Buttumak

This is a short post and without pictures – sorry! But it’s pretty much standard Korean food and apparently their hot pot is the thing to have. Pricing was OK – I think nothing was below $10, and for the hot pot dishes (large dishes with a mini stove), they’re at least $35. They’re located in upper Queen Street, one of the many Korean restaurants over there.

Annoying bit about this place – their side dishes are pathetic. There were at least 5 people on our table, and our side dishes could only feed 2, perhaps 3. Let me give you an example, the sweet potatoes had only 4 small potatoes, and our table had 5 people. And also another side dish, a glutinous rice ‘dumpling’ had only 4 tiny pieces. That’s hopeless, To make it worse, they hardly (or most likely hesitated) to top up.

My rating 5/10. C’mon guys – don’t be so stingy!

Muse Cafe

It’s the start of August so I better post a review. Then I’ll probably procrastinate till end of the month and post another one so that I could convince myself I post “regularly”. Anyway, Muse Cafe is what I’ll talk about today. It’s located near the Newmarket Plaza, just around the corner. If you know where the Tofu shop is, I believe it’s right next to it. That’ll give you some idea. Parking is easy for this place, just go to the Rialto car park and make sure you validate your ticket!

Muse Cafe is unique – but not quite so if you compare it to a typical “Honky” restaurant/cafe. Their dishes has a strange mixture of European and Asian influences, primarily because you get words like “Portuguese” and “Spaghetti” in the menu. I’ve tried a few dishes here and I’d have to say the lunch menu is one of my favourite. I’ve also tried the breakfast menu.

They have a variety of breakfast menu but I really hesitated except one time. I tried one of the breakfast specials during brunch, which includes a good package having toast, ham, sausages, eggs and coffee (espresso-ish). It’s not bad as a whole and very good value for money. It’s under $10. However, the breakfast special is a tad too oily for me, the meat isn’t what you call high-grade (a bit chewy) and the bread is average. I guess the good part was the coffee and it didn’t hurt my pocket.

Breakfast Special.

However, I do recommend the lunch menu. A lot of variety from the rice dishes to the spaghetti dishes. I’ve tried the rice dishes as you can see below, the lemon grass pork and portuguese chicken. Both very delicious and at the right price. You’d expect to pay around $10. With the spaghetti dishes, you’d pay a bit more. Recently, they’ve illustrated their menu, posting high resolution pictures outside their cafe for undecided customers. Personally, just go in and order these two below, or be a bit adventurous and try one of the spaghetti dishes.

Lemon Grass Pork on Rice.

Portuguese Chicken on Rice.

Overall I think Muse Cafe is very good. I feel that the dishes are quite “homey” and unique. It’s cool to see spaghetti used in an Asian manner. Plus, they have a huge range for their breakfast and lunch menus. A must try is the Yuan Yang (coffee-tea drink). Price-wise it’s good, less than $15 generally if you eat there. Additionally, they have lots of literature (comics/magazines) but you’d probably need to know how to read Chinese. Haha.

I’ll give Muse Cafe 8/10, a generic score as it’s good as a lunch destination, but not something I’d recommend for their breakfast dishes – a tad too oily.