To be honest I had always assumed Satay Hut boasted a Thai menu, which they do, however they also have very comprehensive Malaysian and Chinese menus as well, with noodles and stir fry dishes pretty much any way you can think of.

The ambience and decor at Satay Hut is fresh, friendly and relaxing with a very large and very well sheltered outdoor dining area.  My party of four was chomping at the bit to get stuck into the Malaysian menu.  As far as choices go, the Malaysian entrees are generally always same-same no matter where you go, so we once again kicked things off with the standards of satay beef skewers ($12.90), chicken, potato, pea and carrot curry puffs ($9.50) and roti canai served with peanut satay sauce and Malaysian curry sauce ($10.90).

 With our Malaysian feasting thus far, the roti canai is always the dish that I like to keep a close eye on.  Whilst most of the roti breads you get are very similar, there are really subtle differences that can make or break one’s roti experience!  Satay Hut’s roti was good – but it wasn’t great.  Now I’m no expert, but this roti was a little dry and flat, lacking the crispy, flaky outer shell and the fluffy, moist, doughy middle that can set a roti apart and take you to true roti heaven.  The accompanying sauces were nothing to rave about, but not unpleasant either.

The satay skewers and curry puffs were not particularly remarkable and if anything the pastry around the curry puffs was a little thick and dry, and the beef skewers a little over cooked which was disappointing.

For mains we began with the Malaysian chicken curry ($20.90), another good bench mark dish for getting a feel for Malaysian kitchen quality.  Satay Hut’s Malaysian chicken had a nice flavour, but the chicken meat seemed overcooked and a little like what you’d see from a fast food or bain marie type kitchen.

The combination laksa noodle soup ($19.90) with chicken, prawns, squid, fish cakes, tofu, beans, eggplant, beansprouts, coconut cream, hokkein noodles and rice vermicelli was pretty good and full to the brim with a strange yet compelling mix of textures.  The coconut cream factor was pleasantly present.

The prawn char kwai teow ($22.90) was another dish from Satay Hut that was fairly pedestrian, with a distinct lack of that smoky, chilli infused flavour that we’ve been spoilt with at other Malaysian venues.  The prawn element was generous, but this didn’t really make up for what was otherwise a lack lustre attempt this famous flat rice noodle dish.

The Nasi Goreng ($19.90) with onion, capsicum, tofu, egg, prawns, fish cakes, squid and fried rice was once again a very generous dish, sporting all sorts of elements.  This dish was mildly spicy and had a nice flavour, but the addition of everything but the kitchen sink was almost too much!

The serving sizes of the Malaysian menu at Satay Hut are really generous, so whilst the price tags seem a little high, you won’t go hungry.  

Satay Hut isn’t quite on the money as other more authentic and home-style Malaysian venues around town, but they do a pretty good job at it and provide a huge amount of variety when it comes to menu choices.

• Satay Hut - Shop 3 Little Stanley St, Southbank +61 7 3846 6600

There’s always a queue, if not 10 or so deep it’s well out the door, particularly in the evenings. 

There’s a general lack of order and grace in the whole ordering process. 

The staff seem generally disgruntled and unhappy to be there, most likely due to the aforementioned points above.  And let’s not forget, it’s hideously expensive…

So under normal circumstances, these points would pretty much stand a venue in good stead for a whopping great big NOT, but, with Max Brenner (for me anyway) it’s not the case. 

MM and I must be the last people in Brisbane to try Max Brenner at Southbank – basically, we don’t have much (read:  any) patience for queues.  In a moment of weakness however on a recent date night at Southbank, we committed ourselves and dived in head and tummy first.

It’s safe to say we were over the queue and the screaming children after about 30 seconds, but we stuck it out.  Tormented by the Max Brenner menu and its amazing combinations, painfully taunted by the man-sized blocks of chocolate and lolly jars jammed packed full of gummi bears and jelly beans behind the counter, I thought for a moment I had stumbled upon the happiest place on earth….and then the crazy kids in the queue went ferral again…

I was really keen to get myself around the tutti fruitti waffle – warm Belgian waffle drizzled with pure melted chocolate, served with ice cream, strawberries and bananas ($14 for 1 person, $18.50 for 2).  But MM choked on the price and I knew there was no way I could tackle it on my lonesome. 

Instead I settled for, but was still thoroughly excited by, the chocolate dip – a small bowl of warm, melted chocolate with strawberries to dip ($8.50) with a side of banana ($3.00) and marshmallows ($0.50). 

Wow.  I could live on this stuff….plenty of vitamins from the bananas and strawberries afterall!

MM took an option from the fridge cabinet (there are quite a few to choose from); he had the dreamy chocolate cloud ($9.50) which was a fluffy cloud of cream encased in a dark chocolate shell. 

A little on the rich side, MM was otherwise very impressed.  He washed it down with a cappuccino ($3.50).

So, our overall experience at Max Brenner was a little tainted by the queues, the people, the noise, the service….the list goes on, but in the defence of Max Brenner, these are mostly issues due to our own intolerances.  The concept for me, a self confessed chocoholic, is brilliant.  I love the idea, I love the smell, I love the menu and most of all I love the warm gooey chocolate.  It’s everywhere! 

•  Max Brenner – Shop 1.1 and 1.2, Stanley St Plaza, Southbank

Reviewing live theatre whether it be stand up comedy, musicals, ballet and so on is always hard as one’s inclination towards it is such a personal thing.  Something that is totally rocking in my opinion could be as entertaining as sticking a pen in your eye to someone else…hence, I was nervous to accept Brisbane Marketing’s invitation to attend opening night of Dr Zhivago at QPAC; one, because there was a chance I would see more of the inside of my eyelids than the show itself, and two, I would then have to find the words to describe this potentially sleepy experience.

With minimal knowledge of the storyline and the state of origin decider falling on the same night, MM was reluctant to fulfil his husbandly duties; a few stern words later however commonsense prevailed (yes, he earned some serious brownie points) and to his and my pleasant surprise, we had a really enjoyable evening .

Without giving too much away, it’s well worth mentioning the sadness and gloom of the opening scenes in which a young Yuri Zhivago mourns the death of his father, which sets the scene for a few low decibel, timid and reserved opening numbers.  Fast forward several years and the now mature, educated gentleman who has since become a doctor and renowned poet enters the stage with such a chilling, provocative sound that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.  MM turned to me and casually said “wow….that dude can hold a tune” to which I responded “no sh*t!…..that’s Anthony Warlow!”

From there the story of Dr Zhivago twists and turns from the latter days of Czarist Russia, through the tumultuous Russian revolution, revealing a bizarre love triangle intermingled with stories of love, war, lust and betrayal.

The first performance of the season wasn’t exactly flawless (queue armchair critic status) with the occasion tremble and quiver of nervous voices.  And my mind did a small amount of wandering in some of the longer musical numbers, but all in all it was quite a spectacular performance.  The cast provided a well balanced mix of singing, acting and dancing with some entertaining and humorous scenes to pleasantly lift the mood from its baseline intensity.

Anthony Warlow provides an exhilarating experience for the audience and towards the close of the show he demonstrates why he is one of Australia’s most renowned performers, his pitch-perfect voice projecting well and truly above the orchestra and his fellow cast members, to finish off with some more spine tingling moments.

For regular theatre-goers I don’t think there’d be any reason you wouldn’t find Dr Zhivago an amazing experience.  For those who are like me and are perhaps more inclined to seek musical entertainment in a karaoke restaurant, or a grungy bar in the Valley, it is a provocative story, but be prepared for some chin nods as some of the numbers drag on a little.  Even so, the storyline contains enough intrigue and suspense to keep your mind coming back to where it was before you started thinking about whatever it was you were thinking about.

• The Dr Zhivago season runs every day at QPAC until August 11^th, check out visitbrisbane.com.au for more information.

Although a little clinical in appearance and feel, the setting at La Via is pleasant with ample seating in doors and on the sidewalk area, with a lovely view of Southbank and all it’s passers by (read: great people watching spot).  The staff greeted us with smiling faces and were very accommodating as we ummed and ahhed over what to have – every single pizza option sounded delicious.

After much deliberation I finally chose the prawn, sage, prosciutto and asagio (Italian cheese) pizza ($22.50).  It’s not often I can put away a whole pizza to myself, but the base was super thin allowing plenty of room for the tasty topping, which had just the right amount of fresh, meaty ingredients with a generous smothering of asagio which was definitely present, but not overpowering.

Princess kept things simple with the margherita classica ($18.50); it looked a little plain to me with the balance of tomato and cheese leaning very much towards the cheesy side of things, but Princess was pleased with it.

CB bucked the system and opted for the fish special of the day; sword fish wrapped in prosciutto on a bed of beetroot and pea risotto ($25).  A little on the salty side, the dish was otherwise delicious with a delicate balance of flavours and the fish wrapped up in the prosciutto was something different and a nice touch from a presentation point of view too.  The risotto itself was cooked  to a nice consistency although they can leave the peas in the kitchen next time!

We kept things pretty short and sweet as weren’t at liberty to turn this into a long boozy lunch (for a change!) and the staff were pretty receptive to this.  They were attentive and sharp and our meals were quick out of the kitchen, however it was fairly quiet on the patronage front.  Great pizzas – definitely worth coming back for and I’m keen to check out what’s on offer from a pasta perspective next time.

• La Via – 6 Little Stanley St, Southbank +61 73844 3460

When the Rain Stops Falling is intricate, clever and thought-provoking. Trying to describe it is like trying to capture  floating mist, but in a bland nutshell you could say that it’s a story about four generations of a family. Although it’s not clear until partway through that the characters are actually linked to each other, as there are numerous characters (both male and female) called Gabriel and characters from other periods silently wander in and out of the action happening at a particular point in time. But it’s not a frustrating, confusing mess – rather, the intriguing mesh of storylines and timeframes really engages your attention, and the layers that are peeled away are enlightening and sometimes shocking.

The main theme of the play is about how the past informs our present and how we must understand our past in order to move forward to the future. This is emphasised by the repetition of dialogue by all the characters as the action skips back and forth in time, from 1950s London to 2039 in Alice Springs. The theatrical staging is also repetitive as everyone drinks fish soup (the significance of fish is apparent later), gazes out the same window and uses the same furniture.

The other theme of the play is about the search for the absent. This drives the emotional impetus as we discover that the characters are missing and looking for lost fathers, husbands, sons and lovers.  The ending, which gathers together all the characters and objects from the past, is particularly beautiful and powerful.

I can’t really say much more about the play without drawing a diagram setting out every single character and every single storyline and how everything is mapped out. My advice – go and see When the Rain Stops Falling for yourself before it closes on 22 November. You’ll be pondering and teasing out the stories from your head for days afterwards.

To read other reviews from the Sydney Morning Herald click here and Australian Stage Online click here.

• When the Rain Stops Falling, QPAC Playhouse, cnr Melbourne and Grey Street, South Brisbane

 On one of the only sunny days we’ve had in rainy old Brisbane lately, I pulled up a couple of Sardine Tin’s rustic seats under the shade of a big umbrella in their alfresco dining area and suggested to my lunch date AD that we share a few plates over a Little Creatures pale ale or two.

I browsed through the menu and nodded in agreeance regarding the small menu.  A lot of the options included tasting plates and small portions, typical of tapas menus of course, but the range is probably less that you’d find elsewhere.  Never the less, all options sounded delicious.  We asked our friendly waiter for his recommendations and in the end we took his sound advice.

 The $12 tasting plate had a combination of garlic and lemon butter king prawns, sardine bruschetta, and chorizo and potato stacks with tangy mayonnaise.  I would never normally chose sardines, but when in Rome….

We combined this with a bowl of potato gnocchi with garlic butter, cherry tomatoes and shaved parmesan to share, also $12.

The tasty morsels from both dishes were so light and flavours delicately balanced.  You can tell that a lot of love goes into the dishes at Sardine Tin from the way the parcels are constructed and the flavour explosion that occurs when you dismantle them.  And then when you chase them down with a cool beer on a sunny Spring day, it can’t get much better. 

For those not accustomed to the tapas experience, the meal portions and price tags will be hard to swallow (pardon the pun).  If you’re happy to eat progressively and savour the experience, Sardine Tin is one tapas venue and menu you shouldn’t go past.  Open for lunch and dinner most days, the menu is probably best enjoyed for parties of 2-4 people. 

•  Sardine Tin – Shop 3A Arbour on Grey, Little Stanley St, Southbank, +61 7 3846 1146

Denim Co. is one of the many little quaint cafes along the stretch of Little Stanley St, behind the peoples’ park that is Southbank.  I have sampled many, many, many coffees here in the past and always rave about their banana bread to my friends.  So, after our usual Saturday morning run around the river recently, I gently persuaded (read: insisted) my running buddies to head to Denim Co. for breakfast. 

I’m not a fan of counter service at the best of times, but seeing as my visits to Denim are always quite fleeting I’m quite happy to over look it.  I’ve never noticed it before, but on this occasion when ordering, I realised that they have some quite funky (and not in a good way) rules around minimum credit transactions (merchant fees – understood) and minimum EFTPOS transactions (what the??!).  Their minimum transaction amounts were really high (around $25) which means that if a person wants to pay for their meal on EFTPOS or credit, they have to buy a whole lot more than their breakfast alone.  Is this a gratuitous play on the concept of the up-sell?  Nothing HOT about it, sorry.

Move to the food however and you’ve got a different story.  I chose the poached eggs and salmon with Turkish bread and a side of bacon ($14), while Princess and K both chose the Denim Co. big breakfast of poached eggs, bacon, mushroom, tomato and toast ($15).  K was particularly impressed with Denim Co’s gluten free bread option, and demolished her big breakfast with ease. 

Princess, who’s on a bit on the fussy side, pushed her mushie and Turkish bread around the plate – a little disgruntled they only had Turkish and not brown bread.  She stuck to her eggs, bacon and tomato and really enjoyed it. 

 My poached eggs were perfect and the helping of smoked salmon was generous and fresh.  The bacon however was too fatty, under cooked and just too much.  We all agreed their bacon strategy needed to be revised.  All in all though, Denim Co. served us a delicious meal with generous servings and reasonable price.  The coffees were spot on too. 

Denim Co. has some great menu items (including a display window full of yummy sweets, friands, cakes, biscuits, fresh sandwiches etc) at pretty good prices.  Their meals were good, but not great.  The whole credit/EFTPOS deal they’ve got going on really gets under my skin, but maybe that’s just me.  So, back to my dilemma – as you can see in the article heading, it’s HOT….but only because I’m denied the pleasure of sitting on the fence as per the rules of our rating system. 

• Denim Co. – Little Stanley St, Southbank – +61 7 3844 0302

From tomorrow until 1 August the Gallery of Modern Art will be holding Australia’s largest ever exhibition  of Mueck’s realistic portrayals of creased, flabby, veiny and hairy people of all ages, genders and conditions – and one very large trussed chicken. Some of the sleeping subjects were so real I fully expected them to be breathing softly.

Mueck’s method of enlarging or shrinking the proportions of his subjects makes them unnverving, poignant, humorous and puzzling.

I think his large works were more striking for me, as the size amplified the people’s often wary, frightened, isolated and quizzical expressions. The small works turned the people into dolls and it was easier to feel detached from their emotions – though others may disagree.

I actually found it more interesting to observe other people’s reactions to the artworks rather than the sculptures themselves. In particular, parents seem to have a penchant for posing their frightened kids next to the giant bloodied baby or the huge hairy naked man. A far cry from Disneyland, Dad.

I was also bemused by this girl who squatted, transfixed by a dangling chicken’s head. ‘Stay there love, let me take a photo of you with the big chicken.’

To read more reviews of the exhibition, check out Art Blart.

This review originally published on our sister blog, MEL: HOT OR NOT The decisive guide to Melbourne when the exhibition was showing at the National Gallery of Victoria.

• Avenue Q, Playhouse, QPAC, Southbank

Bamboo Basket is new addition to the increasingly vibrant and unapologetically modern South Bank precinct. Located at the eastern end of Grey St, there was always the danger that when this Chinese restaurant opened a few months ago it would be a little far from the action. But it hasn’t taken long for it to create its own.

It is a restaurant that oozes confidence even from the outside, making a feature of their steamy kitchen, filled with professional chefs and (you guessed it) lots of bamboo baskets. The interior is sleek, full of striking reds and blacks, but maybe a little showy.

The stand-out performer at Bamboo Basket is definitely the noodles. They are made fresh, very fresh – practically right in front of you – making for some delicious noodle soups and awesome dumplings. We tried two of their very reasonably priced lunch specials ($10.90). The wonton noodle soup was delicious and the BBQ pork disappeared very quickly. Definitely worth fighting over! They are certainly not complicated meals, just simple and good.

Chinese restaurants in Brisbane have really had to improve since the dingy suburban takeaways of the 90s. Sweet and sour pork and black bean beef just doesn’t cut it any more. Bamboo Basket is certainly a cut above those greasy memories of my childhood, and well worth a visit.

[Editor: Bamboo Basket is so popular that the Jetsetting Parents also visited recently. Here's their take on the restaurant.]

There was a continuous stream of onlookers on the foot-path, peering through a big glass window into the open kitchen of Bamboo Basket Chinese Restaurant. They were watching with interest (and probably salivating at the same time) at the dexterous skills demonstrated by the chefs inside who were busy rolling out dough, filling and pinching up dumplings, making noodles by repeated “pull, loop, pull” action, etc.

Inside the restaurant, all tables were either filled up or reserved by 12 noon, half-an-hour after opening , with the staff moving briskly around taking orders and delivering dishes. A small queue was always waiting at the entrance despite the fairly quick turnover of the tables. This set the tone for the lunch for Jetsetting Dad and myself.

The decor of the restaurant is simple yet stylish with a touch of red for a Chinese flair. From its extensive menu, we chose a few which we thought would be indicative of the skills of the dumplings and noodle chefs.

The four xiao lung bao (steamed pork dumplings, S7.90) arrived at our table in a bamboo basket. They were outstanding. The abundant soup/juice simply burst out in our mouth when we bit into it. It’s amazing how the delicate skin could hold up the weight of the soup and meat without breaking even when the dumpling was lifted out of the basket by chopsticks. I reckon the recipe for the dough and the rolling technique must have to be perfect.

Next we had pan-fried pork dumplings (6 for $11.90). From our experience, a good one has to have a juicy meat filling with a nice crispy bottom while the rest of the skin is thin and soft. So these were the qualities we were looking for in our order and happily, we were not disappointed, though I would still prefer a crisper base.

The hot and sour soup ($ 8.90) was a thickened soup with strips of pork, woody fungus, tofu, bamboo shoots and eggs. It was authentic but quite ordinary in taste – I even found it a bit too vinegary.

A big bowl of Langzhou pull-noodles in soup with beef ($17.90) was another outstanding dish. The fresh noodles were thick and al-dente (borrowing the Italian description). Again, it demands a good dough as well as some well-practiced pull and loop skills from the chef. The soup was tasty, too, without being greasy.

When we complimented on the food at the end of our meal, we were told that the chefs are mostly recruited from Shanghai.  Bamboo Basket is the restaurant we have been waiting for and I hope that the chefs will stick to their successful recipes and continue to offer us authentic and good-quality dumplings and noodles.

• Bamboo Basket, 189 Grey St, South Brisbane