When I was working in the office a couple of weeks back, I went out to lunch with the Ops team to this fantastic place called Maoz. The key to this vegetarian Dutch chain of take-away joints (this one was the first in London), is the freshness and variety of salads on offer. Its core menu item is the fresh falafel that you see being formed and cooked right as you order it, served up in a fresh brown or white wrap to which you can load on a ridiculous heaping of differently dressed salads.

Details: Maoz
Found on: 43 Old Compton Street, Soho
Highlights: Offers a huge variety of salads, fresh falafel, pretty good chips (for the UK), fresh juices and a busy vibe.
Room for improvement: Store gets pretty busy at lunch-time and more seating could be offered (but a perpetual problem in the UK)
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

Although Belgium is apparently just a Eurostar train ride away, I’m surprised that I haven’t yet had food nor a beer from a Belgium restaurant or bar. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, that all changed last night as I feasted on a filling meal at the Belgo Centraal restaurant. Located opposite the Paul Frank store and Neal’s Yard in Convent Garden, a flight of stairs will take you down to the spacious basement holding the huge kitchens and the large number of tables and benches making up the restaurant.

Until this morning I did not realise that the Belgo Centraal is actually part of a larger chain (funnily enough called Belgo Restaurants) but not on the same scale as your McDonalds franchise. It seems that the chain is having a promotion for many of its restaurants and last night we partook in the Beat the Clock one. By ordering one of the promotional meals (that is also served with a Maes lager, house wine or soft drink) you only pay the price at the time of your order as long as it is between 5pm and 6:30pm.

Thrilled by the mussels (or moule as they call it) at the Belgium Beer Café back home, I decided to go for the moule and frites special. Although I will admit that the meal was not as good as the same as you would get back home, it was still tasty overall. Perhaps it was the size of the more miniature mussels that took more effort eating, or that it was the white wine sauce (or did you ask for soup?), or maybe it was the frites that were more like french fries than anything (still definitely much better than your typical English chip affair, but not matching the extravagance and crispness of the thick beer battered ones back home). Don’t be mislead by my detailed description, the mussels were still a huge serve and extremely tasty even without the sauce. My sister and her friend both ordered a chicken which was I was told was extremely succulent through and full of flavour, even with the rich sauce that almost drowned it.

The food was so good that we even decided to follow it with a dessert comprised of a Belgian waffle sitting in a rich dark chocolate sauce and topped with a scoop of hazelnut ice-cream.

Details: Belgo Centraal
Found on: 50 Earlham Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2 9HP
Contactable on: +44 (0)20 7813 2233
Highlights: Open tables and atmosphere that is quite busy but not overwhelmingly noisy. Good food and beer selection (the schnapps sticks looked deadly though entertaining). Beat the clock deal also offers great value for diners.
Room for improvement: Benches are a little too close together, perhaps making it too easy for a knee in the back as people walk by.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

Yesterday my good friend Kath (a fellow Brisbanite) came down from Oxford to visit me in London yesterday. It was a beautiful London day, and we walked around town and ended up having a coffee at Putney just across the river Thames. Avoiding the Rocket Restaurant Riverside this time, as I saw that awful waitress serving, we sat down at a nice little cafe that ended up being Carluccio’s (as in after Antonio Carluccio, the famous chef that can be seen on some cooking shows). I didn’t realise that the cafe bore any relationship until we went to have a look at the deli inside the cafe and saw his cookbook there. It’s a very nice deli, small but serving a good variety of things, from salads, cured meats, sweets and cakes, and well as many various packaged goods.

Feeling like I wanted to avoid anything with lots of caffeine, I tried the Cioccolata Fiorentina (described as a thick drinking chocolate in an espresso cup) but couldn’t help but laugh when I saw what was at the end of the menu (a Piaggo Vespa for only £1799)!

Last night I attended Ben’s surprise birthday dinner, organised by Michelle and held at the Rocket Restaurant (Riverside). This bar and restaurant overlooks the Thames and is within walking distance of the Putney Bridge. It’s excellent location means that any sunset on a summer evening is going to be spectacular, assuming that the day is not suffering from London’s typical drizzle. The restaurants has seating both inside and out, but the most eye-catching seat in the resturant is the clam shaped, circular seating into which we all crammed ourselves in last night.

Food at the Rocket Restaurant is best classified as modern cosmpolitan, serving a wide variety of pizzas and calzones, as well as steak, tuna, sashimi and dinner salads. They also have a small number of starers, an excellent selection of side dishes but the size of their main meals do not warrant one. They also have a pretty ordinary dessert menu, with each item offered at £5. Although I did not have any, I was told that the strawberry chesscake (lavishly drizzled with strawberry juice and built up on a mini circular biscuit base) was excellent.

I had the vegetarian pizza served with lots of fresh Mozzarella was huge and extremely tasty. I ended up giving up a lot of it as it was so big and had ordered a side of Zucchini Fritters as well. The small individually battered zucchini chips were served on a decently-sized plate, and the naturally sweet flesh of the zucchini, well balanced with the light, crisp and saltiness of the batter was well received by everyone who had a taste.

Details: Rocket Restaurant (Map)
Found on: Brewhouse Street, Putney Wharf, Putney, SW15 2NS
Contactable via: 0208 789 7875
Highlights: Food quality was pretty good. Decently sized meals. Wide variety of side dishes and salads
Room for improvement: No drinks menu, service was shocking.

Tonight I caught up with Mike, Marie, Matt, Aaron and Suhail for dinner before I head overseas at the Spanish Tapas Bar. I had never been there before, but thought it would prove to be an entertaining evening. Located in the busy Brunswick Central, the Spanish Tapas Bar does not strike you as a very different restaurant from the outside. It, like many of Brunswick Central’s other tenants, have tables both outside and in, but considering Brisbane nights have proved a little chilly recently, we opted for a table inside.

The restaurant does serve several types of mains, but it was more fun and definitely more social to order a variety of different tapas to share. The menu has a great selection of both hot and cold tapas and several platters that reduce the difficult choices you have to make when selecting which tapas to order. Between the six of us, we had a really large variety of tapas including several different croquettes and empanadillas, calimari, sardines, chicken and lamb kebas, fried spanish cheese (Queso Frito), Spicy Potatoes served with Aioli and a traditional spanish potato and chorizo omolete. Listing them all out seems like we really pigged out, but after splitting each dish between the six of us, typically meant about one mouthful of food from each dish.

The food was excellent and there was not one tapas that I did not enjoy. The best dish for me was probably the fried spanish cheese because it had such a strong flavour and I enjoyed its unique texture, combining the gooey insides and the crisp outer shell of the tasty cheese. You are unlikely to walk away from the Spanish Tapas bar completely stuffed unless you order a main (such as the Paella) or plenty more tapas, but you will definitely walk away marvelling at the wide assortment of flavours that you had just consumed.

Details: Spanish Tapas Bar
Found on: 455 Brunswick Street (Brunswick Central)
Contactable via: 3257 3138
Highlights: Great variety of many different tapas that were all very tasty. It was also quite refreshing to have a tasting of Sangria as you were seated. The tapas comes out quite quickly after ordering.
Room for improvement: The restaurant’s ambiance did not feel strongly spanish, and the wait staff’s attentiveness to the table after you have ordered could be improved.

Last night I had dinner at this charismatic cafe nestled at the bottom of a staircase in a rather non-descript building you can find on your way down Edward Street towards the Botanical Gardens. This little gem seems appropriately located right next to the Metro Arts centre, an organisation that supports the (generally younger) up and coming talent of Brisbane’s art community. There are not many tables so booking in advance for a large group is advisable (at least on a Thursday night).

The placement of the tables gives the cafe an appearance of being larger than it really is, but it never feels like the cafe lacks character with the constant chatter from all the tables and the art for sale covering the walls all adding to the atmosphere. The menu is decently priced with filling meals averaging $15 and plenty of non-standard and sumptuous options for vegetarians. Even though the restaurant does not have an open kitchen, the number of flares you hear from the kitchen at least assure you that the food is being cooked as it is ordered.

The herb bread for $2.9 was a bargain that started the meal for the two of us, that was then followed by the Brandy Tortellini (Spinach & Fetta tortellini in a cream, pine nuts, sun-dried tomato & Brandy sauce) which I did not get around to finishing. A great little haunt tucked away in the middle of Brisvegas and highly recommended for when you want to try a cafe with a bit more character a lot less shine.

Details: Verve Cafe
Found on: The Basement of 109 Edward Street
Contactable via: 3221 5691
Highlights: A cosy, busy atmosphere that is hard to find in Brisbane, especially in the city.
Room for improvement: Finding the bathroom is straight forward once you navigate the maze of stairs that confront you.

It had been a while since I caught up with Cherie and Matt so we headed out to have lunch at a place that we new to both of us down in Southport. Nestled at the back of a bunch of shops on the corner of Cotlew St and Bundall Road, the Teppanyaki Cafe is a great way to eat affordable teppanyaki down on the Coast.

Although this cafe is by no means large, they still have a decent number of tables but I still suggest that you book for larger parties, so you do not get disappointed. Lunch was fairly busy and the three of us ended up sitting up near the Teppanyaki grill where you could watch the (non Japanese and rather apathetic) chef prepare the teppan meals, an experience that you normally pay more for at the more spectacular and upmarket Japanese Teppanyaki bars.

Eleven dollars was enough to get us a full teppanyaki set, starting with a traditional Japanese salad, miso soup, then followed by the chicken and vegetable grill and rice, and finally finished off with a scoop of ice-cream. Their lunch menu also offers a wider range of Japanese food including your typical tempura, katsu curry and sushi. Food hot off the teppan grill is guaranteed to be great and we were definitely not disappointed there.

Details: Teppanyaki Cafe
Found on: Shop 8, 201 Ferry Road, Southport
Contactable via: 5591 7155
Highlights: Teppanyaki style Japanese at really affordable prices. The freshness of the food is obvious to all customers.
Room for improvement: You will probably never see the spectacular food throwing chefs you find at the more expensive Japanese restaurants, but for the price it’s still not a bad deal.