Malaysian based chain with the oh so fluffy, sweet, buttery coffee buns their call to fame. These are delicious, a must try, but cant be good for you with all that butter and crispy sugar coating! After eating one you think you want more but can become a bit sickly if you push your luck. $2.50 per bun or $4.50 with a drink. They do Malaysian style coffee, teas, chocolate drinks and Milo dinosaurs. I have tried twice since they opened. The buns beat the ok drinks by a mile. Service was reasonably quick. Will be going back, but one bun per visit ;-)

Approximate cost: $4.50

I recently purchased a demo Suzuki Swift Sport from Zupps in Browns Plains. This was all done over the phone and they bought the car to me to test drive. It was delivered to my door upon settlement. I did not currently have a car and didn't want to spend 2 hours on a bus to get there. I had researched what I wanted and was waiting for the right price to pop up on carsales. My patience was rewarded two weeks ago. The previous year was in run-out so the price shown was very competitive, at least 3K under anything equivalent on carsales at the time so I did not bother to haggle over the price on this occasion. I was in a position to buy immediately if the car checked out and didn't need finance. Upon the initial phone inquiry the sales guy started along the sales pitch. I quickly and politely interrupted stating I wanted to cut to the chase. I told him that the deal would be that if you bring the car to me (a good 40 minutes drive), and if it turns out fine then I would buy it. From then on it was plain sailing. No sales baloney, no games. The transaction and transfer was all done within a couple of days by scanning documents, emailing back and forth and online bank transfers. They delivered the car a few days later to my door with a full tank, although it could have had a wash. I have been happy with it since. I have yet to experience any of their on-site services so cant comment on those. The 'extras' girl called up mid way through the transaction process to offer window tints, paint protection etc but I declined once (given I knew these things are much cheaper elsewhere if I wanted them) and that was the end of it. I never set foot on their premises during the whole process and I would highly recommend this approach to buying cars to others. Doing your research up front is the key to minimizing the pain as is keeping it simple with no confounding 'extras'. If you can work it like this then hopefully you can have a 5 star remote buying experience too.

I'm not really into Korean food, but I don't mind Madtongsan. I prefer its bigger sister Madtongsan II near by. The Bi Bim Bap is what I normally go for. Served in a hot stone bowel makes the rice lovely and crunchy on the bottom. Madtongsan II has better decore and I find a slightly higher quality of food. e.g sometimes I find the Bi Bim Bap was a bit too oily at Madtongsan but never had that problem at Madtongsan II. The tables at II have a buzzer on them to call the staff. Also you can get more of the free side dishes which are tasty especially the creamy pasta. Prices are reasonable and you will be full by the time you leave. But void the sweet fried pork dish as it was dry, too much batter and sticky sweet.

Approximate cost: $10

Quite good pizza here. Located on the UQ campus but open to the public. A good range of choices and the toppings are of good quality i.e. not can ham like you get at chain stores and not as oily. Prices are a tad high but if you want cheap then go to a chain store and have spam on your pizza instead. $14 to the public, with UQ staff $13 and UQ students $12. I noticed last week they are currently running $10 happy hour specials for students during early afternoon and for staff after hours. Good for when I'm are working late :-)

Approximate cost: $14

I have visited Landmark half a dozen times over the past two years. Typical of many busy Cantonese run yum cha places it is a shuffle em in and move em on in terms of service with long waits during peak times. Anyway you don't go to yum cha for the service, you go for the tea and the dim sum! Landmark does a good range of dim sum and has the vibrant atmosphere of a busy Hong Kong dim sum joint. They have trolleys of goodies coming around too which adds to the interest, but if you don't find what you want on the trolleys or can't wait you can short cut to a counter for self service. The quality of the majority of the dim sum is about as good as it gets in Brisbane. I have not tried any of the regular plated mains so can't comment on those. I did try some of the BBQ meats on one occasion and those were reasonable. Note, if you don't want to wait you can try Parkland across the other side of mains road in the Sunny Park shopping centre which is owned by the same people. Parkland tends to be less busy but also has less variety yet still offers a good standard of dim sum. I would rate Landmark above it in the quality stakes. I have found myself going to Parkland more these days because of the convenience factor.
Approx $20 to $25 for yum cha for two people.

I have been several times over the past two years. I now go the dumplings and xiao long bao but skip the regular plated food which is mediocre. I have tried several of the regular plated dishes but none did much for me. The plain xiao long bao on the other hand are very well done. The wrappers are fine and light, the soup sweet and warm, the meat filling moist. Take care not to break the wrapper when picking it up from the bamboo basket or you will lose the luscious soup! The slightly fancy, more expensive colored, flavoured type, while still good are not as yummy as the plain ones. The other dumpling types such as meat buns are also of reasonable quality. Although anything fried came out quite oily as if the oil was not hot enough or were not drained of paper toweling. Taste Gallery started doing Yum Cha as well which I tired once and found not to be not in the Cantonese tradition (understandably for a Shanghai restaurant) e.g the char siu bao (BBQ pork buns) had soggy, heavy pastry not the normal light and fluffy type, although the filling was OK. I would rather go to Parkland or Landmark for yum cha and dim sum. Restaurants that try to please too many people end up pleasing none if they are not careful. Stick to your lovely Shanghai xiao long bao and leave the Yum Cha to the Cantonese :-)

Note: price rating given for mains (which aren't that good) from 10 to 20, while xiao long bao are, 8 for $9 traditional (best choice), and 8 for $13 coloured/flavoured/crab meat (soso).

Approximate cost: $15

I shop here about once a week as it is close to home. The prices vary from expensive to very reasonable depending on the item. The do carry a very good range of food (fresh, canned, bottled, frozen, veg, bread, milk, snacks, etc etc) and non-food items such as basic hardware, kitchenware, and cleaning products. They do have some regular specials that can be good deals. They carry a good range of 'Asian' style food stuffs which tend to be very reasonably priced while 'western' style stuff tends to be expensive as per convenience store pricing. The owners run and staff the place themselves and seem to be friendly who greet people with a smile and know the locals. Overall a better than expected local mini-supermarket.

It was always expensive as a Foodworks but its recent change of affiliation to IGA has not improved this situation at all, if not a tad more expensive. Although they do actually have some specials now - but those are still more expensive than most other places standard prices. Some reduced variety in some areas e.g cakes/buns etc. Overall it is clean and well stocked with the items it does have but I don't shop there much due to the prices (more like of a petrol station convenience store!) and the location. Service is in line and as expected from a standard supermarket.

I have eaten at Kingsfood at Market Square, a Taiwanese style restaurant about once a month for a year and have found the price to quality ratio to be excellent (i.e the quality of the food is much better then you would expect for the price). The economical, large and yummy 'with rice on a plate' dishes in the beginning of the menu are well worth having at about $10 each. Considering that self-serve hot tea and soup are provided free for everyone it makes for a good hearty meal deal! They do have fancier single meat per dish style offerings at higher prices, and those that I have tried have also been tasty. Most of the dishes seem authentic and not too salty or oily. The sizes of everything is larger than normal with some entrees as big as mains at other places. Try the Small size fried silky tofu as an example, which is *normally* very nicely done (although the last time I visited it was over cooked bordering on burnt, but i guess the chef had a lapse of attention, other things were fine!) with soft silky tofu inside, a crispy outer layer with not too much of the oyster flavored brown sauce.

Approximate cost: $10 to 20

The food here is typical of what you would find in half decent local cafe style ground floor restaurant in HK. Good to visit every now and then to remember the days I stayed in HK :-) Prices are competitive and the food is tasty. They have a reasonable standard of Char Siu (BBQ pork) but probably not quite up the standard typically found in HK itself. I also like the odd fried fish and corn sauce dish too. Again a typical HK style invention to add corn to all sort unexpected things. But it is yummy, so I give them thumbs up!