After the pampering that Jen gifted with me earlier today Lana and Mike took me out to dinner and dessert in the Valley. I am getting so spoilt on this trip its not funny!

Fortitude Valley, a couple of minutes drive (or a kilometre) from the Brisbane CBD, has seemingly experienced a bit of a revival in recent years and seems now to almost be the place to be for couples and generally the younger crowds. It has always been known as a bit of a hot spot for nightlife but it seems than in only a few years it really has cemented itself as a centre of dining, arts and well, of course, partying.

Kohya

Our first stop tonight in the Valley was at Kohya. We got there just as it was opening and all the chefs, waiters and waitresses were getting their pep talk in the kitchen. It was kind of nice to see that they were all getting gee’d up for a fairly big night it seemed. Bookings are a must at this very popular Japanee BBQ restaurant. As I said we got there for opening but apparently by about 30 minutes into opening the place was packed. However, because we were sort of in a private walled off area I didn’t even notice this until I got up to visit the ladies!

At Kohya you can order off the a la carte menu but if you really want to make the most of your visit you will go for one of the all-you-can-eat BBQ menus where you have a choice of up to 40-48 individual dishes for $40-$50 with offerings such as dried ray wing, garlic & mushroom with butter, edamame, stewed beef, ox tongue, beef rib, beef loin, chicken, pork rib, beef liver, prawns, squid, and japanese curry – all of which you can order as many times as you think you can eat! With the deluxe buffet you also get a selection of sushi and eel. The meats and prawn and squid and the raw vegetables you cook yourself on the grill in front of you. Lana and Mike did a good job of making sure we had a good turnover of food cooked and food ordered. With only 90 minutes to complete the meal you need to be quite efficient! 🙂

Come to Kohya with an appetite, and in fact, I wouldn’t eat at all that day before dinner because the food is not only plentiful but so delicious that you’re going to want to eat as much as you possibly can. It is high quality tasty food, something which I have come to expect from most Japanese restaurants and I wasn’t disappointed.

Freestyle Tout Emporium

You would think that after stuffing ourselves at Kohya there could be no more room for anything … well, going to Freestyle Emporium proved how wrong I was! Freestyle Tout is a dessert cafe and I’m sure the first one that popped up in Brisbane was in Rosalie, about five plus minutes drive from our unit at St Lucia, and we used to visit it quite regularly all those years ago for their decadent desserts. Due to rennovations of the shopping complex that used to house it (or something like that) it has moved to the Emporium in the Valley. This has turned out to be a very good move. It was very popular back then and its even more popular now. Seating in the evening is by first come first serve and its not unusual to see a long line of people waiting to sit down until late into the evening. The Emporium was specifically developed as a retail and dining complex with 35 speciality retailers, restaurants, and cafes (according to the website) including Wagamama and Freestyle. Surrounded by over 230 apartments I think the restaurants and cafes at least never seem to want for customers.

Tonight we were lucky enough to get a table straight away though I think in hindsight I could have done with a bit of a wait to let my dinner settle a bit! ha ha. Apparently you can now also order normal regular meals at Freestyle though when looking around the room it looked like most people were here for desserts. The menu at Freestyle is quite diverse offering the Freestyle spins on traditional desserts such as sundaes, creme brulee, tarts, puddings (including a very rich Saucy Chocolate Pudding that Lana went for), crumbles and cheescakes but also some less traditional desserts such as White Chocolate Raspberry Brioche Dumplings (Mike’s choice!) and White Chocolate Macademia Slice (My choice!).

After all this we rolled ourselves out of Freestyle and to Lana and Mike’s place to check out their wedding vid/photos. Nice!