Banzai Sushi and Noodle Bar

OK, I realise this isn't exactly a pub. We were planning to go to the Garden, but there wasn't enough tables for everyone, so we ended up going across the road for delicious Japanese food. As this place isn't exactly my standard for these reviews I'm not going to stick to my proper format. It's hard to compare a restaurant to a pub.

Unlike most pubs there was plenty of vegetarian options. Almost every type of dish: sushi, udon, ramen, rice, etc had a vegetables only choice. The prices were pretty good too, mostly within the $10-$15 range. 

I ordered vegetable ramen which was $12 and could have easily fed two of me. Even of a day I was really hungry I don't think I could have finished it. It was really nice though, I especially enjoyed the bits of sweetcorn as they were a little unexpected. 

As it's not a pub, I wasn't planning on reviewing this place, so I  didn't take  a photo before I started eating. This was when I was done, which just goes to show the portion sizes.

I've eaten here before and always enjoyed it. The low prices and the large portion sizes make it great value for money, and the food is really tasty. So, if you're heading to The Garden on a Thursday night and you find it's completely packed head across the road to Banzai. 


Extra points for the chairs that look like they have faces on them!

Side Quest: Jus Burgers (Leederville)

So got home after work and I was starving, so I went to Leederville looking for dinner and ended up at Jus Burgers.

They had 3 vegetarian burgers on the menu, one of them being a "make your own" kind of thing. I went to for the Pumpkin burger ($13) as I had enjoyed the pumpkin burger at V Burgers (at least the first time I tried it).

The burger had crumbed pumpkin, goats cheese, pesto, lettuce and tomato. It wasn't the holy grail of burgers, and I'm not sure it was as good as the one from V burgers, but it was still nice. The cheese and tomato were the best bit for me. The bun was a little over-toasted, which was a little disappointing. Also, it was really big. I think I made the mistake of ordering a side of very average chips. They arrived first, which at the time I thought was good as I was really hungry, but then I ended up eating most of them before my burger arrived, and then I wasn't as hungry for it.

If you find yourself with a group of people craving burgers, yeah, order the pumpkin burger from here. It's good, but it's not amazing.

The Generous Squire

The last time I went to this place they had amusing coasters. They didn't have them this time. It may have been because we were in the restaurant section; I didn't check.

Food Choices

Usual sides, plus 2 x pizzas (Margherita, Mediterranean: $18, $20), 2 x salads (Greek, rocket: $15, $12.50) and a roasted vegetable tart ($20). The soup of the day was mushroom ($11). Having arrived late, my friends had already ordered, so I didn't have a chance to ask about the soup of the day, or I probably would have picked that. I didn't want to eat pizza, salad or sides, so that left me the with vegetarian tart. I wasn't looking forward to it, but I thought I'd give it a go.

Food Quality

I wasn't really a fan of the tart. It tasted a lot like a quiche. The vegetables were fresh enough, and really there wasn't anything wrong with it, but it just wasn't what I fancied that night. To be fair, it was nice, but just not to my tastes.

My friend ordered the soup. She said it was really nice, thick and tasty. She definitely recommended it. 

Two other friends ordered each of the pizzas. They both described them as average.

Mediterranean

Margherita

Finally, I wanted to comment on the chips. They were really good chips. The beer batter gave them a really nice flavour and they were cooked really well. If you just want a bar snack, not dinner, I would definitely recommend this place to get beer and chips.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 3 - One for the pizzas, one for tart, one for the salads

Quality of meal (1-3): 2 - I've giving it an exactly average mark, whilst the soup and chips were good, the other meals were still average.

Value for money (1-3): 1 - Everything was on the upper end of my budget.

X-factor (0-1): 0.5 - I'm just not sure about this place. I like the location, but at the same time it's hard to find parking. I liked the amusing coasters, but I didn't see them last time. I liked the restaurant section, but there wasn't enough room for my group.

Total: 65%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

Brass Monkey Hotel

In the heart of Northbridge I'd always seen the Brass Monkey as a place you go to get really drunk on a Friday night, or as a starting point for clubbing so I wasn't expecting much. I suppose I didn't really have much to base this assumption on, so perhaps I was being a bit unfair.

Food Choices

Actually the choices wasn't bad. Besides the usual sides there was a $14.90 Brushetta, 3 different vegetarian salads (excluding the side salad); Garden ($10.90), Greek ($13.90) and Goats cheese ($20.90). There was a vegetarian pizza ($19.50) and two mains Three mushroom risotto ($22.90) and Spinach and ricotta cannelloni ($18.90).

I felt vaguely obligated to get the cannelloni considering the price was in budget, but I just really fancied the risotto, so I splurged $2.90 over budget.

Food Quality

Average. The rice was a bit undercooked, and it was a bit bland. It wasn't terrible, not by a long shot. I've definitely had worse, but there was just nothing special about it. To be honest, the risotto I cooked a few nights ago was better. As a small eater, I couldn't finish it and I don't like leaving things I've paid good money for; I would have preferred to have half for half the price. 

I wish there was more I could say about the risotto, but it just wasn't very memorable. Considering I had gone over budget, I was hoping for something nice.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 3 - two mains in budget, and a bunch of salads

Quality of meal (1-3): 1.5

Value for money (1-3): 1

X-factor (0-1): 0 - The atmosphere wasn't bad, but they were really understaffed so we had to wait a long time at the bar to order food.

Total: 55%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

Broken Hill Hotel

The Broken Hill hotel is nicely split into a restaurant and bar section, which is great because it nicely cater for our large group.


Food Choices


Besides sides there was only one main on the menu. It was pumpkin and feta tart that came with chips and salad for $16.50. However, there was a specials menu that had a vegetarian pizza ($18.50).  I went for the pizza and split it with my friend.


Food Quality

The pizza was very good. It tasted fresh and handmade. The tomatoes were very sweet and the feta made a good addition. Overall, I was very impressed with it.

Tomatoes, feta, onions, olives and basil

My friend ordered a chicken pizza, with feta, pinenuts, pumpkin and rocket. She told me that the chicken ruined it for her, and she picked it off. So, if you're looking for another option, you could always order that without the chicken.

Overall Rating


1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 2
Quality of meal (1-3): 3
Value for money (1-3): 2
X-factor (0-1): 0.5 I don't dislike it, but it's not amazing
Total: 75%


Guess I won't have to drink my calories tonight...

Little Creatures Brewery

Little Creatures has a good reputation. Freo is generally a little far away for most of our group, but we thought we'd give it a go. We had been there once before, about a year ago, and generally had a good time. We had sat outside on one of their long tables. This time, after fighting for a place to sit, we sat inside, cramped up against another group of people. As it's Christmas time, you would expect the place to be busy, and it's generally hard to accommodate a group of 14, but the ability to make a booking to ensure we had a table would have been nice. Having two of our group go home before we even ordered put a negative light on the evening.

Food Choices

Little Creatures isn't the kind of place where everyone gets one main meal, it's more of a sharing kind of place. They had a range of pizzas (including a couple of vegetarian ones for about $19-$22) and what I would usually call sides (including chips, corn cobs, nachos and salads).

Mushroom and pumpkin pizza

Food Quality

I ordered the $19 mushroom pizza (mushrooms, mozzarella, olives) but replaced the olives with pumpkin and some frites ($9.50) which I shared with another person. The pizza was good but bottom was a little burnt. It didn't look burnt, but you could definitely taste it.

I had remembered the chips being amazing, but I wasn't too impressed.

My friend ordered the corn cobs, which strangely enough came out about 15 minutes before the rest of the food. She said they were a little burnt too, but that you want that in corn, so she liked them. Another friend got a salad, which she enjoyed. She said the dressing was good, but it could have had a few more ingredients on it.

Another friend ordered the nachos. He said "they are everything you could want in nachos". He was pleased with all the toppings, especially the capsicum, which he said worked really well. He said they were the best non-handmade, non-Mexican restaurant nachos he's ever had. That said, it's hard to get nachos wrong unless they are very soggy. 

Overall people seemed to think their food was OK, but not amazing.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 3 - It's hard to rank as they were all sharing dishes, but there was three vegetarian pizzas, and they were a few options with the sides.
Quality of meal (1-3): 1.5
Value for money (1-3): 1 - relatively expensive
X-factor (0-1): 0 - losing this for it being too loud, and not enough chairs.
Total: 55%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

Rosie O'Gradys (Northbridge)

To me, Rosie O'Gradys has always been one of those nice and cosy pubs that I've always had a soft spot for. Like The Oxford I was looking forward to reviewing it, and giving it a good review, as I was fond of it. 


Food Choices

For some reason everyone seemd to arrive really early last night, so I didn't have much time to look over the menu. The Deep Fried Camembert ($12) jumped out at me straight away, so I just went for it.

You can't really tell from the photo but the salad was actually more than just lettuce

 I didn't get an opportunity to check the Soup of the Day ($9.50) or the Pasta of the Week ($19.50), so I'm not sure if they were vegetarian. As they change I guess it's not worth commenting on further. Other options included a Salad for $17.50 and a Vegetarian Lasagna for $22.40.

Food Quality

The salad was pretty good. I liked the dressing and the inclusion of an orange. It was quite rocket-heavy, and I'm not a fan of rocket but there was enough other things to make it enjoyable. The deep friend Camembert itself was great on the first bite, but seemed to go downhill from there. It was really rich and creamy, which was great at first, but by the end I didn't want to finish it. At first I was pleased by the small portion size, but then I found it was too rich to finish, and then about an hour later I was hungry again.

Vegetarian Lasagna - I felt the need to caption this as you can't really tell what it is from the photo.

My friend had the vegetarian lasagna. It was over budget or I probably would have given it a go too.That said, it probably isn't the best choice for a hot summer night. I didn't really hear much about what my friend though about it, and if it was really good, or really bad I think I would have heard about it. Therefore, I am assuming it was average.


Overall Rating


1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 1.5 (1 for the deep fried Camembert, half for the salad)
Quality of meal (1-3): 2 - it really wasn't great, and it wasn't terrible
Value for money (1-3): 2 
X-factor (0-1): 1 - as I said, I like the place, it's got a great cosy atmosphere
Total: 65%


Probably, again, this is a place for drinks, not for dinner.


Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...