Lido

Lido
416 William St, Northbridge
92275545

The word Lido makes me think of italian food. Of pasta and tomato sauce, meatballs and parmesan cheese.
In this case, Lido is asian food. Delicious, delicious asian food.

It was saturday night. I was due to go out for dinner (read: wine) with Janeo, and while browsing urbanspoon for a nice looking restaurant, my roomie KC decided to join us. The plan was dinner, and then waffles (see next post).

KC and I were too lazy to catch the train into the city, so I volunteered to drive - note to self: DON'T DRIVE INTO NORTHBRIDGE ON A SATURDAY NIGHT! We ended up finding (free) parking just a couple of blocks away from Lido, which was awesome (and no, I'm not telling you where it is).

Lido lanterns

We got there around 7:30, lucky Janeo was early and had already got us on the waiting list. Yes, there is a waiting list, so either book, or be prepared to stand in line. We were seated around 20 min later and got straight into the ordering.

Chicken chow mein ($16), stir fry beef in coconut cream curry and a bowl of stir fry veges arrived at our table within 15 min, which was great coz we were HUNGRY. Now, I love my asian food - but the most disappointing thing is always 1) lack of veges in the curry and 2) overload of onion (I think they classify it as a vegetable). Not at Lido. There were so many veges in everything it was practically blinding to look in the bowls. The carrot was cut like a flower, the snow-peas were cooked so lightly that they were still crunchy, with big fat juicy peas inside. The celery was crisp, the cauliflower and broccoli was abundant and I couldn't find any onion! The chicken chow mein was full of juicy chicken pieces (real chicken, not out of a bag) and thick egg noodles. The beef curry, oh my lordy, the beef curry. Not chiilli spicy, full of wonderful spices and a rich creamy sauce that just blended with tender beef pieces and my rice so well. As I mentioned before, both of these dishes had so many veges in them that we really didn't need the extra dish, but I wasn't going to discriminate, and the veges were delish. All the meals were hot, tasty and colourful.

We left quite soon after, as we could see there were lots of people waiting for tables - the total for the evening coming to $60 (that was with a bottle of wine!) Absolute win. We were stuffed to the bazookas full of fresh, healthy food, and ready for a walk down to superstar waffles...

p.s the staff were amazing too - didn't talk much but super efficient! When can I go back?
p.p.s they have a menu online so check it out!

Little Willys

Little Willys..
267 William Street, Northbridge

Miss K and I were well overdue for a coffee date. I was working at sherbs, and she was in the city, so when she suggested LW in northbridge I was like...well heck, why not.

Bypassing the hipsters sitting outside with their long macs, Miss K and I ventured inside - her in gym gear and me in my cake-covered work clothes, well...we didn't fit in. But the super lovely french lady at the till made us feel welcome, and completely understood what I meant when I asked for a:

CHAI TEA WITH THE SOY MILK BREWED IN THE POT

which is apparently, the way it is SUPPOSED to be done, and the way that LW does it. (p.s just a tiny shout out to Hannah, who introduced me to the CTWSMBIP). So we sat on the homemade tables and drank our chai and juice, talked about our amazing lives, sheltered from the cold and watched northbridge unwind on a friday afternoon - we then went to the perth supper club which was AMAZEBALLS.

About a week later, I was meant to go to the tuckshop cafe with dan - it was closed - so we headed on down to LW. The breakfast menu is short, but consists of non-egg food (yay!) and a great selection of muffins, croissants and friands and apparently the best breakfast burrito outside mexico - I have to admit, it was pretty good.

While sitting in the corner (this time appropriately hipster-ed out in my skirt stocking jacket combo) sipping my CTWSMBIP and eating blueberry coconut bread I realised that life couldnt get any better. BLUEBERRY COCONUT BREAD. It had so many blueberries, and the nutty coconut flavour just ran with it. Lightly toasted and crunchy with a good smathering of butter...mmmmmmm.

The staff are super-friendly-chatty, the decor is unusual, the chairs could use a few cushions to be comfier (the bench isnt quite wide enough for a full blown sprawl though), there is a steady pile of magazines/newspapers, the flowers are fresh, the food is tasty and my chai (and dans coffee) were amazing. Oh, and its also possibly the cheapest coffee in perth? $3.80 for a CTWSMBIP and $3 for the blueberry coconut bread is absolutely ridiculous awesome.

So little willys, you have won my soy-chai-blueberry heart. <3

I will(y) be back, and there will be friends coming with me :)