Review: Signature at South Bank’s Emporium is a good-value fine diner

It’s the fine-diner that won’t break the bank. So how can this new South Bank restaurant be improved?

WHEN minimalist industrial fit-outs are all the rage at eateries across Queensland, along comes Signature – the new, much-talked-about fine-dining offering at the Emporium Hotel South Bank.

Like one of the premium bottles of champagne in the monumental 6000-bottle glass cellar that forms the backdrop to the restaurant, the compact, circular space is all luxury and effervescence.

Brass panels glimmer like diamonds in the sun, throne-style velvet seats add a regal touch and a ceiling installation of 1000 hand-blown glass balls designed to represent champagne bubbles, block the light making the room darker than a Tim Burton flick.

Ironically, however, in its attempt to stand out and be different, it becomes exactly what you would expect from a hotel restaurant. The same could be said of the menu.

It begins with a selection of oysters and caviar, leading into a vegan offering of two entrees and two mains, and a concise a la carte selection built around protein (much of it locally sourced) and classic flavour pairings.

While there’s a modernity to the plating, this is familiar, comfortable fare: scallops with pork belly ($26), chicken with creamed cabbage ($34), and Wagyu with potato terrine ($55).

Those scallops come from the Abrolhos Islands, off the coast of Western Australia, and we’re told conflicting stories by the overly attentive and overzealous waitstaff as to what to expect from them (fat and juicy vs small and sweet). Turns out they are the latter, just caramelised around the edges served with melting pork belly, creamed celeriac and an apple gel. Safe, predictable, but tasty enough.

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

Farmed cobia ($20), which is better for the environment insists our waitress in her lengthy spiel about what’s on my plate, is the second entree served lightly cured in lime juice with cucumber and finger limes making for a clean and fresh dish.

A main of lamb ($38) features eggplant puree, caramelised yoghurt and chargrilled zucchini and what it lacks in innovation, it makes up for in flavour, with precise cooking evident. What is beyond disappointing though, is a vegan main of black garlic gnocchi ($26). The gnocchi – just a few little charcoal pellets on the plate – are so bouncy you could use them to play tennis, while just a trio of purple cauliflower florets and slices of blackened leek form the main accompaniments.

Flinders Island salt grass lamb with eggplant puree, caramelised yoghurt, zucchini, capsicum and black olive at Signature restaurant, Emporium Hotel South Bank.

A dessert of cumquat and mandarin ($22) harks back to the 2000s with pop rocks adding a snap, crackle and pop to preserved cumquat and a mandarin ice cream; while our other dessert of jasmine, rhubarb and beetroot ($18) channels a breakfast of yoghurt and granola with honey almond clusters and rhubarb ripple ice cream.

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

A complimentary amuse bouche, very good bread roll, palate cleanser and petit four all accompany our meal, and that combined with a keenly priced by-the-glass wine list make Signature terrific value for those chasing a fine dining experience on a budget.

A few tips for the restaurant, however. Change the juvenile font on the wine list to echo the sophistication of the cellar, and ditch the dragging monologues about every ingredient in each dish. Tweak that and Signature will find its place among more than only hotel guests.

SIGNATURE

Address: Emporium South Bank, 267 Grey St, South Brisbane

Phone: [phone]

Web: emporiumhotels.com.au

Open: Tues-Sat 5.30pm-9.30pm

VERDICT

Food: 7.5

Service: 7

Ambience: 7.5

Value: 9

Overall: 7.5