Butter chicken dish not for faint hearted
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Gourmet sandwich joints have become hotter than a wood-fired oven this year across Brisbane.
From NUG in Fortitude Valley led by fine dining Joy chef Sarah Baldwin to neighbourhood haunt Sunny Side in Windsor, to The Twin in West End’s old Sol Breads site, there is close to a baker’s dozen eateries that are bringing in the dough with new takes on the classic bread creation.
Joining this new-aged pack of carb pushers is the fresh-out-of-the-oven Cordeaux Social Club in West End.
Setting up shop in an oddly shaped, old timber cottage in the quiet part of Montague Rd, the eatery is an all-day affair, kicking off at 6am for coffee, 7am for breakfast, then lunch and, from Thursday to Saturday, early dinners from 4pm-8pm (we’re told extended trading hours will be introduced soon).
By day, it’s all about the sandwich – with six quirky versions on offer from a curried egg, potato hash and iceberg lettuce number, to a fried chicken specialty with red cheddar and house sauce. They’re available alongside what are called “plates” on the menu, anything from a Ploughman’s lunch to a caesar salad.
Of an evening though is when chef Ben Chow (ex-Agnes, Fortitude Valley) really gets to flex his culinary muscles, presenting a share-style menu of small and large plates, moving from mortadella with house pickles ($16) or oysters with mulberry mignonette ($6 each) to a yellow fin tuna steak with burnt butter and chilli ($55).
It’s the type of food you’d happily snack on while working your way through the eclectic, global wine list featuring mostly small producers, curated in collaboration with the team at South Brisbane’s trendy Half Moon Wine Store.
Almost half the drops are available by the glass for between $15 and $19, with some better value than others. While there’s also five classic cocktails available plus a handful of local beers and cider.
The Tasmanian Hughes and Hughes riesling ($16/glass) is a strong all-rounder to work alongside several of the small plates, such as the squid ($24) – sliced into rings and cooked gently in a mackerel tea of verdant broad beans until just firm to the tooth.
Served with a charry, thick slice of spongy bread, this is like the seafood equivalent of chicken soup – warming, comforting and seemingly salubrious.
More bread is served as the plinth for the steak tartare ($22), with the meat drizzled with a fishy anchovy cream and suspending a shard of salt bush nori.
The seeded, toasted loaf is delicious on its own, but competes a little too vehemently for the spotlight against the delicate beef. What shines brightly, however, are the tiger prawns. Served individually at $9 each, you’ll want an entire plateful, with the striped, shell-on crustacean cooked with white wine, tomatoes and salami bringing sweetness and subtle spice against salty pops of capers.
If you can’t handle heat, however, you’ll want to give Cordeaux’s interpretation of butter chicken ($40) a wide berth.
The half bird is cooked over charcoal until its skin blackens and its meat gently begins to free itself of the bone, before being cut into chunks ready to be dipped into a butter chicken-inspired sauce – throat catching with spice and deeply flavoured with smoked tomatoes.
My dinner date is unable to tolerate it, even with the restaurant’s overly soggy potato chips on hand to extinguish the inferno.
It’s a nice idea, but perhaps there’s still some work to do on the execution.
Service is friendly and knowledgeable, but waxes and wanes in attentiveness, however, for a neighbourhood eatery, it probably goes above what is expected these days.
Overall Cordeaux Social Club is just that – a social club, filled on our visit with a broad mix of friends catching up over food and drink in a cosy, homely setting. It’s not shooting for fine dining status, but it delivers what it sets out to be – a solid neighbourhood haunt.
CORDEAUX SOCIAL CLUB
462 Montague Rd, West End
Open
Tue-Wed 6am-2pm, Thu-Sat 7am-2pm and 4pm-8pm,
Sun 7am-2pm
Must try
Prawns with salami and white wine
Verdict – Scores out of 5
Food 3
Service 3.5
Ambience 3
Value 3
Overall 3
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