The Verve - 21st May Dinner

Tonight we head out to dinner at the Verve to have a meal with a friend of Di's who is turning 21. Neither of us had been to (nor heard of) the Verve before. It's located on Edward Street in the City, closer to the QUT end rather then the railway station end (we parked in Spring hill, so had lots of walking to do :).

The Verve is sort of a bar/restaurant. You enter and go down the stairs into a dimly lit dining area surronded with paintings (you can purchase if you desire). Then through the dining area towards the back is the general bar area.

The service was really good, and even though it was a Friday night our meals (7 of them) were out to us in less then 20 minutes. They were delicious. I had the Rib Eye Fillet and Di had Veal (the sauce was fantastic). Both meals were very nice.

The actual place was very similar to Bar soma, except the food came out a lot quicker.

Overall:
Food: Very nice
Service: Excellent
Length of wait: 20 minutes (This was for all 7 of our meals)
Price: maximum was about $20 on the menu.
Parking: Standard city parking, suggest paying or taking public transport (easiest)

Recommended to others: Yes, very nice place to eat. If visiting, it is well worth visiting the toilets (which in themselves aren't great, but the trip is well worth it :)

Malaysian Expirience - 19th May Dinner

Wednesday - not feeling like cooking. So we headed off to the Malaysian Expirience in Toowong. When we arrived it was very quiet, we were the only people there. We sat down (in supposedly the seats that couples always choose) and looked through the menu. Meals looked very yummy, also the menu had some cool things, such as how chilli's temperature is measured (scoville units). Also has the top 10 dishes that people have ordered over the past year, if you are stuck for ideas on what to order. We got Hokkien Mee and Kong Po Beef. Both were very nice. We were full so we could not finish them, but we doggy bagged them :) Service was great, but until the end there was only the two of us (two others came in as we were finishing... they took our two dedicated waiters, so we were down to one ;)

Just as a point to note, we had been there before to get takeaway, and had signed up for the birthday club, you get a free main meal (up to $14.95 value) when you buy another one. SO we used that :)

Overall:
Food: Very nice
Service: Excellent (we were 2 of the 4 people there, Wednesday is a quiet night). Yet to be stressed tested.
Length of wait: 15 minutes (we had a soup entree)
Price: Well priced... average price would be about $15 each. Maybe a bit expensive on the softdrinks.
Parking: You can park in Woolworths toowong (but risked being towed), parking underneath seems to be available to customers.

Recommended to others: Yes. Certainly try their 5:30pm till 6:30pm specials (check the times, we aren't real sure). ~ $7 for set meals (choice of about 10) takeaway.

Ahmets Turkish - Sunday 9th May Dinner

Hmmm... now where to start on this one. Was all excited, cause everytime we have been past here it has looked so busy. So we thought for my Birthday dinner we would give it a try... well here goes.

Arrived 7:30
order taken 7:45
Ate 9:30

The service was really bad. First up they gave our bread to other people, so we had to wait again. We waited and waited, then we got sick of waiting and went and saw the staff, they said they were busy tonight... but a at least 5 other tables had nearly gone through Two groups of people before we got our meal. And there was only three of us. Then after we finally got our meal it was something that looked like it was part of a pot that had been boiling all day and they simply had to portion it out. Was a bit disapointing.

Overall:
Food: not great
Service: Terrible
Length of wait: Insane
Price: too expensive
Parking: Streetside (difficult, not sure on restrictions), Southbank parklands carparks are free when you see a movie or eat at southbank.

Recommended to others: NO cheaper and better turkish round the corner...

Bravo - Saturday 8th May Dessert

After spending a little too long getting our main meal, and not feeling like paying the $12 for a dessert, we decided to escape to the Coffee club... but since we had had our meal so late, coffee club had closed, so we went off in search of another coffee place. We found Bravo, although their prices were similiar to Bar Somas they were a lot quicker with service.

We ordered Coffees and Deserts, had to wait less then 10 minutes and received our desserts. We were half way through our desserts when our coffees we received. Our waitress said there would be no charge for the coffees as we had to wait "too long" for them. It's hard to tell if it was too long or not, as we had just waited an hour for our main meal.

Overall:
Food: Nice, we are wanting to tray a main meal there
Service: really good
Length of wait: resonable
Price: Pretty good
Parking: Parking in the complex behind Bravo's

Recommended to others: would have to say yes, as we are going to try a main meal there one day.

Bar Soma - Saturday 8th May Dinner

Saturday night was Bar Soma...

Located in Fortitude Valley, next to the Valley BMW dealer, constance street this time. Nice place, kind of a bar/steakhouse feel. Service was really good, the people constantly filled our water glasses, which I like. Actual meals took over an hour to get to us, and the meals were a little small for our liking. I had chicken and jasmine rice (at least thats what I ordered, rice was replaced with mashed potato) which was $23 and Di had Steakl for $26. Wasn't much on the side either (salad and chips are an extra $7).

The staff were good, although they were a little pushy about us having some dessert.

Overall:
Food: Really nice, just a little small
Service: really good
Length of wait: an hour... a bit too long
Price: a touch expensive
Parking: Streetside (some in constance st), park and pay on Warner street

Recommended to others: Maybe... would warn about price. Maybe a date restaurant

Thai Restaurant - Saturday 8th Lunch

Had a fantastic Thai meal. was at a small Thai restaurant located wickham street, Fortitude Valley. Really small place, but great food and good service. Was $10.80 for starters, main meal and a drink, so good value.

Wasn't planning this blog at the time, so didn't commit much to memory... but should be easy enough to find :)

Overall:
Food: Good
Service: good
Length of wait: resonable ~ 15mins
Price: Great deals
Parking: China Town carpark is closest or street side if available.

Recommended to others: Yes... good place for lunch. Recommended by others to us.

Places we eat at..

As the name suggests... we eat out lots, so we though the best thing to do was start a seperate blog that our eating out "guide". These are simply our ideas and expiriences, we write them as we feel best shows how we felt at the restaurant. Things differ from night to night, so please don't take this blog as a report on Brisbane eating out, just our feelings. Hop it helps you choose a place to eat in Brisbane :)

Most of all please feel free to post your comments if you had a different expirience. We can only say what we have had at the restaurants. If you have had good or bad expirience at one of the places (or want to recommend somewhere) please post a comment.