‘Dishing up the best toast in town’: Fancy new Brisbane bar serving up surprising menu

It may cost more than a loaf of sliced white, but this new Brisbane venue by the team behind smash hit Melbourne eatery Supernormal is taking toast to another level.

Views of the Story Bridge from Bar Miette in Brisbane’s CB.

Toast? A couple of drinks? Sounds like a low-key winter night in front of the tele.

Or you could enjoy the same thing at smart, new, all-day Bar Miette – on the street level of the swish 443 Queen St building in Brisbane’s CBD – only with a view of the Story Bridge and river traffic rather than Presumed Innocent or America’s Sweethearts or whatever you’re currently watching. Oh and it will cost rather more than a loaf of sliced white.

But if you’re up for it, this is an attractive bar with a vibrant drinks offering – inventive cocktails from a margarita frappe to a tropical old-fashioned, more than a dozen wines by the glass and an extensive global bottle list starting from a reasonable price point – and, among other things, toast.

The milk bun mortadella stack at Bar Miette.

Here it’s topped with tuna, smoked tomato butter and chives ($24) or our choices of crab mayonnaise ($28) and sobrasada with chestnut honey ($19).

These warm treats are elevated specimens, with the crab toast topped with chunks of crustacean bound by a delicate mayo that lets the seafood sing.

It’s seriously delicious, while the version starring sobrasada (spreadable chorizo turbocharged with paprika) is blinged up with honey and a squeeze of lemon, and it’s also a knockout, with the helpful side-effect of a sufficient spice hit to clear your sinuses.

Bar Miette. Picture: Josh Robenstone

On an early evening, with the lights glowing on the bridge and a drink in hand, in my case an elegant coupe glass of the ruby red Jasmine cocktail (rhubarb, blood orange eau de vie, bitter aperitivo and lemon), it’s very appealing except for the Antarctic wind, which is quickly warded off by a waiter firing up a heater next to us.

Miette does have 16 indoor seats – at tables and up at the bar – but 70 are on the plant-fringed terrace, undercover but open at the front and sides and for most of the year this would be welcome natural airconditioning.

The lunch and dinner menu also appears to better suit the 11 months of the year that Brisbane is steaming, rather than in the middle of a polar blast.

Bar Miette. Picture: Josh Robenstone

Starting with snacks such as oysters and focaccia, it moves on to seafood dishes including caviar, charcuterie, salads, cheese and desserts, with toast seemingly the solo hot option.

The vibe is European, with Paris cafe-style woven furniture, round, blood-red tables, classic table lights, linen napkins, plates and flatware all in tune with a slightly retro sensibility that continues through the graphics on the menus.

Bar Miette. Picture: Josh Robenstone

We also tuck into drink-friendly gildas ($8): skewers laden with peppers and plump olives encircled by anchovies.

More substantial is a spectacular take on an old-school luncheon meat sandwich: a milk bun filled with a “mortadella stack”, a pile of folded thin slices of the large Italian sausage, brushed with smoked maple syrup and interleaved with small pieces of pistachio ($21). It’s irresistible.

Poached local king prawns (which we’d assumed would be hot but didn’t ask) arrive fresh and plain and cooly arched over the edge of a glass, prawn cocktail style, around a pond of rouille sauce ($25).

The slow-cooked, marinated octopus is a well-balanced, flavoursome combo of a tender tentacle curling around potato chunks nestling in aioli and dusted with paprika ($31).

Service is excellent and far better than on a morning visit when it was quite slow (although the breakfast menu is enticing and yes, the miso-enhanced avocado toast is a treat).

Miette is from Melbourne restaurateurs Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann, who this week have also flung open the doors of their much-anticipated restaurant Supernormal downstairs in the same building.

While it’s a bar, the food is putting its hand up and demanding attention. It might be simple and rely heavily on the quality of produce, but the menu is well conceived and well executed, with obvious attention to detail.

And surely it’s dishing up the best toast in town.

Bar Miette. Picture: Josh Robenstone

Bar Miette

443 Queen St, Brisbane

barmiette.com

Open

Mon-Fri 7am-10pm
Sat-Sun 8am-10pm

Must try

Crab and mayonnaise toast

Verdict

Food

3.5 stars

Ambience

4 stars

Service

4 stars

Value

3.5 stars

Overall

4/5 stars

delicious.com.au/eatout