On a Thursday A and I were talking about different places that we have been to and places that we would like to go to. A mentioned to me that there is one place that she would like to go to that she has always had nice meals at. That place is called The Bonsai and is a place that serves share plates of Japanese food. I thought that this sounded like a great idea. When we were on the way to Bonsai I quickly looked up what the rating was on urbanspoon, this particular restaurant has an 87% ranking so I was thinking it has to be pretty good.

As we arrive and ask for a table for two, we also mention that we don’t have a booking but the waitress said she will see if there is a free table. A couple of minutes later she returns and mentions that she has found a free table, as we walk through the restaurant I notice that there is only one table that isn’t reserved, this seems to definitely be a popular place.

Looking at the menu it seems to be split up between sushi, cold and hot shares, salads and main courses. The menu mentions that we should order between 2-3 dishes per person. We order our food and after a very short wait the first of our dishes arrived. We went for the chicken salad, looking around it seems that is chicken salad is definitely popular as nearly every table had also ordered it. As I took a bite I could understand why it was so popular, it was absolutely delicious! The salad had thinly shredded cabbage, small pieces of deep fried chicken, lettuce, Japanese mayo, BBQ sauce and then topped with crispy wantons. I really liked all the different textures in this salad and the sweetness of the Japanese mayo.

The next dish that we ordered to share was the tuna tataki. This was thin slices of tuna which have been seared on the outside but are still raw on the inside. While I thought the tuna was tasty there were a few things that I didn’t like about this dish. One was that I found the searing on the outside didn’t add anything to the tuna, I would rather have a few slices of raw tuna. The other thing I didn’t understand was that the avocado was under the tuna, trying to pick up mushy avocado from a plate with a pair of chopsticks is a very difficult task! The last thing was that this particular dish was 17 dollars which I think is a little expensive for 6 slices of tuna.

There was a dish that A was fairly excited about and that was the ‘takoyaki’. Which are little balls of dough that are filled with small pieces of octopus and then deep fried. When they arrived I knew that they would be delicious and they were. However while they were delicious I feel that they should come with a warning message as the filling was incredibly hot and caused me to burn my mouth a little bit.

The last dish that we ordered was the cajun spiced baby squid. These squid were grilled before being basted with a caramel soy sauce. I really enjoyed this squid, they were something that I feel would go really well with beer. The squid was also served with a token lettuce leaf.

After these four dishes had been ordered we realized that we forgot to order another dish, the eggplant agedashi. This particular dish has fried pieces of eggplant with mochi (which are rice cakes). The mochi are something that is very interesting from a texture point of view as they taste like very very chewy rice. The eggplant was really delicious and did a great job of soaking up all of that yummy agedashi sauce. My only criticism is that there were only four pieces of eggplant, I felt that they could have included a couple more pieces.

A’s thoughts on the bonsai were “Overall I really enjoyed the meal. The highlights were the chicken salad and the octopus balls. The tuna wasn’t anything to rave about and for the same price we could have ordered another chicken salad which was one of the tastiest dishes we had. I really enjoy the flavours of bonsai and the atmosphere of the restaurant is great. I would definitely return but it is the sort of meal that you would have to be in the mood for.”

When I think back about my meal the thing that keeps coming back into my mind is that I was still hungry at the end of the meal. Normally I don’t complain about small servings as I find that where there are small servings the flavours are normally so rich you don’t want a large serving but the flavours weren’t exactly rich. At the end of the day I found that everything we had was really tasty and it was reasonably priced but I would have liked some slightly larger serving sizes. Due to the small serving sizes I don’t know if I would rush back to bonsai for another meal.

As i sat down in the restaurant i looked around me and it looked like everyone was having a really good time. In terms of the decor this restaurant is fairly utilitarian, with a list of specials lining one wall and some hanging pieces of pork and duck lining the other. This definitely has a vibe of a place that people go to when they are on their way to work as the food is served quickly and parking is plentiful nearby.

One particular touch that I enjoyed about this restaurant (and a lot of restaurants in Malaysia for that matter is the condiments on the table, I love that you can easily give your dish a hit of chilli because there is a pretty awesome chilli paste right there on the table.

Restoran dragon view has a fairly extensive menu which includes breakfast favourites like rice porridge and peanut butter toast. Looking around it seems that the thing to order would have to be the wantan noodles as everyone seemed to be ordering them. The next decision I had to make was what accompaniments I would like to have with my noodles, I had a bit of a chicken feet craving that day so that’s what I went for. Chicken feet might seem like a strange choice but i really enjoy the mixture of all sorts of different textures that were going on there. The noodles were also fantastic, really springy texture and a delicious flavour once i mixed them through the sauce that had settled at the bottom. 9/10

Now there was a little bit of confusion next. I mentioned to one of the wait staff that i hadn’t received my bowl of wantans in soup to go with my noodles. This was misinterpreted as I wanted another bowl of soup, so what i got was a large bowl of wantan soup. I didn’t mind so much due to the fact that the wantans were really tasty, the pork filling was super tender and the wantans were cooked perfectly so that they didnt fall apart when i picked them up.

I washed all this food down with a very refreshing watermelon juice.

Breakfast is something that Malaysian people use to catch up with family before heading off to work. It’s a meal that I will always miss when I am back in Australia.

Bistro Guillaume, Much like the merrywell is part of Crown’s massive investment into the Perth night life scene. As you walk through the hotel lobby and into the restaurant you are greeted with the most wonderful shade of green. I also really liked the textured wallpaper on the walls of the restaurant. The next thing that I noticed was that there is definitely a lot of great training going on with the staff at Bistro Guillaume because every staff member I met had a bit smile on their face and they were completely friendly.

As we sat down and looked over the menu I mentioned to A that it would be nice for us to have a toast for our anniversary. What I saw next was one of the biggest flaws of the meal, the wine by the glass list is pretty small and the cheapest sparkling wine is a staggering $18 a glass. That means that if you want to share a toast with your partner it is going to cost more than $35. A ordered a lemon, lime and bitters and I went for a iced lemon tea. The iced lemon tea is another aspect where the service is fantastic, they don’t have iced lemon tea on the menu yet they were willing to go out of their way to make one up to order just for me.

While we were waiting for our courses to arrive we received a complimentary bread course. I have a feeling that this is the same bread that they use at rockpool. This definitely isn’t a bad thing as the quality of the bread is fantastic. I also really enjoyed adding a few sprinkles of sea salt to the chewy bread. A’s thoughts on the bread were “Warm, fresh and enjoyable” 8/10

Next up my entree arrived and since we were in classic french surroundings I decided to go for a classic french entree. Steak tatare, This was my first time trying steak tartare so I was interested to see what it tastes like. I remember reading in a book somewhere that mentioned that steak tatare should never be put through a mincer, it should always be cut with a knife as a mincer causes the meat to toughen. When my dish arrived and I tried some I instantly knew that it wasn’t put through the mincer as it was just really tender and delicious. I also really loved the capers and onions that were mixed through the tatare. My only criticism about this dish is that it was served with potato chips, the chips aren’t really a great vessel for transporting tatare and I would have much preferred some crusty bread. 7/10

A’s entree was a crab salad. Her thoughts on her entree were “Very fresh, nice having some sort of acidic on top that brought out the flavours.”

After our plates were cleared away we received our main meals about 20 minutes later. I decided to go for another classic french bistro dish, this time I went for the duck confit. This was served with a simple stew of peas, mint and speck. I really liked the duck, I found that the skin was perfectly crispy while the meat stayed very moist. I thought that the accompanying stew was tasty but I would have liked another aspect to the dish. 8/10

A went for a grilled piece of salmon that was served with clams, roasted fennel and a buerre blanc. Her thoughts on her dish were “Perfectly cooked, slightly crispy on the outside. I also really liked the roasted fennel, I felt that it really added to the dish. ”

We had a little bit of room for dessert so we decided to share a salted caramel tart that was served with rum and raisin ice cream. The presentation of this particular dish certainly impressed us. The tart was sliced perfectly and there was a swirl of chocolate hovering over the tart. I really enjoyed the tart, I liked that they weren’t shy with the amount of salt that they added. I thought the rum and raisin ice cream was tasty but I would have preferred some classic vanilla bean ice cream. A’s thought on the tart were “It was very rich, I am glad that we shared it as it would have been too much to have for one person. I would have liked there to be more salted caramel but overall I liked it. ” 7/10

One thing I noticed halfway through my meal at Bistro Guillame was that i turned my head and looked at the open plan kitchen and I noticed that Guillame Brahimi himself was working on the pass. I wondered if the food was any different due to him being in the kitchen but I doubted it as it seemed that the staff are very well trained. I enjoyed my meal, I went in comparing this meal to rockpool and in hindsight I think that I still prefer rockpool. Both meals cost around the same amount but rockpool just seems to be that little bit more special.

I enter the small cafe and it is completely utilitarian, with tables with clear laminate table cloths that haven’t been changed in years and no details on the walls except for a tourist poster about how great a place Langkwai is. I was feeling confident at this stage as I know that some of my best meals have come from simple surroundings such as these.

I have a look to my right at the board of different menu options and I notice that biryani is listed on the list. Biryani is one of my favourite dishes of all time, Its a wonderfully aromatic mix of rice that has been slowly cooked with spices and tender chunks of meat. What i received after I placed my order with the very friendly wait staff was something different. Rather than the meat being cooked with the rice so the juices coat all the rice grains, this was just some flavored rice and the lamb curry I ordered was served on the side. I have to admit I prefer the Biryani where the rice has been mixed in with the meat. Now that I have got my thoughts on biryani’s off my chest i can get on to my thoughts on this dish. I thought it was alright. I didn’t mind the flavoured rice, The curry was some of the spiciest curry around with really tender chunks of lamb. I didn’t like the chinese vegetables that accompanied the biryani, they were served at room temperature and lacked any freshness or flavour. 6/10

I am glad that I have tried another place in my goal to try every stall at Spencer village but I probably won’t be back to Cafe Rasa Sayang, It’s not that there was anything particularly bad about it but its more the fact that personally for me there isn’t anything that will have me thinking about this meal in the days/weeks/years to come.

I arrived a little bit earlier and as it was a little earlier i could get a better look at the restaurant and I instantly found it interesting. What i found interesting was that they managed to merge art and food into the one restaurant. As i sat down and waited to place my order i looked around and noticed little touches such as hand painted walls and furniture.

Looking over the menu I notice that there is a fairly standard selection of choices that had classic malaysian dishes like nasi goreng to western choices like chicken salad. To be honest the other items on the menu didn’t interest me as I was solely interested in trying their laksa and seeing if it was as good as they claim.

Before my laksa arrived i started with a very refreshing beverage, this was a mixture of homemade raspberry cordial and lemonade. I thought that while being a relatively small serving it was extremely refreshing. If was I was to go to Calanthe Art Cafe again I would try some of the coffees as the owners seem to take an interest in sourcing interesting coffee beans.

Next up came the laksa and i did the first thing i do whenever i have a laksa and that is try the broth to see how much love has gone into a particular bowl. There was a fair amount of love that has gone into this bowl, I find that the soup in laksa is always a little thicker than it is in australia. I found that the fillings were quite nice aswell with beautiful tofu being soaked up by the curry gravy.

I didn’t mind my meal at Calanthe art cafe, while it was tasty I felt that there were probably better options just around the corner from me, especially being in malaysia which in my opinions is one of the best food countries in the world.

When i arrived at 9:15 I was surprised at how busy this place was on a weeknight! The restaurant is set up in a small shop that snakes through to a wonderful outdoor area. There are around 20 tables in Sayers and on this particular morning there were only two or three free tables, it turns out that sayers is a pretty popular place. I found a free table and sat down and waited for A to arrive.

While I was waiting for A to arrive it gave me a moment to sit down and take in my surroundings. There are a lot of great small details that go into sayers. From details like the textured wallpaper that dominates one wall to the flowers that are on each individual table you could tell that there was some definite thought that went behind the design of the cafe.

Once A arrived we looked through the menu and placed our orders. The first thing to arrive was our drink and this was a masala milk chai for two. I really enjoyed this, I felt that the tasty spices were well infused with the milk. This tea did a fantastic job of getting my appetite warmed up for the upcoming meal. Much like i mentioned in the previous paragraph where I said that they do things a little different at sayers, the tea was served in this really interesting patterned pot.

A’s breakfast option arrived first and she had ordered a sweet corn and pecorino croquette. The croquette was topped with a poached egg and Bearnaise sauce. A’s thoughts on this were “Everything about this was perfect! The croquette was crispy on the outside, perfectly cooked on the inside. The salsa had plenty of flavour and the eggs were perfectly cooked. I absolutely loved this!”

I went for the breakfast bruschetta. This was a baguette that had been topped with fresh tomato, spinach, proscuitto and a fried egg. I really enjoyed this, I thought that the proscuitto may have been cooked prior to serving, but I am glad that it wasn’t cooked which caused it to be wonderfully soft. This mixed with the fresh crispy spinach and tomato really well. When I first had a look at this breakfast I knew that the egg was cooked perfectly, the egg yolk did a fantastic job of creating the sauce for the rest of the dish.. This really did a great job of giving me enough energy for the rest of the day. 8/10

It turns out that the fascination of sayers by my fellow food bloggers was justified. I really enjoyed my meal at sayers and next time I am leederville i will be back to try some other dishes on the menu that tempted me.

As I entered the restaurant I noticed that while there isn’t a huge amount of signage there must be a lot of word of mouth going on as this restaurant is packed! Luckily as we arrive someone had just left so we can jump in and grab their table without waiting for too long. As I look around at the decor I feel that this is very much a beach cafe with long bench tables and posters on the wall of upcoming concerts. After perusing the menu our waitress comes over and places our orders, we didn’t get off to a great start as the waitress that served us wasn’t friendly at all towards us and it felt like a hassle for her to take our orders.

While we were waiting for our orders to arrive we received a jug of icy cold water. I really liked the old style enamel jugs that were used throughout the restaurant.

It wasn’t that long a wait before our drinks arrived. I had ordered a iced chocolate which I thought was refreshing but I probably wouldn’t order it again. It was fairly rich and I prefer having a juice first thing in the morning. A had gone for an iced coffee and her thoughts were “It was enjoyable and as it was quite a warm day I was happy that I went for that rather and a hot coffee.”

After a short time having some wonderful conversation with A our breakfasts arrived. A went for a breakfast of avocado, quinoa, ricotta and rye bread. Her thoughts on this were “I would have liked more Quinoa and I felt that it definitely needed salt and pepper however these are just small niggles in what was otherwise a really enjoyable meal.”

I decided to go fairly classic with my breakfast choice and ordered the bacon, scrambled eggs and toast. To summarize I thought that my breakfast was fantastic! I loved that the eggs were cooked to perfection, far too often i find that scrambled eggs turn into overcooked clumps but these were really oozy and tasty. I also found that there was a decent serve of bacon and it was cooked so it still maintained a little chewiness and it wasn’t burnt and crispy. This was really tasty! 9/10

As I was paying for our breakfast I happened to glance at the lunch and dinner menu for il lido and there are a few things that look really tasty on that menu too. Also if anyone who is reading this is single I think that this restaurant would be a fantastic date restaurant to go to.

One thing that I knew about visiting the wet markets was that there would have to be somewhere nearby that all the workers from the markets would be eating. I already knew that this would be a great find and I was spot on the money. As I walked down the street from the monorail station to the markets I noticed a sign just before the markets that advertised that there was food and drink here. I decided to take a chance and turned into the hawker centre. What I was treated to was certainly very atmospheric with natural light coming through the hawker centre and the sound of people eating and talking.

At the end of the hawker centre I noticed that there was a man that was proudly selling Nasi Lemak. For the uninitiated Nasi Lemak is a dish where (that’s the nasi part) rice is cooked with coconut milk (that’s the lemak part) and then is served with a number of side dishes. I went up and asked for one serve of Nasi Lemak to which the very friendly chef obliged. Then the next choice I had to make was to choose what sides to accompany my rice from the choices in front of me. One of the choices I recognised was braised squid (also known as sambal sotong in malay).

While I was waiting for my rice the drinks man of the hawker centre came up and placed my order for drinks. I ordered a black iced coffee with sugar which arrived to me after a very short wait. In the non air conditioned humidity this was a fantastic respite.

I had only had a few sips of my iced coffee before my Nasi Lemak arrived and when it arrived and I smelt all those aromatic flavours I couldn’t help but smile. I often think about having Nasi Lemak in Malaysia before and this smell brought all those thoughts back. Tasting it the Nasi Lemak was fantastic! The rice was nice and oily whilst not being too oily and the squid was braised for a long time so it ended up being really tender. My favourite part of the meal however was the chilli paste, this was definitely a chilli paste that had some kick and by the end of it I had a fair amount of sweat coming off my forehead. 9/10

There are so many great places to eat in Kuala Lumpur. It seems that every corner you turn someone is talking about food or eating food. This is another example of a food obsessed culture where you can get fantastic food like this next to a food market. This is another meal that I will think about when I am back in Perth.

As we walked down Victoria St and first saw orfa kebabs I glanced over at A and i saw the look in her eyes. A look that said “Oh Simon, what have you got me in for?”, we then walk in and are greeted by the smell of sizzling garlic and kebab meat. The decor of the restaurant hasn’t changed in years, it has kind of a faux Athens vibe with a glass counter that dominates the restaurant. Then in the corner are a couple of arcade games which I imagine would be used by the patrons from the pub across the road.

Looking over the menu I decided to go for a lamb kebab with extra salad (although they seemed to ignore my order for extra salad). I always go for lamb kebab when its available as I find that I enjoy the very characteristic lamb flavour. I am happy to report that the kebab was as good as I remember with slightly oily warm bread that went really well with the crispy lamb meat, it seems to be even better than I remember. 10/10

A went for the falafel kebab and her thoughts were “I thought it was really tasty but I felt slightly guilty afterwards as it was a little oily ”

I really enjoyed my kebab at orfa kebabs. I really enjoy places that stick to a few things that they do well and orfa kebabs definitely does that. A little tip: After you have finished your kebab get some of their fantastic turkish bread to takeaway for later.

Amarin Thai is one of those hidden places that you really have to know about, it is hidden above a shopping centre. As we sat down I looked around and noticed that we were the only people in the restaurant, this changed over the course of the evening. Another thing that I noticed was the decor looks like it hasn’t changed in about 20 years with wine glasses wrapped in napkins and dark iron furniture, this is just the kind of decor that suits awesome Asian food.

A started with a refreshing lemon, lime and bitters and I had a sparkling water. Amarin thai do offer BYO but neither of us really felt like alcohol.

We placed our orders with the very friendly wait staff and after a short wait our entrees came out. My sister has been here many times and she swears by the chicken in pandan leaf. The chicken is wrapped around pandan leafs and then slowly braised, this results in chicken that is incredibly tender with the flavour of pandan leaves which goes through the meat. A’s thoughts on this entrée were “I didn’t find that it had a huge amount of flavour in it and the chicken was slightly rubbery. ” 7/10

The second entrée that we had was the tuna salad. This salad was really light and fresh tasting, I really enjoyed that they were generous with the coriander and peanuts. Another fantastic thing about this salad was the fact that there were spicy prawn crackers to go with the salad, these were nice as they weren’t quite as greasy as normal prawn crackers. A’s thought on the tuna salad were “This was really fresh, it had a lot of clean flavours going on. This was definitely something that I would order again. ” 8/10

After we finished our entrees we received the rice for our main courses. I really enjoyed that the rice was served in a brass goblet. I picked up the lid of the rice and noticed that it was heavy! This was a really nice luxurious touch to the restaurant.

The first main course that we had ordered arrived and these were the tamarind prawns. These were prawns that were deep fried and then they were coated in a fantastic sauce. I have no idea what was going on in the sauce apart from tamarind but it was absolutely fantastic! I loved how the sauce had a wonderful sourness to it. I also have to mention how fantastic the prawns were cooked, The prawns were super juicy! A’s thoughts on the tamarind prawns were “Loved the prawns! Perfect amount of heat and the prawns were cooked nicely. I would definitely order this again. ” 9/10

The other main course that we ordered was the Thai omelette. This omelette was packed with veggies and minced chicken and served with a tasty chilli sauce. While I thought that this omelette was tasty I did feel that it was a pretty safe choice, the flavours didn’t set my taste buds alight. A’s thoughts on the omelette were “The omelette was okay however most of my focus was on the prawns so I only had a little bit of the omelette. ” 6/10

I enjoyed my meal at Amarin Thai, this is a real hidden gem in the heart of subiaco. While the omelette was a slight miss the other dishes were really tasty and I recommend that everyone should try out Amarin Thai at least once!