Restaurant review: Restraint doesn’t appear to be on the menu at Maple Fusion

Stir-fried pork intestines, duck head and fish lips are part of the comprehensive menu that’s making its mark in inner-Brisbane’s Milton.

The stewed meat ball at Maple Fusion, Milton.

WHEN I order fish fillet with pickled cabbage ($32.80) I have no idea it will take the form of a broth-filled tureen packed with chunks of white fish, masses of shredded vegetables, lashings of garlic and a handful of dried chilli.

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God it’s good but we have enough to offer the rest of the diners in the restaurant a bowl as well. We’d already worked our way through another main course, braised beef brisket and

Highly recommended: The generous serve of fish fillet with pickled cabbage at Maple Fusion. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

Chinese pancake ($28.80) which was a generously portioned plate of beef chunks in a rich, deeply flavoured sauce, with triangles of pancake arranged around the outside so that it resembled a giant sunflower. While we’re yet to receive our entrée – the arrival of dishes is rather haphazard _ it’s clear we’ve seriously over-ordered.

Restraint doesn’t appear to be on the menu at new Chinese restaurant, Maple Fusion, in Park Road in Milton in Brisbane’s inner-west, but pretty much everything else is. We try to order fish lips (served either casseroled or in salt and pepper) but they aren’t available but there’s plenty to pique interest on of the extensive menu of northern Chinese cuisine, with everything from stir-fried pork intestines to duck head, garlic scape (the tops of garlic plants) in sesame sauce and all proteins from tofu to pork, abalone, shellfish and the contents of the fish tank bubbling against one wall. Descriptions are minimal so it’s a little difficult to know what to expect but there are some obvious play-it-safe choices such as lemon chicken or satay beef but equally, sautéed lamb tripe or spicy chicken cartilage will appeal to the more adventurous.

Lots of different zones: Maple Fusion at Milton.

Our entrée of salt and pepper soft shell crab ($12.80) eventually arrives, the seafood clad in a crisp, light batter with a scattering of chilli and shallot. After another delay the stewed meatball ($8.80), a quite delicious orb of pork mince with a boiled egg at its centre, glistening beneath a veil of rich sauce, only just precedes dessert. A waiter tells us it’s because there are delays in the kitchen as the wind is causing problems with the vent. I can’t see how that would mean you could braise beef but not stew a meatball but I’m sure something was lost in translation.

Sweet: Steamed and deep fried Chinese bread with condensed milk. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

Desserts are expensive but maybe the toffee sweet potatoes ($18.80) involved a whole box of root vegetables? Steamed and deep-fried Chinese bread with condensed milk ($9.80) is as it sounds, a tray of small white bread rolls, some steamed, some fried, and a saucer of the aforementioned milk, ready for dipping. It’s for serious condensed milk addicts only.

The restaurant name is not exactly certain to appeal with the word fusion usually suggesting a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none approach to cuisine, despite it being all Chinese. The maple reference evokes a Canadian connection but it’s derived from the name of the compnay that owns the restaurant, according to one of the waiters.

The freshly refurbished interior is divided into zones, with a more casual bare-topped table area at the front and along one side, a white-clothed formal area beside it and then function rooms out the back.

The clipped wine selection has 10 reds, including four Penfolds, with two by-the-glass options and seven whites with four available by the glass.

There are quite a few wait staff, who seem more intent on getting their headsets working than serving us when we arrive. We encounter most of them by the time we leave and they’re all perfectly agreeable but we never see the drinks list again, the tea is lukewarm and the arrival order of the food is bizarre. What the restaurant is doing right is offering a discount as part of their soft opening to compensate for any glitches.

MAPLE FUSION

16 Park Rd, Milton

BOOK

3368 3777

Maplefusion.com.au

OPEN

11am-3pm, 5-9pm Mon-Sat

MUST TRY

Fish fillet with pickled cabbage

VERDICT

Food 7.5

Ambience 7.5

Service 6

Value 8

OVERALL 7