Ni No Kuni - Studio Ghibli x Level 5 = omg pretty

Short and sweet update today.

If you have a Playstation 3 you need to go get this.

http://ninokunigame.com/

ps. I heard the PSN copy (US store @ $55) is much better than getting the disc version as you won't run into issues with it randomly freezing and hard locking your PS3.....

Who does not like Drippy? :D

Anyhow... no more updates I'm going to lock myself into a room for a bit and enjoy this!

Dough! - northbridge

Hmmm so from the ashes of Sparrow comes a new pizza bar called Dough!

Decor is your modern hipster place, walls plastered with retro billboard posters and seating was quite tight so those with prams should probably avoid it for the benefit of the rest of the diners.
(ie. it's narrow and small)

So seven pizzas later the boards games group (BGG) came out feeling satisfied and well pizza'd out for the month.

I ordered the Parmigiana pizza which was a tomato sauce base, pork sausage and eggplant toppings on roughly 10" handmade dough base. Others ordered a carbonara pizza (onions pancetta and eggs), a margherita pizza (your standard tomato sauce pizza) a calzone, a pumpkin pancetta and rocket pizza. The one I liked the look of the most was The Farmers pizza, potato, pork sausage and pancetta on a white sauce hmmm.

Scanning the menu you had a choice of two sauce bases, essentially a red or white (cheese sauce) base. Each pizza variety only had at maximum 2-4 toppings (you could always ask for additional toppings too) and most had a cheese topping element (Gorgonzola, Parmesan etc)

Entrees were your salads and arancini balls, meatballs (which didn't get the value for money recommendation sadly). On special was a lone pasta dish (that seemed to have the ingredients of a pizza that was scrubbed off the list) but unfortunately we didn't get the chance to try this time round.

One pizza definitely was enough for a hungry man sized serving, smaller eaters half to 3/4 a pizza would probably do. One method of inhaling down a pizza was to roll it up and eat it up like a crepe. The pizza dough was that fresh and soft that it was a viable eating technique. There were a couple of calzones on offer as well (even a Nutella dessert based one).

My pizza I ordered unfortunately became too soggy when it arrived, I'd blame the eggplant and liberal lashings of tomato sauce and oil causing the pizza base to to give way and turn into that mushy soggy dough texture :(
I tend to prefer much thinner and crisper bases and to prevent my toppings from sliding off had to resort to making my own pizza sandwiches!

Money wise wasn't too bad, around the $20-25 mark overall per pizza.
Not a bad pizza bar if you're in Northbridge (on the upper end near Mela and bar 399). Overall a good place, handmade dough, quality toppings always make a good combination.

Colonial Brewery - Margaret River

So these guys own The Royal back in Perth and have a great big 2L bottle of beer (takeaway only sigh) for sale to boot :)

Food wise not that bad actually (still expensive gourmet pub food pricing here but at least their burgers are on par with what you'd get from Jus Burgers or Grill'd

What made the afternoon (fly by) was their abundant seating (strangely Saturday lunch was much less busier than Cheeky monkey's lunch rush period). Beer tasting was ok buy watch out they don't serve proper pints but rather their 'large' beers are 585ml (I think), they do show you on the menu what small and large sizes mean though.

Another great idea are more outdoor bean bags with suitable tables to boot! That helped make the time pass by very quickly though I guess it's a bad look being splayed out on the lawn sleeping......

But what can one do after you've had lunch,beers with friends under shade on a comfy bean bag seat?

Anyhow enjoy the pictures....

Cheeky Monkey - Margaret River

Cheeky Monkey Brewery
4259 CAVES ROAD, MARGARET RIVER

First stop a brewery! A very busy and family orientated brewery with plenty of areas for your little ones they do have a strange table seating process though. Rocking up without a booking on a Friday lunch it brought back memories of university life, patrolling the area for people leaving then swooping down to claim our table. On the menu are typical pub/cafe type choices, with a few items appealing to the children (fish and chips and pizzas). Price wise it's roughly low 20s for your pub steak sandwich fare and serving size (check out the fish burger pictures) is sufficient though I'd consider it fairly basic when compared to other gourmet burger joints in Perth.

The pizzas were a very popular item with most tables I saw having at least one of them, though I didn't have one but my friends did comment it was on the small side (for a $23 pizza) loaded too much with cheese and falling into the pretentious and wanky side of things. From first glanced they looked like a nice handmade pizza with a good amount of toppings. Their popularity probably stems from the fact it was one of the cheaper menu items from their kitchen.

As with any brewery their beers were their main attraction, offering paddles of beer (tasters of five of their beers) for $12.50 and most pints were around the $8+ mark.

Overall not too bad for a brewery and definitely something you could take the kids to, with high chairs, kids corner and full on playground and grass area for them to run about.
Good for parents but you do pay the price for the convenience.

Fish Burger in all it's glory

The lamb pizza...

The Cheeky Monkey pizza!

Margaret River Roadtrip

Off to Margaret River today for a boys trip just like the old uni days. Funny how times have passed yet very little has changed in some aspects, we're just grown up now with more toys and doodads than before. This time around we've upgraded from our student povo days of caravan accommodation and dodgy chalets to what should be a nice townhouse :D

The alcohol supplies are still the same though less VB and surprisingly, more home brewed stuff this time around.

Looking forward to what happens in the next few days and am planning out what food places to scope out, general feeling is more pub/casual dining but hopefully no tragic home cooking incidences this year. I guess invention in the kitchen is an important process right? Who knew how tragic steak and crushed up pita chips for seasoning could've turned out (ok so that was a bad idea)

Anyhow stay tuned for more updates....