Noodle Kingdom - Adelaide, South Australia

If you want some tasty cheap eats with plenty of choices, check out Noodle Kingdom on Gouger Street. As you walk in, you might see some of their fresh noodles being made by hand. Everything is better handmade and these noodles are no exception.



The menu includes more than 100 items such as dumplings, buns, noodles, rice, soups, and more. Because of the huge menu ordering can be a little overwhelming, especially on your first visit. But don't be deterred because regardless of what you choose, you're likely to get a large, cheap and appetizing serve. Service is usually pretty fast too. The menu also includes pictures as well as names of dishes so you can pick whatever looks good to you. Here's the Spicy Pork Fried Noodle ($9.50).



As an added bonus, they also make good quality and reasonably priced bubble teas and other drinks.



Their soups are massive and quite tasty too. Here's a huge bowl of Beef Noodle Soup ($8.50) with more of those hand pulled noodles.



The piggy bank is where you line up to pay your bill.



They also sell their bubble teas and other drinks in takeaway cups.



With handmade noodles, fun drinks, good prices, and a ridiculously long list of Chinese food choices, Noodle Kingdom is hard to pass up.

Mother's Crepe - Adelaide, South Australia

Little old Adelaide seems to be coming of age. We have our first Mother's Crepe location! Other Mother's Crepe locations can be found in Japan, USA, Canada, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Amazingly, the only other Australian locations are in Sydney, Parramatta, and Chatswood in New South Wales. They came to Adelaide before Melbourne or Brisbane. I can't believe it!



As you can see in the photo above, the Grote Street location is a semi-shared space with Chatime, who specialise in bubble teas. Mother's specialises in crepes. In fact they have 135 different crepe options on the menu. It's a good idea to include the crepe's menu number when ordering since many of the names are very similar. Check out the plastic displays (pictured below), the full menu located just past the counter, or the tv screens near the cash register to attempt to make the difficult decision of what to order.



There is ample colourful seating, shared with Chatime. The booths look to be especially nice.



On our first visit, we ordered one of the Premium Hot Chocolate Crepes - #108 Strawberry, Custard & Bitter Chocolate ($5.50). We received a receipt with the Order Number listed at the top. While we waited for our number to be called, we watched the staff build their magical crepe creations.



They claim that they only use Free Range Eggs, their whipped cream is vegetable based (50% less fat), and their crepe mix contains oat bran. We've only had one crepe so far from Mother's but I have to say it was fantastic! Our "bitter chocolate" was melted dark chocolate. They say that they use Hershey's chocolate and Nutella. The chocolate completely overpowered the custard, but it was OH.EM.GEE amazing with the strawberries. A definite winner! The prices here range from $4 to $7 for a crepe, which is much more reasonable than The Crepe's Story in Rundle Mall where a crepe costs about $7 to $9. Mother's Crepe also sell some non-crepe desserts which were much more expensive (about $12 to $15) but crepes are obviously their specialty. If you try Mother's, let me know which crepe is your favourite!

Update 17 Dec 2011:
We've revisited Mother's Crepe a few more times and have found that we really like the vanilla soft ice cream. We also tried the green tea soft ice cream which is nice too but the vanilla is the winner between the two. There are only about 6 ice cream crepes on the menu that come with the soft ice cream but I am pretty sure you could request it to be added to any of the other cold crepes as well. Here's #34 Caramel Strawberry Cheesecake Soft Ice Cream ($6.80):


Front & Back views

Update May 2012:
Sadly, Mother's Crepe no longer offers soft ice cream in their crepes. You can still get normal ice cream in your crepe, but I miss the soft ice cream. :(

Thanh Thanh - Adelaide, South Australia

Thanh Thanh is officially our new favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Adelaide. They're located just off Gouger Street, across the road from the Central Markets. Thanh Thanh has a lot going for it: really fresh and great quality food, heaps of seating, light and bright decor, friendly service, and super cheap prices. There's an extensive menu to choose from, but here's a selection of what we've tried so far...


Small Beef Noodle Soup ($8)

Delicious pho with plenty of nice spring onion flavour in the broth...the Small was plenty. I saw the Large and it could easily feed two people.


Small Combination Broken Rice Plate ($8.50)

Definitely the best quality broken rice plate we've had anywhere in Adelaide. Great flavour, juicy and perfectly cooked pork. Comes with a nice veggie broth soup. Again, if you go for the Large you will need a jumbo stomach.


Three Colour Bean Drink ($4)

The picture doesn't do it justice. This was one awesome Three Colour Bean Drink! Delicious and a meal in itself!


This is where you go to pay your bill

With such good food and cheap prices, we will definitely be eating here often! I can also report that we felt great after each visit so I'm confident they don't use MSG in their food. Another big tick in the box for Thanh Thanh in my book...or blog, as the case may be.  :)

Update 1 July 2012: Thanh Thanh has sadly closed due to "internal conflicts". Hopefully they will re-open soon!