Just thought I’d share some beautiful coffee art pictures that came through as an email today. It’s amazing what a barista can do with a toothpick and a bit of talent!

Technorati Tags: coffee art, coffee, coffee pictures, food art

A couple of weeks ago we decided to go to Zen chinese restaurant for my partners birthday.

Zen is located on the ground level of the casino tucked around a corner (past the Atrium bar) and it’s one of the best (or the best) restaurant in the casino. It’s a fine dining Chinese restaurant catering to the high rollers and brings a bit of class to the casino which underwent a massive refurbishment about a year ago.

Being a fine dining restaurant means the meals come with a high price tag so is it worth it?

We all had soups for starters - wonton and hot and sour soup. Both were around $9 each. I ordered a wonton soup and it was delicious - the dumplings hand made with a rich, dark broth.

For mains we ordered fillet beef with scallops and vegetables and macadamia nuts $33.50, eggplant with chilli and mince approx $18, chinese broccoli and oyster sauce approx $18 and special fried rice with hidden treasures approx $14.

Everyone loved the beef and scallops dish as the beef was tender and the scallops large. I was grateful that they removed the roe because I hate that part. The macadamia nuts also made it an extra classy dish.

The eggplant with chilli and mince was also wonderful and our friends had never tried this dish and they were impressed although they commented that it’s an oily dish. The oil is needed though to add flavour so I can’t criticise them on this point.

The chinese broccoli in my opinion was overpriced given that it’s only steamed with an oyster sauce over the top but the fried rice was faultless. The hidden treasures by the way are slices of Chinese sausage.

We went back to Zen a few weeks later to try out their $18.50 per person yum cha but were disappointed. It’s a set menu and they don’t bring around the trolleys. The set menu is generous but I prefer to choose what I want to eat and the whole fun of yum cha is choosing items off the trolleys.

Below are some pictures of our dinner meals. To write your own review click here!

Wonton Soup which was around $9

Hot and Sour Soup

At the front: Beef and scallops with macadamia nuts and vegetables $33.50, eggplant with chilli and mince approx $18. In the back: Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce approx $18 and fried rice with ‘hidden treasures’ approx $14

Technorati Tags: zen chinese restaurant, jupiters casino, casino gold coast, chinese restaurant, restaurant review, gold coast restaurants

A Brisbane restaurant, Casa Flemenco has earned itself some unfavourable publicity by rudly replying to a patron who had emailed through some feedback after dining there.

Insulted by the restaurants response, Lorraine Pacy forwarded her original email along with the restaurants reply to several friends who in turn emailed it on to other friends which has resulted in the email gaining international notoriety. The Courier Mail has even covered the story!

We received the email this morning - read Lorraine’s feedback followed by the restaurants response below. I don’t understand why the restaurant responded so immaturely as Lorraine was providing valid, constructive criticism.

From: lorraine_pacey@hotmail.com
To: casaflamenco_restaurant@hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:18:04 +1100

Hi

I saw your ad in the city news last week and dined with 8 friends last
night. I wanted to pass on some feedback regarding our experience at
your restaurant. As someone who has experience in restaurant marketing
I applaud your concept of 50% off the total bill - it will certainly
get people in the door to try the restaurant. However, if you are
going to retain them as regular customers who will not only return to
the restaurant but tell all their friends and family to go to your
restaurant you need to make the first visit memorable. Here are my
suggestions;

1. Staff. We were the only table dining last night so the fact
that there was only 1 staff member working should not have been a
problem. The waiter was a sweet, friendly guy but he was not properly
trained in waiting. He was unable to explain the menu when questioned.
He did not regularly check back on the table to take drink orders, he
left the menus on the table after we had ordered and didn’t bring out
the cutlery before dessert arrived. He was obviously a little nervous
which didn’t help the cause either.
2. Food. The food was good, we enjoyed it but it was not enough
and it took far too long to arrive. We had ordered the chef’s tapas
selection which the waiter said was good. It was good. However, it
took over 1 hour to arrive on our table after we had ordered and the
dishes that were meant to be served hot were cold by the time they arrived.
Also, I would consider paying $36 or so for the size and contents of
the platter brought out but if I was paying $55 I would have been very
disappointed (in fact I think I would refuse to pay!). I had assumed
that the ‘chef’s tapas selection’ would also have included at least a
salad and some breads for the price so we didn’t order any. After we
had devoured the food in a very short time as we were starving we
decided not to ask for breads or salad as we assumed they would take
too long to arrive also. We actually assumed that the platters
brought out were going to be followed by a second platter based on the
quoted price on the menu. Really, for $55 I would be expecting that
platter to be supplemented by 1 salad, some bread and perhaps some
olives, calamari and prawns also. We also ordered dessert (cr?me
brulees and cr?me
caramels) because we were still hungry after the tapas- the cr?me
caramels were okay but the cr?me brulees were lumpy and inedible.
Again, if we were paying $15 each for them we would have been very
disappointed. I was disappointed enough paying $7.50 for them. Also,
the coffee was brought out after dessert was served and was not good coffee.

3. Value for Money was awful. We ended up paying around $30 per
person for our meal which was okay for what we got. However, should we
have been paying full price I would not have been happy at all. There
simply was not the variety or amount of food served for the money that
the menu quoted.

I am afraid that my experience at Casa Flamenco was very disappointing.
I am not seeking any recompense here - I think you have a good
concept in the restaurant and your website shows you are passionate
about what you do. The fact that you are offering diners a 50%
discount to try the restaurant out shows that you are keen to attract
new customers. I do hope you take my feedback into account and use it
constructively to improve your customers’ experiences. You are doing
the right things in your marketing to attract customers. However, the
key is to retain these new customers and keep them and their friends
coming back for more. To do this you will need to improve your service
levels and your value for money substantially from what my friends and I experienced last night.

Thank you for your time,

Lorraine Pacey

The restaurants reply:

From: casaflamenco_restaurant@hotmail.com
To: lorraine_pacey@hotmail.com
Subject: RE:
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:50:38 -0500

Dear Lorraine,

your are an idiot we dont need your feedback.

Technorati Tags: restaurant feedback, brisbane, casa flamenco, brisbane restaurants

An article from today’s Sunday Mail laments the fact that pub meals are no longer cheap.

It seems that the days of a cheap steak, roast or parmagiana meal are gone and are instead replaced with $30 gourmet meals.

Some of my friends who rarely dine at fine dining restaurants often comment that they can’t afford a ’swish meal at a top restaurant’ because it’s too expensive yet quite often a steak meal will cost the same or have very little difference whether you’re ordering it at a pub, an American style steak chain restaurant or a fine dining restaurant. I’ve stopped going to pubs so often now becuase of this because I’d rather pay $33 at a top restaurant for an amazing steak with quiter, intimate surrounds and fine dining level service as opposed to a pub where it’s noisy and crowded with poker machines providing background music.

It’s a shame that pubs are losing touch with their target market such as students, families and people on a budget. When I lived in Melbourne it was common to see pubs displaying their daily special on a chalkboard outside such as: Steak night, roast night or pie night - all for $10 with a $2 pot of beer.

What are your thoughts? And where’s your favourite local pub to get a great cheap meal?

Technorati Tags: pubs, pub meals, restaurants, cheap restaurant meals, dining, Queensland

Four of us came here for lunch the other day as my sister is on holidays from London.

I’ve been to Songbirds once many years ago and I’ve heard so much about this restaurant that I was excited to try it again. It’s located not far from the main street on Tamborine Mountain. When you arrive you walk down a gravel stepping stone path. The restaurant is set amongst beautiful gardens and there’s plenty of wildlife to look at from kookaburra’s to butterflies.

The service was fantastic, our waitress was very friendly and helpful in describing the unusual ingredients listed on the menu. They also pay attention to detail such as adding a slice of lime at the table to each glass before they pour the sparkling water.

My dad commented that the last time they visited they had a bad experience - it was his birthday and they took a long time to bring out his meals and the service was poor but this time we were very fortunate. We booked for 12pm which was before the other tables filled out so maybe this had something to do with it but from my experience I can’t fault them.

I won’t describe all the meals as I’ll do so below but we all ordered the set menu (I can’t remember accurately but I think it was $60 for 2 mains and around $15 for each dessert) Entrees on their own are around $20 each and mains $36 plus.

Songbirds is very much a fine dining experience. I think it is best to visit at lunch so that you can enjoy the garden outlook and if you have the means, make a weekend of it and stay at Songbirds as they have onsite accommodation.

To write your own review on Songbirds click here.

Location:
Songbirds in the Forest
Modern Australian

Tamborine Mountain Road
Tamborine Mountain, 4272

Phone: 07 5545 2563
Web: http://www.songbirds.com.au

The alfresco restaurant - luckily it wasn’t raining

The grilled calamari and orzo pasta entree. The calamari was stuffed with chorizo, spinach and tomato

I ordered this for entree - the smoked ham hock consomme with a cabbage dumpling. It was very good. They bring it out with just the peas and dumpling in the bowl and pour the soup at the table.

The open lasagne of roasted yabbi tails entree

My boyfriend ordered this for his entree as he’s a huge scallop fan -roasted Queensland scallops on a tomato terrine with cucumber foam

The view from our table - the gardens surrounding the restaurant. Afterwards we went for a walk as they’re quite large gardens.

Black bean glazed duck breast - underneath was tofu

The wagyu beef with an oxtail and mushroom dumpling on top. Three of us ordered this for our main.

The boned whole quail with kipfler potato salad. One person from our group wasn’t that hungry so they ordered this entree as their main.

We ordered two sides - chips with aioli sauce (the sauce was sooo good) and a rocket and beetroot salad.

The banana fritter with chocolate sauce dessert which I ordered.

The souffle of the day - coconut and mango

Chocolate creme brulee with chocolate strudel

Technorati Tags: songbirds in the forest, restaurant review, tamborine mountain, modern Australian