Published comments of Lemsha

I've regularly been doing online grocery shopping. I've continuously used quite a lot of online grocery stores in Brisbane for past several years, so I feel I've got some fair experience with this now.

Except photos for Cheesecake Shop, Brumby's, whole fish, fillets & some other products (where it's very important to see what you're buying), I don't think having photos against items are as important to me as things like:

(a) detailed product descriptions (all the stores have been good on this);
(b) how well do they pack my groceries?
(c) are they delivered in refridgerated vans?
(d) are my cold & frozen goods cold and frozen when I get them?
(e) what's the quality of my fresh produce?
(f) How can I improve my life using this store
(g) how often do they deliver?
(h) how do they deliver my goods, like in boxes & bags, or are they all dumped at my front door sprawled all over the floor without being packaged?
(i) do they only deliver when I'm home or is there an agreement to leave outside?
(j) what sort of products does this store sell (Note: I've found each online store is unique & different. When you use them a lot, you'll find out why it's important to familiarise yourself with each store, just like you would walking into a shopfront & knowing what's in the aisles).
(k) what's the delivery cost & do they have a free delivery day?
(l) do they take away my empty boxes/bags afterwards or do I have dispose them myself?

Been very disappointed with Coles Online....all my stuff gets dumped loosely on the floor at the front door, sprawled everywhere. Only some items were packed in plastic bags...all these bags were drenched with water. If you've ordered a lot, it's inconvenient to then carry all this away to the rest of the house, as they won't deliver to your kitchen, only to the front door. My cold stuff from them was hot, soggy & wet! My fish was off! I was given products with use by dates of the next day! It was inconvenient to have to be home on delivery as they don't deliver otherwise (part of their terms & conditions). Thankfully they reimbursed me some money for these problems. For these reasons, I'm hesitant to use Woolies Online.

So happy before that I was (and still am) using Foodirect (highly recommended), Myfruit (highly recommended & convenience of same day delivery), OnlyOz (highly recommended & they sell some great all natural products like toilet sprays & herbal deodarants), Efresh (highly recommended) who sell fruits, veges, bulk amounts & flowers, Farm Fresh Organics (highly recommended), Organics & Quality Foods (highly recommended).

Other than organic fruit, veg, pies, meats, fish, dairy,biscuits etc, these organic stores sell a wide range of products....they are in effect a supermarket, so don't think all they sell are fruit &veg. Anyone can benefit from these organic stores, but I think people who are Colieacs (gluten free), vegetarians & health conscious would definitely benefit from them. Many organic products are gluten free. Organics can be bit more expensive some areas, but gosh some foods are amazing compared to Coles/Woolies stuff: yummy sweet carrots, sweet bananas, flavoursome beans, yummy bottled peas, gluten free breads of all sorts, filling sweet grapes, silverbeet that stays chunky & don't disappear when you boil it (like Coles/Woolies ones), really nice juices & dips & dairy, high quality avocados full of flavour that don't go mushy & brown! I also found with these foods being richer & yummier, I don't need to eat as much as for some as I did with Coles/Woolies ones, so it made it more cost efficient in some ways. I also found they're good for hard-to-get oils like cold pressed sunflower & sesame oils, and also for allergy free substitutes......I've come to know this because I do lot of cake baking, home breadmaking & make my own bakeries at home.

Other than being a full supermarket, Fooddirect's great in that, they deliver products from a whole stack of other businesses like Deli Oz, Brumbys, Butchers, Cheesecake shop, CJs Pasta, Seafood shop, high quality pet food like Hills Science & Eukanuba (small to 15kg bags), large dog bones etc so it saves all that driving around, parking & petrol. I also use them for buying bulk groceries (flour, sugar, baking paper, alfoil, antipasto, anchovies, bbq sauce, mayonnaise etc) that you can't normally get from Coles/Woolies or would have to go to a grocery wholesaler for (and these don't normally sell to the public). Look under Foodservice and other areas. I sometimes also use Fooddirect for fresh seafood & hard-to-get exotic meats like crocodile, kanga, kangaroo proscuitto (nice), rabbit, whole duck, duck breasts, poussin, wagyu beef & sausages, lambs brains (though I haven't bought the whole range yet!).

Other than normal fruits veg, Efresh's been good for me regarding cheap bulk eggs, bulk fruit & veg & vanilla beans, exotic fruit & veg, plus they seem to have cheap flowers (though I haven't bought these yet). Also unique to them is they sell some peeled & sliced veges, eg 5kg peeled whole potates, whole sweet potatoes, sliced onions, peeled carrot slices/batons, 2.5kg shredded lettuce, peeled pumpkin, sliced cabbage etc. I've definitely found lots of uses for the peeled potatoes & sliced onions in my house.

Myfruit's a terrific supermarket with a wide range of products & interesting ones too, plus they've just started selling beautiful flower bouquets. I like their same day delivery. Their satay barrumundi is truly delicious, so is the marinated stuffed chook (almost like a Red Rooster! yummo) & their frozen whole chooks are good value.

I must tell you that a great common feature all these online stores I've mentioned (excluding Coles Online) have is that they all have superior fruits, veges & fresh herbs to Coles/Woolies. Some of their stuff is truly amazing, eg I bought eggplants from Myfruit...., I'd never seen such a vibrant plump shiny purple eggplant with no scratches like the Myfruit's. The fresh herbs from all these stores (excluding Coles Online) are so much fresher, bigger bunches than Coles/Woolies & you'll find a far wider range..... Efresh & Cyberdeli can also source a lot more than what's on their website. A classic example are Australian Native (indigenous) fruits & veg....go to Efresh & Cyberdeli.

I use OnlyOz for some all natural products (eg skincare, toiletries, cleaners). I also use OnlyOz for products that normally aren't held in Coles/Woolies, eg a certain brand of cheap really good cat litter & a really good cheap domestic cleaner & some Beerenberg products.

Except for Coles Online, all the many stores I've used so far (Fooddirect, Myfruit, Efresh, organics etc) package all the stuff professionally in boxes/bags & everything's arrived cold & fresh.

Ordered number of times, recently takeaway 2 Friday nights ago, household thought all was absolutely delicious.

Seafood kebabs in no way looked and tasted like packet food to me. They were fresh, delicious and appealing to the eye, nothing wrong with them.

Also ordered mussaman curry....it was no way bland...I thought it was so delicious, and the beef just melts in your mouth.

How much does it matter if it's precooked & preheated? Isn't that a typical asian restaurant process and legal if it's done according to the food health & safety regulations? Whichever way, my curry was tops, & haven't been sick from it after 4 days & more.

Eaten from plenty of Thai restaurants ....meals here don't seem average to me.. I think they're one of the best.

Happy I paid $17.90 for the mussaman curry because of the taste, quality & amount. Curry was enough for 2-3 meals (with rice & entree) as it's rich and delicious (other Individuals can vary of course).

Unsure what $20 dishes was referring to from above or if dine-in prices....I don't think it's indicative of all the dishes there. Other options to consider for price conscious are noodles (their Pad Thai is yummy, feeds 2 adults), vegetarian, entrees or soups which can all be filling & pay far less than $20 each for these. Wasn't able to replicate the Pad Thai dish at home from this restaurant's cookbook....their's always taste better to mine.

Surely a restaurant with lots of people in it for dining & takeaways on busy nights must give an indication of its popularity and quality.

Yummy fresh yum cha daily at Landmark Restaurant, Sunnybank Plaza Mains Rd Sunnybank. Wide variety of yumcha, opens early (9.30am I think), very packed out weekends. They also do yum cha takeaway if you know what to get as no yumcha takeaway menu.

Kate, there's a bushfood forum at www.bushfood.net that could be helpful or at least get you started in the right direction. Although I'm more into the cooking side of bushfoods rather than botanical, in this forum I've seen a lot of information on bushfood plants and growing them. There's questions you can post on the forum if they're not already answered in the forum. Outside the forum, there's lots of information on the internet and in cookbooks on bushfoods recipes. In the forum under the cooking section, there's a list of online bushfood stores and bushfood cookbooks. Some of these online stores sell both food and recipe books. There's definitely smoothies you could make with native fruits (eg munthri berries), though I haven't seen recipes on stirfries, but you could certainly get something formulated. The Qld Bushfood Association meetings could help too.

Fantastic Italian restaurant selling pizza, lasagne and pasta dishes, salads etc. Great food, filling meals, comfortable, spacious, lovely decor, friendly professional staff, not too noisy even with quite a few people (depending which night....Friday nights probably very busy). There's parking right outside the restaurant, off street parking with a short walk, and other parking nearby. I've never had a big problem with parking there, and it'd be reasonable to expect the parking to be challenging on the busiest night, as with other popular places. Lasagnes and cannelloni are delicious with plenty of meat sauce poured on top, unsual to see in a lasagne. It's the best lasagne I've ever eaten. Cheese filled bread entrees are something different. Overall, I think this restaurant is tops. It's definitely packed on the busiest nights when I've driven past a number of times living in the area for several years. Give it a go. It's not that bad.

Beautiful shot. I've never seen those colours on a dragon before.

Excellent shot. These ones can be hard to photograph to capture all their colours in the correct light and distance.

Brisbane's got a good postal system. Good one!

well done, excellent shot.

Very cute. I've never seen a baby one.