Raw Kitchen

"Mind Blown"

Chinese New Year is round the corner and H wanted to organise a catch up with the girls before she goes to Malaysia to collect her red packets. H chose Raw Kitchen a vegan cafe as our lunch spot, not because she's vegan, in fact she loves her meat, but because Urbanspoon had high ratings.

A vegan diet is a type of vegetarian diet that does not use any animal derived products, no dairy, no eggs, no meat. Raw kitchen strives to showcase plant-based cuisines using raw and pure ingredients, all gluten, dairy and sugar free (processed sugar).

Raw Kitchen use to be located on South Terrace in Fremantle but moved to a larger venue off High street. The venue is huge and has an industrial, RAW, organic and hipster vibe to it, loving the recycled piano decor, the mini gift store in the corner and sea container gallery. H made reservations for us, but unfortunately we were all late and our table was given away, they gave us a bigger table instead. WIN! it was too big that another group shared with us LOSE :( jks. there was plenty of space in between both groups so we could still talk dirty and they won't be able to hear us *not that we do*.

Interiors and wait staff with cute aprons

Piano decor

Looking through the menu, it is amazing how the dishes they offer are vegan, we ordered the much raved about nachos, pesto pasta, zuchinni pasta and mushroom pizza all to share and to wash it down, I ordered the blue moon smoothie consisting of blue berries, lavendar, banana, agave (nectar from the plant agave used as an alternative to sugar) and handmade almond milk. I'm very impressed that they also use their own handmade cashew, macadamia and date milk, rice milk and organic GM-free soy.

Our table spread

Raw nachos: dehydrated hand cut corn chips, walnut, refried 'beans', fresh tomato salsa, guacamole, cashew sour 'cream' chives $19

The Nachos was hands down everybody's favourite dish, downside would be there was a terrible crisp to dip ratio, we were left with alot of dip left, we even asked for more crisps.

live zucchini pasta: raw tomato sauce, mushroom, kalamata olives, avocado, basil, cracked pepper $22

raw pesto pasta: pink radish, fresh basil, avocado, sundried tomato, capers, baby spinach $23

First slurp of the zucchini pasta and I loved it, I was so impressed by how spaghetti looking these zucchinis were, you could easily fool a kid, this could be the answer to getting picky kids to eat their vegies. I don't quite know what the powder is but whatever it is the flavour was all there. Compared to the pesto pasta, everyone agreed that the tomato base was more to their liking, but both dishes were impressive, the pasta was also made out of zucchini. It's a good thing we shared our dishes, I don't think I can finish the whole plate of pasta without feeling abit sick, perhaps too much healthiness?

Wild mushroom pizza: shitake, marinated field mushrooms, cashew cream, pesto, truffle oil, enokis, pickled onions $28

Mushroom pizza

Everyone enjoyed the pizza, this would probably be second after the Nachos. Eventhough I'm not a big fan of shitake mushroom, I gobbled this down easy. The pizza base was different, it looked like flat bread but didn't quite taste like flat bread. I need to find out. Mushrooms were very mushroomy *Er Derr* so they definetly nailed that aspect of the dish, I think the addition of truffle oil enhanced all the mushroom flavours and that probably explains why the pizza is $28.

Blue moon smoothie (front); Morning glory (middle), Red velvet (back)

My blue moon smoothie had a dominating banana flavour, I couldn't quite taste the blueberries and there was an after taste that I wasn't familiar with, it could be from the almond milk or the agave, I don't quite like it but it didn't stop me from finishing it.

The service was mostly good, our first waitress who took our orders was very sweet and helped us with her recommendations, the man who brought our dishes through was very friendly and was also happy to take photos for us, unfortunately when we asked if we could have more crisps, the third lady coldly said "I'll have to charge you for that" I mean we didn't expect freebies and she didn't even tell us how much more, it could be a bazillion dollars, it also took a very long time for us to finally get it. Could have been a 10/10 with service.

Overall, our experience was mind blowing. call me narrow minded but I am one who loves my cheese and meat and never quite understood how one can be a full time vegan (unless it's allergies/ethics), I am now enlightened, vegans can still enjoy great food and we definetly left with a healthy and refreshed feeling.

Santi's

I've been to Santi's quite a number of times as it's walking distance from my workplace, my workmates whom require their daily caffeine fix are also a regular to the joint, so I can safely assume that the coffee is good stuff. Everytime I step in Santis, I just admire their decor, am loving the feature wall with photo frames, the cozy couch area, the calming light blue colour scheme and inspiring quotes written on your table numbers.

The first time I went with my workmates and had the pancakes with honeycomb butter, fresh berries and cream. This was delicious and HUGE. The honeycomb flavour wasn't as obvious as I'd like it to be but the flavour was still there. Pancakes were fluffy and they were very generous with the berries. I also had the chai latte *of course* which was perfection!

Pancakes with honeycomb butter, fresh berries and cream

Chai latte

The next pictures are a few of my workmate's dishes, beautifully presented dishes especially the baked eggs which my workmate devoured.

Baked eggs

I have also tried their caesar wraps, roast lamb wraps and the roast vegetable wraps. My favourite would be the lamb and the roast vegetable. I have tried to replicate them at home but always fail :( I have also tried their banana bread, toasted, with butter MMmm..can't go wrong.

My most recent dine in was when there was a false fire evacuation, so what do we do? we go to Santi's. I had the bacon maple syrup french toast which I have to say was HUGE and the best I've encountered.

French toast with bacon and maple syrup

It's a good thing that Santi's is right next to my work place but also a shame since I've always turned down my friends who have wanted to try the place out, it just feels like I'm going back to work on a weekend. One thing I also would like to note is the excellent service. The ladies are always in a good mood and all so bubbly, a great remedy for the monday blues.

Negatives would be the prices, I think it's abit on the pricey side. They have the most expensive sausage rolls I've ever seen, setting you back $8, but my workmate who has eaten it said it's REALLY good, the filling is a combination of beef and pork. hmmm....I'm still reluctant to pay that much for a sausage roll, I mean how good can it get. I think the reason why their dishes are pricey is because they're so BIG!, two people (ladies) could share a dish and perhaps they're taking advantage of the doctors and surgeons who dont' have time to venture further down Hampton road for a meal. Smart move. Time is really money.

Cafe Elixir

 "BEST WOOP WOOP CAFE"

Cafe Elixir has always been on my places to eat list. I have always seen this cafe topping the charts for best brunch cafes on Urbanspoon. Unfortunately Cafe Elixir is SOOO FAR! in woop woop ie. Wanneroo, I can see all the Northies rolling their eyes as I type this, well it's WOOP for me OKEY. 

One day I was browsing through livingsocial looking for bargains being the asian that I am. I found a deal for Aerochuting which was something that I've always wanted to try. I gathered my keen friends and up, up we went :) It was awesome!  Here's some pictures that you're all dying to see :)

We flew with Aeroflights Australia, click on the link if you're keen :)

ANYWAYS back to the main point, because we were up north in woop woop we took the opportunity to have brunch in Cafe Elixir which was on the way. I was so excited, my excitment to try out the cafe was on par with the aerochuting itself :O

We arrived at around 9am and oh me lordie it was already packed. Shouldn't everyone be sleeping in? It's freaking Saturday. We got a table outside and placed our order through a very friendly waitress.

A and myself ordered the same dish ie the Salmon and gratin benedict $18 consisting of fresh spinach, potato gratin, smoked salmon, 2 poached eggs and topped off with Elixir hollandaise sauce. I loved my dish, though it looked a little on the small side, I savoured every bite and was full in the end. I loved the all so creamy goodness of the hollandaise sauce A engulfed his dish in seconds but didn't complain about the size O-o I guess he was too busy talking and that probably filled him up? I also ordered a chai latte *of course* creamy, smooth and perfect sweetness.

Salmon and gratin benedict $18 and Berry pancakes $16.90

V had the Berry pancakes $16.90 which was MASSIVE! I was actually surprised that she "almost" finished it. I wonder why pancakes are always sOOOooo big.

Berry pancakes $16.90

Y had the Canadian breakfast $19.90 which was french toast served with bacon and maple syrup and vanilla ice cream. This dish was presented in a classy, posh manner. different from the usual french toasts you'd get from other cafes.

Canadian Breakfast $19.90

K was super hungry and ordered the Elixir breakfast $19.90 which was basically everything you can think of in a BIG breakfast.

Elixir Breakfast $19.90

Everyone enjoyed their meal and just by looking at the quality of the dishes served, I can see why this cafe has such high ratings, The prices are reasonable, if anything cheaper than many cafes in Perth. I would definetly come back if I'm ever up in woop woop again. A great end to our adventurous outing :)

SUN BBQ Restaurant

 "FAVOURITIST KOREAN BBQ"

This has got to be my new favourite Korean BBQ restaurant. I am so blessed to have lovely friends who 'live to eat' to have been introduced to this restaurant. SUN BBQ is located in the corner of William St and Newcastle St, despite being a regular commuter in Northbridge, I have never really noticed the joint, I don't think I've seen it crowded for me to ever notice it, but this is where the "don't judge a book by its cover" comes in. Everything happens upstair, if you're wondering where all the koreans at, they're UPSTAIRS! BBQing a storm.

Dined in SUN BBQ on a saturday night with a bunch of friends, the first meet up of 2014. On arrival, downstairs was somewhat empty so I headed upstairs and it was JAM PACKED! I looked around and majority seemed to be korean looking. If there's a bunch of koreans in a korean restaurant you know you've hit jack pot. I was very excited. Ordered the obligatory korean bbq dishes, seafood pancake, kimchi pancake and BBQ meat platters of marinated Waygu beef and pork as well as non marinated thin meat shavings.

Those stools are not just stools

After putting down our orders, the korean waitress with beautiful porcelain skin began serving our side dishes, there were so many dishes, we struggled to find space for our main dishes, you know the dishes we actually ordered. I liked the little things around the restaurant, the little table buttons to call for service which we ABUSED and the bin-like stools for baggage storage TOTES CUTE.

Side dishes only

First came the seafood pancake which was delicious! pancake had alot of filling, almost TOO much but as long as it came with the sauce I'm happy jane! Kimchi pancake was a let down unfortunately, TOO much kimchi, it was basically an orange fermented pancake, still edible but it does not deserve a picture sorry.

Seafood pancake

Marinated waygu and pork platter seemed small but that was forgiven after the first bite. The waygu was good quality meat, tender and deliciously marinated, same goes with the pork. We loved it so much we ordered another one. Non marinated meat was also delicious but i'm team marinated ftw.

Marinated Waygu beef

Those white noodle like things are actually shredded onion

Overall very pleased with the restaurant, the bill came out to be cheaper than we thought around $23 each and we were all full, cheapest korean bbq I've had considering the meat served was Waygu. Service was a quite slow but I will forgive them as it was practically full house and there was a massive long table of at least 30 people.