Date Night: XO-Lounge, Perth

After a week of harsh self-abuse, it was finally time to dress up and stop that stupid university rubbish.  Exams, assignments, projects.  What in the world is UWA up to this year?  Broken data, crappy lecturer.. oh my the list miseries goes on!  Putting that aside, I had a gorgeous dinner night with the little darling!  We went to XO-Lounge located along the Exchange Plaza on Wednesday night which marked the start of my Easter break!

 

 

We ordered the XO-Antipasto ($40) to share.  The antipasto had four assortments in it:

-Char grilled veal and parma ham kebabs, spiced romas and sage crisps.

-Sherry cured ocean trout bruschetta toped with salmon caviar.

-Spiced king prawns, fresh coriander, chilli and lemon preserve.

-Smoked buffalo cheese tart, caramelised onions and tossed walnuts.

The prawns were bursty with yummy flavours.  The lemon wedge is a must squeeze on the prawns as it made it taste so good!  The kebabs were special with combination of meat that somewhat reminded me of a Vietnamese meat skewer!  It was good too!  The buffalo cheese tart was “OK” and it reminded me of the Pizza Bianca served at Olivers! 

And the ocean trout bruschetta ahah, I didn’t have any but darling said it was not bad.  Looks nice though, but that slice of raw fish didn’t seem tempting to me at all @@!

 

For our mains, little darling ordered the Tasmanian salmon ($38).  The fish looked delicious on that mountain of vegetables!  But that scoop of paste which I thought was made of sundried tomato tasted of “sambal” instead and that was absolutely weird.  Otherwise, I think the fish was super yummy!  I couldn’t resist asking some from her too.  The fish was well cooked with the outside leaving it light pink in colour while the inside tended to be darkish pink!  Yums!  The vegetables were cold and so I think its some sort of cold salad. 

 

And for me, I ordered the Black Angus Steak ($52) served with homemade crunchy wedges and with salsa roast tomato.

This one I must insist was very very very enjoyable.  The steak was cooked to medium with perfection.  Darling couldn’t resist and had a few mouths of that juicy tender steak.  BUT DAMN it is SMALL!  Two Angus fillet steak was no bigger than half the scotch fillet I had the day before!  But damn it was good.  Wedges were another highlight.  One of the best homemade wedges I have ever tasted.  Not some dodgy  home made French fries which I’ve had many times in burger bars.  But at $52 dollars this is quite heavily priced even though not as dear as the dry aged steaks. And one think which left me puzzled was the sauce on the steak.  I have absolutely no idea how that green patch turnout to be the roast tomato salsa.  But putting colours aside, the sauce which I got was pretty good too!

 

The night wouldn’t be complete without our sweet accompaniment wouldn’t it?  We ended our night with some yummy desserts!

Chocolate and  Cointreau  Mousse ($18) wrapped in chocolate fudge, orange caramel and a pistachio biscotti.  A good level of sweetness with a line of smeared jam and rwarrr!  But biscotti was on the hard side!  Not that it matters as the main focus was the chocolate mousse! :)!

 

Glazed lemon and cinnamon crepe ($16) filled with lemon mousse and a blueberry and ginger compote!  Darling like the way it was presented with the super tempting crispy crust of burned sugar on the crepe.  Blueberry and ginger compote was fresh but hmm didn’t taste like any ginger was in there =/.  More importantly, it satisfied darling’s sweet tooth.

 

At the end of the night we were smiling.  Would this pass the serendipity test? An accidental experiment than turn out beautifully!  What was happier is that while our entire bill totalled to $164 dollars!  And that was excluding the bottle of white wine which we brought home too which would place the bill somewhere around the 200 dollars mark!  But with the coupon I got, it was 90 dollars for this very yummy dinner.  It is really quite funny how much we enjoyed it considering how lowly people rated this restaurant!  I was surprised how much darling and I enjoyed the food.  The service was decent but tended to be slow at the start.  Took awhile for them to confirm our meal and awhile for water to be served.  Otherwise, the service was attentive and good!

 

WenY

Bites: Cream @ East Perth

Placed in the suburb of East Perth, Cream is a little establishment which have steadily attracted diners from all over.  All the positive reviews for this restaurant left little room for mistakes if any at all.  Upon entering the restaurant we were guided through the dark and intimate ambience to our cosy corner, and oh, how can I not mention the furry carpet used on the walls! Once we were seated, the waitresses promptly gave us each a menu and offered us a choice of bottled or tap water. Tap water of course! ahha.   Can’t be too spendthrift on drinks when the price of the food is rich, isn’t it?

 

The interior @ Cream, East Perth.  It was a lot darker than this so I adjusted the brightness of the this picture a little!

 

 

With temptations all over the menu, we took awhile but finally decided on our food!  Most of us had the crumbled stuffed scallop with wasabi served with Thai noodle salad and teriyaki lemon sauce @ $23!

 

The dish was beautifully presented on the plate with the crumbled scallops surrounded by swirls of teriyaki sauce.  Unfortunately, the first bite took all that excitement away! :(!  The crumbled scallops were just too hard.  Of course it wasn’t rock hard but the batter needed effort to be bitten through and it was all for naught (my palate was left sore, still is).  The scallop hidden in that batter was too little!  I personally taught that the dish would taste a whole lot better seared on half shell with the Thai noodles placed carefully on the top of the giant scallop flesh! Then the chef can swirl the sauce wherever he wants to eheh!  I do not think the dish is worth of praises surrounding it.

Another entree that we had was the salt and pepper squid with a Thai Salad.  Not sure it tasted but Kevin definitely preferred the one served in Chinese restaurants!

 

Once we were done, the attentive staff  swooped in for our empty plates and cleared them in a flash before setting the table up for our main.  I must insist at this point that the service here is kick-ass! Lovely crew of waitresses!  For our mains:

Kevin, Sis and Fishman ordered the Red wine infused slow cooked baby beef served on bed of mash @ $35 each!

This dish wasn’t much of a “looker” but fishman enjoyed the tender beef much; occasionally praising it to be well done for slow cooked meal.  I had a bite and it was delicious on the first bite, but I was not convinced for seconds.  But I didn’t have a choice, as birthday boy Kevin was totally saddened by the beef and gave him half of his meal while I traded some of mine.  He didn’t like it at all ahahaha.  My sis too wasn’t able to justify the price. 

 

The darling and Xin Nee shared a slow roasted chicken breast served with Risotto and mushrooms @ $35:

How would Malaysians describe this?  Well, it looks like something we call Lo Mai Kai or Chinese glutinous rice with braised chicken and mushroom sauce.  The girls felt that the Risotto was overly blend and there wasn’t any effort to make this meal appetizing. They also felt that it was a little too sickening for them.  I thought so too as the chemistry of this dish felt a little like hospital food.  Take a look at the Risotto I had at Blue Waters Cottesloe here and compare.  The one at BlueWaters cost $22 dollars while the one above cost $35!!

But the night wasn’t all doom and gloom because I was WINNING!  My meal for the nite was the Crispy Roasted Lean Pork Belly with Strudel of pan caramelised apple, leek and goats feta @ $35!

Perfectly roasted, REALLY LEAN. And OMG the skin was orgasmic!  Kevin hated his so I reluctantly gave him some of mine as I mentioned earlier.  Every bite was accompanied by the lovely cracking sound as I bit through the crispy skin.  The sauce was OKAY, not sure what it was really.  The Apple Strudel was a good change from the typical accompaniment, the apple sauce.  All in all, this dish was perfect.  I’ve seen the face of YH when he ordered the one at Byrneleigh (that sucked) and this was way better.  A class act for sure.

 

It was a happy night for me, but for them, not so. lol?  Overall this restaurant is pretty decent.  Not mind blowing, but alright.  The entrees could have been more well done and perhaps the mains needed a bit more appeal.  Nevertheless, the same couldn’t be said for my main of crispy roasted pork belly as it was definitely a winner. But considering the price we paid for our meal tonight, this restaurant is definitely an average.  You could easily find better food for such price unless ambience is top priority.  But credit must be given to the attentive crew of waitresses who served us throughout the night!

 

WenY

Bites: Toast @ East Perth

Toast has been popular among breakfast groups and food bloggers in Perth.  I have been dying to go Toast for awhile now, but I did not get a chance to do so until last week when Xin Ling’s dad was here!  So on his last day here I brought him, Jh’s dad and Xin Ling there.  While we didn’t know whether the place was going to be superb or not, the energetic and friendly staff helped me to a good start!  Breakfast menu was aplenty with some special dishes and of course, the usual brekkie food.

 

To help kick start the morning (although it was already 11), darling and I ordered a hot choc each, while the two uncles had their cappuccino.

Slurps!  The hot choc was super chocolaty with a nice touch of art on the froth!  It was yummy although I would have liked it to be more milky!!

 

While I would not usually fork out 20 dollars on a meal of vegetables, James St. Cafe changed my mind. I decided to go for the Vegan full breakfast. 2 Poached eggs, toast, stuffed mushrooms and a corn cake was all this plain Jane had to offer. But being plain isn’t all that bad. Generously spread the butter over the toast before smearing egg yolk all over the toast turned out pretty good! Don’t forget the saltiness of the stuffed mushrooms and the sweetness of the corn cake, woots! The tomatoes could have been more well done though!!Perhaps roasted with garlic and cheese like my aunt does it? eheh!

I like this picture a whole lot.  Not so much for the food but rather the three main colours, red, yellow and blue!  Feels like a Piet Mondrian art piece ;-)!

 

Darling decided to have toast with poached eggs and bacon!  Look at the picture and feel disappointed, but don’t judge a book by its cover!  Underneath those two thick toast are generous servings of rasher bacon and two poached eggs!  Two eggs seems to be the limit at these brekkie places.  No idea why!

How wrong can bacons and eggs be?

 

Once we were done, we felt like we had rocks in our tummy!  Despite having all vegetables, the breakfast felt really solid and heavy!  And as you would have guessed it, the breakfast last me through lunch until dinner!  Darling on the other hand couldn’t finish her meal and so I jumped in for some bacon action hehe!  Hey, the tomatoes needed salvation ok?!  Xin Ling’s dad finished the cappuccino and had the walnut and pecan bread.  He was overloaded too!  It was good to come here.  However, comparing John street to Toast, the vegan meal at John St. cafe was a lot easier to chow down.  Possibly it was because the dishes in the meal were a lot juicier like the mushrooms and the beans made the meal more digestible!   All in all, I wouldn’t mind coming here again but probably I will have something else next time :P!

 

WenY