Review: ‘Batter rigid enough to sand cracked heels’
The damper was gluggy, the pizza pallid, the battered eggplant stiff and the lamington awful but there were glimmers of improvement on a return visit to one of Brisbane’s most anticipated new restaurants.
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ONE minute you’re wandering along Brunswick St past a couple of down-at-heel adult shops, the next you’re before a gleaming new restaurant where the raunchiest thing on offer is a “pornstar martini”.
As the makeover of inner-Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley continues space, a building that was erected as a meeting place of the Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society in 1889 has re-emerged with a brilliant white facade fronting a restaurant and bar, which a press release promises will offer “a modern Australian take on gastropub food”.
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The fit-out is impressive, with wide floorboards, exposed original brick walls, a mix of velvet-clad chairs, leather banquettes and a long bar.
There’s liberal use of exposed concrete and black fittings and the wooden tables are topped with elegant nickel-look cutlery, linen napkins, leather-bound menus and decent crockery.
On arrival we’re warmly greeted and seated and soon perusing a menu that offers pub favourites such as croquettes, chicken parmigiana, steaks, a burger and pizzas, but given a fashionable edge courtesy of entries in the vein of wallaby carpaccio, beetroot risotto and lemon myrtle roast chicken with bacon-fat roasted potatoes.
We order damper ($9), calamari ($15) and on the recommendation of our waitress, fried eggplant ($14). The damper, which the menu describes as a “mini pull-apart loaf housemade with local ale, crispy chicken skin and sage butter” resembles a stack of bloated bread slices and after we excavate beneath the top cheese-covered crust, it’s only partly cooked, the centre an expanse of gluggy, damp dough.
The calamari is lacklustre, while two lengths of eggplant, encased in hard, dark batter are rigid enough to be used to sand cracked heels. When asked how our meals are and I show the waitress the bread, the manager quickly arrives to apologise, removes the cost of the item and offers a free glass of wine.
Unfortunately the main courses are no better, the capricciosa pizza ($27) pallid, the pork belly ($25) dry. The only bright light is a fillet of Cone Bay barramundi ($29) that was nicely cooked with crispy skin, although the accompanying vegetables – a pea salsa and pureed cauliflower – are watery and bland.
We wait some time for plates to be cleared and then find dessert a mixed bag. A glass of citrus posset ($12) is reasonable and covered with freeze-dried fruit and speared with Scotch Finger halves, while the Foresters lamington ($15) – sponge layered with unappealing, odd tasting raspberry jam and vanilla creme – is covered in burnt coconut and is truly awful.
Given that the place had only been open a few days when we visited, I returned 10 days later to check for signs of improvement. This time the damper is dry and cold in the middle but a margarita pizza ($20) is better than the first effort, while stone-baked gnocchi ($25) is passable but one-dimensional and lacking flavour.
The mainly Australian wine list offers an impressive number of wines by the glass (delivered to the table pre-poured), the eight tap beers include 4 Pines Pale Ale, Stone & Wood Pacific Ale and XXXX Gold and are supplemented by a large range of bottled brews. The lengthy cocktail list runs to a Bushfire Negroni made from North Queensland Mt Uncle smoked gin.
Sometimes a restaurant has all the looks in the world and floorstaff keen to please but in the end it’s about the food. And it needs some serious attention here.
FORESTERS RESTAURANT AND BAR
209 Brunswick Street
Fortitude Valley
BOOK
(07) 3188 3161
OPEN
Sun-Thur 6.30am until 10pm
Fri-Sat 6.30am-midnight
VERDICT
FOOD 4
SERVICE 7
AMBIENCE 8
VALUE 4
OVERALL 5.5
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