Chinese New Year 2010

As you may know, this Chinese New Year is the same date as Valentine’s Day.  We, Japanese, don’t celebrate Chinese New Year (as our New Year Day is the 1st of January), but I attended the dinner with in-laws last night at a Chinese restaurant in East Perth, called Han Palace.  The outside and interior of this restaurant is just about what I imagine of “China”  

We had a course meal, which contains 13 dishes.

Yu Sang – Prosperity Raw Fish Salad

Shark Fin and Crab Meat Soup

Ginger and Shallot Western Rock Lobster with Yee Meen

etc etc.

The food was …. to me, not really special.  Maybe it’s because those food are special New Year’s food, I don’t know.  Well, I did enjoyed the atmosphere though.  There was a big screen of tv showing a New Year’s event show, and we started the course meal by mixing up the Yu Sang together while yelling “Happy New Year”.

While we were about halfway through the course meal, it started … – dragon dance!  

Two dragon started to look for ang pows (red envelop with money) and all the customers in the restaurants were feeding ang pow to those dancing dragon.

Dragon must get the ang pows : a customer stood on a chair and held an ang pows in high position, and dragon also has to stand up and get the ang pows.

It was a fun night.  I didn’t eat much, but the service was great.

Satay-Mu

This Indonesian/Malaysian restaurant opened its door few month ago, and I recently had a chance to try their food.  “Satay Mu” means “your satay” in Indonesian 🙂

The name of the restaurant says “Satay”, so I thought they just specialize in satay dish (skewered chicken/beef/lamb/etc, with peanut chili sauce).   However, I noticed their menu actually has a wide variety of other Indonesian/Malay food.

Barbecued Pork Rice, Curry Chicken/Beef Rice, Wan Ton Mee, Wat Tan Ho etc..  My husband had Spicy Chicken Rice and I had Wat Tan Ho.  I really like noodle dish with wet saucy thing…

The price was reasonable and tasted ok, I will come back here again 🙂

Address:  356 Marmion Street, Melville WA 6156

Phone:  08 9317 1162

Roxby Thai Cafe Restaurant

On Friday night my family and I went to Roxby Thai Cafe Restaurant in O’connor for sister-in-law’s birthday dinner 🙂

I knew this place since it opened its door just one or two years ago, but I’d never actually been there…  The atmosphere of the restaurant seemed to be something that I wouldn’t like: drinking and noisy place.  But, when I went to this restaurant I realized that it was all wrong –  the place wasn’t bad at all.

We started with Green Papaya Salad (one of my favorite food) and Stuffed Chicken Wings.  The salad was nice and spicy 🙂

We shared main meals: Hot Seafood Plate, Thai Style Fish, Grilled Tangy Prawn, Green Curry and Pad Thai Noodle.  Eating noodle in their birthday is Indonesian thing?  Chinese thing?  This family always eat noodle on someone’s birthday.   Anyway, out of those 5 dishes my favorite was Thai style fish.  Sweet and sour, plus spicy. 🙂

The food was great, seafood was nicely cooked and seasoned.  The service was friendly as well.  Plus, the place wasn’t noisy at all.  There’s a bar where you can relax and hung out after having dinner.  They also serve steaks and ribs.  I will definitely come back here sometimes.

<O’connor>

398 South St, O’connor  (08) 9314 2444

<Willetton>

1 Yampi Way, Willetton  (08) 9457 0072

Fine Weekend

It’s been hot, dry and now I can feel it’s summer finally!  This weekend I could do many things listed on my to-do-list and I feel great 🙂  I could wash my car ( I was dying to wash it for few months already), finish shopping for Christmas, etc.

Oh, one thing I’ve been wanting to do but haven’t done –  I’ve been wanting to go to this new ramen noodle shop “Arigataya” in Northbridge for one month, but no time to go!   This shop is owned by Japanese people who used to own a ramen shop in Tokyo, Japan.  According to my friends who tried the noodle in Arigataya, this shop currently has just few menu such as “Sho-yu (soy sauce)”, “Shio (salt)”, and “Tsuke-men (noodle to be eaten with dipping sauce)”.  The chef is trying to add more menu at the moment.  Has anyone been there already?  If so, let me know how if you like their ramen 🙂

Another thing, there are delicious Bagelier sweets available at Wasabi & Green Tea!  Macadamia Cantuccini –  three colored (plain, green tea and chocolate) crisp biscuit with heaps of Macadamia nuts, and Almond Fingers – moist  finger size cookie with  almond meal and almond slices.

Fun Experience at a Chinese Restaurant

The other day I went to Hon Kong BBQ in Northbridge with my friend for dinner.  I just wanted to have a chat with her as we hadn’t seen each other since I came back from holiday.  We had so much to talk about!

It was still early when we went in, so there’s just few customers inside.  We sat down, and had a look at their menu.  Then we noticed that the menu is written in 3 languages: English, Chinese, and Japanese.  Naturally we were browsing the Japanese words, and we both couldn’t stand but laugh…  We didn’t want to be rude, but the Japanese description was really funny.  I don’t know how they translated the menu into Japanese, but if they are thinking to remake menu books maybe I can help to write Japanese for them.  All the Japanese words on the menu does make sense, but are really funny…  It was a good laugh though, not trying to make fun of them!  

BTW, Japan also do the same thing to English.  We sometimes use English for sign boards, business cards, posters etc, but some of them are wrong-spelled or totally doesn’t make sense.  Like engrish.com, people make fun of it … and I agree, it’s funny! 🙂  

At Hong Kong BBQ we ordered braised beef with oyster sauce, and Chinese vegetable with mushrooms.

They’re delicious.  With just those two dishes and steamed rice, we stayed there for 2 hours!  Then we noticed some customers were waiting for the seat, so we left the restaurant.  

We still had 30 mins until my friend’s bus, so we looked for a place to have a quick coffee… Chutney Garden – an Indian restaurant.  Unfortunately they didn’t have any coffee menu, but they offered us Masala tea.  We didn’t really have time to move to another place, so we decided to have the tea.  The restaurant was filled with some kind of spice smell …  Indian Curry?  After few minutes very polite wait staff came to our table with 2 cups of Masala tea.  The spicy tea was fragrant, delicious, and warmed up our body.  It was really nice.

Sizzle Mania

I would like to take a break from writing about my Japan holiday here.

On this weekend I finally had a chance to go to Sizzle Mania.  Yes, I wrote about this place before but never actually gotten a chance going there.  I was told that Sizzle Mania now has new menu, so I headed there to try out their food 🙂

I was hoping that they’re open…… yes!  they’re open.  I went inside, and had a look at their menu.  As I was told, they had new menu of teriyaki chicken, noodle, curry, dumplings, satay chicken, etc.  I know I should have tried their recommendation “pepper steak” but I couldn’t feel like eating chunks of meat that time.  Neither was my husband.  That was weird, he usually like meat stuff…  Anyway, we decided to try sizzling teriyaki beef and sizzling satay chicken.

Ummm… frankly I didn’t think it was great .. (><)  It was ok, but I’m guessing they’re using satay sauce that you can buy from super markets.  I doubt they make their own satay sauce there.  And, I felt that teriyaki sauce was little taste-less…  I think they can add more “kick” to the sauce, such as garlic or ginger or something.

The whole concept is interesting.  The feature of this restaurant is sizzling steak, but I think that maybe they can add few more interesting food items featuring this sizzling hot plate.  I’m not saying they should be like Korean restaurant, but they can “copy” Korean sizzling bibim-ba (ishiyaki bibim-ba).  In Korean restaurants ishiyaki bibim-ba comes with steamed rice, namuru (Korean seasoned vegetables), kimuchi, raw egg, etc in a hot stone bowl, and customer mix it themselves and cook the egg and rice until little crunchy.  In Sizzle Mania, maybe they can add menu that comes with some seasoned rice with raw egg in the centre, and customer mix it themselves.  The rice can be curry flavored (like Indian flavored rice) or tomato, or anything.  Or maybe sizzling vegetables that comes with cheesy sauce?  Pepper steak with potato rings instead of steamed rice?  In my opinion, lots of people wouldn’t want to be served raw  white fish fillets and cook it themselves…  And I hope they can do something about the oil coming from satay sauce.  It wasn’t something I wanted to look at.   Anyway I hope they can do well in the future 🙂

These days..

It’s been rainy days …   I found that the roads in Perth tend to have lots of small puddles when it rains.  These puddles really scare me off … when I drive in the rain my car floats on the water, and I think “aah, this is the end of my life ..” :p  Never had such experience before I came to Perth..  I think the road condition or drain system is not really good here.

By the way Matsuri Japanese restaurant opened it’s second shop today.  The new place is not a restaurant, it’s a takeaway shop, so I think they open only for lunch time selling bento or donburi type of food.  It’s in the city, near the new Woolworth on St George Tce.

Just Bad Timing..

After Bishonencam-san left me a comment on my previous post telling me about a newly opened restaurant in Northbridge, I was really curious to try their food. 🙂  (thanks Bishonencam)

This restaurant Sizzle Mania is located on William Street in Northbridge, close to Icey Snow.  I went there recently with my camera so that I could shoot some photos and post on Umeboss.  Then I found out that they don’t take eftpos, and I didn’t have any cash with me, so I walked around N/B to look for an ATM.  After withdrawing some cash I went back to the place, but unfortunately they had just closed the door (>0<)  Oh no…  it was opened few minutes ago…  Well, if they closed, it’s closed.  It was shame that I couldn’t try their food this time.  I really should carry some cash every time I go out!

I took some photos from outside :

As a grand opening promotion, all the food items are 20% OFF until 24th of August!  If you want to try some of their food I’d say go for it.

Sizzle Mania

Unit 1 / 305 William St, Northbridge WA

*** see my new post about this place here!***

Which Japanese Restaurant To Go

Other day I was chatting with my Japanese friends “which Japanese restaurants in Perth do you go to?”. If it was few months ago Samurai would be in their answers, I think :p After talking with friends I realized the restaurants men chose are different from what women chose. My boy friends take the volume of food, the quantity of meat, and the prices into account. On the other hand my girl friends take different things into account such as how the food is presented, the atmosphere of the place and the taste of food.

What most men look for is the food value and the volume… I don’t say all the men are like that, but I agree with what my friends say, actually. Top 3 Japanese restaurants my boy friends chose are :

• Banzai Sushi & Noodle Bar
• Sundays Everyday
• Kanta Japanese Kitchen and Sushi Bar

photo from http://yourrestaurants.com.au

On the other hand, my girl friends chose:

• Taka’s Kitchen
• Shimizu Grand in Floreat

Taka’s Kitchen are actually chosen by my boy friends too. Their prices are reasonable and food are ok, and the location is good too. The cheapest dish is su-udon (plain udon noodle soup) which is $3.00. The popular dish is teriyaki chicken @ $7.90. If you want to try their sushi I recommend Shaft Lane shop. There are 2 sushi chefs working at Shaft Lane, one is from Japan and another is from Melbourne. Both are Japanese and have experience working as sushi chef. I don’t really like Taka’s in Fremantle food court (Old Shanghai) though. Their sushi rolls were really bad :p I wouldn’t call them “sushi” :p

I like Shimizu Floreat too, their atmosphere is good for a meet-up with friends. This place does buffet, but you can also order a la carte menu without extra charge such as takoyaki, beef teriyaki (which actually was like beef steak cubes with garlic and teriyaki sauce) etc. Last time I went there it was about $48.50 per head (pricy!) but if you target on eating tempura, sashimi and sushi, it’s worth the value I think.

Pancakes and Grill

The other day I went to Pancakes & Grill in Northbridge.  I noticed that this place isn’t getting enough customers as they hope … but I personally like this place.  The atmosphere is like a family restaurant in Japan.  The only difference is, their high pricing.  I guess these prices are normal in Perth.  Everything here is over-priced to me :p

My friend and I shared Raspberry+Cheese+Cream Crape.  The crape was chewy and I liked it.  The raspberry coulis and cheese cream tasted good too.

I believe lots of Japanese people would like this type of place.  In Japan there are lots of cafes specializing on only sweets, like “parfait cafe”, “crape house” “dango (skewered, round sticky cakes) cafes” etc, and these places are filled with girls and couples.  (apparently this type of sweet places are not for guys :p)

I don’t wonder why this Pancakes & Grill has savory menus (like steaks) along with sweets, even though their main items are sweet pancakes and crapes.  Australian people loves meat, so I think they can’t attract many customers with just sweet items…

If their prices were little more reasonable, I would go there very often!

Japanese Restaurants

Wow it was a bit of shock to hear that Mr Samurai closed their business… Although I wasn’t their regular customer, as I don’t really go to city often except for shopping and visiting JP Consulate etc, I kind of miss their food.  Nothing special, really.  Just that I know there’re many local people who loved Mr Samurai food.

Now, where can we get Japanese food for reasonable prices?  Ummm there are a few, actually.  Lots of Japanese food places are owned by non-Japanese, but some of them serve nice food.  Here is a list of casual Japanese eating places around Perth, which I recommend to you 🙂

※ Sundays Everyday – 6-43 Halme Court, Myaree

※ Ohnamiya – 34 Kearns Crs, Ardross

※ Shige Sushi Bar – Millstream Shopping Centre, South Perth

※ Peko Peko – Shop1/ 172 St Brigids Tce, Doubleview

※ Kanta – 2/76 Langford Ave, Langford

And, if you want to go to rather expensive Japanese restaurants, here are some …

※ Matsuri Japanese : cnr of Hay and Milligan Streets, Perth

※ Shimizu Floreat : Floreat Shopping Centre

Ramen Restaurants

Although I’m not a big fan of ramen noodle, I sometimes feel like eating them in this cold weather.  Ramen soup is usually pork, chicken or vegetable stock based and very tasty.  On the other hand, fish stock is used for udon and soba noodle soup.

Because animal stock is used for ramen soup, it is bit oily and that gives the soup tasty flavor.  There are thousands of ramen restaurants across Japan and each has their original recipe for the
soup.

Here in Perth has few ramen restaurants owned by Japanese.  I’m not sure if they make soup by themselves though.

Banzai Sushi & Noodle Bar
741 Newcastle Street Leederville WA 6007

Kai Japanese Dining & Takeaway
Shop4, 110 Parry Ave Bullcreek WA 6149

Dosukoi
Stall7, Fremantle Market Fremantle WA 6160

Has anyone been to any of those restaurants?

I think it’s interesting that those restaurants have quite unique ramen menu.  I’ve never seen Fried Chicken Ramen or Gyoza Ramen in Japan :p  Fried Chicken Ramen has Karaage (Japanese style fried chicken) on ramen noodle, and Gyoza Ramen has deep-fried dumplings on ramen noodle.  Dosukoi’s simple Ramen is $6.50, it’s pretty cheap.  Kai Japanese just opened few months ago, and the owner used run another Japanese restaurant in Subiaco. (popular one)  At Banzai, you can enjoy ramen noodle with ranges of Japanese liquir such as chu-hi.  (white peach is my favorite)

If you want to enjoy other Japanese noodle menu, I recommend …

Ramen & Udon @ Taka’s Kitchen Shafto Lane, Perth
(Ramen noodle available only after 5pm on weekdays, and all day Saturday)

Udon @ Ohnamiya, Applecross

Udon @ Oceans, Fremantle

Udon @ Jaws restaurants, Perth

Udon @ Ninniku Jip, Victoria Park

Udon @ Sado Japanese, Claremont

French x Japanese

A fusion of Japanese and French cuisine has been a big trend since I was a teenager, and now you can find it anywhere in Japan. Even in traditional Japanese restaurant they create a menu using French techniques.

I am one of people who loves this French x Japanese food, and I often went to restaurants to enjoy the delicious food in Japan. The food is so well presented that it makes me feel guilty to eat.

It was actually a sensational experience to me when I had this unique sushi at one of modern Kaiten sushi bar in Kyoto 10 years ago. Sushi rice was cooked in red wine, and thickly sliced roast beef was arranged on the rice with a dash of mustard and shredded white spring onions. It looked wonderful and unique as red wine beautifully colored the rice into vivid red/pink.

In Perth there are few Japanese restaurants who serve some fusion food. One of them is Absolutely Chez Unicho, which used to be in Mosman Park. The Japanese chef creates very nice French x Japanese food. Unfortunately they have closed their restaurant in Perth and moved to Melbourne few months ago.

And, K’s restaurant in North Bridge. I’ve been wanting to go there but haven’t got a chance yet. One of my friend has been there few times and she said the food is nice. They have course meal, and you can choose the course depending on your budget.

Has anyone tried those restaurants? I think I will go to K’s sometime next month.

One of Ume’s day

Time passed really quick today!  This morning I went to a church to meet this lady who does flower arrangement.  I’m still looking for someone who can prepare my bouquet and flowers for my wedding :p

I want to cut down the cost on the wedding as much as I can, and I actually don’t really care about flower… any flower will do, I just don’t wanna spend big money on it.

Anyway, I had a chat with the lady, and then went home to pick up my partner for his hair cut.  I always wondered how come his face is covered with lots of tiny hairs after hair cut…  don’t they wash hair and wipe off his face?  In barbers all the customers have to go home and take shower afterwards, or is it only him? :p

So, we went home first so that he could take shower.  Then we headed to Northbridge to have lunch at Big Bowl. I had seafood ho fun and he had beef brisket noodle soup.

You can choose what type of noodle you want, and they cook right after you order.  Of course they make noodle by themselves.  Despite that, food came out pretty quick.

The taste was ok, I think I should try their “cheese noodle” next time.  Gratinated cheese on soup noodle… I’m curious to know how it tastes.  And, pork trotter noodle sounded tempting to me too!

Ummm…  Autumn.

We headed to IKEA for shopping after lunch.  I need to buy some storage unit for my clothes etc…

Tea time.

By the time we left IKEA it was already getting dark outside.

Now I’m just sitting down in the living room to set up the storage unit I bought.  Ummm is there any nice movie on tv tonight?

Bamboo

Although I said that dinner wan’t so nice at Banboo restaurant in Willetton, I still liked their salt & chili pepper squid.  It was nicely crispy, and I enjoyed it with pickled chili and vegetables.  In some restaurants (not only Chinese restaurants) texture of squid is like rubber.  I really hate when someone serve such dish at restaurants.  I think they are using frozen cheap squid, and they don’t cook properly.  I know one Chinese restaurant on South Street that sells rubbery seafood clay-pot dish.  I don’t only hate the fact that seafood is like rubber, but also the taste!  I can tell they use MSG…  I really didn’t wanna pay for the dish 🙁

Talking about seafood, I really loved Honey Prawn at Yu (Burswood Entertainment complex).  The prawn was reasonably big, and juicy.

Tony Roma’s

This American franchise restaurant – Tony Roma\’s was first started in North Miami in 1972.  It now has more than 200 restaurants in 27 countries, and there are 2 Tony Roma’s in Australia; one in Sydney and one in Perth.

I like the atmosphere of this restaurant.  This restaurant is famous for its Ribs, Seafood and Steaks, and I had a family dinner there tonight.

I ordered Rib Combo – BBQ chicken and half slab of pork ribs with a choice of two side dishes.  The meat was so tender that I didn’t even need to use my knife.

Aunt had Bayou Chicken Salad – spicy red hot BBQ chicken breast on greens, tomatoes, cheese and bacon.  It looked really yummy!  I will try this on my next visit… 🙂

This rib dish is St. Louis Sampler; which comes in 4 sauces – Original, Carolina Honey, Red Hats and Blue Ridge Smokies.  Yes you can enjoy four different flavors in one dish.

We didn’t have any entree this time, but Onion Loaf and Potato Skins are really nice.

They also do take-away!

Saigon

Located at the centre of Northbridge, I’m sure that lots of people know this restaurant.  Saigon is a city in Vietnam, and as this name indicates this restaurant serves Vietnamese/Chinese food.

I was still learning English at TAFE (Technical and Further Education institute) when I first tried this place. (6 years ago!)  My classmate (who had been in Perth for few years) recommended a dish called “Saigon chicken rice” to me, and since then I order this dish every time I go to this restaurant, even now.

Besides the taste, the price was also another big factor why I kept eating this dish.  Back then it was just $4.50!  Now, however, it’s about $7? $8?  I’m not sure…  Price’s been gone up.

I usually order fresh spring rolls as entree.  I love the sauce!  shredded carrot and crushed peanuts…

Then, Saigon Chicken Rice…

The sauce is kind of sweet, and you can eat lots and lots of rice with just this sauce.  (which is not a good thing if considering the calorie, actually :p)  The chicken is roasted or fried first, so it’s crispy outside.   This one dish really fill me up, I think men will like this dish.

Yum Cha

Do you like Dim Sum?  In Perth you can get them pretty cheap as compared as in Japan.

Which Dim Sum dish do you like?  My favorites are…

Fried Squid (everyone’s favorite!), Steamed Prawn Dumplings, Prawn in Rice Flour Rolls, Chicken Feet, GInger Tripe, and mango pudding.

Those dishes are what I order every time I go out for yam cha.  I know some people don’t like chicken feet, tripe etc, but I love those offal (if it’s cooked nicely!)

Yes, looks little gross… :p

By the way do you know why this dining experience (eating small servings of different foods) is called “Yam Cha”?  Yam Cha in Chinese character (飲茶) means “drinking tea”, which means that you need to drink lots of tea while having those food as the foods are usually oily and high in fat.  Drinking Chinese tea helps digesting those oily food.  That’s why you need to order Chinese tea at Yam Cha restaurants!

Singapore Hawker Chinese Food

Collins Plaza is a place where few restaurants are gathered and I sometimes go there for lunch and dinner.  There is one Japanese restaurant “Yuki Japanese”, and few Chinese restaurants.  Korean grocery shop “Hi Mart” is there too.  I see Korean people hanging around this area often.

I’ve went to Yuki few times and their food is nice.  The owner is not a Japanese but the interior is well presented and staff are friendly.  One of the Chinese place at this Collins Plaza is Bamboo (I think there is Bamboo restaurant in Northbridge or somewhere too), and their lunch menu was delicious!  I had curry laksa and other dishes looked very nice too. I was little disappointed when I went to this place for dinner though.  The dishes were not as nice as lunch menu 🙁  I don’t know why: different chefs, maybe.  Especially, crispy chicken.  The sauce was too buttery and it was not to my taste :p

The another Chinese place I’ve been to is Singapore Hawkers Chinese food.  Even though this place is small as compared with Bamboo, their food was very nice.  For lunch I had Nasi Lemak, and the price was cheap too.

The other day I tried this place for dinner.  We ordered stir-fried Kan Kun (Chinese vegetable) with sambal, fried duck with plam sauce, sizzling seafood combination plate, and sambal squid.

Personally, I thought they put  little too much vegetables on each plate; for example, Sambal Squid dish got tomato, carrot, onion, and okura.  I think they don’t need to put any veggies as this dish is called “Sambal Squid”, but you know how much I love vegetables.  I really enjoyed it.

Sizzling seafood plate (with cauliflower, capsicum and onion) was little different from what I expected, but my family was enjoying it very much.

Four dishes and steamed rice, it was less than 60 dollars!  Really cheap.  No wonder they’re very busy and many people kept coming for take away.

Chin’s Noodle House

This Chinese restaurant in Leeming is one of the places I often go to for dinner.  They are usually fully booked on weekends so we have to make booking few days in advance.  

Despite the busyness their service is good.  Food is served quickly and wait staff often come to table to check if everything is ok.

We usually get san choi bao or Peking duck for entree, and few mains.  Some of their dish is great, and some are ok.  This time we ordered roast meat combination (large size – choice of three meat/octopus), crispy beef and seafood claypot with beancurd.  

Again, the photo is not nice… 🙁

I love seafood claypot dish.  I personally prefer it with Japanese tofu, but this dish was also delicious.  This crispy beef, the meat is deep-fried and tossed through a sweet sauce – you can eat rice with just the sauce!

We got roasted duck, bbq pork and octopus for roast combination.  They’re delicious.

If you like seafood I recommend crab cooked with chili sauce Singapore style.  You’ll need to wash you hands after eating this dish…  but very nice!  Or, why not try Lobster sashimi??  I haven’t tried this dish yet, but I’m curious how Chinese sashimi would look like.

Sai Koh Sushi – Japanese –

Other day I had a chance to go to this Japanese restaurant in Canning Vale.  It was kind of a farewell dinner for one of my colleagues, but very casual.  We all just went there after work, and ordered few dishes.

The owner was so friendly, and kind enough to treat us with free special Sai Koh roll.  (one of my colleague is an acquaintance of his)

(Excuse the quality of this photo :p  It was taken by my mobile.)

Despite the shape, those rolls were quite nice!  There were few things that I couldn’t figure out what they were inside of the rolls.  It was crispy, so maybe some kind of deep-fried meat?  Anyway, the flavour over all was really nice.  I liked it.  (By the way I was surprised by the amount of wasabi they put on the plate…)

We ordered karaage, soft shell crab tempura and beef tataki for entree to share, and main meal for each.  Well, we thought they were entree!  When we are served with those food, we were shocked. “??  are they entree??”  Karaage was served with salad and rice, and soft shell crab was served on a 30cm plate.  I don’t know if it was owner’s treat again, or normal serving size… but karaage with rice was pretty big volume.  They tasted fine though.  🙂

Because of the entree we were already full before the main meal, but food kept coming…  Teppan dish came in a bento box!  and interestingly, there was one empty space in the bento box…  why they don’t even bother to fill up the space??  I was wondering quietly in my head…  Few seconds later I knew why.  A waitress brought a bowl of miso soup and put it into the empty space.  Huh that’s why :p

The dining experience there was fun.  Not a bad meaning!  Really, the food was not bad at all.

I may go back there for the Sai Koh rolls 🙂

Shop 11, Ranford shopping centre (214 Campbell Rd) Canning Vale

PH: 08 9456 1388

*** The owner has been changed and it is now called Sakura Sushi***

Ciao Italia

If you feel like Italian food tonight, why no try this place??  This Italian restaurant in South Perth is owned by Italian family, and always filled up with customers.  They only open at night, and right after the door is opened people start queuing up for their great food.

The atmosphere is cozy and welcoming, the staff are very friendly too.  I love this place, it’s a great place to meet up with friends or have a date at.  I wish they accept booking…

Their menu is typical Italian food, and popular wood fired pizzas are available for takeaway too.  It’s been a while since my last visit, but I remember I had a seafood pasta and some kind of pizza.  Tiramisu I had for dessert was delicious too.  Everything is made by chefs in the restaurant.  All the staff and chefs are proud of their food and service, and I believe this place is worth to wait at the door for a table.

273 Mill Point Rd
South Perth, WA 6151
(08) 9368 5500

Bintang Cafe

Other day sister_in_law picked us up for quick lunch.  She likes eating out and knows lots of nice places.  This time she took us to this Bintang Cafe in Victoria Park. 

This cafe serves Indonesian food.  I think their menu is real Indonesian food and comparable to ones you get in Indonesia as I ate similar food when I was in Jakarta.  

“Try our best home made egg noodles”  According to their menu, it seems that egg noodle is their speciality!  I normally prefer rice noodles, so I ordered kway teow noodle but I tried little bit of egg noodles from partner’s bowl.  He ordered Mie Ayam Jamur & Bakso = egg noodle soup with chicken pieces and beef meat balls.  I knew Bakso means “beef meat balls” and I ate this type of noodle back in Jakarta.  It was nice.

At first I thought the portion was quite small, but I was pretty full after emptying the bowl.  The soup was tasty 🙂  I heard that some Indonesian places in Perth use MSG though…  do they??

We also ordered chicken satay.  It was really nice.  I like the frame-grilled flavor… and the peanut sauce!  Yum.

I saw people eating some fish and chicken dish with rice.  They looked really nice.  The fish was grilled (or fried) and served with some sambal?  I don’t know, I should try it next time.

By the way this eating place is quite small, and the atmosphere reminds me of Indonesia.  If you want to try typical Indonesian food (noodle, rice dish and some side dish) I recommend this place.  This place is always full with Indonesian / Malaysian customers.

Satsuki Japanese Restaurant

Both my fiance and I have been very busy over the last few weeks, so we agreed to take a break and have a relaxing dinner out.  We both like any cuisine, but I felt like something “Japanese”.  Not like “teriyaki set” or “tempura set”… real Japanese food!  After thinking where we should go, we made a phone call to Satsuki Japanese restaurant to book a table.

I’m glad that I choose this restaurant.  The staff was so kind and polite.  When I was making a reservation on the phone, the staff kindly told me “there is one table available for two, and counter seats.  The available table is actually at between 2 large group bookings, so it may be little noisy.”  After her suggestion, I booked counter seats.  It was a great decision as those large groups were quite loud.

At the restaurant, we ordered Beef Tataki, Deep-fried Spicy Tuna Rolls, and Slowly Simmered Pork Belly.

Deep-fried sushi rolls sounded interesting to me.  Did they really deep-fry sushi rolls??  … yes, they did!  The tuna inside of the rolls was still raw as “sashimi”, and the tuna and spicy chili powder were well matched.

I loved the way they arranged the food on plates.  They use chic looking dishes, and the garnish is well presented.  The crispy lotus root chips, garnish for Beef Tataki, were lovely.

They close on Sun and Mon, and I recommend to make a booking on weekends.  You can browse their food and drink menu from here.

Tra Vinh Vietnamese

I love Vietnamese food.  Well, I love any cuisine, but the Vietnamese food uses lots of herbs and vegetables, and they are not as oily as Chinese food.  I don’t get to eat Vietnamese food often in Japan, so I go out for Vietnamese quite often here in Perth.

There are few Vietnamese restaurants around Perth.  Viet Hoa is on the main street in Northbridge so many people should know this place.  (Even Japanese holiday makers know this restaurant)  But I haven’t been there for a while, actually.  I usually go to Tra Vinh (or Vinh Hong).

At Tra Vinh, the food is nice and the price is reasonable.  I, however, don’t really like the atmosphere of the place.  It’s just like a space with few tables and chairs.  I guess this style is normal in other Asian countries?  People just go there and eat, and leave…  I don’t think this place is suitable for a date, but I still come here with my fiance to enjoy the food 🙂        

The dish I always order is fresh spring rolls.  I love their sauce.  Yum!

Pork chop rice is my favorite too, but I ordered combination rice noodle soup.  I actually prefer hofan noodle (white, flat rice noodle), but this dish came with transparent rice noodle.  There seems to be many kinds of rice noodle in Asia, and I love them. 

Some Vietnamese noodle come with fresh bean shoots, coriander, cut chili and lemon wedges.  I just love eating the bean shoots with chili sauce!  The chili sauce is on each table in the restaurant, and it taste so good.  It kinda taste like miso paste, little sweet.  I keep dipping fresh bean shoots into the chili sauce and munch it :p  Can’t stop…

Theme Restaurants in Japan

This Ninja themed restaurant is located in Tokyo, and their menu looks so interesting, such as: Shuriken star-blades grissini, Turban shell bombs a la escargot, Ninja-style grilled lobster with black bean sauce etc…  Umm sounds delicious! (and expensive)  I would love to go to this restaurant.  

“Ninja” thing is not only their menu, of course.  The entire restaurant is designed in the image of a Ninja house, and waiters are dressed up like Ninjas too!  I’m curious.. how it feels like to be served by Ninjas?? :p 

There are many theme restaurants in Japan, like “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, “Cinderella”, “Prison”, “Hospital” etc.  

I’ve been to this “monster house” themed restaurant in Osaka before, and it was a frightening experience (seriously!).  First, the place seemed to be a normal restaurant except for their menu (cocktails in test tubes, weird naming for food such as “human experiment carpaccio”…)  I was about halfway through the meal, then alarm started ringing.  According to the restaurant staff, a “monster” from their basement escaped and was heading to this restaurant.  I hate scary things, I can’t even go to a haunted house in a small amusement park.  I was so scared but the “monster” (actor) came to me and tried to kidnap me.  I was seriously screaming!

I wouldn’t go back to the “monster” restaurant, but would love to try other fancy restaurants 🙂

Chinese Food in Perth

I get to go to Chinese restaurants quite often while my future-in-laws are in Perth.  Although I like Chinese, I prefer not going there more than 3 times a week…  It’s just bause I know Chinese food are high in calories.

Chinese restaurants , which I often go to, include Chinese, Chinese Malaysian and Chinese Vietnamese.  Here are some of my favorite dish at some Chinese restaurants in Perth….

Read the rest of this entry »

Eating out

On the next day we arrived Japan, I had dinner with one of my best friend.  I was taken to this neighbor Italian restaurant “Cannery Row”:  one of my favorite place 🙂

We ordered cheese fondue, chicken pizza and fresh basil & smoked salmon pasta as main; salad, drinks, entree and dessert are in buffet section, they are “all you can eat”. 

All the food is very nice!!  but the reason why I like this place is their service.  Staffs are so polite and friendly:)  Love their uniform too:)

There are millions of restaurants in Japan and the places I’m showing in this blog are just one of them.  During this holiday I went to buffet style restaurants quite often.  This Cannery Row is also buffet restaurant, and other place I went was an organic and slow food buffet restaurant “Hinano”.  It’s a fusion of Japanese and Western cuisine, and they only use organic food 🙂  I think their target is women (as most of their food was vegetable, not so many meat), and I love all the food!(I’m a girl :))  Japanese style salad, udon, grilled fish, tempura, pizza, few kinds of rice, etc etc….   They keep serving different food every 30min so we didn’t get bored.  I ate a lot…  OMG :p

(these plates are not only for me!  a table of my family (9 ppl) :p)

Their interior and plates are also nice; I think this type of restaurants “natural” “slow food” “healthy” “organic” “buffet” are Japanese trend now. (maybe?)  Inexpensive too!

Wagamama Fremantle

Recently I had a chance to go to this newly opened Wagamama restaurant in Fremantle.  It was my first time to try their food whilst Wagamama Subiaco has been there in Perth for a while.  

It was actually pre-opening launch party and all the food I had was free!  (even though there was a limit of “1 entree & 1 main per person”, seven of us ordered different dishes and shared all) Free food… nothing is better than this:)

The atmosphere was great – casual layout and friendly staff, although I noticed that the cuisine is not really a Japanese.  These are the food we ordered↓↓↓

We started with freshly squeezed juice as a waitress strongly recommended them to us.  The left is mixed fruit juice and the right is apple+mint+lime.

We ordered 3 kinds of Gyoza: Duck, Chicken and Ebi (prawn).  Only the sauce for Duck gyoza contains Hoisin sauce because of its strong taste and flavour: the other sauce (for chicken, ebi and yasai (vege)) are normal Gyoza sauce. (which is soy sauce based, with dash of sesame oil and sometimes with ra-yu)

Tori Kara Age (Deep-fried marinated chicken) is normally larger pieces of chicken but I guess this is Wagamama style.

A kind of Yakitori dish.  (negi = spring onion)  They tasted ok!

The dipping sauce was lime syrup!(with a slice of fresh chili)  Fusion of spiciness and sweetness.

Chicken Kare and Ebi Kare Ramen.  They are definitely not Japanese food as this Kare (curry) contains coconut cream and tasted like Laksa soup.  If you eat it as some kind of Asian noodle, it tastes great.

Yaki Udon (stir-fried udon noodle) is one of my favorite:)  The plain Yaki Udon came with a sprinkle of fish floss on the top.

Slices of beef steak was nicely cooked (medium) and delicious, though the noodle was little too soft and it wasn’t to my taste.

(traditional) Japanese cuisine doesn’t use coconut, chili, coriander, Hoisin sauce, red onion, bok choy etc….  Very different.

The first Wagamama was established in London few decades ago by a Hong Kong business man, and now there are about 50 Wagamama restaurants in London, few in France, Dubai, Holland, Australia… and more!  Amazing….

 It’s interesting that there is no Wagamama restaurants in most of Asian countries.  The target marketing must be non-Japanese people.  I don’t think this Wagamama restaurant can survive in Japan either:p  Different market.  But I think the food and atmosphere are great for a casual dining experience 🙂

Eat Out in Perth – Japanese Food –

Wagamama in Frementle   

Mr Samurai   

Satsuki    

Sai Koh Sushi     

Fusion of French and Japanese   

Ramen Restaurants in Perth    

A Little List of Japanese Restaurants in Perth    

Japanese Restaurants in Perth Voted by Men and Women    

Another List of Japanese Restaurants (Just Opened)   

Sakura Sushi