special about it - but didn't taste horrible. Not something I'd be like "OMGOSH YOU MUST ORDER THIS"

Dessert: Assorted Ice Cream (mango, mangosteen, coconut) 

Unfortunately for us we went on a weekday.. Penny told us that there was a larger selection of desserts available on the friday (?) & weekend only.
So we ordered the 2 types of dessert that was offered on a weekday.
The ice-cream tasted awesome. Nice and creamy.

Dessert: Mango Rice Pudding
I'm not a fan of this dessert (but then again, I never liked rice-pudding), however my friend enjoyed it a lot.


Overall: Awesome!!

Food: 4 /5
Atmosphere: 5/5 
Service: 5/5 Wonderful service
Will I go back? Yes yes yes!
Recommended? Definitely! I came here using the entertainment card, but will be coming back regardless if I get discount or not!

Seoul BBQ Cafe

Sooo I was craving Korean (especially the spicy marinated pork), but I didn't want to go anywhere that is pricey (sucks being a poor uni student who enjoys eating out!). So where did I decide to go? Seoul BBQ Cafe ! The little cafe is located in a corner in front of red dot. This place is provides quick service and cheap delicious food! Their menu is small but they are very consistent with the flavours of their food!

When dining in at Seoul BBQ Cafe, after ordering, you receive a ticket with a number on it. When the food is ready, your number is called so you can pick it up at the counter and then nomnomnom away!

So here is what my bf and I ordered:

Chilli chicken
These were so delish - wished I had a bucket of it !!!
They were crispy and the meat wasn't dry, and the chilli sauce covering was actually somewhat spicy! You could taste each element of the sweet chilli sauce that is covered on the chicken nibbles, the crushed chilli, garlic and fish sauce!


Meat Combo Set - Beef Bulgogi & Crispy Chicken
Each set always includes miso, kongnamul muchim (seasons beansprouts), some sort of sauce(depending what you order) and a small serving of salad (lettuce & tomato with sweet mayo drizzled over)
The crispy chicken... was well... crispy (just like how it should be!)
It tasted like kaarage chicken you would get from Taka but less oily! It's totally delicious! :D

Beef bulgogi (Beef marinated in a sweet soy sauce)
The best thing about this beef bulgogi is the marinade! You can really taste the marinade on every single piece of meat!


Meat Combo Set - Pork & Crispy Chicken
I LOVVVVVVVVVE PORK BELLY!
Every time I eat here, I always, MUST order the pork belly. Why? Because pork belly is yummy but the marinade for it makes it  more yummier! The marinade has a small hint of spiciness and the fact it's cooked on a bbq absorbs flavours from the juices from the meat that was previously cooked on there!

The only downfall of this experience was that there was a person smoking nearby =___= but I highly recommend it if you want a quick, consistent, tasty Korean food! They also do take-away ;)

Food: 4 /5

Atmosphere: 3/5 

Service: 4/5 Quick fast service! 

Will I go back? Yes yes yes!

Recommended? Yessss, especially if you want a quick casual tasty lunch. 

The Alexander Bar & Bistro

The Alexander, I came here because I purchased a scoopon deal for it hehe (yeeee unleashing my inner asian :P lol)

So the deal costed me $39 which included: 2 drinks, sharing platter and 2 mains (awesome deal yeh!?)

When first entering into the tavern, it looked really dull, dark and lacked decor but they had a nice outdoor area. I was quite indecisive with which drink I should order because I haven't tried any ciders before (besides rekordelig) I asked the waiter to recommend a sweet alcoholic beverage and he recommended -  Canadian dry beer (?). He said if I didn't like the taste of it, I can order something else :) 

The beer had a sweetish gingerish flavour, couldn't really taste the beer flavour - It was quite nice..

ENTREE

Sharing platter - Turkish bread, feta cheese, olives, roasted capsicum, chorizo and dip.

There was nothing really special about the capsicum, olive and feta.

The chorizo tasted okay, it had peppercorns inside which I liked, but other than that, it looked/tasted like there were not or any herbs and spices in it..

But the dip..... It was so nice! I had no clue what it was but just tasted nice hahaha,

My homie ordered steak, medium rare. We specifically asked to have the mushroom sauce seperately so then the chips dont go soggy hehehe. As you can tell it was chargrilled, it was cooked nicely as well, but it didn't taste that great. Maybe it was the quality of the meat? I'm not too sure...

Ribs

So I ordered ribs.. I totally lurves it when they just fall of the bone and melt in your mouth but unfortunately this was not the case :(

My ribs were very chewy, dry and tough. I kept chewing and chewing and then I gave up and just ate the chips and salad instead. It was definitely not slow cooked which was unfortunate because it had the potential to be an awesome dish! The bbq sauce was great!

Nevertheless, the service was great (but then again, we were the only ones there haha)

I will be going back to try other stuff on their menu mainly because I live so close to them and  it's in the entertainment book :P(but I won't be ordering the ribs ever again!).

The Alexander is available in the entertainment book with the offering - receive a complimentary main meal when another main meal is ordered.

Food: 2.5 

Atmosphere: 3.5/5 

Service: 4/5

Will I go back? Yes.. once more because it's in the entertainment book ahah :P

Recommended? Indecisive - still need to try their other food before I can decide!  But based on that one experience only, no (because of the ribs).

Modo Mio!

I've only been to dinner at Modo Mio once before but I remember that I loved service, atmosphere (loving the lighting!) and the food there! 

So afterrrrrrrr so long I finally got the time to go back for the Lunch Specials (cos I'm too cheap to go for dinner bahaha)! The options are:

• Due Piatti  Pasta or pizza & your choice of starter or dessert for $38

• Tre Piatti  Starter, pasta or pizza & dessert for $46

I went with 3 of my mates and we decided to share our mains together since it is more fun that way :D we recieved complimentary bread that came with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and pink salt :)

Here is what we ordered;

ENTREE

 Garlic Bread

Unfortunately, the garlic bread wasnt tasty.. The bread was quite chewy :( none of us enjoyed it :(

MAINS

Spaghetti Cabonara 

Surprisingly, I think this is the second time in my life that I've eaten cabonara at a restaurant (it's because I am always either ordering a pizza or ravioli dishhehe) so to be honest, I do not know what authentic tasty cabonara tastes like but with this dish, I found it really cheesy (so did my friends) ..not creamy at all, I couldn't taste the delicateness (?) of the egg :(. It tasted like macaroni and cheese but replaced with spaghetti pasta :P 

Spaghetti Bolognaise

With this dish, there was nothing I could fault. It just tasted awesome .. Or maybe it's because it was my first meal of the day and everything just tates nice when you're hungry :P

What I enjoyed about this dish was that it was not watery and the sauce meat was stuck on the spaghetti .

Pizza Diavola (chorizo, olives, red bell paper, anchovies, cheese, tomato base)

 My my, this pizza was literally 3x the size of my face! No joke...looking at it made me full hahaaha. 

The pizza was quite disappointing, there was wayyyy too much sauce & it was salty, the base was soggy (understandable because it was sitting on the plate but can't they think of alternatives of serving the pizza to avoid the soggyness?) and damn those anchovies were salty! Wished the broke it up a bit instead of having the full pieces there.. 

 Pizza asigo e pollo

same goes for this pizza, heaps of sauce & soggy base + needs more chicken!!

DESSERT

Panna cotta alla vaniglia, mele al caramello e sbrisolona

It tasted awesome!! I just want to go back just to order their pannacotta hehehe :D

Everything went well together, the sourness from the raspberry sauce, crunch from the crumble, sweetness from the apple and silky creamy pannacotta yumyum

Personally, trying the pannacotta by itself was too creamy for me, so with the extra condiments made is perfect for my palette :)

Cioccolato fondente con gelato alla vaniglia

It was my first time tasting this! I would always see it on cooking shows anddd NOW I finally get to taste it. 

Not being a chocolate-fan this was delish! The crunchy texture on the outside and the warm running chocolatiness in the inside mmmmmmmmMMmmmmmMmmm :D 

Here's just a picture of the tiramasu, I only tried a bit so I can't say much! My friend said coffee lovers would really enjoy this dessert. 

Overall, it was an okayish experience.. the service was wonderful though :) I'll be back though to try their other food heehe

Food: 3 (entree & mains were a tad disappointing but the dessert made it better hehe)

Atmosphere: 4/5

Service: 5/5

Will I go back? Yes!

Recommended? Yep!

Modo Mio

http://www.crownperth.com.au/Restaurants/Premium/Modo-Mio/About

Mochachos - Warwick

After months of anticipation Mochachos has finally opened today! YAYERS! Mochachos is franchise Mexican fast food store that just opened at Warwick.  I've been waiting for so long since there are no decent near-by Mexican chains near my crib =_= 

 Anyways, so my bro & I decided to grab take-away for the family and guess what? they have drive-thru! (yaaaayers to not needing to change out of my PJs!). So obviously, we went through drive-thru, the employee seemed to lack knowledge of the menu since he seemed a bit lost after we ordered a family feast (which consisted of a whole chicken, beegest chips, and 4 bunz) & the base 'dynamite' (the spiciest option – we were the first customers to order that =D). He asked us which one is that? He then gave us the menu, so we could point it out but he still seemed lost. I guess that’s okay, since it their first day opening the store and the employee must be new or something. 

We waited a while at the drive-thru..wasn’t sure why though, but the manager (I think) offered free coffee/ hot choco and apologised for the wait. The wait didn't bother us much. So after I don’t know how long, we finally got our order and we also got some free choc chip cookies :D

(Please ignore the background haha)

 The chips, I am not too sure if it was a mistake or not… but it was definitely not “BEEGEST”.. it was a smaller portion than I expected – (could only serve one person!). Despite that, they were crispy chips, sprinkled with periperi salt (please correct me if I am wrong) 

The "bunz", were just sesame burger buns you can purchase at the supermarkets.

 The chicken…well they were spicier than Nandos “extra hot”. It was cooked nicely, the meat was tender. My tongue was on fire so I couldn’t really taste the flavours. But that’s all I could say. It wasn’t like “woah this is tasty shiz, I gotta eat more”.

 I will be going back to try it out their other food (I hope their quesadilla is tasty!). I don’t think they were at top-notch today since their employees still seemed under-trained and it was kinda busy for them today.

Address: Shop 24, 639 Dorchester Ave Warwick, 6024 (Next door to McDonalds & Warwick Cinemas)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mochachoswarwick