Bites: Phong Vinh @ Northbridge!

Pho Pho Pho Pho Pho-ker face!  Noodles are not without substance considering the comfort it provides!  Cool weather paired with a piping hot bowl of noodles is my slice of heaven.  After getting stuck in the Kwinana Freeway jam for close to an hour, we reached Phong Vinh.  My sister has been trying to bring me to this place every since she tried it a couple months back.  She describes it as “Tra Vinh’s” sister restaurant.  Feeling super hungry yesterday night, I didn’t hesitate much and quickly ordered the Raw Beef and Beef Ball Noodle soup @$10.50! 

On the first sight, this hearty bowl of noodle soup looked like an exact replication of the one from Tra Vinh.  But after slowly eating spoonful after spoonful, I soon realise the flaws which  were not so obvious on the first sight.  The soup tended to be a little oily  which is rather unfortunate because the soups felt somewhat contaminated !=X!!  But I did not feel deterred to finish the entire bowl of noodles and was close to finishing the entire bowl at the end of the meal haha! I love Vietnames Pho man!  Especially with its fresh condiments scattered around it!

 

The girls ordered the “Drop Noodle” with chicken which to me was a very catchy name.  Drop noodle huh?  Sounds like something I would not put on my bowl ahah.  But no worries, it turned out to be an udon-like noodle.  The name drop noodle did have a rationale to it though. Little Darling mentioned that she found eating the noodles difficult because it kept dropping off the spoon! xD!

The girls meal for the night, the Chicken Drop Noodles @ $10!

 

At the end of the night, the oil in the noodles mattered little, if anymore at all.  We arrived the restaurant close to 8 and finished half past nine.  Hungry much, these delightful serves of noodles soup were heavenly.  With Tra Vinh, To To, and Viet Nosh, in my good books, I would not hesitate to put Phong Vinh up there too! It was an absolute delight despite some minor setbacks!   Recommended to noodle lovers!  The rich albeit slightly oily beef broth was a pleaser!

After having our noodles, we decided to ditch our normal Dome coffee session and instead, headed over to Cream @ East Perth.  I was left shocked really!!  The place was overloaded with well dressed people, well for me whom was dressed in Polo and shorts + thongs at least. I shyly made my entry with the the gang. Quite a nice place! The Panacotta with ice cream, mango and passion fruit was stunning, the Brazilian dark hot chocolate, well, not so.  Cream has definitely made entry to one of my must try restaurants now! But first, Ha Lu next week!

 

WenY

Bites: Iku Sushi @ Perth City

It been awhile since I actually walked in the city; two weeks to be exact.  Lately, if you realise, the city has been oozing in desperation to get rid of its “dullsville” title and in doing so, many buildings have been developed and, WOW!  I have to say, the main shopping street is starting to feel a bit hmm.. how do I say this? A bit “Melbourne-ish”?  One of the newest buildings called one40william houses a new sushi cafe in a cool place.  I definitely liked the makeover given to this building.  Really stylish and all, but putting decors aside, I recently visited this sushi cafe in an attempt to comprehend the hype that has stirred up.  This it the blog review for Iku Sushi :)!

Iku Sushi!

 

The interior was good, but the outside dining area was nice!

Lady Boss at the counter?

 

Even nicer, the Popcorn Chicken Kaarage and Onion Rings at about $5 each!

The chicken Kaarage was good but a tad under fried leaving it a bit oily.  But its taste was good though. I had the chicken bites with the salad drizzled with citrus ponzu and Jap mayo, BANG! However, Toraya at Subiaco still does the kill.  Unfortunately the onion rings, had the same exact problem, leaving it greasy @.@! But Iku Sushi,  isn’t  alone, V burger does the same thing too! Too greasy too oily!  Yobi, who loves grease felt disgusted after SHARING with me a serve from V-burger last year.

 

This can’t be all I ordered knowing that this place has a secret weapon under its sheets.  Iku Sushi’s chicken cheese burger roll ditches all the clichés to try to standout as a star player. 

The chicken cheeseburger roll came with spicy mayonnaise!  Served piping hot, melted cheese leaked from everywhere like a real good cheese burger should.  Everything looked perfect from its image.  However, that all becomes an illusion when your teeth sinks into rice rolls which leave you feeling stuffed! SAD!  Oily!! =X

 

By the end of the meal, 2 girls and 2 guys were feeling really full from the little dishes we ordered.  The girls though it was the grease, the guys, well, thought it was OK.  I find the roll a tad over fried while the onion rings a little too stingy on the batter and the pop corn chicken, under fried.

One thing for sure though, we were kinda douche for ordering all fried foods in a sushi cafe.  Like seriously?  Sushi is meant to be healthy but we came in looking for KFC. @@! Next time, fresh ones!!

 

WenY

Bites: John Street Cafe @ Cottesloe

Happy mornings, lazy mornings, what other “mornings”do we have? A yummy morning maybe? Last Sunday, was Nee’s mom’s last day here. So we decided to start her last morning in Perth with a different type of meal :)! My cousin suggested to me, a few times before, that a certain cafe along John Street makes superb brekkies. The hash brown in particular really. Having problems waking up before, we slept early, determined to wake up to enjoy this morning with our new housemate’s mother. We were there around 8.30 in the morning and it was already packed to the brim. We booked a place for 6 and was 4th in the queue. Fortunately, it did not take long for their energetic crew to find us a seat. 15 minutes ;-)!

Morning people! Kids, moms, and dads!

Colourful table! Hehe!

When the menu came to us, I wasn’t exactly amused. Simple things that could be cooked for 20 bucks. While my mind wasn’t convinced to order the big breakfast, I actually ended up with one of the meals people would consider less value for money. But that didn’t matter, when I was done with the meal, it was a happy ending! Breakfast really feels better when it is all done up for you!!

My Vegetarian Big Breakfast @ $20. Homemade baked beans, mushrooms, poached eggs, hash browns, tomatoes and olive oil toast. The eggs were awesome possum no question. But I guess it is a norm that it comes out perfect as I have been to a few brekkie cafes in Melbourne before and it always comes out perfect. The mushrooms were really good, and oh the hash brown. It is was homemade. Felt like battered mash potatoes seasoned with herbs and mustard before being deep fried. The beans were also a house special. I recognised three beans in there. The baked beans, kidney beans and chick peas all cooked in a thick tomato sauce which felt rich enough to be tossed in pasta. Really delicious. I feel like I must have it once more. Maybe once I feel motivated to wake up early again? :D!

This was Xin Ling’s Egg Benedict @$15 which was err Egg Hollandaise on top of English brekkie muffins with ham? I think so ahah. Oh and she added the hash brown to her meal which was $4 bucks!

She liked it a lot and was super enthusiastic at first making a statement she didn’t know she would regret later on ahah. She insisted on having one breakfast meal by herself and by the time she knew it, she was filled to brim while the plate was only half finished! Ahhaha.

Xin Nee and My sister ordered pretty much the same thing. They had a Big Breakfast @$20. They were your typical ones with meat overload. The sausages, and the bacon with a massive serve of scrambled eggs on top of crisp olive toast. It’s my sister’s second time having it and I’d have to say, she looked like a merry pig by the time she was done with it.

Over all, I think this place makes the cut as a good eatery to have a relaxing breakfast on a Sunday morning. In fact, any mornings will do. A good change from the dim sum mornings we would normally have in Perth. No mistake on the things we ordered. Vegetarian or meat, you will not leave the John St. cafe hungry. In fact, you will be full till lunch time! On a down side, a juice here will set you back $7.20 and a coffee/tea something like $4 which is quite a norm in Perth. So, I would recommend that you seal the deal and get the John St. breakfast which allows you to have a choice of either vegetarian or meat with both a Coffee/Tea and an Orange juice! You don’t need to have both because you could easily share it!

WenY