Ngopi

Greetings ladles and jelly-spoons~

On the last day of uni this year, I(Jia) went to lunch with Tiffany(see her awesome blog here) and her friend Kharishma. There were going to be 5 people but 2 didn't come, so the 3 of us were just occupying a big table by ourselves hahaha. My high school friend Jiyun mentioned this place to me when we met on the bus once, and I was pretty keen to try it. I would definitely say it's a student friendly place; although the price is much higher than it would be in Singapore, for New Zealand I'd say it's reasonable. It's not a place you would immediately notice but when you know what you're looking for it's quite easy to find via the painted sign. To be honest though I thought it was just a tidy bit of graffiti every time my bus passed it, until I realised it was a restaurant name.

Atmosphere
From the outside it's nothing impressive, and once near the entrance I was assaulted with the smell of cigarette smoke. There are two parts to the place; a place closer to the door with chairs and some tables and some colourful art on the wall. after a glass partition with glass doors(nearly walked into them), there is the main part. It's kinda cute, with its mix of brick walls and painted wood. Very colourful, yet somehow dark too. It does have lights, but the ceiling is black and it has a sort of 'underground' feeling to it. As you sit for a while the cigarette smell is not as strong(Or at least, I couldn't smell it anymore. Tiffany still could).One corner had a shelf with magazines, games and books.

 

photo credit to Tiff because the one I took was not as clear :D

Isn't she cute?

I love how it has a hint of a rustic feel to it, with framed menu choices on the wall written in chalk, wooden block table numbers, colourful wooden palettes separating the eating area from the kitchen. It's a nice and casual feeling you get sitting there. The background noise is pleasantly like the hubbub of an Asian food-court but not as loud because of considerably less people.  I also had a nice surprise of discovering that one of the waitresses was a camp friend Irna(who looks cute in the uniform by the way :D).

I also like this.

Food               
K and T ordered an iced coffee and iced milk tea. I tried both of them and I liked the fact that the coffee wasn't as bitter so it was much easier to drink. The milk tea tasted like a milk tea without pearls so... I liked that too(I do like pearls okay, just describing the taste). Hahaha we mistook a customer for the waiter that bought  a hot coffee instead of cold, and we were trying to get his attention by waving politely and saying "Excuse me". He ended up sitting at the table next to ours and they were all friendly uncles. One of them is from Singapore. Now, I did not get to try the laksa because of my aversion to spicy food, so I'll just have to trust T, K and the uncles at the next table as they were praising it.

Anyway back to the food; I had Char  Koay Teow (pronounced chah kwei teow, I believe). This basically had omelette, prawns, flat noodles, bean sprouts, and -I think it was- squid?

It doesn't look it but trust me it's pretty darn big.

As a person who has eaten such dishes back in Singapore, I can honestly say it tastes delicious, and just like the Char Koay Teow back in SG. Pretty big portion though. I wont lie, my appetite isn't exactly that tiny but I had trouble forcing the last few bites in. I was the only one who finished my dish haha.

Tiffany had the Chicken Hor Fun, which had (again)squid, thin noodles and flat noodles(that's what I'm more used to), chicken, prawn, a runny egg sauce(my favourite part of any Hor Fun with the noodles), and shallots.

 It is nice but I prefer my Char Koay Teow. I found the chicken a bit dry. It might also be that I really really liked my CKT(hahaha wow those are my mother's initials)?



Kharishma and I -photo creds to Tiff again :D

Tiff being cute again~

Service            
The cashier was friendly, and quite funny. She explained about the lunch rush, and asked if we were about to die of hunger, because the food was going to be out in probably 30 minutes. As mentioned earlier, my camp friend was one of the waitresses so she was of course friendly and smiley so that was nice. There was the little mix up of the drinks order but other than that it was fine.

Price              
The price range was about $10-12 for all the dishes(that I could see, anyway), which I thought was pretty good. Plus it tastes good and fills you up.But mayne bring 20 for including drinks?

A little late-night doodle for our readers' pleasure

So overall I liked this place. Not sure if I'll go again any time soon because I probably want to try a lot of different places, but I'll definitely keep the option open.

 

Just the one Lamb

Japa Deli Review - If you don't like bad things, best not to read this

Ladles and Jellyspoons!

Song here finally doing a review on a lunch place that I went to a few days back. It's called Japa Deli and it's located on the corner of Anzac Ave and Beach Road. I decided to go there because I was craving unagi (Japanese grilled eel) so you know what this is probably gonna be about :p so let's get into it!

Atmosphere

The place is nice enough, combining a modern clean surrounding with an older wood based style floor and furniture. The rest of it is quite typical I suppose with some Japanese decorations here and there. This definitely feels more like a cafe than a restaurant and it's a good place to go casually or for a lunch date etc. I really did like the light colored brick walls but that's just me, I'm a sucker for brick walls in places like these.

                  

 

Food

So this is where I had quite a bit of a grumble. We ordered the Unagi Don and were going to also go with the Okonomiyaki which I think is a pretty standard order. Unfortunately they had..run out.. or didn't do (or something along those lines) that either at that time or at all. Okay so first, they had literally just set up and open and they've already run out? I must have missed the lunch hour rush or something in the couple of minutes it took to get there. Second, if they don't do something it should be told when they give us the menu or crossed out on it at least. Crazy small outburst over. For those who are wondering the special was a lunch box special. 5 pieces of sushi either salmon or chicken with Karage chicken cutlet or crumbed squid accompanied with a green salad. This entire meal would cost you $10.

So we ended up getting the Unagi and the Tempura Udon. Being me and knowing how much I end up eating and considering I was starving at that time (didn't eat breakfast just because... I normally don't.) I decided to go with the large unagi don as there are two choices (small or large). When it arrived (quickly which was good) I had to stop and think about whether or not I had made a mistake with my ordering or perhaps they had written down the wrong order because surely.. that couldn't be a large. Ignore the photo because it's kind of misleading but its small. 4 mid to small size pieces of eel with.. not even that much rice. I will say that the proportions work out nicely but certainly not what I was expecting. The taste? Nothing outstanding but it wasn't bad either. It lacked balance as it was literally just rice and eel. Some would say "well that's what you get for ordering a Don" and I agree but I've eaten at various Japanese places in Auckland and a don meal usually comes with some sort of vegetables, and no, dried seaweed strips do NOT count (according to my girlfriend.. I mean I was going to say it counted.. I only eat veges if I have to) for half the price I could have gotten sushi chicken AND a salad. I find that just a little bit ridiculous. If that was the LARGE then I am terrified to the thought of how miniscule a small is.

The tempura udon was disappointing. I suppose they gave a fair amount of tempura, but for me I find that dunking it in the udon, kinda defeats the purpose of it being deep fried in the first place. You lose the crisp texture and the oil leaks into your soup making the entire meal... gross. The noodles were bland (but they're noodles) and the soup didn't help much in the taste category either.

The saving grace of this meal was probably the.. Ginger beer..

                   

 

Presentation

Here I thought that the way it looked was nice, there's not much you could do with some eel and rice, but at least they made an effort to layer it nicely. The udon.. again, there's really REALLY not much you can do with noodles, I mean they kind of arrange themselves don't they? But hey, they did put the tempura nicely together. Not much I can say about this overall but I did like the utensils that they gave to us so score points for that.

Service

I really hate criticizing things.. (I know it sounds like I enjoy it but it makes me feel kinda bad..deep down.. like.. Tartarus deep..) Their service was horrible. They're lucky we got rid of the rating system otherwise this would have scored a 0. We are the first customers there. Now, I'm not saying we have to be treated like it's a red carpet premiere (though that would definitely edge them closer to a 10) but a smile a greeting and clear direction to a table would be nice. They seemed to have read the total opposite of the customer service handbook because it honestly felt like we weren't welcome. Furthermore, specials come first. Otherwise it's not going to get considered while we think about what to order. As I said above, what you do and do not do also get mentioned first off. Don't raise our hopes only to dash them (unless you're sadistic that way then.. you have problems). When asking for our order the waiter's tone (and I say waiter loosely, a primary school child could have been better) was definitely that of one who would rather be anywhere else. After telling us that they didn't have okonomiyaki, there was this lengthy pause before he finally decided to mention the specials. Now that's not so bad right? Wrong. The only reason I can tell you the specials is because I had somehow taken a photo of the blackboard it was on and just zoomed in to read it. The waiter (again, loosely using the term) just mumbled a bunch of sentences and I caught the words special and sushi. Otherwise I honestly wouldn't have a clue that they had specials. I didn't dare ask him to repeat it because he already looked like it was killing him to talk to us. This is a HUGE part of why I disliked this place.

Price

So.. numbers. A large unagi don with the shrimp tempura udon along with a ginger beer altogether put us $36.60 out of pocket. For two people. For that kind of money, I could have spent it actually getting food that satisfied me. I had still hoped that they had made a mistake and that they were going to charge me a small unagi don which would have been acceptable but at $18.80 I could have gone to any other Japanese place and gotten way more than some measly eel and a bit of rice. The Ebi tempura udon was $13.80 and honestly I think that they're making way over double of what it costs to make. Ginger beer was $4.00. 

So overall? This isn't a place that I'd recommend. At least not to students. Sure the atmosphere of the actual place is nice, the deco works well together and has a fair amount of space so you don't feel like you're a sardine. The food is also alright. However, for the amount you pay for that food? Definitely not worth it in any aspect. Maybe if you were earning that much or you were just THAT hungry.. then maybe but even then.. I'd be really hesitant. The service was the biggest problem that I had with this place as I'm quite happy to lunch anywhere else because being that far down away from University, means that I have a whole ton of choices of where to splurge for a meal. I cannot see how this place had as many customers as it did, I will just assume that they're not regulars. Perhaps I didn't order the right things so if any of you viewers have been there and actually liked it, let me know in the comments down below!

The Musical Lamb

Archie's Restaurant and Pizzeria Review

Greetings Ladles and Jellyspoons~

Sorry about the radio silence for so long!! I've been getting a lot of comments from people saying that they read our blog and it's makes me feel so loved, yay!! This time we're reviewing Archie's Pizzeria in Newmarket. We actually ate here quite a few weeks ago during mid-semester break but a sudden need to finish assignments and study for mid-term tests made me(Jia) unable to blog. This was back when it was colder but on that day it was pretty sunny so we got to eat outside without feeling like icicles. I would tell you a pun about pizza but it's too cheesy.

I drew this cool pizza for you on paint. Yes.

Haha sorry I couldn't resist. Anyway wow, did anyone else experience that power outage from the fire in the Penrose power station? My area had no electricity for a good part of the weekend. In fact we just got the phone line back today.

Getting back to the food blog, my brother and I have decided to cut out the rating part of the blog because it's not all that important and truthfully I don't think there will ever be a 10/10 because of the high standards of every single aspect needing to be perfect. Some of the restaurants with low ratings really aren't bad but they're just not amazing.

Atmosphere
This was a cozy pizzeria, a cross between a café and a restaurant I guess. It was pretty crowded inside, and outside was quite crowded too. This was probably because of the lunch special that goes on everyday where they have a $14 menu. Talk about a great bargain :D The tables were a bit small though so it was a squeeze to get all our plates on it. It felt friendly and had some background noise, but not too loud since it wasn't too close to the road. I feel like it would be nice for a casual date or just a lunch out with mates like we had.

I didn't get a picture of the inside sorry.

Songie here~

Food                
Unfortunately the water was tap water but oh well. The food made up for it. On my friend's recommendation I picked El Salmone, which I can honestly say was delicious. Initially I did have misgivings when it came out, because it looked thin with a few meager slices of salmon laid out on it and a handful of salad on top. As I ate it though, I found that it was actually really good. It wasn't overly filling because it was thin and light; the salmon wasn't overpoweringly rich(as it sometimes can be when you have a lot of cooked salmon) because there wasn't a lot. It went well with the salad, and the cream cheese hidden under the salmon just melted in your mouth as you ate it.  I seriously enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I was starving or something but I might even go as far as saying it was like a symphony in your mouth.

Alla Cappriosa had anchovies(extremely salty!), olives, capsicum and salami and stuff. I felt that it had very strong flavours.  The combined well but I preferred the more subtle and creamy taste of the salmon pizza. This was more rustic, good in itself but missing a softer edge to it. Also olives aren't exactly on our best foods list, and its a bit fiddley to get the pip out and then combine it with everything so that the overall taste isn't too strong. 

Presentation
The pizzas were cute and had a lot of colour which is always nice, and also weren't too big where you would overeat(as a growing teenager, anyway). It looked just like a pizza normally does. On that note you can have badly presented pizzas like if Dominoes or Pizza Hut's delivery people have let your pizza slide around the back of the car at a few hundred turns. I think for what they had to work with, it was presented neatly with all of the right elements.

Service            
The service was alright, they were happy to seat you where you'd like(we were initially sat on the inside next to the toilets but decided that outside was better). They were friendly and came at the exactly right time when we wanted to order. The owner also works there on occasion and is always ready for a chat and is a really friendly guy. Definitely makes me feel like customer service is a priority there.

Price                
The price was good, because it was lunchtime there was the $14 Lunch Special when usually the pizzas would've cost more. However, the dinner menu which is more expensive, also has an upgrade with food portions, but as we haven't been there for dinner recently (last time I went was sometime last year) we're not sure if it's a still just...way too filling or not. So in terms of price for value, the lunch menu definitely takes the cake.. or..slice.. or something..


So overall, in terms of pretty much everything, Archies is definitely coming in as one of the top places we've been to so far. The $14 menu is great for students looking to splurge a little and get a great deal at the same time and yet it does not cater exclusively to them. It's a great all rounder restaurant that proves over and over again why it's always teeming with customers day after day. Be prepared for a small wait if you go there in the middle of a lunch period! And... That concludes this post I guess!! Thanks for reading~

The Lambs

Mission Bay: Ruan Thai Review

Laaaadles and Jellyspoons! (Yes it's back due to demand)

Toying with the idea of a one-frame comic with every blog or so. Opinions?

So today we've got another restaurant to review, this time in Mission Bay. Today was really one of those days where you're just tired of decision making so you're pretty much happy with whatever and Mission Bay was close by so there we go.

Atmosphere

It had a lot of space, or at least should have but it seemed that every square inch of the place was either filled with tables or with Thai decorations. There were so many statues, pictures, fake plants (supposedly), cabinets with pottery etc etc etc you get the idea. It was just so crowded from the moment we walked in. It was literally just Thai decorations, walking space and then tables on the outside rim. After sitting for a while we noticed how dark and moody the lighting was(almost impossible to take photos from my iPhone) as well as how the whole room was wooden. Although it gave a nice warm vibe, it started to feel like we were sitting in a Western steakhouse that had somehow gotten their decoration order mixed up with the Thai shop down the road. Good for a romantic dinner.. or dining in the dark sort of activity (just kidding). Seriously though, felt really weird because of the clashing of the design and décor. Since it was a really slow night, we got a great seat by the window. The windows have a protective glass bit that presumably prevents toddlers from falling over when its open. The view that you get isn't exactly seaside; granted we were seated right next to the billboard sign for the shop below, but overall you get a front row seat of the pavement that's for sure.

Food
  "It was alright" are the precise words we get when we ask each other about the food. Also they served tap water which has a really strong smell and no matter how thirsty you are, it's hard to drink that. We started with the Deluxe Thai Platter which consisted of a selection of 6 of the entrees with an additional serving because there were three of us.

It starts with 2 of each of the 6 and each serving just adds one. The platter consists of Chicken Satay, Prawn Balls, Curry Puffs, Spring Rolls, Moneybags and Chicken Wings. so as you can see there's a fair bit to try. The chicken satay was better than what was had at Thai Village because it had good texture. The taste was a bit bland but they do give you peanut sauce to go with it as well as 3 other sauces which go with the rest of the platter. The prawn balls were again, bland and they had this strange after taste which didn't agree too well with me even when dipped in the sauces so for me that was probably the worst of the platter. (Song. Hard to tell who's writing, if there's a difference of opinion we'll change the colors or something). The curry puff, I prefer them to be a bit spicy to give a kick to the entire thing but I'm starting to think that they get all of these from a manufacturer and just microwave them for us. It was on the bland side. The spring roll wasn't that great, it was bland and there was this absence of well.. absence of anything really. It contained no meat (so hey look vegetarian friendly) and had a poor selection of vegetables to compensate. The Moneybags, were interesting. We're probably more used to the ones at Thai Village, which are small but elegant and very nicely packed together. In this one it was kinda thick, the bag itself was a lot bigger and clumsier. More like a mini mince pie. This one, was one of the parts of this platter that was NOT bland (hooray!). Finally the chicken wings. Not bland, well cooked with great texture and not overly dry which is easy to do with chicken. Overall, this platter was on the disappointing side but was a great way to try a lot of what they had to offer as well as being relatively filling.

Next, we had the Ruan Thai special ribs. I wanted a small meal because I wasn't too hungry, but honestly one serving from the entrée platter was enough to fill me up so I couldn't eat much of either of the mains. As the waiter said though, it was pretty sweet, not something you want to have if you're itching for a steak or some other savoury food. It's not dessert worthy but it's still sweet. The texture of the ribs was a tiny bit dry but still nice.

We also gave the fish a try, which I believe was called the Pla Lard Pik(very appetising name, I know). It's apparently spicy but since I can handle it(and as most people should know I'm pretty terrible with spicy food despite being Asian), it's probably nothing to normal people. My mother thinks it was nice and since she's the family chef one would normally trust her, but I personally found it dry and a bit tasteless.

Finally my favourite part; dessert. Songie had Coconut Black Bean Sago Pudding whereas I had the Kao Niew Liam Yai. We did a swapsies to taste them both. I personally preferred mine because I don't see the place of black beans in desserts, even in Asian ones. I found the sago pudding quite watery and my favourite part --the sago-- was barely in it. My one however, I preferred because it had a thicker, pudding-like consistency, even if it reminded me of creamy rice. I had lychee bits in it which was a pleasant surprise. However I must admit I think I prefer Thai Village's desserts. I did, however, love the icecream that came with the desserts. They probably got it from Movenpick at the corner or something because it was delicious. Deeply regretted not getting a sundae.

Kai Niew Liam Yai

Coconut Black Bean Sago Pudding

Presentation
I feel like the presentation was standard for Thai food, and that's not a bad thing. Truly, with the exotic mix of colours and tastes in the food it's hard to fault these dishes. I liked that there were some vegetables on the side, but there wasn't enough to count for an actual mini salad, plus a good majority of it was probably coriander and the like. I did like the dishes that the food came in though.

Service
Considering that it was not a busy night at all(about 3 tables in total including us); I expected them to be a little more attentive and a little bit more on to it when it came to things like taking our order. Despite having our menus closed (which I think is like the definite sign that we can order) it took a good 15ish minutes before the waiter noticed us. I'm not sure if it was the placement of tables and plants and such but it felt like we were fairly isolated and out of sight, despite having wonderful seats by the corner window. I may have spotted a waitress lurking near the giant plant behind us but she was more suited to seeing the other two tables. On the bright side we did get checked up on once during the dinner,  and the food was quite prompt (then again it was just three tables that night), so the service was alright.

Price
The Deluxe Thai Platter which consisted of a selection of 6 of the entrees for $29.00 with each additional serving costing $14.00. The Ruan Thai Ribs were $22.20 and the Pla Lard Pik was $27.00. For dessert, the Coconut Black Bean Sago Pudding and Kao Niew Liam Yai were $13.00. I actually found this place possibly more costly than Thai Village in Remuera which I found pretty crazy because a lot of students frequent Mission Bay as opposed to Remuera.

Rating: /10

Atmosphere:      3
Food:                 5
Presentation:     7
Service:             4
Price:                 4

Overall: 4.6/10

Once again, thank you for reading!! If interested in eating at Ruan Thai, details are here.

The Lambs(YES. TWO AT LAST.)

Just for fun.

Kobe Station Review : Pancakes. Donburi. Bento.

Hey everyone :D (I have to change up the ladles and jellyspoons greeting every now and then, yes?)

Jia here agaaaain(really rethinking this partnership). Another short post this time!! Will probably have a lot of these for snacks that may or may not count for meals.
Anyway, I ate at this place this afternoon as a snack after uni because I was really hungry for some reason(Maybe I'm growing, yay! Just hope it's upwards and not sideways haha). I see this place in the Newmarket Train station square sometimes when I end up there and I'm always quite curious about it. So today, I finally tried it.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere, as with most Japanese eateries, is created by the decorations. In this little store they had large prints of places in Japan(I believe the middle image is Hokkaido, possibly? Another wall had a picture of Tokyo at night time I think), little banners and fans. The dark wooden structure also adds to the Japanese atmosphere of the place somehow. It was a fairly simple design. There were to tables to sit at and the window bar to sit at. It was very quiet, but I think that applies to majority of the square. There wasn't much you could do with the place to be honest.

Food

I had a pancake because I was curious as to whether it would be like the Korean pancake place in town. I had a Teriyaki chicken pancake. I expected just chicken but it came with vegetables in it too, which was a pleasant, healthy surprise. From what I could see and taste, I gather it was cabbage, and some carrots strands. Since I was having Teriyaki chicken I thought it would be appropriate to have Teriyaki sauce too(There were other choices but I wanted this). I couldn't really taste the chicken over the vegetables though and I found that a little weird. However it was quite nice, and about the same size as the Korean pancakes from city, just cut up. Definitely not the same pancake texture as the Korean pancake, though. While the Korean pancakes have actual dough thus come out more like a thick fried pancake, this one is more... crumbly, I suppose? If anyone has been to Chinese Dimsum(or as some say, Yumchar), it's a lot like the Chinese white carrot cake(Savoury, not sweet). I also got a complimentary hot drink(choices were miso, coffee and green tea), and I chose miso. It was a tad sour compared to what I'm used to but it was nice, especially on a cold day.

Presentation

As I mentioned earlier, and as one can see from the image above, it's pretty different to the Korean pancakes(yes, yes. I keep mentioning it but I haven't done a real post on it. I'll get onto it next week). Not only in texture but in presentation too. Whereas the Korean pancake comes to you whole, this one comes to you cut up into quarters and then the sauce is squirted on one half, and the other half is then placed on top. I might have preferred it just halved, really. But it does make it easier to eat I guess.

Service

The service was really good, they were friendly and patient. I also like the complimentary hot drink, especially for winter. They also closed the door when I mentioned it was cold today, though that might have been because they were cold. I'll never know. Even if the place was almost empty, the food came out pretty quickly, let's say in about 3 minutes. I ordered takeaway but decided it was cold outside so I ate indoors, and fully intended to throw my rubbish away. They noticed I was holding my rubbish when I was leaving though and insisted on taking it from me, which I thought was really nice. Another thing I like about Japanese eateries is that they greet you and say bye to you too.

Price

 Pancake is $4.50, the donburi is approx $10-15, and the bento is $12. A hot drink is $2. I find these prices pretty reasonable, and student-friendly. I think they try to cater to all the students and business people who go through the station through out the day. I don't really get how the complimentary drink thing works because I didn't see any promotion for it, so I'm thinking that it was just on the house or something.


Rating: /10

Atmosphere:       5
Food:                  7
Presentation:      4
Service:              9
Price:                  8

Overall: 6.6/10

Thank you for reading this far~

Just the one Lamb