Cafe de Manila - Brisbane

Wow ever seen green & purple cake ? Well come to this little gem of a bakery/cafe. Lots of different & yummy selections to feast your eyes on or better still sink your teeth into. Their bread is also good & not overpriced they have some great specials

Been here about 5 times in past 3yrs but today I saw displayed a bitter melon/gourd ( sometimes known as 'cucumbers with herpes' ) dish. Sauteed bitter melon and egg. Who could go past that ? Not me !! Let's have it with a scoop of rice and one of the 3 pork dishes. I choose Pork Adobo - it's stewed in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic & bay leaves. No chilli just sweet chilli sauce and ketchup on offer. Really ? Half a star deducted immediately ! At $7.90 a fair price and fair serving so OK by me. Looking around here.........Hmm......let's just describe the scene as 'down-at-heel' chic, but that's with b.y.o. chic. McWhirters' food hall really, really does need a 'make-over' , but then............don't we all !

Best Friends Kainan Sa - Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. It is really hard to find Filipino cuisine that it makes sense almost the entire Filipino population would be flocking to this place. The location is not swish in any way, it is part of a tiny food court taking up the corner area which works size-wise to its advantage. Everything comes from the bain maries thus it is perfect for anyone in a rush. For a cheap price, all sorts of homely dishes can be ordered and it is really quick. Just a quick walk in the right direction, and the shop that this is an off-set from is right there; it is called Best Friends and Filipino groceries can be bought there. This was my first time trying Filipino so it was something different. The flavours were really unusual and might not be to all tastes, there is not much refinement in the cooking. My dining buddy was keen to try this place after some heresay from a colleague. Results were a bit mixed to be precise. Filipino has been deried as the poor man's Thai. I am somewhat inclined to agree. There were some good flavours amongst the dishes and nibbles, however there was underlying bizarre blends that lingered in an uneasy way. Before ordering the mains, the two of us split a chicken empanada and a banana cue. Both were good, and I preferered the latter. The chicken empanda was akin to a baked samosa. The mixture was a combination of minced chicken breast and vegetables with a wholesome flavour. Outside the texture was baked and crusty. While the banana cue was a little like a banana spring roll - there was a honey over-tone to it with the fruit keeping its texture and flavour to recognisability. My dining buddy like the empanda so much he went back for a second at the end. Also at the end, he got a pork paksew. This is essentially a sausage. The sausage was incased in an amalgam of sweet honey and pork which was not too bad. The selection of dishes changes regularly. What they constantly have is a one- or two-dish deal with rice for pocket money. So I got the two-dish deal with green jackfruit in cream and pork binagoongan. While the first one was decent, with a mild flavour and smooth the texture the latter was off. It did have anchovy in it, and while I do like myself anchovy especially on pizza this overpowered the sauce. At times, the meat was fatty with lumps of pure fat floating in the stew. My dining buddy go a pork longansia and pork adobo. I cannot really remember much to distinguish them, and they both were really salty. The portions might look small but they do fill you up. To drink I got the gulaman which was a really odd concoction. Think of jelly mixed with lots of ice and some condensed rice and that was it. It was okay, with a combination of sweet flavours but it is not anything I would get again. I do want to like this place, but the after-taste was really off after eating it. It is somewhere where I am not inclined to revisit anytime soon.

Best Friends Kainan Sa - Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. It is really hard to find Filipino cuisine that it makes sense almost the entire Filipino population would be flocking to this place. The location is not swish in any way, it is part of a tiny food court taking up the corner area which works size-wise to its advantage. Everything comes from the bain maries thus it is perfect for anyone in a rush. For a cheap price, all sorts of homely dishes can be ordered and it is really quick. Just a quick walk in the right direction, and the shop that this is an off-set from is right there; it is called Best Friends and Filipino groceries can be bought there. This was my first time trying Filipino so it was something different. The flavours were really unusual and might not be to all tastes, there is not much refinement in the cooking. My dining buddy was keen to try this place after some heresay from a colleague. Results were a bit mixed to be precise. Filipino... read more

I came here to get my fix of childhood food. I chose the pork stewed with tomatoes and shrimp paste (binagoongan pork) and the unripe jackfruit in coconut milk (sounds weird but yum)! ricefilledbelly.com