Brisbane restaurants: Jamie’s Italian review

Jamie Oliver’s financial woes aside, it’s business as usual at the British chef’s namesake eatery in Brisbane city. Oliver still oversees the menu development, and our reviewer reckons it’s all lovely jubbly.

The Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group hit the wall in Australia a little over a year ago, closing some branches, selling others.

The Brisbane branch of Jamie’s Italian remains open, now owned by the Hallmark Group, which also bought venues in Perth, Sydney and Adelaide.

And Jamie himself is still on the team, overseeing menu development and food quality from afar.

Jamie's Italian is at 237 Edward St, Brisbane.

There’s an almost intangible by-numbers quality to every franchise or chain of restaurants I’ve ever entered (the McDonald’s factor in varying degrees) and Jamie’s has it, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Here it feels rote — the service, the menu, the looks — but at the same time cleverly, carefully so. It’s a good package.

Not many weeks ago I took a mate to a chain-Italian and it was woeful. I took him along to Jamie’s and I kind of reclaimed my status as a decent lunch provider.

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It feels like you are being processed as diners, but it’s a thoroughly enjoyable ride.

The drinks list is decent: nothing amazing, nothing terrible and nothing intriguing.

There’s a ground-level pecorino, butno fiano, nero or super Tuscan. There is Aussie nebbiolo, and plenty of non-Italian stuff.

Alla Norma pasta at Jamie's Italian.

And it has a good, thoughtful array of smaller-producer Australian and Italian wines, pitched nicely to the broad-demographic, inner- city audience.

Beers … Stone and Wood. Nice! It’s a perfect list for the venue.

If there’s a glitch in our experience, it’s timing.

We order a few small and a couple of large dishes to share. Then wait … and wait … and wait. And everything — just a moment before we stick our hands up and whinge — arrives. Everything. All at once. Crowded, busy table. Come on people, feed it to us in bits and bobs, as it hits the pass, so it’s fresh and fun, and we can graze.

Crab bruschetta, for example, could be excellent, but my bet is a long wait at the pass (while all the other things are cooking) dumbs it a little — sourdough a tad soggy, everything a bit limp.

Tomato Bruschetta at Jamie's Italian.

But the rest is pretty good food, some of it excellent.

The best is a pasta dish with slow-cooked lamb ragu ($32) in biggish ravioli squares — more silky than al dente.

But here’s a confession — I like my pasta silky and there’s plenty of other stuff to be crunched.

With tiny adornments of pancetta and a puddle of sage butter, it’s bang-on and seriously delicious.

There’s a sizeable vegetarian menu from which we sample roasted “squash” salad (in Aussie terms, that’s butternut pumpkin, $20) with rocket, beetroot, nuts and a few other bits.

Pork chop ($32) comes with bagna cauda (garlic and anchovies) and kohlrabi.

And arancini ($15 for three) are good but not remarkable.

The whole Jamie’s package is good: well above expectation.

It serves fresh, tasty Italian — nothing terribly thought provoking or groundbreaking, but lighter, brighter and better than a thousand other Italian joints.

Lovely jubbly

SCORES OUT OF 10

Food: 7.5

Drinks: 7

Vibe: 7.5

Service: 6.5

JAMIE’S ITALIAN

237 Edward St, Brisbane

Ph: 3144 3000

Chef: Michael Cashmore

11.30am-9pm daily; until 10pm Fri & Sat

Vegetarian and gluten-free options