Magic Pizza

Magic Pizza is anything but magic. Well, maybe that's not quite true, there must be some magic involved to keep the place operational because it's certainly not the pizza.

The Bloggers had a busy week but found time to fit in a takeaway-style component of the Beaufort Street Challenge, which is why we skipped Jessie's Curry Kitchen and Cafe and went on to the next venue, Magic Pizza. We will get to Jessie's next week. So, BITO and The Brains put their hands up to do the pizza run. They were immediately struck by the thoughtfulness of the decor - a delightful combination of novelty souvenir USA number plates (you know the ones, the New York number plate that says I LOVE NY etc) and pictures of The King.

They were also struck by the menu - even the Deliberator would not have found choosing a pizza very difficult here, there were only about 8 to chose from. The Bloggers don't necessarily think a limited menu is ever a problem though - because if the food is great, a lack of choice becomes irrelevant. But the food was terrible. More on that in a second.

The fellow behind the counter was very friendly, he was happy to provide some advice on our selections and got down to the business of cooking the pizzas very quickly. When they were finished, he even walked them outside where BITO and The Brains were sitting taking in the Beaufort Street vista.

The pizzas were still hot by the time we got them home, but disappointingly they all looked identical. It was a moment of déjà vu when we opened up the boxes and wondered how we had yet again managed to order 3 cheese flavoured pizzas (see our review of the Civic Hotel to relive our first fromage free-for-all fiasco). Disenchanted, but still hopeful, we hopped in and consumed what we could of our dinner. It was not as though the pizzas were horrible, it was more that they weren't very good. Cheap toppings, too much cheese, a salt overload and unexceptional bases came together for a truly uninspiring meal.

While BITO and The Brains quickly arrived at their decision that the pizzas were not getting the Bloggers’ thumbs up, it took The Sponge 6 or 7 slices and a 2 litre bottle of Fanta before declaring them average. The rest of the night was spent arguing about who would keep the leftovers (they went in the bin) and watching Goldmember. So really, it wasn’t all bad.

In summary:

Service: Pleasant and helpful.

Food: Well below par, particularly when you consider the plethora of wonderful pizza choices in the area (think Stones Pizza and Marcos).

Ambience: Like a roadside diner in a two bit town in southern USA during the depression, but with less ambience.

Highlight: The service. And the fact that Goldmember was on TV.

Lowlight: Poorly executed and unimaginative pizza.

Rating: 1 slice of cheap salami out of 5.

Will we be back? Nup.

Details: Call them on (08) 9370 1818. The cost was a reasonable $17 for a family sized pizza.

Coming up: This time we will go to Jessie's Curry Kitchen and Cafe. We promise.

Avenue 9

We felt a little sorry for Avenue 9 – we had decided to amalgamate our visit there with the Brain’s birthday on a Friday night, and had already had a couple (ie: dangerously close to a skinful) by the time we arrived at 8:30. However neither this, nor the fact that we had 4 additional guests in train, would sway us from our weekly duty to the Beaufort Street faithful.

Kudos to Avenue 9: they performed very admirably indeed despite all the adversity that we presented. Our table was nicely placed in a corner (perhaps a deliberate move as they saw us staggering up to the entrance?) and service was attentive from the start. The atmosphere was lively and noisy (in a cheerful way) and décor quite modern and funky. Low lighting helped to maintain the mood as well (although maybe this was just our eyeballs dimming).

Garlic bread straight off was a winner (and a potential lifesaver for some in the party) as was the tasting plate – contained all your Italian standards (dips, olives, chorizo etc) though very well crafted.

Mains were all large and pretty tasty. The chicken parma was a good size and was, well – a chicken parma. Ticked all the boxes. BITO and the Brains’ fish was succulent and came with chunky chips the size of cricket bats and a mound of Greek salad. The Deliberator went toe-to-toe with a pile of rabbit the size of a small car which would have killed a lesser man. (The Deliberator didn’t blink.)

Though we came armed with a battleship worth of BYO wine, we inexplicably found ourselves dry midway through the night. Luckily, the well priced winelist was at hand to whisk us away from dread sobriety at the last minute.

An extensive desert menu was available, however not much room was left after dinner. Besides, the focus by then was simply to keep toasting the Brain’s birthday over and over again, which the staff were happy to let us do long after most of the remaining punters had departed.

The bill was presented promptly (could you blame them?) although (annoyingly) no split billing was available (they eventually relented though and let us split it in two).

Overall, a very pleasant evening with good hearty food and plenty of good service. And a glass of wine or two.

In summary:

Service: Attentive and professional. (And even managed to stay that way despite some vintage menu deliberation from you-know-who.)

Food: Standard Italian fare, though well prepared and presented. A lot of it too.

Ambience: Lively and noisy, like a Naples street scene (with a far lower chance of being stabbed).

Highlight: The perfect place to informally celebrate a birthday.

Lowlight: If we had to pick one, it would be removing plates before everyone had finished eating (although this could be partially excused given the overall business in the place.)

Rating: 3.5 chicken parmas out of 5.

Will we be back? Most certainly (once released from rehab).

Details: Call on (08) 9271 7177 or website is

www.avenuenine.com.au. You can BYO and cost was around $45 a head for shared starters, mains, coffee and corkage.

Coming up: According to the Master List, the next establishment is Jessie's Curry Kitchen and Cafe. We might not be able to make it this week, so please be patient. In the meantime, feel free to leave your comments, we promise to respond.

Tony's Pasta House (now Al Sito)

In demand reviewers, The Brains and The Sponge unfortunately had Kurry KlubTM commitments this Thursday, so it was in order to establish a quorum then that this week’s meeting of the Beaufort Street Bloggers was shifted to Wednesday.

Nestled behind the old post office on Beaufort Street, Inglewood, the entrance to Al Sito is actually on Ninth Avenue, giving it that whole “just off the beaten track, only locals know about it” vibe.

With the Deliberator running late (as always), we yet again arrived slightly tardy for our 8:30 booking. We were nervous. Remember the reception we’d received when arriving a little late to Café Mia? As BITO approaches the 30 week mark of her pregnancy, stress and high blood pressure are of concern. Could we take the pressure again?

Thankfully, our fears were immediately allayed by the more than cheerful (although not annoyingly so) greeting of our waitress for the evening - Freya. Although promptly shown to a spacious table for four, our wine poured and menus delivered to eager hands, there was no aura of impatience presented, nor annoying reminder that the kitchen was due to close.

To start, the Bloggers ordered garlic bread to share together with a tasting plate consisting of a number of tapas style items tastefully presented with several large wedges of turkish bread. It never ceases to amaze the Beaufort Street Bloggers how often an establishment’s garlic bread can set the tone for the rest of the evening’s food. Dry with little garlic evident and you can be sure it was prepared “earlier”. Soft with just a little toastiness and a reassuring amount of garlic that makes you think you can skip this year’s flu shot and you feel the chef really cares about you. And so you can imagine the delight with which we devoured the near perfect (we’re only young, let us not profess to have found the perfect piece of garlic bread yet) specimen expeditiously presented to us by the lovely Freya.

Next came what was unanimously agreed to be the highlight of the night – Freya’s presentation of the specials on offer at Al Sito that Wednesday.

In particular, special mention must go to the Freya’s description of the Chicken Parmagiana. “… a breast of chicken, lightly crumbed and finished with a tomato sauce and delicate melted cheese”. I know it sounds suspiciously like any other Chicken parma ever offered, but we just wish we could express to you the absolute honest innocence and feeling with which Freya delivered the description of the parmagiana as if it were a n’er before heard of delicacy from some far away exotic land. Even the Sponge, an avid fan and devotee of the chicken parma, said Freya made him feel as though he was living the parma experience for the very first time.

The remaining mains ordered included surf and turf t-bone steak, spaghetti marinara and a salmon pasta dish. All were of reasonable size and whilst served without delay, we were afforded a digestively sufficient space between starters and mains.

Although not usually fans of the dessert course, not even Sponge and the Deliberator could say no to the samplings on offer in Al Sito’s dessert cabinet, although with the decision being a difficult one, we were grateful when the ever accommodating manager offered to prepare a sampling plate for us. By this stage, the Bloggers were the only customers left in the restaurant; however this was something we noticed only by chance. For whilst Al Sito staff quietly went about the business of clearing up the kitchen for the night, we were left to enjoy the final stages of our meal at our leisure.

In summary:

Service: In Perth’s current super-competitive hospitality industry, we truly believe Freya should be paid double and even after she knocked off for the night, the owner/manager was attentive, yet did not try to rush.

Food: Minimal selection, but well cooked reasonable fare.

Ambience: Dim lighting, with a mixture of wood and laminate tables with a large open frontage.

Highlight: Freya and her description of the groundbreaking new dish, chicken parma.

Lowlight: BITO wishing she’d had the guts to ask Freya where she got her hair cut.

Rating: 3.5 lovingly prepared slices of garlic bread out of 5.

Will we be back? Yes. The Sponge has even indicated he wishes to add “Freya” to the shortlist for names for his firstborn.

Details: Around $30 a head including corkage.

Coming up: It’s the Brains’ 28th birthday next week, so we’re heading to Avenue 9 Café, with a few special invitees for the night…...

Medya King Kebab

As mentioned last week, the world of the Beaufort Street Bloggers was turned upside down when the Sponge told us he would be away for our traditional Thursday night get together. The bloggers spent several days putting their heads together to work out a plan to make sure we would still spend the minimum of 2 dinner-time hours per week together while also keeping the blog running. The resulting plan was a master stroke of pure genius – to eat on Tuesday.

Last night the Sponge, the Deliberator and the Brains took a trip to Medya King Kebab, just next door to the Baker’s Delight in Inglewood. BITO stayed at home preparing the silverware, crystal and linen napkins for the arrival of the chosen food. We have now discovered that eating a kebab off china is even better than eating one on the footpath out the front of the Bog at 5.30am with a bunch of new best friends discovered just that evening.

Medya King Kebab is a bright, clean establishment with pleasant staff and suitably varied menu – the bloggers were particularly happy that in addition to the usual doner kebab, shish kebabs were an option. There were also pide, pizza, salad and dip options to suit everyone’s kebab-shop fare requirements. We chose a lamb shish kebab, a chicken doner, a meat and salad (half chicken, half that crazy beef/lamb doner mix that’s best not to think about), a vegetable pide, 2 large chips and a Turkish bread and hommus. A ridiculous amount of food by anyone’s standards, but we do what we can to make our reviews accurate.

The bread used for the kebabs was thicker than usual and heated before being used. A big tick. The lamb was freshly cooked and tender. The pide was also freshly made. The 2 kebabs were excellent, with just the right amount of sauce to meat to salad ratio. Sometimes kebabs can be so overloaded with the cheaper salads that you wonder how they mistook your order of a lamb sandwich for a piece of pita bread stuffed with lettuce. Sadly, the meat and salad was slightly disappointing – the salads that were on display in the shop included a very tasty spicy onion salad and the traditional favourite, tabouleh. The salad that came in the meat and salad combo was onion, tomato and lettuce – yawn. The meat however was very tasty.

The bloggers were also a big fan of the hommus, it had more garlic in it than hommus usually has which made it doubly tasty. The Turkish bread, while it could have been a little fresher, was good and well priced - $3 for what seemed like several metres of the stuff. The chips were neither here nor there, they were pretty soggy by the time we got them home, and they could have done with a heap more salt. Of course, we still ploughed our way through 2 family sized boxes very happily.

In all, Medya King Kebabs was a positive experience in the kebab shop genre. We were impressed with the staff who all looked up from their respective positions at the grill and smiled and waved us goodbye when we left. The Sponge, so caught up in the wonderful smile and wave moment, had some trouble walking out the door. The plastic flaps covering the door were wider and heavier than he expected, and knocked his sunglasses clean off his head. This also happened to him on the way in, so it’s difficult to tell whether the plastic flaps were at fault, or if the Sponge has some kind of walking difficulties.

In summary:

Service: Friendly and smiley.

Food: Very solid kebab store fare with especially good hommus.

Ambience: Fluorescent lighting and white tiles.

Highlight: The hommus and the shish kebab meat.

Lowlight: The Sponge says the heavy plastic flaps covering the door, the rest of us think the meat and salad and quality of the chips.

Rating: 3.5 spinning mystery-meat rotisseries out of 5.

Will we be back? Yes, we’d love to try it out hungover or drunk, which we admit, is the true test for the quality of a kebab.

Details: Around $15 a head for a stupid amount of food.

Coming up: Our research says that ‘Al Sito’ at 885 Beaufort Street is next on our list. We have never seen this place, and believe it is very new, so it will be an exciting stop for the bloggers and their fans.

Mia Café

The good oil on Mia Café was that it prides itself on its hearty breakfasts and does a solid mid-week lunch trade. Less information was available on its prowess as a dinner restaurant but, having fulfilled the BSB criteria of being open on a Thursday night and having a table for 4, it was picked up by our radar.

It’s a pleasant place – quite laid back casual interior with (we’re told) a peaceful leafy courtyard, although we ate inside. Its casual café style is emphasised by its lack of a liquor licence and the fact that non-alcoholic drinks appear to be a case of help yourself from the fridge by the counter.

More on this later, but first – the food:

A very passable tasting plate was ordered first (comprising baby octopus, beef strips, frittata and dips among other things), along with some less passable and pretty slapped-together “herb bread” (sans herbs).

While the menu is fairly limited, Thursday night was cheap pasta night – your choice of 4 pastas (although they’d run out of the penne) coupled with a choice of 4 different sauces for around $11. This offer was taken up by two of the Bloggers, the others opting for a chorizo and mushroom risotto (very tasty) and a chicken and ricotta meatball spaghetti (generous on the meatball side but bland at best).

While nicely presented, the cheap pastas tasted just that – cheap. A distinct thorn in the side of the Beaufort Street Bloggers is the offer of a reduced price item from the regular menu, with a corresponding reduction in quality. The Deliberator searched high and low in vain for some taste in his spaghetti and meatballs, and (in a world first) was forced to leave food on his plate as he switched his attention to the Brains’ risotto.

And now to our major gripe of the evening: having made a booking for 8:30 (although, to be fair, we were 10 minutes late), we were told on arrival that the kitchen closed at 9pm. This precipitated us being drawn into some kind of rushed and panicky vortex as the staff tried to extract and deliver our orders in an attempt to get us out of there pronto. While the staff were all extremely pleasant and professional, their focus was clearly on getting home as quickly as possible, rather than permitting the Beaufort Street Bloggers to dine in the relaxed and genteel manner to which they are accustomed. This was particularly irksome to the Deliberator, who simply doesn’t do “hurried”.

The starter came very shortly after ordering (not a bad thing) but the mains were then delivered before it had been finished and cleared away. While still eating said mains, we were asked whether we wanted coffee and desert in a tone that unequivocally said “order at your peril”. Not even an hour after walking in the door, the Bloggers found themselves catapulted back out onto the pavement, heads spinning and wondering if we had just imagined going out for dinner that night.

Overall, we were left with the impression that, while Mia Café may well be a nice place for breakfast, it hasn’t yet made up its mind whether or not it’s serious about the whole dinner thing. Limited menu, early closing and panicked ambience left us with the distinct impression that they were simply going through the motions.



In summary:

Service: pleasant and professional, but frantic to the point of distraction.

Food: Aside from the risotto and the tasting plate, fairly forgettable.

Ambience: Like the opening scene from “Saving Private Ryan”.

Highlight: The tasting plate.

Lowlight: Feeling like we’d just stepped out of a washing machine.

Rating: 2 whirling dervishes out of 5.

Will we be back? Maybe for breakfast (once the blood pressure has settled).

Details: call on (08) 9271 1599. You can BYO and corkage is $4 per bottle.Cost: $25 a head for shared starter and 4 mains (incl. cheap pasta special)

Coming up: Medya King Kebabs is the next establishment on our list. As the Sponge will be interstate next Thursday, we are not sure when we will be ripping into a donner with the lot and a box of hot chips. We will keep you posted.

[Photo from http://www.yourrestaurants.com.au/]

The Banyan Tree Indian Restaurant

Unusual for these times, a google search for the Banyan Tree Indian Restaurant was quite unrevealing - perhaps because there seem to be at least two Banyan Tree Indian Restaurants in each city in Australia - plus various resorts and day spas in Thailand and India with the same name. Several google permutations later we managed to locate a review by bergsy on a Vogue Australia forum (http://forums.vogue.com.au/showthread.php?t=190279&page=221). Things seem to have improved considerably since bergsy dined at the Banyan Tree (or maybe we're easier to please) so we can safely say that it is no longer necessary to give the Banyan Tree a wide girth (sic) as suggested by bergsy.

A quick search of Wikipedia reveals that a Banyan Tree is a form of fig which grows within cracks and crevices of a host tree or building. The germinated seed of the Banyan sends its roots down towards the ground enveloping part of the host tree or building, earning it the friendly sounding nickname "Strangler Fig", which is perhaps not as nice a name for a restaurant as the Banyan Tree.

Wikipedia also tells us that the Banyan Tree is considered sacred in India and Pakistan. It's fair to say that we didn't treat the Banyan Tree Indian Restaurant with due reverence when we took advantage of its BYO licensing by bringing with us more than a bottle of wine per person in our party (which is a fair effort given BITO was not drinking).

Upon arrival we were gladdened to see a large Indian family sitting at one table and apparently enjoying their food. We were also charmed by the gentlemen in the restaurant who decided that nothing says I love you on Valentines Day better than a cozy curry at the Banyan Tree. We had thought that a suburban Indian joint might be the one place we could be guaranteed to avoid the usual Valentines Day couples fest, but we were incorrect. No doubt those couples who had chosen to enjoy a couply dinner at the Banyan Tree really enjoyed the Deliberator's raucous commentry on life as we quickly demolished our meal and half a dozen bottles of wine.

The large amount of wine has not helped our memories of the meal or the restaurant, but we do recall that the obligatory pappadums and dips arrived shortly after we were seated and were very crisp and tasty. The decor was a charming blend of faded Indian bling and even more faded 1970s laminex - the indoor plants were a nice touch. That said, for Indian fare you wouldn't have it any other way.

We liked the starter plate ($24 each). Two of them were a sufficent entree for our party of five and enabled us to try several of the tasty entrees on offer, including a samosa and several tandoori items.

For mains, we ordered a curry for each person plus rice and two types of naan bread, which typically for an Indian restaurant was way too much food. The chicken jalfreezi was very nice, as was the mince stuffed naan. The Brains failed miserably with her choice of a prawn dish, but what do you expect?

The wait staff was speedy and efficient, although not super chatty. We suspect they were overseas students and that English is not their first language but we were able to overcome the language barrier by adopting the international code of repeating ourselves and getting progressively louder and slower each time. We had to chase up one of our mains, but given how many we had ordered this was really only a very minor inconvenience.

In summary:

Service: Fast but not super chatty.

Food: All quite tasty, although the prawn korma was not a favourite.

Ambience: The decor is the perfect blend of Indian bling with faded 1970s laminex.

Highlight: All of the curries were quite tasty with just the right amount of schtang and most of the condiments were free and plentiful.

Lowlight: Some of the curries were a little on the watery side.

Rating: 3.5 samosas out of 5.

Will we be back? probably but won't rush.

Details: call on (08) 9473 1190. You can BYO and corkage is $[something insignifcant after 1.2 bottlse of wine each] per bottle.

Coming up: We're heading next door to the Banyan Tree and look forward to a meal among the nursery at the Mia Cafe.

Update

Some eagle-eyed Beaufort Street Blogger fans have spotted a discrepancy in our reporting, which we failed to disclose earlier. The next Beaufort Street establishment along from Charco's is, in fact, Da Bruno's, and not the Banyan Tree Indian Restaurant. The reason we are skipping Da Bruno's this week is to save BITO (Bun in the Oven) from the pain of eating at a fine dining restaurant without the pleasure of copius amounts of wine. When BITO is no longer in her current condition, we will head back to Da Bruno's.

We will also be waiting for BITO to resume full drinking capacity before hitting Jackson's and Veritas.