The Latest Food Goss!

Brisbane CBD

by

East Meets West With Zest

What:     Madame Wu

Website: Click here

Where:  Riparian Plaza, 71 Eagle St, Brisbane CBD

Rating:  

Why:

Sitting atop a well-regarded dining precinct with some of the most spectacular river views does not necessarily equate with excellent dining.

But sometimes it does, especially if you are at Madame Wu.

Madame Wu is a very popular and busy restaurant, which you will find at the top of a staircase located between Riparian Plaza and 111 Eagle. The entryway faces the marble reception desk where you will be greeted warmly and either ushered to your table which you had to reserve or to the well-stocked bar area behind reception if you prefer a drink or two first. Be warned, though – if you haven’t booked and it is a Friday night or other busy period, you may well be turned away.

It is most definitely worth making the booking (which is online and very easy). The atmosphere at Madame Wu is usually celebratory, although it probably doesn’t hurt that we made our booking for 8:45pm on a Friday night. That’s a good time to book, by the way, as long as you can hold out until then to eat. While the place is still brimming, things are a little less hectic then and the staff, who are excellent, can give you just that little bit of extra attention they might not have time to do a little earlier when the “straight from work” crowd is in full swing.

The menu is modern Asian cuisine in which East really does meet West and there will be something to suit most palates (but if you don’t like coriander, you’d best let them know – it may appear where you don’t expect it). The chef’s recommendations are the two banquet offerings which feature a rich mix of very tasty menu items and are very unlikely to leave you wanting.

At the time of this review, those banquets were priced respectively at $65 and $85 per head, and it is only a 2 person minimum for those. These prices are not cheap, but they are well worth the food that follows, which is beautifully prepared and presented. The $65 banquet is certainly more than enough for most people – there will almost always be food left over if you choose the $85 version, which is delicious but enormous.

The a la carte offerings are always available and reasonably priced and the wine list also covers a broad range of tastes and budgets. Most of the staff will also know which wines best match the food you ordered so unless you are an expert in that area yourself, you would be well placed to take their advice, which in our case was absolutely bang on.

The food comes out in tranches and is timely – sometimes almost too quick with the banquet, but we were hungry so that suited us perfectly.

Seating can be inside or outside – obviously outside has the better views, but inside dining is also aesthetically pleasing as a lot of work seems to have gone into the visual aspects of the premises.

We expected high quality, and we certainly got it. It’s not a place you’ll only want to visit once.

by

Cosy, Edgy and Cool

What:     Verve Restaurant – Bar – Cider House

Website: Click here

Where:  Basement 109 Edward St, Brisbane, Q 4000

Rating:  

Why:

Hiding down the stairs in the building on Edward Street next to the Victory Hotel, and directly underneath an old-school small film cinema where they regularly show old silent films, is Verve.

Depending upon which part of its website you go to, it may be called Verve Restaurant – Bar – Cider House, Verve Restaurant and Cider House, Verve Cafe, or Verve Cafe and Cider Bar.

I guess the point is that it is a restaurant, a bar and a cider house (and pretty good at being all of those), although not so much a cafe – we’ll come back to that.

It is unashamedly a brick basement which has been brightened up with red and brown toned colours, which combine well with the colours of the brick walls. The atmosphere, though, is anything but “basementy”. Perhaps partly because it was about 6pm on a Friday night when we visited this delightful place, the atmosphere was celebratory and “after-work-drinksy”.

On their website they say this: “Verve Cafe and Cider Bar is the kind of old skool unselfconsciously-cool-without-even-trying venue that they‘re not making any more, which is why it has endured throughout the years while other neighbourhood venues have come and gone“.

Happily, the website accurately describes the venue.

This is not a place one goes to on a romantic date hoping for some quiet conversation. However, it is a place to go for an enthusiastic welcome from young staff keen to appease, a good recommendation for your next drink from the blokey but gracious owner/host and a very tasty meal before you head off to wherever your night was planned to take you.

The restaurant part is to your right as you come down the stairs and there is a reasonably well stocked bar right in front of you when you arrive. The later it gets the louder it gets, but not uncomfortably so, and if you’ve stayed since it was a bit quieter from 5:30-ish, chances are you are just as loud as the next person.

The food selection is a reasonable array of pasta, risotto, pizza and a few other main selections – but there’s an obvious Italian bent to the available choices. The portion sizes are generous and really very tasty. The excellent taste makes the price tag of just under $30 for some pizzas or pasta selections quite reasonable.

Despite the place being 3/4 full when the four of us ordered dinner, the food was fairly quick to come out and the meals were all consistent in their quality.

There is a limited dessert offering and even more limited coffee and tea offering – but they don’t profess to be great tea and coffee makers (in fact, their menu says it is terrible coffee(!) – but it really isn’t as bad as all that). With a multitude of good coffee venues a door or two down on either side, Verve sticks to what it is good at, which is pretty much everything else.

The only disappointment was the bathroom facilities, which are located up a labyrinth of stairs, partly outdoors (unhelpful in the rain) and not that easy to find – you wouldn’t want to have a really urgent need. That said, they were clean and easy to get to once you’d been once.

Despite the bathroom location issue, it still deserves its 4-star rating based upon food quality alone.

The venue has constant music in the background and it is not too loud – the place already has an edgy modern buzz about it that doesn’t need overly loud music to help it, and the owner and staff seem to know that because they don’t seem to overdo anything – the balance is pretty good for most tastes and ages, and the mix of people coming down the stairs really is a mixed bag of ages and walks of life.

For me, it’s not a place where you go and remain all night – but it certainly is a good place to start.

by

Quality with Quantity

What:     Blackbird Restaurant / Blackbird Bar and Grill

Website: Click here

Where:  Riverside Centre, 123 Eagle St, Brisbane CBD

Rating:  

Why:

Affordable luxury comes in many shapes and sizes, and this restaurant is just the right shape and size.

Nestled into Riverside Centre behind the Rugby Club, up the stairs and to the left is Blackbird Bar and Grill. Head right instead and you walk into Blackbird Restaurant.

The Bar and Grill is one of the places to be on a Friday night after work for the young and exciting. It is blessed with superior views up and down the Brisbane River and looks straight out at the Story Bridge, which is breathtaking when lit up of an evening. The well-stocked main bar overlooks this panorama and both the indoor and outdoor areas are clean, shiny and plush – and often standing room only after 6pm. As you might expect for a bar situated where and how it is, drinks are not cheap, but they won’t break the bank either.

Away from the bar and through the corridor is the Blackbird Restaurant, a swanky affair with plush seating and tables, velvety and mahogany appearance, and well-trained attentive front of house staff.

The food will also not disappoint with a tasty array of options to suit most palates. Their steaks are also a specialty and range from a tasty 250gm scotch fillet all the way to a 1kg rump (which is not for the faint-hearted).

Once again, the food is not cheap, but you don’t come here for rubbish or cheap food – that said, an excellently cooked 300gm steak is still south of $40 at the time of this review which is very competitive given its quality – but they do also have more luxury choices such as 100% wagyu options and the 1kg steak will set you back about $95.

A pleasing array of vegetarian options is also there and they do serve entree, main, dessert and an array of platters to cater for all group sizes.

If the great food and views are not enough to make you remember the place, you will remember the professional staff who during our visit were most attentive and capable of actual conversation and humour. Definitely not a once-only place to visit.