How online-only take-away became one of Brisbane’s most popular eateries

It started life as an online Covid venture and has now morphed into one of Brisbane’s hottest restaurants. This is our review.

Alison Walsh

@AlisonAWalsh

2 min read

November 11, 2021 - 11:30AM

QWeekend

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The lush, rich confit duck rendang at Kid Curry in Fortitude Valley is so deeply flavoured and delicious that it deserves some sort of warning label on the menu. Alert: If you order anything else, accept that it will pale in comparison.

Kid Curry is the third venue established by Cameron and Jordan Votan behind the fairylight-swaddled trees lining busy East St. The brothers, who also have French bistro Greenglass in the CBD, began with Chinese regional food venue Happy Boy in Spring Hill before moving it down to the Valley, then branched into adjacent bar and Chinese street food outlet Snack Man and now have added Kid Curry next door.

Stark appeal: Kid Curry in East St, Fortitude Valley. Photo: David Kelly

The pan-Asian restaurant was born last year as an online Covid venture, with the Votans figuring curry was a great takeaway option for their staff to turn out during lockdown. It then came to life as a set-menu pop-up before the Votans decided to make it a permanent fixture.

Now, with spotted gum-lined walls, concrete floors, bare tables and paper serviettes, Kid Curry’s interior is appealing in its startlingly radical simplicity. Its menu, overseen by Tom Swapp, formerly executive chef at Thai institution Spirit House in Yandina on the Sunshine Coast, is a lengthy mash-up of dishes from across Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Given that curry is an anglicised umbrella term for spicy dishes, the scope is broad, beginning with six smaller offerings such as Filipino kinilaw (cured kingfish with coconut milk, finger lime, chilli and herbs), and then running through a range of offerings including a fish curry from Sri Lanka, Thai-inspired wok-fried prawns in a red curry sauce, Indian butter chicken and lamb roghan josh. There are multiple veg options including wok-fried mushrooms with roasted rice, dal, and a green mango salad.

Light touch: Kinilaw, cured Kingfish with coconut milk, finger lime, chilli and herbs at Kid Curry in Fortitude Valley. Photo David Kelly

Starters include extremely tender flame-grilled lamb mince seekh kebabs ($14 for two), with pickled red onion and a saucer of mint chutney; and karipap, Malay-style curry puffs in an excellent pastry stuffed with curried vegetables, which are a stand out.

The drinks list is on the back of the single-page menu with an almost entirely overseas wine offering. The by-the-glass choice is limited to eight, with a rosé from Corsica for $13 and the rest up to $25. Also on offer are highball cocktails and Kirin and Asahi beers.

Good looking: Pla Yang, butterflied grilled fish. Photo: David Kelly

Butterflied grilled trout coated in chilli jam and sprinkled with nuts, herbs and leaves ($42) looks amazing, but somehow lacks the expected punch, perhaps roasting the nuts would add more textural contrast? The duck rendang ($28) delivers a sucker punch of booming high notes and needs assistance from jasmine rice ($3.50) and perhaps a flaky roti ($7) to distil its intensity.

Roti Gulay: Roti with banana, Thai tea ice cream and chocolate ganache at Kid Curry, East St, Fortitude Valley. Photo: David Kelly

You have to have planned ahead to make it to dessert, as these require application. Roti gulay is an extreme selection involving banana wrapped in the flatbread and fried, a chocolate ganache sauce, the lot topped with a scoop of Thai-tea ice-cream ($15). It’s easily enough for two and a must for dessert fiends for whom too much is never enough. By comparison, Shrikhand kulfi is far more moderate with a tangy cardamom yoghurt gelato topped with pretty piped peaks of turmeric cream and scattered with brittle-encrusted pistachio crumbs ($15).

Across two visits, the experience as a whole is a little uneven, the service varying from excellent to functional, similarly the worst you could say about a dish is that it wasn’t bad while others are terrific. Food is delivered very quickly, there’s no mucking about. It is early days but the Votan brothers are experienced operators who have managed to create another winner in what now amounts to their own very busy, buzzing food precinct in a suburb with plenty of competition.