Brisbane restaurants: Za Za Ta review, Fortitude Valley

Tantalise all your senses on this Fortitude Valley culinary safari born in the Middle East.

Za Za Ta — the Middle East meets Fortitude Valley. Sounds like an adventure hey?

And it is — in a loud, exceedingly entertaining way.

Out of the waitstaff and myself, I’m the least stylish by far — the staff garb ranging from the sort of suits you retire when you hit 30 or gain an inch of belly fat, through to more exotic looks, and simple black and whites. I assume there’s a hierarchical plan that decides who wears what.

And despite the fact the DJ (yes, a DJ) plays familiar tunes, it’s loud. Way too loud. I’m getting old, but I am not deaf.

That said, Za Za Ta is slick. Things roll out in a rehearsed, effortless manner.

The interior at Za Za Ta, Fortitude Valley.

I have a peek at the wine list (it’s good!) and moments later the sommelier is at my side offering help.

The menu gets decoded (it needs some decoding) and the food leaves the pass at just the right pace. And our resident coeliac gets pampered.

With only a couple of exceptions, there’s a divide between my mental picture of the dishes based on the menu description, and what arrives.

That’s not a complaint — my grasp of Middle Eastern food is flimsy at best and, besides, I like culinary surprises.

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Mejadra duck bites ($17) surprise me. I have in my head little fried balls, but there are four onion hearts sticking up like totems in a puddle of something silky and yellow with the mejadra in the middle.

On another dish there’s a giant tentacle belonging to a Fremantle octopus that comes with a quenelle of camel-nduja, pureed eggplant and salted walnuts ($29, right).

Fremantle Octopus at Za Za Ta.

It’s very good, but hard to manage as a share dish because of the uncut hunk of seafood. It’s a simple fix. Everything else, however, makes for easy picking.

Goats cheese pretzel is paired with lamb pastrami and a blob of aioli ($15); whipped hummus and abalone mushrooms ($22) has an option of grated foie gras — for an extra $8 how could you not? — and soft pita rolls to the side.

It all makes for a theatrical dining experience, with the food — deliciously quirky — almost a bonus.

But we encounter a sting in the tail — a 10 per cent surcharge for tables of eight or more on top of the 1.25 per cent credit card surcharge.

We whinge, it gets removed and everyone is happy.

Next time I’ll book adjoining tables of four.

Fried goats cheese pretzel at Za Za Ta.

SCORES OUT OF 10

Food: 7.5

Drinks: 8.5

Vibe: 8

Service: 8.5

ZA ZA TA

Ovolo Hotel, 1000 Ann St, Fortitude Valley, ph: 3253 6999

Chefs: Roy Ner and Dario Manca

Brunch, Sun; lunch, Wed-Fri; dinner, Tue-Sat

Vegetarian and coeliac options

Eftpos and major credit cards

On and off street parking