‘The year’s most beautiful dessert’: Review of Restaurant Dan Arnold
There’s been few highlights in 2020 but we think we’ve found one of them. This decadent dessert from a Brisbane restaurant is a must try.
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With the hands-down winner of the year’s most beautiful dessert on the table before me – a perfectly smooth pink dome encasing creme brulee and strawberries beside a delicate arrangement of strawberry sorbet and fresh fruit – I can’t help but marvel at the resilience of some chefs in this most difficult of years.
While the 1920s had the Charleston, the fifties had the jitterbug, in 2020 we have the COVID pivot, with classically trained Fortitude Valley restaurateur and chef Dan Arnold pivoting so much to deal with the impact of the pandemic that he’s done a 360.
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Two years ago he returned to his home town after seven years in France (with experience as a two-Michelin star sous chef and 8th place in the prestigious Bocuse d’Or world final in 2017) to open his eponymous restaurant with wife Amelie beneath the Alex Perry Apartments on Ann Street. For Brisbane, the restaurant had an unusual set-menu-only arrangement. And then just when people seemed to have adjusted to the concept, there was March’s onslaught of pandemic restrictions. Arnold briefly offered takeaway before realising it wasn’t going to work for him, it didn’t really suit his style of refined, classic food. A few weeks later he was back with a weekly changing array of partly-prepared heat-at-home menus and a Saturday bake sale of stunning French pastries, breads, cakes, tarts and jam, which introduced him to a whole new audience.
Now the restaurant is back in full swing and appears busier than ever, with Saturday nights booked out several weeks in advance. Post-lockdown, no-choice set menus have become the new normal at a number of the state’s high-end restaurants and, at $85 for three courses and $125 for five, plus loads of amuse- bouches, a selection of house-made breads (brioche, rye, sourdough), butters (smoked and citrus) and petit fours, and this level of cooking, it’s very good value.
We visit on a Wednesday night and there are only a couple of spare tables. The six bite-sized amuse-bouches are a delight, especially the crunchy rice crackers topped with tiny cubes of raw tuna that gleam like rubies, the thinnest rye bread wafers with mustard seeds sandwiching beef tartare, mini tacos with roasted cauliflower and tahini and a red beetroot and cinnamon-scented glazed dome of foie gras.
Diners can choose a matched flight of wines, drink by the glass options from the substantial French-Australian selection bumped up with Coravin offerings, or delve into the substantial array of bottles.
Of the dishes we try, seared swordfish with a finger lime beurre blanc is a standout, challenged for honours by the dramatically plated, rolled Burrawang duck breast wrapped in duck prosciutto and slow cooked and then served with a grain salad of black barley and farro, beetroot ravioli and mulberry jus.
Service has improved considerably since the early days, with an experienced maitre’d running the floor, charming diners, suggesting wines, wielding a very cool designer cheese trolley like a weapon and insisting we give it some attention.
Dessert, dubbed a strawberry sundae, is a visual feast but even better to eat, fresh strawberries and lime and strawberry sorbet the sidekicks to a dome composed of intricate layers including Grand Marnier crème brulee, strawberry salad, hazelnut chocolate mousse and a strawberry glaze. As the bill arrives, so does a selection of petit fours, including pecan and chocolate cookies, passionfruit jellies and salted caramel truffles. Sacre bleu!
Despite various updates since the early days, the neat and tidy room with its wooden floors and all-round loose-weave curtains still somehow feels like a hotel restaurant. Everything else is on the money though. While the food and menu style seemed slightly old-hat when the restaurant opened, after a year of mostly takeaway and comfort food, it now seems in contrast like a wonderful, rare display of technical virtuosity that delivers a relaxed sense of occasion. And given you can’t go to France, ducking into the Valley and indulging in the pleasures of Arnold’s intricate food is a journey well worth taking.
