Up Front Club

Overall score: 90/100

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Getting lunch in Maleny in a hurry is often quite difficult. This hippie cum chick-cool village, is always bustling with tourists, even on weekdays, and I was fortunate to luck upon a seat at this quaint little joint in the middle of town.  

THE EXPERIENCE

Whoever designed the interior of the Up Front Club must have known what they were doing, as the interior of this place was masterfully decorated to perfectly match the Maleny 'vibe'. The dark theme that dominated the design worked so well; looking out towards the door, at almost every angle, I got the feeling every view was framed like I was staring out at bizarre moving paintings, which was the hustle and bustle of a typical Maleny lunch time scene. 

The staff were great, especially the waitress who smiled a lot and made meaningless chit chat comfortable.    

THE FOOD

I have never had the pleasure of trying arancini balls, so when I saw this unusual Sicilian named dish on the menu, I was up for something new. These had a delicious cheesy center that were melted to perfection and the accompanying salad and pumpkin were wonderfully executed; in fact, the pumpkin was "perfect". It is worthy to note that although I am describing what I had chosen off the lunch menu, the Up Front Club is known for changing it's menu quite frequently and the arancini balls might most likely be no more. If the restaurant gets it's other meals as right as it did on the occasion of my visit, you will not be disappointed.

OVERALL

My visit to the Club was a very pleasant one and I can truly say that as a meat-eater, I have never enjoyed a vegetarian lunch as much as this (mum's cooking excluded of course). The atmosphere of retro-cool with that well designed interior justifies my conclusion that you should visit there next time you're in hippie territory. 90/100  

Thai Royal (Delivery/Take Away)

Overall score: 73/100 (take away adjusted)

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On this particular night not too long ago The Chameleon was feeling very lazy after a busy day's sleeking so the family opted for home delivery. Thai Royal in Centenary Heights poped up on the Chameleon's radar and they promptly ordered some yummy sounding fare and began to wait. And wait. And then....wait. The delivery took a very very long time to arrive, well past what one would deem reasonable. In fact, it was over 30 minutes past the time given to The Chameleon, making it a grand total of approximately 90 minutes. A long time indeed. Apology was received.    

THE FOOD

Having consumed a fair amount of Asian influenced take away in his lifetime, The Chameleon was ready to dig in and sample what this highly rated restaurant had to offer. Things started on a high; the Tom Yum seafood soup was outstanding! Great flavours, spicy (as it should be) and just the right amount of texture. A great example of this soup. A perculiarity did surface though; mushrooms. Floating. Kind of like puffy little boats swimming in an orange ocean. The Chameleon did not know whether this was to his liking, or, whether these 'floaters' could have been left off. I'll let the imagery speak for itself. Floating, grey mushrooms. Hmm.....

Things continued very well with chicken skewers. They were cooked just right and, for the first time in quite some time, a restaurant finally got the peanut paste right. It was crunchy, but not overly, just the way it should be. Well done on these Thai Royal.

From here, a downward spiral unfortunately ensued. It started with the Chicken Penang. While some positive flavours emerged, the texture of the sauce was all wrong. It was very watery and it showed through in the mouthfulls. Unfortunate. 

Following from here was a total disaster. The beef dish was very dry. A little dryness is tolerable, but this particular meal was just all wrong. The sauce had virtually seperated into two layers, a thick pasty top and very watery underneath. It was almost as if the pieces of beef were swimming around inside the container, with a slurry on top. The taste was OK but it was difficult to look past the present dryness. Again, unfortunate. 

The Chameleon must also note the rice, which was quite well done. It was on the sweet side, very sweet infact, but it worked very well with the curries. 
    

OVERALL

Thai Royal did some things very well and the Tom Yum was spot on, as were the skewers and the rice. The mains however were a disappintment. Perhaps a bit of quality control at delivery might have rectified this situation, as a simple shake of the containers could possibly have prevented some of the meal's shortcomings. 73/100