Gopi Curry Leaf

Being a Malaysian living in Australia, I am constantly craving roti canai, roti prata, roti tissue, roti bomb, roti boy! anything ROTI! my constant cravings fuel my urge to find the perfect place that makes a good roti prata that is up to our standards..So far I have not come across any until I started  hearing about Gopi curry leaf. After reading blogs and hearing comments from my friends...I felt like there was a glimmer of hope..a potentially life changing restaurant which just so happen to be 5min away from my house! aaahhh....I guess the saying says it all "sometimes the solution is just right under your nose".

So my girlfriends and I went on a saturday morning with high hopes. We managed to get a table in the very small joint and we started snapping away ready to reveal this secret to all malaysians out there. I was filled with excitement when I saw the Indian man making the roti! memories of malaysia just flooded back in.

We all ordered a roti prata and a drink (teh tarik and milo ice). There were choices of fillings for the roti. We mainly ordered the roti with onion and plain roti. There was quite a mix up with our orders, my friend who ordered the milo ice was given warm milo TWICE! and there were alot of confusion with what dish was what. Service aside..we didn't really mind..we just wanted our roti...once our orders finally arrived...we all dug in! pulling apart the roti and slathering it into the curry....we tasted and....

We were WRONG =-=

All our roti with difficulty distinguishing which was which

Puny piece of lamb

Teh tarik and milo ice

So what went wrong? firstly...the curry was terrible! It was watered down, and only had a little puny chunk of meat (lamb). I don't really like lamb and I realise I was not given a choice of what curry I wanted in the first place. We were all given it as default..Lamb curry...with almost no lamb..so basically curry water. My friend was lucky and she chose the chicken curry...BUT that was no different from the lamb curry...only a tiny piece of chicken and again very watered down..it didn't give our roti much flavour. As for the roti...the roti prata with onions was overly packed with onions, my friend was practically digging them out...we all agreed that the roti wasn't like the one you can get from malaysia for 1 ringgit! (~30c) actually 1 ringgit is a rip off..cheaper! something was missing, I just can't quite pin point it...maybe it just lacked the buttery taste, but It wasn't a total miss either. Our drinks was also a disappointed..in terms of meeting our standards..but it was good enough for me to drink without comparison...my friend was not very happy with her milo ice..it looked like something I can make at home.

I think my review could have been alot better if the curry was up to standards and I would go back regularly regardless. We all left disappointed and voted that makan makan was probably better. I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying this place out..I think malaysians should at least try it and judge it for themselves, the place is no doubt popular and judging from ppls faces...they didn't seem to be as disappointed as us...perhaps our expectations were just too high...OR...they've decided to settle for anything thats close enough to Malaysian roti =-=....OR we just went on a bad day.

One things for sure...I'm back to square one for now.

The Bonsai Restaurant & Cafe Lounge

I've always been eager to try The Bonsai Restaurant which offers a contemporary style of japanese fusion.

This has not been my first time at bonsai, I've tried the desserts on 3 occasions with mixed reviews. The first time I came was when it was newly opened and took a bite off my friend's strawberry cake..it was DELICIOUS! so I came again for a dessert catch up with my friend and again I enjoyed my dessert...not so much the hot chocolate though that's for Koko black and Epic cafe to sort out. The THIRD time I came back for a friend's reunion, all our desserts were disappointing...cake tasted stale and dry...and so from that experience I didn't want to try the desserts this time round.

It was the three of us dining and we were just looking for a light dinner so decided on 3 sharing platters and 1 main to try out.

First came the Smoked salmon wrapped sushi with cream cheese and bean dressed with aioli.. I enjoyed this dish..simple, fresh and lovely textures of the creamy cheese and fresh salmon.

Smoked salmon wrapped sushi

Then came the waygu beef sharing platter. Perfectly sliced thinly, full of flavour and still refreshing on the palate. I also enjoyed this dish.

Waygu beef

We also ordered the braised pork belly. The pork belly was tenderly braised and melted in our mouths. To me this tasted rather home made and for a japanese fusion restaurant...home made wasn't really what I'm looking for. In saying that, it wasn't one of my favourites.

Braised pork belly

Our final dish was a main. Tsukune Chicken Steak, a specialty Japanese chicken-mince steak in teriyaki sauce, served with a side of homemade guacamole and cherry tomatoes. I think when people read chicken mince steak..they are instantly turned off as it is basically a meat patty, but I enjoyed this dish, it's very simple, nothing fancy..anyways I guess you can't really go wrong with teriyaki sauce and mince meat. The down side is that our rice was rather hard so it ruined the experience of this dish.

Tsukune chicken steak and rice

Our bill came to be $21 each, which was a little bit on the pricey side for 2 little sushis, two slices of beef, one pork and 1/3 of chicken mince. It is after all japanese contemporary so I wasn't surprised, Overall, I enjoyed my meal and I wouldn't mind coming back. Maybe I will give the desserts another chance, but from my past experiences, looks was decieving as the desserts were presented so beautifully at the counter, but in reality, the taste was rather average.