20190426 Sushi King and Brunelli

 It was a revolutionary evening on many levels. The first one was that Chad was the first one at the pub tonight!! Myself, Stephen and Con followed within 15 minutes of each other. We managed to get a great table by the entrance and proceeded to order our usual Young Henry jugs. When it was my turn, I ordered a bowl of wedges because I could forecast doom ahead. As you can see from the picture, the wedges didn't last long. We all tucked in and in no time they were scoffed up.

It was Stephen's turn to choose where to eat tonight and he didn't hesitate in choosing Sushi King. He's been ranting on about it for weeks now and he is finally getting his wish to go. Let me say from the outset that I wasn't happy about it. There are usually only 3 things on the menu in a Japanese place - cold rice, deep fried food or raw fish. All of which I dislike immensely. Chad and Con were happy to tag along so we strolled down the road to the venue. I was hoping that it would be fully booked but no, there were seats enough to sit alongside the rotating conveyor belt of $3 plates. The guys all tucked in pretty quickly and seemed to be enjoying the experience. All the while, I was scouring the menu for something suitable for me to eat. Nothing, and I mean nothing, appealed to me. The closest I could get to edible food was spring rolls - as I said - deep fried food. It's pretty hard to get spring rolls wrong. I waited a few minutes and they at least were hot on the plate. There was nothing else - no salad, all but a small dip of chilli sauce - the kind of chilli sauce that is cheap and sugary - no real chilli flavour.

Stephen was encouraging me to order something else and in the end I ordered hot octopus. I had one bite and passed it onto Stephen who ate with relish. That was enough for me - I was waiting for the dessert at Brunelli. I waited patiently until everyone had finished. The only good thing about the Sushi King that I could see was that it only cost $18 for Stephen's food and my 3 tiny spring rolls. I would have preferred to spend the extra $10 and have real food!

 We ended up in Brunelli - not surprising since it is directly across the road. We found a table easily enough and Stephen ordered the coffees with a Carrot Cake for me and a chocolate eclair for himself.

Here's where the woes continue... the carrot cake was stale and when I mean stale I mean VERY stale. I could bang the icing against the side of the plate to a loud thwacking sound. I had to cut away the outer edges to get to the semi-hard interior. It was inedible really and if I wasn't so grumpy I would have taken the whole thing back. Stephen in the meantime was scoffing his eclair and saying how tasty it was.

I was that grumpy that I considered flipping the table. It was only Con's calm voice of reason that stopped me.

Chad was wearing his San Francisco jacket tonight and we learnt that he has recently been to America - go figure! His favourite US of A sites were Grand Canyon and Alcatraz. He showed us a 360 picture of the grand canyon - very impressive!

We talked about our Melbourne trip and how we need to start organising it. We will speak to Richard tomorrow to organise a date when we can all meet up to book the accommodation and the events that will be happening.

We are all going to Ian's place tomorrow for his House Warming. Bring a Plate the message states, however, Con is going to eat first and just bring drink. I am going to make a quiche with bread to bring. Chad is bringing a dessert.

The interesting thing about Brunelli tonight (apart from the televisions being switched off again) was that there was a Cheesecake Shop Box in the display case - not a good sign for Brunelli. To be honest, I'm getting fed up of Brunelli and it's poor service and quality of food. The coffee that I had tonight was luke warm - not good enough!!

When I got home tonight I had a small bowl with roast potatoes, honey drizzled carrots, roasted caramelised pumpkin, broccoli and a small slice of crispy haloumi - all drizzled with rich, smooth gravy. YUM! I'd give that meal a 9 out of 10.

For the Japanese food, I give my meal 1 out of 10, Chad and Con gave their Sushi meals a 7 out of 10 and Stephen was somehow impressed with an 8 - I don't think he's ever given an 8 before (apart from Amalfi).

Let's just say I don't want to go to Sushi King again in a hurry - at least not when I'm hungry. I'll remember to have my fish and chips in the Elephant first. Who wants Japanese food?? Not me!