Shane Delia’s Layla wows with a new take on Middle Eastern food
In a heritage-listed West End spot, it’s serving Moroccan-spiced butter chicken and Turkish dumplings with mushroom XO along with seasonal cocktails and 150 wines.
Shane Delia wants you to know that Layla isn’t a theatre restaurant.
Yes, it’s in the Thomas Dixon Centre, home of the Queensland Ballet since 1991. And yes, you suspect a core group of diners will come from those attending shows in the centre’s 350-seat auditorium. And, yes, the restaurant will be catering for functions in the centre’s bar and on its terrace.
But it’s perhaps better to think about Layla, which opens on March 28, as part of the new wave of eateries pulling West End dining’s centre of gravity slightly away from Boundary Street, and down towards Montague Road.
“It’s not a theatre restaurant at all,” Delia says. “We’ve nothing to do with the ballet or theatre.
“We’ll obviously service the people going to the theatre. But this is a standalone restaurant. I want people to come and have a great experience, irrespective of whether they’re going to the ballet or not.”
Delia has kept shtum over the details of Layla since first announcing the restaurant in mid-November – he didn’t even launch the name and branding until a month ago.
But good things come to those who wait, apparently. Layla is at the Raven Street end of the Thomas Dixon Centre, in the heritage-listed section of the building, and is a low-key stunner.
Melbourne-based architecture firm Studio Y, which worked with Delia on his bar Jayda in the Victorian capital’s CBD, has lent Layla a moody, dramatic interior, with the space’s original 1908-built brick walls (replete with graffiti) complemented by lavish, tactile materials such as blue velvet upholstery, walnut timber, brass accents and blue terrazzo flooring.
Clever feature lighting gives the dining room an intimate, cosy feel.
Outside, there’s a greenery-lined terrace section. It has been given a softer treatment, with beige umbrellas, stone table tops and yellow upholstery.
Running the kitchen day-to-day for Delia is chef Simon Palmer. If you’re a seasoned local diner, there’s a good chance Palmer has had a hand in your food at restaurants such as Urbane, Gerard’s, and then E’cco and Black Hide by Gambaro, where he was head chef.
“When I met Simon, he was really understated, softly spoken, but really knowledgeable and super, super calm,” Delia says. “I rang people I know have worked with him, and I rang suppliers, and I didn’t hear a bad word.
“He’s on the phone all the time and super passionate. He has a lot of humility and I thought, ‘Here’s someone who is going to uphold the values of what we’re trying to achieve.’”
Delia is known for his Middle Eastern food at his Melbourne venues Maha, Maha East, Maha North and Jayda. Layla, though, takes a slightly different tack by introducing influences from traditional spice trade routes, and in particular in the Indian subcontinent.
“It’s inspired by the spice trade,” Delia says. “Everywhere the Middle Eastern [spices] have gone, there’s just so much influence around those areas.
“[But] why does Middle Eastern food have to have such an impact and influence other [cuisines], yet those places that it goes to can’t influence Middle Eastern food?”
Delia and Palmer have split the menu into starters, and then smaller and larger plates, followed by sides and desserts.
To start you might order a Hervey Bay half-shell scallop with carrot hummus, Persian lime and a toasted coconut sambal; king crab dressed with coriander and lime, and finished with charred pineapple and smoked pepper; or a Moorish brisket borek bun with sticky turmeric and chilli jam, and sesame.
Smaller share plates include salmon kibbeh nayyeh with burghul, mint, sweet onions and an aleppo sambal, served with Lebanese bread; braised carrots with yoghurt, toasted carraway and curry leaves; Brisbane Valley quail with pistachio crust, served with a fiery tahini tarator; and Turkish beef dumplings with a mushroom XO, sujuk, yoghurt and spiced burnt butter.
A shorter selection of larger plates includes a ras el hanout-spiced “Habibbi” butter chicken; an eight-hour slow-cooked lamb shoulder with smoked eggplant, roast lemon and za’atar sauce; and a coal-grilled swordfish T-bone with burnt orange and saffron.
For drinks there’s a seasonal cocktail list and a globe-trotting 150-bottle wine list curated by sommelier Darcy Curnow that addresses Brisbane’s subtropical climate with a focus on crisp whites and roses, and lighter-bodied reds. Delia says there’s also a “Single Bottle Club” of more rarefied wines selected by Curnow from the group’s Melbourne cellar.
“It’s been really interesting seeing the reaction from friends and industry friends in Melbourne, when I tell them I’m expanding to Brisbane,” Delia says. “Some say, ‘Good luck, it’s going to be amazing. What a great food scene.’ And then other people will say, ‘What are you doing?’
“There is a great opportunity in Brisbane, but money’s not enough … I thought more, ‘Well, I think I can contribute something to this landscape that I’ve found so impressive, and be part of an amazing movement happening in this city.’ ”
Open Tue-Wed 5.30pm-late, Thu-Sun 12pm-late
406 Montague Road, West End
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Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.