Review: Hoo Ha Bar

Hoo Ha Bar has taken a while to get from conception to opening but open they did last week, and with it being 10 minutes from my work I was very keen to check out this new arrival in the somewhat staid South Bank area.

My friend Gabi and I met there for breakfast on Friday morning. Nestled almost underneath South Bank station it’s mightily convenient for both bus and train, and you can park your bike outside no problem. Inside is open with the wooden sparse slightly-hipster decoration that is becoming the norm of Brisbane cafes. No complaints, I like it, and I think Brisbane cafes are starting to look different to any other cities’.   

The menu is interesting and a little off-beat, all about flavours rather than traditional breakfast fare. The prices are exciting, though. Fruit toast is $3, and the rest of the menu is between $7 - $11. Cheap for Brisbane, where no one seems to bat an eye at paying $12 for avocado on toast.  Reading the menu, you know everything on it is going to be tasty.

Gabi had the Cannellini bean smash, rosemary, chilli, orange, lemon and Grana Padano served with garlic croute, though in her instance she requested gluten-free bread, which was no problem ($7).

I had grilled eggplant, peperonata, Haloumi, rocket and hummus on focaccia (replaced with Turkish bread) ($9).

The food come out quickly and was very tasty. It was also of just the right size for breakfast, filling but not so much that it is an effort to get up off your chair. The coffee came out within minutes and was strong and rich.

I really enjoyed our breakfast date and would heartily recommend Hoo Ha Bar to anyone. At the moment, Hoo Ha is more café than bar but apparently the liquor licence has been applied for so there will soon be options for lunchtime beer and cider and maybe after-work tipples as well. 

Hoo Ha Bar
41 Tribune Street, South Brisbane
Open: Tuesday to Saturday 7:00 am to 3:00 pm

Breakfast review: Jam in Nundah

There is a snippet of Sandgate Road that most people don't travel on. Only locals take the turn off to go over the George Bridges Tunnel (irony, anyone) and down the three block section of road I think of as the Nundah High Street. It's nice bit of road that helps the area feel like a properly lived-in suburb with pub, cafes and shops.

On that little bit of high street is Jam, probably the most popular breakfast joint in the area. It doesn't matter what time of a weekend morning you walk part it, Jam is packed and has a few people patiently waiting for a table.

This Saturday, in the steady rain, my plus one and I spontaneously visited Jam for a rainy-day hot-breakfast treat. And it was pretty clear to us why it was packed out all weekend.

The menu was typical breakfast eggs benedict, various stacks and french toast but with just the right amount of interesting. A bit of chorizo here, salsa there. I love going out for breakfast and I appreciate thoughtful and interesting breakfast menus, but I also don't want to have to over-think my choice. It's breakfast. I probably haven't had coffee yet and I don't want to have to debate between organic sausage roulade or mushroom three cheese two-egg-white omelette.

Jam's menu is tasty but undemanding and even better, reasonably priced. I would have been happy with just about anything but I chose corn and capsicum fritters with avocado and tomato salsa and balsamic dressing.

Corn and capsicum fritters with avocado and tomato salsa and balsamic dressing, $14.

My plus one had a make-up plate of scrambled eggs on toast with extra toast and bacon and we shared a side of hash browns, for $13 then the hash browns were $3.

 

With a coffee each, one soy and one in a mug, the total bill came to $37 and we were very happy and very full afterwards. 

Other considerations; the service was cheerful and very quick, no complaints at all. It was a nice place to sit and the indoors/outdoors nature of the cafe meant a lot of noise drifted out while fresh air wafted in. Yes, you are likely to have to wait for a table but no one had to wait long. 

The special was sweet potato and pancetta patties, cheese kransky, maple roasted cherry toms and fried eggs on sourdough with various pickles for $17. The couple next to us got one of those each and neither finished it it was so large. It looked very tasty.

If you're a north-sider I would definitely recommend Jam as a hale and hearty breakfast location.

Trivia at Kettle & Tin

Kettle & Tin may be less than a year old but they are already a Paddington institution, alleviating the weekend brunch stress on Anouk and going that step further with wine tastings (such as the Rose Revolution one I attended last year) and a pretty smashing dinner menu.

In March 2013, they launched once monthly trivia nights, then it was once a fortnight and now trivia is held every Tuesday night. It's free to participate, there are prizes for every round and $10 dinner specials.

Last night I and two girlfriends tried it out. I booked us a table and we arrived promptly at 6:30 for some brain-warming wine and food. The two $10 specials were whitebait and chips and bacon and truffle macaroni cheese. We immediately ordered the macaroni cheese, which a waiter informed us was 'outstanding', accompanied by confit duck nachos (which I have been wanting to try for weeks), the house terrine and orange and walnut salad, washed down with a couple of glasses of Merlot. All of it delicious and the macaroni cheese really hit the spot on a slightly chilly night.

Bacon and truffle macaroni cheese with a side of Penny's Hill Merlot.

The house terrine; pork and pistachio with gluten-free bread.

 Orange and walnut salad

Confit duck nachos

The trivia, now, if we'd been the full six person team I'd booked for, we might have stood a chance. But between the three of us and particularly with our limited (utter rubbish) musical knowledge we were not the best team.

 If there had been more questions about food we might have scored a little higher.

Not that we cared. We were having a great time and were getting reasonable scores, considering this was proper trivia and we were all a little out of practice. We were pleased we knew 'Name the three letter word for where oysters reside' (bed); 'What gas that yeast produces causes bread to rise?' (CO2) and 'What number is Aluminium on the periodic table?' (13).

Asked to name by sight Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift albums, the name of the Professor who once featured in Cadbury ads or the science of moving liquids and we were, frankly, stumped.

Our end score sheet.  Not the best scores but not too poor either.

It was a fun night. Three rounds of Trivia ran from 7 - 9pm, food and drink were quick and tasty and the whole room seemed to be enjoying themselves. Next time we go, we'll be taking a bigger team with at least one person who really knows their music.

If you're interested in partaking of some K&T trivia I recommend booking. The restaurant was packed and I think a few people had to be turned away.

High tea at Bacchus

I found myself is the enviable position this week of nabbing an invitation to the launch of high tea at Bacchus, the now 5-month old luxury bar at Rydges South Bank.

If you haven’t been to Bacchus, it’s one level up from the street and is a slightly odd all-in-one entertainment space. There is an outside deck complete with glistening pool, ready for cocktail hour, there is an art-deco inspired restaurant in varnished wood with golden trimmings and a bar lounge with the feel of a London club complete with high-backed arm chairs you can disappear into.

Business women and men enjoying some indulgence. 

Photo filtered to better represent the feel of the bar. 

As it was the launch, we were rather spoilt. Instead of the standard one glass of bubbles, a charming waitress was circling with a bottle, so my one glass of Moet turned mysteriously into three. Also, instead of the usual three-plated tier of delicacies, waiters circulated with plates of delicate sandwiches, macarons, coffee cake and citrus tarts, so there was no moderation in my demolition of pastries and chicken salad sandwiches.  

It was a most pleasant way to spend a Thursday lunchtime.

 

If you’re looking for a place to have high tea in Brisbane, I would recommend Bacchus. The space has an enticing feeling of luxury, and the food is excellent. Rydges really is going all out, bringing in top managers and pastry chefs from all over the world to oversee their latest venture, topped off with excellent waitstaff, who are worth their weight in gold for the positive influence they have on your experience.

There are three levels of tea - English cream tea ($30 p/p), quintessential high tea ($36 p/p) and Champagne high tea ($49 p/p). As someone who has experienced a fair few high teas over the last two years thanks to girlfriends getting married, I would recommend Bacchus for the quality of the food and service.

Sydney and the Excellent Weekend! (Pt 2)

Monday

Garry. Or possibly Muriel. (Photo from www.xray-mag.com)

Mondays are always so much better when you don't have to go to work. Our Monday in Sydney was sort of cloudy and grey, and when we went outside it was hella windy. We walked through the city down King Street, to Darling Harbour again  because our plan for the morning was to go to the Sydney Sealife Aquarium - another tradition for these trips. Last time we came down, we named the dugongs, and so this time we wanted to check in on Garry and Muriel.

Sentimental attachments to zoo animals aside, the aquarium is a super-interesting place to visit. (Avoid the weekend crowds if you can, though, seriously.) The displays seem well set up and pretty well cared for, and I'm a fan of those underwater walkways they do. It's always so cool when a huge sting ray swims right over your head, you know? And the fish themselves are kind of awesome; I always come out wanting to watch Finding Nemo, cause damn that movie is accurate.

We took another ride on the ferry afterwards, back around to Circular Quay. We were headed in the direction of Jamie's Italian, which is just off Martin Place and the Sydney installment of the Jamie Oliver cooking empire. They don't take reservations, so we fronted up for lunch at around 12.15 and waited in the bar for a table.

I'm not totally sure what I was expecting, but honestly, the overall experience was pretty top notch. It might be a chain restaurant, but it didn't really feel like one. The venue and decor were pretty nice, and seemed well-considered. The drinks were great; there were some lovely Italian wines on the menu. The food was delicious, too, and I know the fresh-twist-on-classic-dishes is a thing he does, but it works really well in this case. The service was really good, too. It seemed like they put a lot of effort in, but they pulled it off without seeming like they were trying too hard or taking themselves too seriously. Plus, reasonably priced. Two thumbs up from me!

Following lunch, we rode our post-food mellow back into the city and wandered around for some more shopping. Sadly, we visited Kinokuniya again, and I may have bought one more thing... (Considering I bought about twelve items on one previous visit, three total still seems tame.) We did a bit of Christmas shopping, and a bit of looking at beautiful things we could never afford to buy. (Jo Malone cologne is delicious, and anyone who wants to buy me something expensive should come talk.)

Over this trip, we'd been for a couple of walks in Hyde Park, and it's honestly one of my favourite things to do in Sydney. You can go and sit on the grass, or get a bench in the avenue under the fig trees. It's a great place to sit and have a chat, or listen to the buskers. We happened to sit near a couple of young guys playing Christmas Carols on a pair of what looked like tiny tubas. (Possibly euphoniums? Or alto horns?*)

For dinner, we met up with a buddy of ours, and went to the Nippon Club, which was amazing! It's very unassuming-looking - the decor's not unlike an RSL - but it's got Japanese beer on tap, lots of kinds of sake, and delicious Japanese food including an in-house sushi chef, who makes THE BEST fresh sushi. Delicious!

Tuesday

Our friend from dinner Monday night (and Saturday's basement bar crawl, incidentally) offered to get us in to the Francis Bacon exhibit at the Gallery of NSW for free, which we were naturally pretty excited about, so on Tuesday morning we walked into the Domain to take in some art.

The exhibit was excellent. It was a retrospective of his work, containing pieces arranged according to decade - the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, as well as source material from his workshop and a documentary about the exhibit. What I liked about the arrangement was that it let you see how Bacon had developed as an artist, and how the themes and imagery he used evolved over time. In the descriptions and blurbs, there were also tantalising tidbits about his life, and the art scene in London in the 1950s and 60s. All of it was very interesting; I'm thinking about tracking down some kind of super-gossipy autobiography or something.

(Image from tripadvisor.com)

Once we'd enjoyed the show, we headed back into the CBD for lunch. Notice how I didn't mention breakfast? We didn't have any; the plan was to go to another of our favourite Sydney spots. Diethnes is a very old-school Greek restaurant on Pitt Street, away from the mall, down past Bathurst Street. It's an older restaurant, established over 50 years ago, and the food is awesome (and incredibly filling, hence the no-breakfast thing). Last time we were here, we ate Diethnes and Ichi Ban Boshi on the same day - mistaaaaake.

After a delicious lunch, we wrapped up our trip with some more shopping and last-minute Christmas-gift-hunting. We went for another walk in Hyde Park, then headed back to the hotel to pack before the gig we were going to**.

Thus tragically ended our Sydney holiday! We took the train to the airport at ass o'clock the next morning, and were back in Brisvegas by around 10.30am. (I went straight to work, it was awful.) Overall verdict was that it was totally worth it, though. An early-December mini-break is a great way to relax in advance of the Christmas season, especially if you can go somewhere low-key, and enjoy yourself with lots of good food and good shopping.*** Merry Christmas, folks!


*I tried to work out what these instruments were, but I'm really not sure. Meanwhile, how hilarious are sousaphones?

**Alexisonfire, on their Farewell Tour, at the Hordern Pavillion. Too excellent to write about.

***I guess other people like to exercise or do things on their holidays or something? I don't know. For me, walking places and drinking beer and eating things equals good times, what can I say?

Sydney and the Excellent Weekend! (Pt 1)

So, I have this buddy, and we go to lots of live music gigs together. Every other year, we try to find a gig in Sydney, to give us an excuse to go down for a relaxing weekend of food, beer and shopping. Oh, and whatever the gig is. We stay in the CBD, and this time we had a super-fun four days at the beginning of December, to give us strength to face the holiday season.

Saturday

Charlie and Co. Roadside
Chicken and Bacon Burger

We arrived in the CBD around midday, and checked in to the hotel, etc. Then, the first place we went after that was the new Westfield. Sydney CBD gets hella busy in the weeks before Christmas, and this new shopping centre was no exception. Great burgers in the food court, though.

Itty Bitty Basement Bar Crawl
Saturday evening, around 5pm, we took ourselves out. I had been researching places to drink, and found a bunch within a ten block radius that, coincidentally, were mostly basement bars. Sydney might be having some kind of trend or something, I don't know. Anyway, I don't know if what we did could strictly be called a bar crawl, exactly, but we went to four bars in one evening, and they were all downstairs or in basements, so...

• The Assembly: Come in off Kent Street, or go downstairs in 501 George Street. Assembly is a great bar, hidden away, with dark timber interior and some nice beers on offer. There's an "outdoor" beer garden in the foyer outside, with astroturf and a tiny picket fence. 
• Mojo Record Bar is in the basement at 73 York Street; go downstairs, past the record store, and through the door to the underground bar. As a huge music fan, this was possibly the best bar I've ever been to in my entire life. The walls are covered in band and gig posters, and framed cover art from classic LPs. The music they play is awesome; we heard Talking Heads, Nirvana, James Brown, Stone Roses...
• Stitch Bar is also on downstairs on York Street; keep an eye out for the sewing machines in the tiny front entry way. Once you're through the tiny doors, they've got a surprisingly amount of space, with a great old-time-speakeasy aesthetic and a big old bar as soon as you walk in. The bar serves some amazing drinks, from cocktails to high class whiskey, and while we didn't try the food, the stuff other people had looked (and smelled) really awesome. 
• Grandma's Bar: Is tiny. And furnished like it's half Tiki bar, half your nana's house. Hence the name, probably. The bar itself is cramped and a little hot, but the cocktails and jaffles (jaffles!*) they serve make it worth it.  

So, we had a fairly glorious start to the weekend, and even though it made it a touch harder to get up on Sunday morning, an itty bitty basement bar crawl is totally worth doing!

Sunday 

The following morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed at a relatively reasonable hour and walked down to Circular Quay to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art. Sadly, most of the levels were closed, as they were hanging new exhibits that were about to open (which we would miss out on, bad timing). 

(Photo from lightswimming.com (There's some excellent
photos of the exhibit on that blog.))

But what was available was very good. They were showing Volume One: MCA Collection, which is a selection of the gallery's permanent collection, specifically pieces by Australian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. There were drawings by Vernon Ah Kee, video art and paintings by Richard Bell, sculptural pieces by Ross Manning and Nicholas Folland, photography by Rosemary Laing and Tracey Moffat... I found it a strong and unique collection.

After the gallery visit, we walked around to Opera Kitchen for lunch by the water, and then took a ferry ride around to Darling Harbour, via the Luna Park stop. (Is it just me, or is the fact that the Luna Park clown face thing has eyelashes really creepy?)

We walked around the harbour for a while, then headed up into the CBD again for some shopping. I have a huge weakness for Kinokuniya, the massive bookstore in the Galleries Victoria. I love it, I could stay there for hours. This time, I escaped with only two purchases - very restrained!

We decided to head to a bar for a drink - it was only 3pm in Brisbane, but that meant 4pm Sydney time, so it was a totally appropriate hour for a beer - and we found an old-man bar** on Park Street that was miraculously offering jugs of James Squire for $7.50. So we had a few of those, and sat around listening to Cold Chisel and Crowded House (and oddly Jurassic 5 and a Tribe Called Quest).  

Then: RAMEN. We went to Ichi Ban Boshi for dinner. This place is a favourite, and has been since our very first trip to Sydney. It's almost a tradition to go and eat our weight in delicious fresh ramen noodles; some trips we go more than once, and the extended belly you get from noodles and soup and beer is like a badge of honour. (Unfortunately, the restaurant is next to Kinokuniya. Fortunately, the bookstore was closed by the time we got back there.)

After delicious ramen, we rolled ourselves back home to our hotel room, and collapsed in front of the TV. We wanted to be in good form for the next day - you've got to pace yourself - so we took it easy.

Tune in for Part 2!

*I understand we have some international readers. For those of you who don't know, a jaffle is a grilled sandwich, but more awesome because it's made in a jaffle maker (which is almost like a waffle iron but for sandwiches). They usually contain cheese or some combination of ham, cheese and tomato, but you can also use anything from chicken to tinned spaghetti to bolognese sauce to apple and cinnamon sugar. These sandwiches (and experimenting with fillings for them) are a valuable childhood relic, and exactly the sort of thing your nana made for you because eating would shut you up for five minutes.

**Someone asked me what constitutes an old-man bar. An old man bar is the kind of bar where you get a wave of stale beer smell from the carpet as soon as you walk in. The kind where there's a drunk in the corner discussing things loudly with the bartender, regardless of whether said bartender is listening. The kind where there are TVs showing only sports, and they've always got specials on XXXX or Vic Bitter. The kind where half the exterior walls - and interior walls -  are covered in glazed tiles, the kind where the bathrooms are dodgy. Old-man bars. Good times.

Melbourne and the Very Big Meals

Ah, Melbourne. So many things to so many people. For my father, for his birthday, it's all about the food. And the wine. And sometimes the art. But mostly the food. So, for a very significant milestone birthday, he decided nothing could be better than a trip during which we would eat. A lot. We arrived late on Thursday night, freeing up the whole of Friday, Saturday and Sunday for outings, galleries, restaurants and cafes.

Friday Breakfast - Cumulus

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This well-known Melbourne Cafe is set in the front of the same building as Arc One Gallery, and features a large, open room with a bar on one side and cafe counter on the other. The coffee is super-strong, and the ham and cheese toasted sandwich is actually Kurabouta leg ham and gruyere. The clientele include your classic inner-city Melbourne foodies, trendier yuppies, and business people getting a coffee injection before work. Even so, the food is pretty delish, and I could definitely get addicted to the strong, bitter coffee...


Friday Lunch - TarraWarra Estate Winery

TarraWarra Estate is about an hour outside of Melbourne, in the Yarra Valley, in very pretty, classically rural countryside. The main building is on a hillside, and at first the ultra-modernity of the building seems incongruous, especially above the pond-weeping willow combination just below it on the hill. But when you actually get into the complex, it's easier to see how the building has been designed for outlook, to showcase the view of the landscape, rather than to present a visual image on the hill. Not that the building itself isn't striking, but it seemed to me that it was designed more for the people inside it.

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We arrived at around 11.30am - slightly too early for lunch - so we had a wine-tasting first, with a very helpful and friendly sommelier. Of course, none of us could agree on which wine we liked the best, so it was probably for the best that we were able to order flights and wine by the glass when we had lunch. (A flight is three glasses, of about 50mLs of wine each. This lets you have a taste of various wines, matched to your three course meal, without overdoing it.) (Honestly, though, we had a flight each and then another glass, so I think we might have been missing the point...)

TarraWarra Estate also includes a privately funded art gallery, which we visited after our meal. It was showing an exhibition called Sonic Spheres, which had key themes of music and sound, and featured contemporary artists including Eugene Carchesio, Ross Manning, Marco Fusinato, John Nixon, Sandra Selig and more.

Friday Dinner - The Press Club

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Do I even really need to say anything, here? This famous bar and restaurant is in the city, on Flinders Street, just up from the back of Federation Square. The fit-out is beautiful, the food is amazing. I doubt I could say anything that hasn't already been said; the food was excellent, and the wine delicious. The modern gastronomy - infusions, jellies and foams all over the place - isn't something I prefer to eat, and my asparagus entree wasn't really to my taste, but even that part of the experience was interesting. I had the chicken for main course, and it more than made up for it, with a delicious collection of flavours and perfectly cooked meat.

The restaurant also has a wine list with about forty pages, which comes in a binder. The Press Club offers wine from across the world - Greek, French, Italian, Australian... Our poor sommelier had to put up with a lot, however, as my father is fairly picky and wanted to discuss the dinner bottle in depth. He also had to try not to look horrified when I wanted red wine first, regardless of whether or not it matched my food (we'd had a lot of white wine at lunch, and the last thing I wanted was yet another glass!), so I'm pretty sure I got written off as a total heathen right around then. But after the meal he provided us with a complimentary shot of Skinos Mastiha liquer, which has quite an amazing taste and was a delicious finish to the meal, so perhaps he didn't dislike us too much.

Saturday Lunch - Gypsey and Musquito

This is a small cafe down on Bridge Road in Richmond, and was an excellent place for lunch. It has mismatched, rustic furniture, a slight bush/outback theme to the menu, great-looking muffins and cakes on retro cake stands, and again, super-strong coffee. The food was delicious - I had something called a box, which was essentially a square-shaped pie without a lid. There was a steak and potato version, but mine was organic chicken and corn, and it was absolutely delicious. It came with broccoli, avocado and green bean salad. The clientele ranged from people picking up coffees, to hipster kids with piercings, to an old lady reading a book at the table next to us. I was a little jealous of her, as it would have been a great place to sit and drink coffee and read something for a while.

Saturday Dinner - Cutler & Co. Dining Room

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Cutler & Co is on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, close to the city but just outside. The front is very unassuming, with big windows and a small logo painted on one door, to let you know you're in the right place. Once inside, though, the beautiful design and fit-out of the restaurant is immediately obvious, with a variety of dining spaces, intriguing lighting, and an impressive glass wine cellar. The staff were professional and accommodating - including the sommelier, who had slightly more success with my father than the poor guy at the Press Club - and the restaurant experience was great before we even tasted the food.

And the food, honestly, is amazing. I had an entree of peas, broad beans, sunflower seeds, onion and

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bergamot, which does nothing to describe the small, adorable collection of ingredients I received, which the waiter proceeded to dress with an onion reduction. My main was chicken again; a slow-roasted chicken breast with pancetta, braised turnips and onion, and we also had roast potatoes with garlic dressing. I managed to make room for dessert, which is always worth it when there's a chocolate ice cream sandwich with vanilla parfait and salted caramel sauce on the menu.

From the helpful yet unobtrusive service to the delicious food, the whole meal with Cutler & Co was
absolutely worth it, and made it clear the place deserves every accolade it receives. (Incidentally, it's owned by the same folks that run Cumulus.)

Sunday Lunch - The Hellenic Republic

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By Sunday, my personal desire for another big meal was flagging considerably, but I braced myself - and didn't eat breakfast - in preparation for a classic Sunday lunch with the extended family, in final celebration of my father's birthday. And I was glad I did - the food here is fantastic. It's owned by the same folks who run the Press Club, but the Hellenic Republic is far less gastronomie, far more family-style shared food. It's down at the far end of Lygon Street, for starters, miles away from the Italian section near the city. The restaurant is in a white-painted low building with lots of windows, and overall the atmosphere is casual and relaxed. It also has an open kitchen like the Press Club does, so you can see the rotisseries of grilled meat, and occasionally get a waft of barbecue smoke.

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We ordered one of the banquets - because too much is never enough, apparently - and were inundated with food. We had grilled meat, fish, prawns, pita, taramasalata, tyri saganaki, lahano salata, delicious Cypriot Grain Salad, and a lot more. It was all excellent, and was topped off with a dessert of Hellenic Mess - broken meringue, orange blossom jelly, vanilla crema and strawberry ouzo sauce - and watermelon, feta and mint salad. I had also decided, by that point in the weekend, that I was totally sick of white wine, so I drank a beer and had some Greek red. I didn't regret it!


So, our weekend of meals was finally over. And you know, while I really enjoy having the occasional gastronomically-fabulous meal, it's not something I prefer to do on the regular, and for me, this many huge eats in one weekend was a bit of a stretch. Which is not a complaint! More a lament that we can't all live in Melbourne, so as to go to these amazing restaurants with a bit more space between visits. I suppose some of us just have to eat too much, then spend the plane ride back to Brisvegas digesting. Which I did. I did not require dinner on the plane at all. Or breakfast on Monday, come to that...

Food: Spanakopita

On Father's Day, my dad decided we'd all have lunch at his place. Now, he likes to cook, but in addition to salad and lamb and beef kebabs, we went and picked up a slab of pumpkin and leek kopita from Spanakopita at Newstead, just near James Street.

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And seriously, it was absolutely delicious.

The slab cost about $30 and would feed 3-4 people. According to Dad, who's apparently been eating breakfast there, you can also get a slice for $8. We also had a sour cherry yoghurt cake, which came with sour cherry sauce, and was incredibly tasty, very tart and sweet.

Spanakopita itself is a spot I wouldn't mind spending some time. It has a minimalist interior with high ceilings, almost like a converted warehouse space, which seems quite unique for a Greek cafe. I didn't get to try the coffee or other cakes, but the baklava and bougatsa in the cabinet looked excellent. (According to this review, they are excellent, so that's good to know.)

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Review: The QSO performs The Lord of the Rings

On Friday night Rowebotic and I became the envy of our friends when we got a little nerdy and went to see the Queensland Symphony Orchestra perform The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at QPAC.

 All images copyright of the Lord of the Rings and New Line.

The ‘performance’ of the Lord of the Rings premiered in late 2003, on the same weekend as the premiere of The Return of the King, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Shore, the composer. Since then the production has toured the world, under strict licence by the New Line and having been performed by both the Sydney Symphony and the MSO, it’s Brisbane’s turn.

We started out night by trying out the recently opened Champ kitchen + bar, under the new ABC/QSO Building in Southbank. The latest venture by the owners of Anouk, it’s a delightful café restaurant that is perfectly placed to tend to the dining needs of show-goers, tourists and of course, office workers.

We each had a glass of white ($8 / $10), I had the Crab and apple salad on scallop ceviche with baby pea shoots and a trickle of jus ($19) and Rowebotic devoured her Peking duck dumplings in duck consommé with shiitake and scallop and scallop mushroom ($17). They were both divine; amazing flavours and the freshest ingredients. Unfortunately, not quite enough for a light dinner on a Friday evening. The rest of the dinner menu was equally mouth-watering and I would love to go back soon to try the duck confit or the tea-smoked barramundi.

We sat on the outside terrace overlooking the bougainvillea, the river and the street traffic. With a  glass of chilled Muscadet in hand, it was a lovely way to spend an hour. I predict that come summer and long warm evenings, one will have to get in early to get one of these ideal spots.

The film

Delectable Queensland's Food Bowl

This Sunday my friends and I headed along to the Delectable Queensland Food Bowl at the City Botanic Gardens.

I'd been really looking forward to this festival for a while. A score of Brisbane's best award-winning restaurants all in one place putting on plates of food I could actually afford, with wine and sunshine in the park – what was not to enjoy?

Sunday was one of those perfect days that help to remind you why you choose to live in Queensland. We got to the gardens at 11, nabbed a table under the trees and started to scope out the impressive array of food on offer. 

There were 24 resturants and cafes participating in the Festival, each of them well known and some of them award-winning with international chefs. The ones I was most excited to sample were Moda, Sake, Ortiga and Stokehouse. 

I started the day with Ortiga's chicken and lemon croquettas and what a good way to start, particularly when washed down with a nice pinot grigio.

 Ortiga's chicken and lemon croquettas - so good I had two serves.

Restaurant review: Esquire

I like to pretend that I’m relatively on top on new restaurants opening in Brisbane. Not because I’m that in-the-know, but because I get a few newsletters on the subject and flick through local papers regularly and the names and openings crop up. Still, until a reservation had been made for me, I hadn’t even heard of Esquire. Which shows that either I’m more out of the loop than I thought I was, or they have less-than active PR. For the moment at least. 

Esquire is the latest edition to the top-priced ranks of restaurants adorning Eagle St, there for the moneyed lawyers, accountants and miscellaneous business-people who can afford to drop $35 on a steak for lunch on any ordinary Tuesday.

With a modern interior that magazines will enjoy photographing and an overall Swedish design aesthetic that I appreciate, it’s a nice place to sit for a leisurely meal. And your meal is guaranteed to be leisurely. We – Chuck and self – went with a group of 8 others for a special Thursday night out arranged by Chuck’s foodie friend Ellery. We booked for 6 but didn’t sit until 7 because one of our party was running rather late. That gave us time to enjoy the cocktail list or get started on our bottle of Grenache Cote de Rhone Villages 2009. ($50 and there weren’t many less expensive options on the menu). So we sat at 7, ordered by 7:20 and finally got to leave at 10:30.

I knew in advance this was to be degustation. I thought the options were 7 courses for $85 or 10 courses for $110. No. In the 2 or 3 months since opening, that had changed to 9 courses for $100 or 12 courses for $140. Far. Out. They like you to pick only one size degustation for the table so people aren’t sitting around looking sad while their neighbor eats. Sneaky upsell, guys. We chose the full 12 courses.

The food itself was interesting and very modern dining in that there were elements such as Kobe dried beef, spanner crab wrapped in wafer thin slices of apple, squid pasta ribbon and freeze dried mandarin. Ellery and I picked apart every course and could usually find something to complain about. My 2 worst food complaints were that the 5 desserts they offered up were essentially exactly the same dish just with different flavours and that the smoked duck, aside from being tough, had overtones of cow manure.

My favourite 3 items of the 12 were; pineapple sorbet with salt and mountain pepper topped with crisp fried sage leaves; Calottle with horseradish and onion sauces served with a deep fried artichoke (calotte is an extremely pretentious cut of beef, by the way); and finally vanilla ice-cream served with an olive and hazelnut crumb and olive oil drizzle. Yes…interesting.

All the elements for a good night were there but what really let it down was the time. By course 8, sometime around 9:15 we were all looking at our watches and counting down how many courses until we could go home to bed. 10:30 on a Thursday was too late to be leaving when you start at 6. It was even too late for the staff, who starting vacuuming the restaurant around us.

My short review would run something like this:

The service was good, the presentation was sloppy, the price too much and the time between courses too long. If it had all taken an hour less and cost even $20 less I would have been a much happier diner.

Menu included because we weren't allowed to take photos. Yeah.

For a more accurate / critical review of Esquire, see here: http://pbandellery.tumblr.com/. Then scroll down to drool over gorgeous looking cocktails.