Milton restaurant, Cribb Street Social, is a great place to catch up with mates

The name of this Milton bar and restaurant echoes the venue’s ambitions to attract social activity with a spacious covered outdoors area and an indoor space complete with upholstered chairs and ­banquettes, wooden floors and a glass-fronted charcuterie fridge

Cribb Street Social at Milton in Brisbane

Behind the clumps of office towers that line the city end of Coronation Drive in Brisbane’s inner-west Milton is an urban oasis. Outcrops of greenery embellish the streets and a carpark that morphs into a food and farmer’s market on Sunday mornings. ­Opposite, there’s a new strip of shops ­including pizza, sushi and bagel outlets and a restaurant and bar, Cribb Street Social.

The name echoes the venue’s ambitions to attract social activity with a spacious covered outdoors area and an indoor space complete with upholstered chairs and ­banquettes, wooden floors and a glass-fronted charcuterie fridge.

On a weeknight there were clusters of apparently after-work groups enjoying drinks, and a couple alternately eating ­dinner and canoodling in a corner.

The multi-page menu reveals the ­establishment’s focus on drink-fuelled grazing as it kicks off with a page of ­charcuterie – Spanish serrano, Italian ­truffle sopressa, Australian 35-day cured duck bresaola – which, the waitress informs us, is accompanied by house-made bread, pickles and chutney.

Next is a page of cheeses – Colston Basset Blue from England and a Cabot clothbound cheddar from the US among them.

The wine list includes a page each of largely Australian whites and reds, with most available by the glass. No fewer than 10 craft beers are on tap.

Charred flatbread with dips.

Wild boar saddle.

Crispy lamb’s brain, with burnt leek cream and picked grapes (would be a tad awkward if they were on the vine), heads the selection of small and large plates that comprises the dinner menu. We share charred flatbread ($12), which, rather than the freshly cooked Middle Eastern bread I’d imagined, was a stack of crispbread-like sheets ready to scoop up the pleasant enough coriander seed hummus and lemon, beetroot and feta dip.

Large plates include lamb rump, brisket, chicken supreme, beetroot and lentil ­patties, and grilled whole lemon sole ($28). Sole is a rarity on a menu in Brisbane and while the waitress was unable to tell us where it was from, I ordered it out of ­curiosity and as it was served she told us it was “from the UK”. For a whole fish it was lacking various parts such as a head and the fish’s usual curved sides, and lay on a sheet of baking paper beneath a thick fried caper, lemon and burnt butter sauce.

Also not seen too often on menus is wild boar saddle ($28), from New Zealand, which was firm and pink but could have used a bit more of the whisky apple, buckwheat polenta and thyme, red onion and plum compote to moisten the 250g of meat.

The tomato medley ($9) included some too-hard specimens and the rosemary ­salted chips were floury inside, lacking in crispness and bore only the faintest trace of the herb.

We shared a dessert of orange custard fool; the sponge was very dry and topped with a very firm, oddly flavoured creme ­patisserie. We didn’t finish it.

CRIBB STREET SOCIAL

19/23 Cribb St

Cribbstreetsocial.com.au

BOOK 3117 9388

OPEN Sat-Sun 8am-11pm, Mon-Tue 7am-6pm, Wed-Fri 7am-11pm

SCORE OUT OF 10

Food 6

Service 7

Ambience 8

VERDICT Great for drinks, food needs work