I have been to 2 cocktail functions catered by Ultimo Catering and I would recommend them. First of all, I was informed by the organiser of the events that they are great to deal with. In addition, the finger food served were delicious. The mini burgers (beef or chicken) are tasty and the buns soft and a little sweet (highly recommend this item). The duck rice paper rolls are nice and fresh, the mini meat pies are cute and yummy and so are the satay sticks. The arancini balls are crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside and very more-ish. The portions of each items were quite generous too. It certainly stands head and shoulders above some other caterers in terms of quality and quantity of food.

Approximate cost: $20 per head

We dined here as as a table of 7 for a late lunch on Saturday. As it was late, there was just another large table behind us having high tea. We were promptly seated. Service was pretty brisk and a little rushed as the waitress came over to ask us if we were ready to order a couple of times. After mains were served, we were left to our own devices for a long while. We had wanted to have dessert but it seems that our waitress had dissapeared and there was no service for our table. It seems that she had clocked off her shift and no one took over. Anyway, we did manage to catch the attention of another wait staff and we did order coffee and dessert (apple crumble). The service was polite.

Ambience-wise, it is bright and light and I liked the chairs. It was pretty casual, which is great for lunch.

In terms of food, the portions were quite generous. Our table had a caesar salad, gnocchi, pasta, pork medallions, fish and chips, beef cheek pie and Reuben sandwich. Everyone enjoyed their dishes although I felt the baramundi fish and chips could benefit from a lighter, tempura-style batter. My Reuben sandwich was probably the most dissapointing dish as it looked a bit flat and the meat was not juicy/tender and seemed a bit dry. Everyone else thoroughly enjoyed their meals.

I wouldn't mind eating here again as it's not as bad as the reviews you see online. Plus, it is pretty good value for money.

Approximate cost: $25

I made the booking 2 months ago for a weekday dinner and the day finally arrived yesterday. I was pretty excited to try a couple of pastas. Since we couldn't decide which to try, we decided to have the Honeycomb Cannelloni 3 ways as a shared entree. Whilst it was pretty tasty, the 3 fillings (aubergine and sundried tomatoes, pumpkin and ricotta and spinach) were not very discernible. This is probably due to all of them slatered in tomato-based sauce and gratinated cheese/white sauce. My partner reckons he has had better cannelloni simply because the ones we had yesterday was a bit soggy (but I didn't mind it that much).

For mains, we had the entree-sized squid ink spaghetti with scallop. It was al-dente and tasted of the sea but perhaps a tad oversalted. My partner ordered the special of the day - parpadelle with wild boar meatball. It was very tasty (the breadcrumbs in the tomato sauce was a nice touch) but again, a tad too salty.

Portion-wise, it was pretty fair.

The icing on the cake was really the Tutti Fruitti Lemon Meringue Pie. Delicious and probably the best I've ever had. Very lemony and the pisctachio brittle on top was great.

Approximate cost: $25

We went to the Witch's Cauldron recently for a birthday celebration. We had avoided this place due to the mixed reviews and the show-stopping price tag of the mains. But we decided to give it a go.

We had the Tasting Plate (about $29) to share and it was quite ok in terms of portion, price and value...three cold prawns, pate, terrine, fried cheese, goat's cheese, olives, small pieces of bread, beef skewer, smoked salmon.

For mains, I couldn't go past the signature Garlic Prawns. The portion was certainly very generous, about 30 prawns the size of a 20 cent coin each) cooked in a slight spicy garlicky olive oil and served with white rice. It was very tasty but I still feel $48 is a lot to pay.

My partner had a sirloin steak with mashed potato ($46) and the portion was ok. The mash though, was at best, the same standard as I would make it at home. Certainly not one of their best dishes.

Decoration was a real throwback to the 80s. Service was friendly.

At the end of the day, it was an ok meal and we left with full bellies. But would I be rushing back? Probably not for the price tag of the mains.

Approximate cost: $45

I bought $29 Scoopon for dinner for 2 recently and visited yesterday. The place looked pretty full, certainly don't need Scoopon if you ask me. Anyway, we were led to our table in the quieter section and it was pleasant. The decor was pretty much like a Chinese restaurant stucked in an 80s time-warp.

Anyway, were provided with complimentary prawn crackers immediately, quickly followed by our Chicken and Corn Soup. The soup was tasty and pretty generous with ingredients like chicken, corn and egg (I have had such soups where there is almost nothing in the soup), the only slight downer was that it was not hot enough. But that's fine (it was warm, not piping hot). Then we were each served a vegetable spring roll with sweet sour sauce. That was pretty standard.

Thereafter came the sweet sour pork (nice big boneless chunks of pork), stir fried chicken and mixed vegetable (very tender chicken and the dish was more-ish) and a satay beef. We also had a large serve of fried rice. The portions here generous and dishes well prepared. We even had to take home a doggy bag as we couldn't finish it.

Service was prompt and polite.

This is a good local Chinese restaurant and I envy the folks in Maylands!

Approximate cost: $17

I have never tried this particular stall at the Wembley International Food Court. Somehow it didn't seem very tempting, and even their signage is different from the rest. In addition, that particular spot in the food court seemed really unlucky as different owners have tried without success.
Plus, Kim's Cuisine was a half and half stall, which means half sold Vietnamese cuisine and the other half western cuisine like lasana, potato bake, etc . I generally think people who can't specialise won't serve up very authentic dishes.

Anyway, last Friday I was craving for some beef meatball pho. I finally decided to set aside my prejudices and ordered from this stall. It made me eat my words as everything was really good, even in terms of presentation. The pho was served in a patterned metal bowl (noodles, aromatic broth, slivers of red onion) and on another plate was the bean shoots, lemon wedbe and mint leaves, and a small chilli/sweet sauce. It was delicious. The serving portion was pretty generous too, but I wished the didn't slice the beef ball and kept it whole. But for $10, I can't really complain.

Give this place a go!

Approximate cost: $10

Had a takeway from here yesterday (I have dined in before prior to this) as Hans was shut (not sure if permanent). I bought one chicken katsudon ($9.50) and one chicken karaage don ($9.50). Both were tasty as usual, but the chicken karaage looked a bit burnt/dry as it's been overcooked. But no complaints about the katsu (crispy, fragrant, more-ish).

This casual dining place serves good value Japanese that would have mass appeal.

Note that this joint is cash only, so not even EFTPOS is accepted. This was a little annoying as I didn't have cash with me yesterday, so I had to push my shopping trolley all the way to the CBA ATM to get some cash.

Other than that, all good.

Approximate cost: $10

This is a new branch of the Zambrero chain. They had a 1000 burrito-giveway yesterday and I joined the queue. The wait was worth it as the chicken burrito I had was delicious and fresh (corn, salsa, rice, mashed refried beans, chicken, coriander, lime, red onion etc) and doesn't sit too heavily in the stomach, unlike some other Mexican places. The usual price is $10.50 per burrito (or $7.50 for a mini one). The only gripe I have is that they (and many other mexican places) charge $2.00 for guacamole which I think should be part of the dish anyway.

Anyway, I will be back to try the Bowl (burrito without the bread) as apparently it is very nice too.

Approximate cost: $10.50

If you need a garage door replaced, give this place a ring. For us, it all started when we wanted to service our garage door 18 months ago. Unfortunately, the company we rang (Garage Doors R Us) didn't do a good job. In fact, after the service, the door got stuck and they had to send someone else to look at it again to "fix" it. Well, it wasn't fixed, of course, no refund.

Anyway, we were hunting around for a quote and they were all exhorbitant. Then a few weeks ago we saw an ad in the local papers for Residential Garage Doors. We arranged for an appointment for a quote. Their quote was about $800-$1000 lower that other quotes for the Gliderol. So we signed up.

We waited a couple of weeks but we now have a brand new Gliderol.

Approximate cost: $1650

Visited this place for the first time last weekend, and I really like this place. We had a BBQ pork wonton noodle soup and a yong tau foo (fish paste-stuffed vege and tofu) laksa. The Yong Fau Fu Laksa (also available in normal Laksa without the Yong Tau Foo pieces) was delicious and had a fragrant laksa aroma, without being oily at all. Some places serve laksa with too much of the chilli oil layer on top. The BBQ wonton noodle was ok but the Singapore Hawker next door hada better wonton noodle soup.

We also ordered Penang Lor Bak to share (deep fried five-spice minced meat roll). Yummo!

I will definitely come back again when I am in the area. The restaurant ambience is pretty pleasant, nice comfy chairs, quick service and nicely presented dishes.

Thumbs up.

Approximate cost: $9.80