Brisbane fine dining: Signature restaurant, South Brisbane review

Settle in for the spectacle at this South Brisbane fine diner where the most expensive drop will set you back $65,000.

What’s the most expensive bottle of wine you’ve seen on a wine list?

And I mean anywhere — Paris, New York, aboard the Orient Express.

Say $2000? $5000? More? How about $65,000?

That’s where the list tops out at Signature, Emporium Hotel South Bank’s fine dining restaurant.

And while it sounds kind of crazy, it’s a rare, expensive bottle: 2005 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-Conti Grand Cru.

Which in wine terms is a little like hopping on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic; neither good value nor bad, but an extraordinary purchase for those who can afford it.

The dining room at Signature restaurant, Emporium Hotel South Bank.

It’s the brightest star in a very glitzy collection labelled The Library — a Burgundy-centric (but certainly not exclusive) list of quite a few hundred wines with runs of Montrachet, Grange, Hill of Grace, Rousseau Chambertin (14 vintages!), Closes Papes, Masseto …

I could keep going. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen a list quite like it. And if it seems out of proportion to spend so many words talking about it, it’s simply because it is the heart and soul of Signature.

The restaurant has a wine list aside from The Library — it’s good, decently priced and interesting.

Oddly enough, for all the effort spent on the beautiful, luxurious rooms, the epic wine list, the menu, almost everything about the place, it has a pitiful beer offering: Boag’s, Peroni, Asahi, Corona.

Murray Gold cod with confit leek, cauliflower, spanner crab tortellini, bottarga, and chive velouté at Signature restaurant, Emporium Hotel South Bank.

What about some world classics? Some local stuff? Anything at all to lift it above the mundane and not have it embarrassed by the detail in the rest of the offering.

It is a gorgeous looking restaurant — carpeted, embracing, and oozing fine-dining, a glass wall to the rear holding all of those special bottles.

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The staff are in suits (I’m not. I lower the tone of the place a peg or two) and hover at a discreet distance. It’s hard to fault the service.

After failing to find a beer I opt for a saké — Tsukinokatsura Honjozo ($20) … brilliant. It’s not a bad foil for a plate of Sommerlad chicken; truffled parmesan cappelletti, pancetta, asparagus and mushrooms ($34).

Scallops and pork belly at Signature restaurant, Emporium Hotel South Bank.

These are chickens with wonderful flavour, but they need to be cooked perfectly, and this is. There’s not a skerrick of pink in the middle, but it must have fled a moment before the plate hit the table: it’s incredibly succulent. And the flavours work together quite brilliantly in an autumnal kind of way.

Brisbane Valley quail ($26) is topped with wattle seed and hazelnut, and I’m still unsure if the wattle seed is a good thing.

A wattle seed is a tiny thing, but as hard as birdshot, and I reckon it distracts from an otherwise very good plate of food. But that’s quibbling.

Black Fig & Guava, fromage blanc custard, ver jus, dill and sable at Signature restaurant, Emporium Hotel South Bank.

The Signature kitchen is turning out beautiful food — classic rather than cutting edge, but thoughtful, artfully plated, delicious.

If the $65,000 bottle of wine makes you fret about the cost of dining here … relax.

I walk out after an amusé, entree, main, a glass of sake and petit-fours for a mere $85.

And I dined like a king.

SCORES OUT OF 10

Food: 8.5

Drinks: 9

Vibe: 9

Service: 8.5

SIGNATURE

267 Grey St, South Brisbane

Ph: 1800 346 835

Chefs: Chris Norman and Alex Liddell

Dinner, Tue-Sat