REVIEW: The Vietnamese



This place has been here since before I was born and is still doing a busy trade...that's got to be legendary in the restaurant scene.

Long before there was banh mi and rice paper rolls in every food court, there was The Vietnamese, a Valley icon serving up Vietnamese 7 days a week. With criminally cheap prices and one of the ever dwindling number of BYO restaurants, The Vietnamese has established itself as the perfect place to line your belly before a night out. We called in late on a Thursday night and even after 9 on a school night, the restaurant was still busy.


I took this as we were leaving after 10:30, so it's uncharacteristically empty.  

We were seated without much fanfare, no one's coming to The Vietnamese for the service - while the staff aren't rude, they're not going to walk you through the menu or be sparkling conversationalists. My feelings weren't hurt though, I'm though like that. After a few minutes, we signalled to the waiter that we were ready to order. For entrée, we ordered a serve of Vegetarian Spring rolls, $7.50 for 4. The spring rolls arrived as soon as they were ready and at the same time as the mains. Ain't no fancy fine dining course timing here!


Some nice hand modelling there.

The spring rolls were fine, each spring roll was quite large, hot and fresh. They didn't taste like the best spring rolls out but they also aren't out of the freezer and for less than $2 each, you can't complain.


FUN ROLLS! They are fun! You even get to open your own plastic bag!

My lovely lady friend ordered the Fun Rolls ($13.00), in Stir Fried Satay Chicken. The fun rolls are make your own rice paper rolls. I've never seen them called fun rolls anywhere else but I adore the name. And rolling your own really is a lot of fun! The dish comes with cooked rice noodles, crispy lettuce, mint and an insane amount of satay chicken as well as rice paper and a bowl of water to soften them in. It's messy and fun. The chicken was a little bit fatty though, but still delicious.


Before I customised it...

As has been documented on this blog here and here, I have a deep love for pho. Wikipedia has just told me that it originated in Northern Vietnam and spread through the entire country during the partition of Vietnam in 1954. So there you go. When you come to Cassie Cakes, it's not just about the food but the history as well. I should get that trademarked.

...and after! Love me some bean sprouts.

Anyway, so I ordered a bowl of Pho, on The Vietnamese's menu as Sliced Beef Noodle Soup. I ordered a large bowl for $10, the regular bowl is $9 and I thought, for only $1 more, why not go large? Because it's obscenely large, that's why. And I know this. Every time I go, I think, 'I'll get a regular' because I know I can't eat it all but then I see it's only $1 more for the large and here I am, drowning in pho. But what a happy death. The pho comes with the usual accompaniments and as usual, I add the chilli in by the tablespoon. The pho here is not the best, I won't lie, but it is good and decent, with all the desired flavours of coriander and star anise. And the price can not be beat.

And my feelings about the pho at The Vietnamese really sums up my feelings about the whole place. It's good, not amazing, but well priced, hot and fresh. And once you factor in how much you save with BYO, it's a great pre-gaming venue before a night out. Plus it makes me think of my friends and good times and that's nothing to be sniffed at.

Food: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Price: 4/5
Atmosphere: 2/5

REVIEW:Southside Tea Room



REPRESENT, SOUTHSIDERS! Southside born and bred, yo.

You'll have to forgive my somewhat lax blog post frequency. Our laptop has finally packed it in so I have to use our home theatre computer to do all my blogging. In theory, you'd think it would be awesome. Blogging on the big screen. But it's not as good as it seems. When you get home of a night, you feel like watching a bit of Bob's Burgers or True Detective while you do your blog. But with the television tied up with quality shows, there's no where to blog. I'm sure you're all hanging out for my every post (hi mum!) but please bear with me during my technical difficulties.


There are some seriously good-sounding brownies in this case.

So a few Fridays ago, I had the day off and so did Mr Cakes. He had been fasting for a blood test and after, we planned to get something to eat. Turns out, he had fasted for too long which we both didn't know was possible and was told that it had to be 12 hours precisely. What's a person to do but to break the fast...with breakfast!


That dolphin gives me the creeps. He looks like a sex offender.

Southside Tea Room is so close to us, it's embarrassing that we hadn't been before. I feel like I say that about a lot of places. I'm the worst foodie. Anyway, we walked down to the café, which sits on the very busy Wynnum Road. Southside Tea Room isn't in the prettiest of places but it does a roaring trade. I'm sure this is in no small part to it's cool factor. Owned by Patience and John of Brisbane band The Grates gives this café a serious dose street cred. Side note: I attended a house warming thrown by Patience and her housemates in Norman Park a long time ago. Am I cool yet? Totes.

Also creepy.

When we visited, not many other cafes on the strip had patronage. But the Tea Room only had a table or two spare. I thought this meant the cool factor was working, and hopefully, the food here is good. The décor at the Tea Room is something that has to be remarked upon. To say that the walls are adorned with eclectic items might be a bit of a stretch. It's more like the walls have shit that you would find on the street during a kerbside collection hung on them. And there was a large table of impressively cool young teens who looked they just stepped by on their way to a Woodstock re-enactment. But...it all works. It's a hip hole in the wall, a neighbourhood secret.

Why would anyone drink coffee when milkshakes exist I'll never know.

We sat down and after a quick perusal, made our choices. Mr Cakes has gone all coffee crazy lately so he ordered a long black ($3.70). I noticed that the coffee is from Dramanti (the 19-20-20 blend to be precise) whose café is near my work and all the coffee drinkers at my work are very positive in their appraisal of Dramanti blends. Mr Cakes was equally impressed and said it was  good, strong flavour. Southside Tea Room milkshakes often appear in discussions of the best milkshakes in Brisbane and y'all know me, I just can't pass up a milkshake. There are some very exciting sounding milkshakes on the menu, including Oreo, Strawberries & Cream and Nutella, but I like to stick to the classic Salted Carmel ($7.50).

Will you look at this thing?! Isn't it awesome?!

The waitress did make the wrong one and bought over an Oreo milkshake and oh my days, I had order regret. It looked amazing with mini Oreos on top. But she soon bought the salted caramel one over and it looked pretty exciting too. I'm not one for whipped cream but this whipped cream had 100's & 1000's sprinkles on top which made it a delight to scoop up with the long spoon. Plus there was a marshmallow on top! Presentation was really A+. The caramel flavour of the milkshake was good too with a good thickness. And I definitely tasted flakes of salt, which I love. But where does it rank on the Milk Bar? Check it out.


He can eat like a lumberjack but if I find an extra large pair of high heels, suspenders and a bra in his work bag, we might have an issue.

For mains, Mr Cakes ordered the Lumberjack ($22), which fitting as his face is hairy like a flannel wearing mountain man. The Lumberjack is two fried eggs, bacon, smokey BBQ beans, hot sausage, avocado and fried tomato on toast. He also got an extra side of haloumi ($4) which was a generous 3 bits, cooked really well. The meal was a big portion. Indeed fit for a axe wielding woodsmen. And I don't know where they get their sausage from but it was delicious, spiced and moreish. I got told off for stealing more than a taste.

Yum.

\I ordered to Huevos Rancheros ($16), which is corn tortillas, fried eggs, house black beans, salsa, avocado and queso fresco. Everything on the plate was just so good. And as a chilli addict, I appreciated the good quality hot sauce on the table and used lashings of it. The corn tortillas have to be homemade, they were rustic, soft and amazing. I broke up the eggs and avocado, roughly folded it all together on the plate then invited it all to the party in my mouth. Also, on both dishes, the eggs were cooked just how I like them with none of the whites undercooked and translucent but with the yolks still wonderfully runny. Well done.


My sombrero wearing friend.


If a café is cool but don't have the substance to back it up, people clue on and they soon close. Southside Tea Room has the hip factor, they are trendy in their undone, haphazard décor but the service is good, the food is delicious and the price is right. Maybe gravity won't get you high, but Southside Tea Room is certainly intoxicating.

Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Price: 4/5
Atmosphere: 3/5