Lonestar

Lonestar, it’s all over the place.

I went to this restaurant for a birthday celebration, where the birthday guy didn’t know anyone else. Fantastic eh? I’ve been to Lonestar a few times. I’ve tried the lamb in Rototura, and it was quite nice – it probably helped that it was paid by the company *grins* I even tried the vegetarian option, I believe it was the burrito (I had a no-animal for food phase a year ago – check out the PETA website and you’ll see why). Both times I was satisfied.

Just a quick overview about Lonestar, they are like the Hooters of NZ. Girls dress as little as possible, usually wearing a singlet and short shorts. Nice eye-candy for the boys, probably not so for the gals.

This time round to Lonestar, I was pretty disappointed. Maybe because I chose the wrong dish.  Two dishes were sampled shown below:

Kiwi Joker.

Cajun Chicken Salad.

The salad was not ordered by me. For $25.50, it was a nice dish but a tad overpriced. Personally, I have not seen a salad over $20 yet, maybe because it was during lunch. I ordered the Kiwi Joker, for $35.50. Now here comes the pun, I thought the dish was a joke! The beef was a ribeye, and I ordered it medium rare. It tasted very average. Nothing in the dish impressed me. It probably took the kitchen 10 mins to make it up (beef + potatoes + coleslaw + mushrooms + onions). For $35.50, I could have had a better dish somewhere else, or 3 very good Asian meals at the Newmarket Plaza Food Court.

This is a biased post as usual, so don’t take the rating too seriously.  Lonestar is just a tad overpriced and could do better with the meals. I probably chose the wrong dish, but sorry Lonestar, I ain’t gonna come back anymore unless someone really likes the place.

My rating, 5/10. I believe they do have good dishes, but to charge $35.50 for a dish, it has to be a flagship product.

Halong Vietnamese Restaurant

I don’t often venture out to the west, so this a rare one. For now, as far west I can go is New Lynn. Yeah I know, that’s pathetic. As I was passing by the New Lynn mall, I noticed an out-of-place restaurant called the Halong Vietnamese Restaurant. So, I decided to try the place, mainly because I couldn’t find this other place.

Anyway, this restaurant is kinda secluded and clearly doesn’t look like a Vietnamese place. But it does try hard. Once I heard the kitchen staff spoke Mandarin, I knew it was owned or managed by Chinese. Similar to Hansan and the Vietnamese Cafe. Anyway, tried two dishes shown below.

Lemon Grass Chicken and Roast Pork Slices on Rice.

Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup.

Both dishes were cheap, $10 or below. I think the noodle soup was about $8 or something. The noodle soup wasn’t too bad, but the rice dish was average. There’s nothing much I could say about the place except that it’s probably somewhere you’d go just to eat. There is nothing special but it is affordable.

My rating for the place is 7/10. No complains – just average!

Sri Intan

My apologies for the long, long update. I have been pre-occupied with work. Yes, I do have a day job which I surprisingly enjoy. There are the odd weirdos at work, but not as bad as my previousy employer.

I am a bit shocked that it took me a month to update. Anyway, today’s post is a Malaysian place in Mt Albert called Sri Intan. If you know where Momo Tea is, it’s further down the road going towards West Auckland.

They have a mixed cuisine, personally, I’d say Chinese, Malaysian and Vietnamese. I only try their Malaysian stuff and they do have one unique dish, the popiah. A few dishes were sampled as shown below:

Popiah.

Salted Fish and Diced Chicken Fried Rice.

Mee Goreng.

Char Kuey Teow.

Obviously the above dishes are generic Malaysian, sorry about that. Their service is great and friendly owners. Apparently, they now have a buffet. The fried rice was a bit wet but not bad, the other dishes tasted good. I would say the popiah is the dish to try, mainly because I haven’t seen much of them around. Their pricing for the dishes is above $10, I can’t remember exactly.

It’s kinda unfair to rate them since I totally forgot their exact pricing! But based on taste and environment, they get a generic mark of 7.5/10. I feel that their pricing is a bit on the high side, maybe because of the recession or something. But I can find Malaysian places that charge cheaper than them. Good to try out and let me know what you think.