Mr Wei's 21 October 2015

Wine: Giesen Marlborough Sav Blanc 2014

Grant Burge Barossa RS26 Reserve Shiraz 2006

Megan, Ron, Karen, Andrew, John, Jim

 

We had:

• half a duck comprising duck pancakes and duck with noodles
• master cut eggplant
• pork belly
• combined flavour fish
• lemongrass chicken

 
Ron gave the whole meal 11 out of 12, it was really, really good.  We made a really good choice, couldn't pick our favourite dish.
The chicken was amazingly tender, was it smoked or steamed beforehand, maybe sous-vide, but whatever it was very moist and went well with the lemongrass and garlic flavours.
The fish was deep fried in a batter, was spicy and lovely
The eggplant was also deep fried in a kind of batter, but not too fatty, nice and crunchy.
The duck was to die for, both the pancakes and the noodle dish; the pork was very tender and tasty.  There was quite a lot of fat with it, but that could easily be separated.
The desserts weren't that inspiring, cheesecake and profiteroles, but no great drama, we had eaten enough good food by then to be satisfied.
The menu on the whole is not extensive but what they do they do well. Mr Wei's seems to be underrated for what it is, an inexpensive but very satisfying Asian meal.

 

Megan, Ron and Andrew had just been to Politics in the Pub to see Richard di Natale, Jim had just been to Sydney to see his cousin David in Megadeath.

Oriental Terrace 7 October 2015

Kim, Jim, John, Ron, Karen

We ordered Crispy Dick (half) pancakes, rainbow beef in lettuce leaves, sambal ikan, shantung chicken, fried noodles Shanghai Style, and Chinese mushrooms with seasonal vegetables. For dessert we had a combination of banana and apple toffee.

The half duck to start with was great. So much meat on it. We only got one pancake each to start with. The guy at the restaurant offered to bring out another whole set of pancakes, complete with more spring onions and more hoisin. Yum.

All the other dishes were really good too. The fish was by far the best.

Dessert was a combination of two desserts - toffee apple and toffee banana, plunged in a bowl of iced water to set the toffee. We all shared it. It was fun to get apple or banana at random. The apple was still crunchy in the batter and the banana of course was nice and soft. Yum again

The Olive 23 September 2015

Kim, Jim, John, Ron, Andrew, Karen

We had a separate room which had one big table with big comfy seats. Nice and quiet. Really good service all night.

We shared the entrées. All were really good.

The schnapper, moussaka, goat and the chicken were all superb. We had our own main courses, but of course all tried some of each other's meal. All were big servings, but not too much to manage.

Desserts were beautifully presented and were as good as they look in the photos.

A really enjoyable night out.

Thai Urban 26 August 2015

The menu was Jim's Sweet Pork Belly, Red Duck Curry, Massaman Beef, Cashew Nut Prawns and Larb Tofu.

The most popular dish was the prawns. All the rest were still very good and made a good combination. The Larb was the last exciting dish, but still made a good contrast to the other dishes.

The desserts were Coconut Ice Cream, Banana in Roti and Black Sticky Rice with Thai Custard. All were fabulous and it was noted that the serving of the rice was huge.

Wine was Grant Burge Barossa RSZ6 Reserve Shiraz 2006.

Ginseng Manuka 12 August 2015

Present

 
Ron, John, Karen, Jim, Andrew, Kim, Megan
All of us, Yippee.
At the end of a really cold day in Canberra when it was 4 degrees at lunchtime and it snowed in Ron's backyard which he kept on telling us just to skite.  And Jim saw it too but he didn't skite.
Plus another night of politician watching, this time new Speaker Tony Smith, President of the Senate Stephen Parry, Mitch Fyfield (who we always see at China Plate he must be stalking us) and someone else but I've forgotten his name.

Wine: Pelican Point 2014 Semillon Sav Blanc
Katnook Estate Coonawarra Cab Sav 2008 (rather nice)

Mixed Seafood Entree

Scallops, prawn dumplings, soft shell crab, almond prawns, salad

Mains:
Shantung Lamb
wasabi steak
seafood stuffed eggplant
nark duck
bean curd asian veges

 Mixed Entree was a bit mixed in quality.  The scallops were a bit, why bother, just deep fried in batter.  Would have been better grilled with chilli or spice or something.  Prawn dumplings nice, almond prawns okay but could have been crisper and the soft shell crab just okay.  Very hard to do perfectly.  The salad was fabulous though, it broke though all the fried stuff in the rest of the entree, which was a bit much really.

With the mains, the lamb was spectacularly fabulous, beautiful.

Wasabi beef was the pick of the night.  There was not too much wasabi, just enough to give it an astringent taste, it was tender, impressive, fabulous were the words used.
The duck was tender, alright, not spectacular. Some thought it was a bit on the chewy side not crispy enough.

The eggplant was fantastic as always and the beancurd and veges okay, but what we wanted.

Dessert was the lycee pancakes and black rice pud.  Lovely.

Lovely evening, mains were great, entrees not so, but we've had entrees there before that are a lot better so it's all a matter of choosing.  I'd forgotten how noisy Ginseng can be with lots of people, decibels in the 80's (ow!).

Chomolunga Manuka 29 July 2015

Gravel Ridge 2009 Martinborough Pinot Noir

Megan, Jim, John, Ron

King prawn, fried with sauce

Chhoela chicken with garlic, chilli, spices (mustard), puffed rice
goat curry with himalayan spices
diced lamb with spinach and creamy sauce
Chomolunga tarkare with vegetables
soybean and peanut salsa

 Not many of us tonight, so not many choices.

We saw this restaurant in passing the previous fortnight and for want of any other ideas decided to give it a try. Nepalese, why not.  It's tucked away in Palmerston Lane, Manuka, and is well presented, nice and quite.  We basically liked the food,  weren't overwhelmed by it.  The curries were nice, fairly standard. We found the chhoela chicken and the soybean and peanut salsa very odd.  Both were had a very mustard hot flavour which was almost unpleasant. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be and we're just not up to it and we did want to try something different after all.

Still, I shouldn't be too harsh.  It's a nice little restaurant, the service was very friendly and helpful, the rest of the food your standard Indian subcontinent type, the diced lamb very tasty.  Ron REALLY liked his buckwheat pancake dessert which we've never come across before in Canberra