$220 caviar: Brisbane’s most indulgent new restaurant

From a $21 burger to three types of caviar and $180 shared premium beef, the brasserie in Brisbane’s newest hotel has it all.

Alison Walsh

@AlisonAWalsh

2 min read

March 25, 2021 - 2:00PM

QWeekend

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“Hotel X is about the unexpected, the uninhibited and the undeniably indulgent. It’s a cocktail of thrills in the beating heart of Brisbane,” enthuses the website of the city’s newest hotel in Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley. Right then, I thought, clomping into the foyer after work one night, bring it on.

Just beyond the cocktail bar at the hotel entry is Bisou Bisou, French for “kiss kiss”, the latest venue from the Ghanem Group, following in the footsteps of its other venues Blackbird, Donna Chang, Boom Boom Izakaya.

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Fronting the open kitchen is a mash-up of dining settings, marble tables a deux along a lengthy banquette and more privately at the back, low-slung floral lounges for two pulled up to slightly-too-high bare wood tables. And it’s almost full.

Variety of seating: Bisou Bisou in Fortitude Valley’s Hotel X on Brunswick Street. Picture: Brad Fleet

Anthony Donaldson, head chef at CBD riverfront grill Blackbird has been drafted in as head chef of the French brasserie. The menu starts promisingly, indulgence wise, with oysters and three types of caviar, the most expensive, $220 for 25g of premium wild scampi from Western Australia. I’m immediately at odds with the hotel mission statement when I suffer a stricture of budgetary inhibition. However, a scan of the rest of the menu reveals a broad price point: hors d’oeuvres (maybe tartare or cured salmon, both $21); main courses (gnocchi $27 through to the 300g sirloin $45); plats du jour (a cheeseburger with fries $21 and 300g steak frites $43) and offerings from the rotisserie (whole sole $65; 800g cote de boeuf $180; chickens $60 whole/$30 half).

Fresh flavours: Market fish with fennel and tomato at Bisou Bisou, Fortitude Valley.

From the plats du jour, escargot and bone marrow on toast ($21) has its flavours muted by a bed of lightly caramelised shallot, when it could have been more robustly appealing if the marrow and snails were allowed to strut their muscular stuff relatively unadorned. A pair of scallops perched on a warm brioche bun ($25), surrounded by a yellow puddle of seaweed beurre blanc offers a more elegant and agreeable beginning. Classic Queensland seafood bouillabaisse ($26) with its scented, rich, tomatoey broth poured on at the table is a value version of the Provencal favourite. And fish of the day, in this case gold band snapper, is generously portioned, slightly overcooked and topped with fennel and tomato-accented sauce.

Rotisserie: Roast chicken and side dishes at Bisou Bisou, Fortitude Valley.

Best on show is a hefty crumbed pork cutlet topped with a prunes set like stepping stones across the top and teamed with sugarloaf cabbage and bacon ($32). This is a fine, no-holds-barred porcine plate, where the side ingredients are a sturdy supporting act.

Tarte Tatin ($18) with cinnamon ice cream ticks all the boxes. It’s delicate in its flavours and presentation, with an outer layer of overlapping thin apple slices, rather than a robust, heavily caramelised version. Pain d’epices, with mandarin sorbet, burnt vanilla brulee and spiced coconut ($18) is very sweet and less appealing.

Ticks all the boxes: Apple Tarte Tatin at Bisou Bisou.

Service is amenable and vigilant throughout, and the drinks list is seriously attractive, with a page of creative cocktails, a repertoire of beers including several Queenslanders, wines by the glass running to an adventurous mix of mainly French and Australian drops and a hefty array of bottles including a strong pinot noir showing.

Bisou Bisou, while part of the hotel’s recipe for a cocktail of thrills, keeps it workmanlike. The drinks list brings excitement but most of the food is straightforward brasserie style, like that enjoyed for example, by the two businessmen beside us, who heartily tuck into a shared half chicken and sides of beans and chips. Perhaps by choosing differently, maybe caviar, beef and the pomme aligot side, which is apparently almost as much cream and cheese as spud, it might have felt more indulgent.

For us, it is a solid dining experience oiled by smooth service.