Having just experienced another one of those dreadful annual markers that seem to whip past with increasing rapidity I was lucky enough to experience two of Brisbane’s fine dining establishments in just two days.
Thursday night was the cheap and cheerful end of the market and I was taken to the Good Taste Chinese Restaurant in Riverhills for a wonderful evening with excellent food, expertly prepared and delivered with happy, smiling service. All round a great local night out and home early enough to groan about eating too much while catching the late the news.
Friday night was Aria at Eagle Street and ‘Wow!’, yep, that sums it up….location, venue, food, service, wine list……’Wow!’..oh, yeah, and the bill! It seems I should have paid a bit more attention to the wine list or at least that little part with the numbers after the dollar signs. Still, we had an exquisite meal accompanied by that understated but professional service that sees the wait staff there just when they should be with just the right amount of gentle manoeuvring to ensure we didn’t embarrass ourselves by using the wrong fork or drinking the finger bowl.
Aria Dining Room
My ‘Jamon’ or for the average gourmet challenged folk, the slow cooked duck egg with lots of other tasty little things placed artistically around the plate and a lovely piece of toast expertly wrapped in its own napkin (still not sure why and I wasn’t brave enough to ask) was fabulous. Fabulous being a word that will crop up again and again; fabulous view, fabulous staff, fabulous food and fa-abulous wine list. The two younger members of our group were especially taken with having their chairs held for them when sitting, the sheer volume of folded hand towels in the bathroom and having their napkins re-folded every time they left the table.
Entrée done, mains past, dessert being cleared, the last of a (that word again) fabulous local sticky riesling and I decide to have a coffee (ah, finally he gets to the point and this is not just a bragging exercise) before we try to walk after so, so much food. Sadly I am the only coffee drinker in our little group of four but the espresso is….(drum roll please)…fabulous, as you knew it would be. I enquired and the Single Origin people from Sydney had roasted the beans that were so lovingly and expertly transformed into the liquid gold that perfectly finished the evening. Granted, an espresso in a restaurant can be bit of a punt as very often the emphasis on the food and service relegate the coffee making to a level slightly above that of napkin folding and door holding. But not at Aria, here someone took the time to take the beans and pilot the machine (sorry, I forgot to look) to a perfectly fabulous finish. I can’t even mention the petits fours that came with the coffee but the nougat……….And so we rolled home with the girls taking careful little steps in their high, high heels to avoid cracks in the pavement, smooth concrete slopes in the car-park and other dangers known only to those who don high heels. I just rolled, with enough calories to sustain a small African nation and a notion that the next dreadful annual marker seemed a long time to wait for a Nellie Melba.
