Old favourite fails to impress

Despite an eight-month makeover, this Brisbane City eatery from one of Australia’s top chefs feels like it’s trapped in a time warp.

As I stood at the bar waiting to be served, with no obvious queue and the staff seemingly oblivious to the disorder, I thought I was caught in a flashback. The clock magically rewound 10 years.

However, I wasn’t experiencing a phenomenal shift of the space-time continuum, rather simply witnessing a venue trapped in a time warp. Despite two freak floods, a pandemic and an eight-month renovation which finally concluded in October this year, Brisbane City’s popular Riverbar & Kitchen is arguably exactly the same as when it opened a decade ago.

Riverbar + Kitchen in Brisbane City. Picture: Adam Head

Back then it was the spot where the “new and trendy” salt and pepper calamari would fly out of the fryers faster than you could say, “I’ll have a cosmopolitan please”, which was the choice for imbibing among the boozy crowd aged from their 20s to 50s frequenting the kitsch, nautically themed, waterfront space on weekends.

Now, 10 years on, that calamari still takes pride of place on the freshly printed but already drink-soaked and sticky menus, while the shameless maritime concept has been rolled out yet again during the rebuild following February’s floods, with white VJ walls hung with beachy paraphernalia, yellow and cream director’s chairs tucked into tables opposite blue banquettes and potted palms aplenty.

Dishes including the spanner crab spaghetti at Riverbar & Kitchen in Brisbane City.

The place is absolutely heaving on a Saturday night, so I guess, if ain’t broke, why fix it?

What could do with some fixing, however, is the food.

As I look around the sprawling room which spills out to a riverside alfresco space pumping with dance hits from an in-house DJ, barely anyone is eating.

Many are, however, double parked with drinks from a list that has – thankfully – been given an update worthy of the 2020s, with a signature cocktail offering that has swapped the once-loved cosmopolitan for more modern shake-ups, including versions in jugs, plus a wine list that mixes a few bottle shop faves with less rudimentary options like an Argentinian malbec, Italian soave and a Greek assyrtiko.

Though the somewhat untrained staff, it seems, are still catching up with the latest expansion of varietals, unfamiliar with the assyrtiko – both what it is and where to find it in the bar.

Our server is also unfamiliar with the sashimi of the day from the new raw section of the menu, which features, among other things, a kingfish crudo and Queensland tiger prawns with spicy cocktail sauce.

The sashimi at Riverbar & Kitchen in Brisbane City.

After he checks with the kitchen, we’re told the sashimi is a trio of salmon, kingfish and tuna ($29 for 9 pieces, $50 for 18).

It’s overly firm and flavourless and given celebrity chef Matt Moran is behind this Brisbane institution, the expectation is for more.

The same could be said for the chicken tenders ($19) – the crumbed and fried poultry something that should perhaps be reserved for the children’s menu; while the venue’s version of a classic margherita pizza with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and basil ($20) tastes like it could have been whipped straight from the freezer aisle of Coles.

The mains section of the menu offers a checklist of pub favourites, including two types of steak, a crumbed pork cutlet, fish and chips and burgers, no doubt a similar line-up as a decade ago also.

The chicken tenders at Riverbar & Kitchen in Brisbane City.

The chilli spanner crab spaghetti ($36) is a solid version of the ubiquitous dish, with a good amount of heat, though the pasta is more droopy than al dente.

What Riverbar & Kitchen has going for it – especially given its glorious waterfront location below Eagle St – is no doubt it’s price point, with dishes starting at just $10 and many less than $30.

But perhaps there’s a reason few people around us are eating and instead just treating it as a drinking den. While nostalgia might work for a revised fit-out, food from 2012 won’t.

RIVERBAR & KITCHEN

71 Eagle St, Brisbane City

3211 9020

riverbarandkitchen. com.au

Open

Daily 7am-midnight (kitchen times may vary)

Verdict

Food 2.5

Service 2.5

Ambience 3.5

Value 3.5

Overall 3