Fiesta Mexican

Fiesta Mexican

175 Toorak Rd, South Yarra

(Ph) 9827 4593

P felt like Mexican food so I looked in my Entertainment book and came across Fiesta Mexican - quite good ratings on Urbanspoon so thought we'd check it out. It's actually very close to the South Yarra train station and I think I've walked past it numerous times before.

Cosy restaurant with some interesting decor - sun on the roof? :P

I wanted a nachos with meat so got the Macho Nachos (with all the extras - cheese, guacamole, frijole, died jalapenos, salsa, chicken, sour cream, beef) $23.90

It was huge! Way more than the size of a main! Was my favourite dish of the meal - had everything on it! Chicken with guacamole on one side, and on the other pulled beef with salsa, plus lots of cheese - yum! I couldn't really taste the jalapenos (which was a good thing =P) I like how the beef was pulled beef and not sliced beef or minced beef - reminds me of American food =)

P wanted the Fajita - your choice of meat or vegetables, marinated then cooked with salsa, onions & peppers. Served with guacamole, lettuce, cheese, frijole & three soft flour tortillas. Beef & Chicken $24.90

How strange one of the options was "Beef and chicken" or you can have each meat by itself too - but I've never seen restaurants combine meats like that before?! Was actually a bit spicy but quite a nice marinade, I like how it comes in a sizzling plate (like how they served it at Taco Bill) except this comes with a lot more sides =) I like how you make your own tortillas except they could have been a bit more generous than just 3 tortillas though =/

This restaurant prides itself in its famous customers, in particular tennis players - they have photos on the wall and even named 2 burrito dishes after tennis players! S got the Hewitt Burrito - Lleyton's favourite! A large flour tortilla rolled with sliced chicken breast, lettuce, sour cream and cheddar cheese. Served with brown rice and fresh guacamole $23.90

Big burrito - nothing too special but nothing to complain about either. Was very filling. Lucky we shared the dishes - we nearly passed out by the end of the meal! Soo wanted something from the dessert menu but we were seriously stuffed! =(

Food~
6/10 - pretty good here, get the Macho Nachos for sure! or if you're dining alone (or 2) I think the Combination - beef enchilada, beef taco, mushrooom flauta served with mango salsa & brown rice would be a good dish to try.

Service~
3/5 - food came quite promptly, waiters very polite, asked us multiple times during our meal how the food was and was very prompt in clearing the table

Atmosphere~
3/5 - cosy little restaurant

C.
xo

Movenpick

Movenpick

53A, 1A Main St, Boxhill

(Ph) 9890 6392

I had bought a Groupon voucher - $12.95 for 2 desserts so pretty much half price. Even though it's been a freezing Winter, I love icecream in the cold =D

I had been to the Movenpick at Doncaster multiple times before but was the first time to the Boxhill one - it's much nicer and newer as a separate restaurant instead of the open space in the Doncaster shopping centre.

You can choose between pancakes, waffles, a 6 flavour sampler, sundaes and banana split. We thought we'd get pancakes and waffles =) Then you get to choose 2 ice cream flavours and sauce flavour.

Pancakes with Tiramisu and Creme Brulee with Strawberry Sauce and White chocolate flakes

Waffles with Macadamia and some berry ice cream can't remember the name of it with Chocolate Sauce and Dark chocolate flakes

The waffles were delicious - Belgium waffles <3 Crunchy yet not too battery - the chocolate sauce was a very dark chocolate sauce so went very well with the tangy berry ice cream. The pancakes were alright, nothing too special, I could probably make better pancakes myself - we should have got 2 serves of waffles instead =P

The ice cream is really to die for here - rich creamy and full of flavour, my favourite is the Maple Walnut (which I didn't get this time 'cause I've had it numerous times before) and definitely the Tiramisu =)

Food~
5/10 - a little pricey if not for the voucher, go for the waffles and Maple Walnut if you come! =)

Service~
3/5 - food came very promptly, made me wonder whether the pancakes were premade, pretty sure the waffles are and they just heat them up

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite a nice place to hang out =)

C.
xo

Georges

Georges

819 Burke Rd, Camberwell

(Ph) 9882 0777

I had walked past Georges everyday on the way to work but had never ventured inside. We were farewelling a work colleague so decided to eat somewhere close to work. Georges is a big spacious casual restaurant - not many restaurants on Burke Road would cater for so many of us =P

S got a serve of chips to start off with as we waited for the others to arrive. It came with tomato sauce and aioli - yum!

Their menu is not that extensive, mainly pastas actually. So of course I had to go for the Classic baked lasagne w rich beef, stringy mozzarella $22

Wahh so much bechamel <3 So creamy and stringy and delicious - just how I like my lasagnes =) The serving was quite big (can't complain here) but I managed to finish it all! Would have been nice if they had a small side of salad or vegetables or something though.

No room for dessert though I tried P's stickdate pudding which was delicious with the vanilla bean icecream as well =)

Food~
6/10 - not too bad overall, would be back if I wanted a meal after work.

Service~
3/5 - quite quite and efficient

Atmosphere~
4/5 - very large spacious restaurant, kinda had a canteen feel actually!

C.
xo

Rama Thai

Rama Thai

495 Burke Rd, Hawthorn East

(Ph) 9822 7322

Catch up with J and S! I was looking in my Entertainment Book for something and came across Rama Thai - seemed quite good ratings on Urbanspoon so thought we'd check it out - oh how wrong I was =(

S got there quite early so I dunno if it was 'cause of that that the waitress started the night off badly with us =/ We ordered our food and waited ages before any dishes came out, while the table next to us who ordered AFTER us got their food before us =(

We got one entree to share - Golden Bags - deep fried pastry filled with minced chicken or prawns - spicy prawns (4) $9.50

The waitress had accidentally given us some chicken golden bags (pictured above), and just as we were about to start eating she comes back and tells us they were chicken and not prawn. So we waited a few minutes before she came back out with some prawn golden bags (pictured below) - which don't look as regular as the chicken ones and look smaller =(

I started biting into mine when I came across something cold and mushy - the prawns were raw! There was only the one waitress so I waited ages for her attention before she came and I complained - she apologized and took the dish away and gave us a new dish. FINALLY we got a plate of cooked (very hot inside this time!) golden bags - was alright, kinda like a spring roll actually.

We waited ages before our mains came. Crystal Pad Thai - stir-fried vermicelli, egg, tofu, bean shoot, garlic chive, and peanut with tamarind sauce - chicken $14.90

For a change thought we'd try pad thai with vermicelli instead of rice noodles! Actually quite nice - love the blend of sweet, salty and sour flavours =) Would be nicer if the chicken breast pieces were smaller so they're not so tough though - like at One Thai =)

Thought we should get a vegetarian curry so it'd be our greens for the night =) Gang Keaw Warn (Green Curry) - green curry with coconut milk, bean, basil, bamboo shoot - mixed vegetables $14.90

Damn I forgot green curry is actually quite spicy - though I like how they used coconut milk in it, I thought red curry is the one usually with coconut milk and green curry doesn't?

We got 2 serves of Coconut Rice (steamed rice in coconut milk and lime leaves) $3.50 per head and one Roti Bread - pan-fried Indian style bread - with peanut sauce $5.00

They gave us one silver bowl of coconut rice - which was delicious by itself and with the green curry sauce. After a while we ran out and I thought it was $3.50 per serve and they just gave us the 2 serves in one bowl but it was actually per head! So we could have gotten more ah well =P I forgot Indian roti is not as fluffy as Malaysian roti so this tasted more like a crepe/pancake but I liked the peanut sauce that came with it - ended up eating the roti with the peanut sauce instead of with the curry =)

We were pretty full by this stage and it was actually getting quite late 'cause they were quite slow taking orders and bringing dishes out - I guess can't expect much given there was only one waitress working =/

But there is always room for dessert! We decided to share 2 desserts - we ordered the desserts then a few minutes later the waitress comes out and tells us there is only one serve of vanilla icecream left and we can pick a different flavour of icecream for the other one - how can there only be one serve of icecream left?! We said we'd get coconut icecream for the other one.

Kao Tom Mud Taro or Banana - steamed sweet sticky rice stuffed with taro or banana served with Vanilla icecream $7.00

Taro sweet sticky rice with coconut icecream! The taro was just in the middle of the sticky rice and in a big lump - would have been nicer if it was spread out a bit more but it was quite tasty - actually went very well with the coconut icecream =) The taro flavour was actually quite mild - might have been better if we got banana instead actually ah well.

Coconut Pudding - steamed rice flour and palm sugar topped with coconut milk served with vanilla icecream $7.00

This reminds me of the Thai coconut pancakes (like at I Spicy 2) or the savoury Vietnamese mini pancakes (like at Thanh Nga Nine) but without the crunchy bottom. Still this was quite tasty, I like the palm sugar flavour mixed with the coconut milk. You can see the icecream starting to melt here already - so this was their last serve of vanilla icecream hmm...

Food~
3/10 - raw prawns in the golden bags is definitely a no go, and half melted icecream is not cool either, but apart from that the rest was alright

Service~
1/5 - they really should have more than one waitress working on a night, it ended being quite busy and she was running around constantly, at one stage the manager(?) came out as well - I wonder why he couldn't have helped out the whole time?

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite a nice cosy restaurant

The Entertainment voucher gave us 25% off but I only realised after we left that they charged us $2 extra like they rounded it up, I don't mind giving it as tips but I don't like how they try to jip us like that!

C.
xo