23 May - Mille Cafe, Inglewood

Gaz decided to have dinner at Mille Cafe this year. After 5 minutes, drink orders were taken, and I went for an Iced Coffee.

The Iced Coffee wasn't that strong this time. But it went down quickly. It might've been an Iced Chocolate thinking about it, with the chocolate sauce in this pic. The Iced Coffees here used to have coffee beans on top.

For entree, CB and I shared some wedges with sweet chilli and sour cream. The sour cream was a little weird, it was like it was whipped, and it wasn't quite sour enough so it might've been cut back with some normal cream.

For mains, I went for the "valencian style mixed paella", which consisted of tiger prawns, calamari, mussels, quail, chorizo, garlic, saffron rice, chilli & peas. The rice was quite spicy but was quite good, the quail was a like duck but smaller. Whilst quite good, I was getting very full towards the end and had trouble finishing.

I didn't have desserts afterwards as I was too full. CB and a toblerone tart which I had a little taste and wasn't bad.

22 May - Nine Fine Foods, Northbridge

CB and I went out to Northbridge for our anniversary this year. After reading a few good reviews of Nine Fine Foods, I had high expectations. This place is a schmancy Japanese inspired place.

The menu offered the choice of a set menu with 4 courses (everyone on the table had to take the option) or order from the ala carte menu. We decided to choose the latter. After finding out that Wagyu was not on offer, I was slightly disappointed.

CB and I decided to share a tasting platter which was $37 for tiny morsels of food. It lacked in size, but it certainly made up in flavour. The plate consisted of:

• Beef and scallops
• Barramundi mash and battered fish of some sort
  
• Tempura prawn
• Egg omlette
• Seared tuna and
  
• Chicken karaage

Everything was small but tasty, but two things stood out: the tuna and the karaage. The karaage was by far the best I've tasted. It is unfortunate that they do not offer this on its own, otherwise I would go back in a flash to smash some. The tuna was tasty with the accompanying Japanese mayo and fish roe.

I also ordered some gyoza and spring rolls, which were OK, but nothing that special.

I ordered the steak and prawns for a "main", and consisted of char grilled steak (rare) and prawns, served with a mushroom sauce, mash potato and some greens. The steak was slightly over what I'd call rare, but the mushroom sauce was a flavour explosion! With slivers of shiitake and enoki mushrooms, this Japanese inspired sauce went superbly well with the steak, prawns and mash, and I made sure to mop up as much as I possibly could.

For dessert, both CB and I ordered the Banana Azuki icecream. The spring roll had banana, red bean and chocolate and was served with a scoop of chocolate macadamia icecream, and little diced bits of fruit. This was quite good actually, and I'm inspired to trial some banana and chocolate fried desserts.

Overall, the food was good, and the service was prompt and friendly. After discount from the ent book, the meal was a reasonable cost. I wouldn't hesitate to go back, if they sold karaage on a plate by itself, I would go back in a flash!

22 May - Mikazuki Sushi, Cockburn Gateway

The karaage at Mikazuki Sushi is consistent, but never seems to have enough mayonnaise for me. I feel bad asking for more so I just make do.

21 May - Pines Grand Buffet and Carvery, Rendezvous Hotel

CB's family and I went out to the Pines on a Thursday night. The restaurant was pretty quiet and we were seated pretty quickly.

First up, I went for the cold foods and helped myself to some smoked salmon, various salads, mushrooms, cold roast chicken and devilled eggs. The meats were quite good, the eggs were OK but the salads left a little to be desired.

After cold foods came the savoury hot foods. I went for some roast beef/gravy and ham, lamb chops, roast potato/pumpkin and some battered fish. The meats here weren't that good, the pumpkin wasn't sweet and the potatoes were old and "sweaty". The fish was good but I felt wrong after just one due to the amount of oil!

The picture of dessert didn't turn out too well. I picked a whole bunch of desserts and filled up a plate. There was cream caramel, tiramisu, cream brulee and pavlova. I was dared by CB to finish the lot and I got through all of it except a bit of cream.

After a little while, I decided to tackle the icecream station. In here was Old English Toffee, Spearmint and Rum and Raisin. Out of all of them, the Old English Toffee was the best.

15 May - Chinese Canton, Cockburn Gateway

Not feeling like Japanese today, I went for the chicken kway teow. No wok hei, not very authentic but was hungry enough that it went down quickly.

8 May - Mikazuki Sushi, Cockburn Gateway

Last Friday, I opted for the always dependable karaage for lunch. Slathered in a barbecue sauce and Japanese mayo, it went down smoothly. Next time though, I might ask for a little extra mayo...

2 May - Japanese at Malaga Markets

CB was looking for lunch options down at the markets and stumbled across the Japanese stall. I wanted karaage but they didn't have any, but they had "crispy" chicken. What came was roasted (or fried? not sure) slightly savoury chicken, with teriyaki rice and a very vinegary salad. The mayonnaise was the Japanese variety.

I quite enjoyed this and would have it again. The mayonnaise makes anything taste good, but the chicken was decent enough to eat without.

1 May - Happy Inn Cafe, South Lake

This place came highly recommended by a work mate, so we all headed down for Friday lunch. I looked at the lunch specials and went for the 'Mongolian Beef', which consisted of beef, celery and onions in a slightly sweet sauce. It wasn't bad, but I'd probably go for the beef and black bean next time, which had broccoli and would be more savoury.