Can’t afford Otto? Here’s a cheaper way to eat there

Want to experience one of Brisbane’s most expensive restaurants without actually going to the restaurant. Here’s how.

Review Alison Walsh

2 min read

February 25, 2021 - 2:00PM

QWeekend

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Psssssst. Want to experience one of Brisbane’s most expensive restaurants without actually going to the restaurant? Well, yes, sure, you say, but how would that work? Pop into the adjoining bar and while you’re downing perhaps an Aperol spritz, or a glass of nebbiolo rose, graze to your stomach’s content.

Otto Brisbane opened in 2016 on the 4th floor of a Queen Street high rise and made a name for itself with its quality Italian food and kooky dancing lightshades before it decamped to South Bank and opened a couple of weeks ago in the premises formerly occupied by Stokehouse.

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The wooden building nestled in the mangroves near the Goodwill Bridge has been freshened up with touches of the vibrant blue and yellow of the Otto brand and the whirling lightshades have made the journey, but the riverbank venue looks largely the same. Centre stage are the views across the water to the city.

Otto Ristorante’s menu looks very similar to its previous incarnation with the same head chef, Will Cowper, turning his talented hands to the restaurant’s signature pasta, but at a price, with entree sizes from $35-$50 and mains $50-$70. Other main courses, maybe Longreach lamb or Rangers Valley steak, are $50-$60.

Jaw-dropping outlook: Riverside dining at Otto Osteria

The new Osteria is much friendlier on the pocket but then here you’re not eating lobster with your spaghettini. The Osteria’s pasta, for example, remains house-made but it’s a much simplified offering of cacio e pepe ($28), ricotta ravioli with pesto or rigatoni amatriciana (both $30). No bookings are taken at the Osteria and we turn up on a weeknight and score a waterside table, with the slatted metal chairs softened with yellow and blue cushions.

Simple but appealing: Otto Osteria’s pasta options.

After ordering a drink from the 15 by-the-glass wine options, which are poured at the bar not the table, we bypass the rock oysters, olives, grissini or cured meats and order a house-made mini focaccia, a play on the bread offered to diners in the main restaurant. Ours, topped with whorls of white anchovy and salsa verde ($8), arrives cut into four pillowy fine-grained pieces, which the waitress tells us was made 10 minutes ago but is cold.

Otto’s salt cod and potato croquettes

A chargrilled local tiger prawn will set you back $9 but it’s a sizeable specimen and doused in butter, garlic, chilli and capers and with some decent char marks, it’s pretty damn good.

Fried artichoke pieces ($12) slathered with salsa verde are drink friendly as are salt cod and potato croquettes ($12), with their very thin, crisp crust and surprisingly light filling.

Rigatoni amatriciana, with its tomato, garlic, chilli sauce studded with pancetta strips and showered with pecorino, is a fine example of the dish and local bay squid ($30) is fresh and charry from the grill and accessorised with gremolata ($32). Other main courses include barramundi fillet, quail or Rangers Valley minute steak ($30-$40), all served with green salad.

OTTO Brisbane's new location at South Bank. Photograph: Liam Kidston.

Dessert is either tiramisu, which looks like an ungainly sausage-shaped model of Uluru but is surprisingly airy and appealing, and a chocolate tart (both $12), with an excellent thin base, the filling topped with sliced fresh figs on one side and piped cream on the other.

Everything is craftsman-like in its quality but eating through much of the menu as we did, there was no real wow factor. For that you need to explore the restaurant proper. However, most people wouldn’t be going to the Osteria to eat a three-course meal, rather for a drink at a venue with a strong beverage line-up, stunning views and superior bar food.