The Island Boutique Hotel unveils luxe Italian restaurant and bar

YOU may have already visited The Island Rooftop Bar, but you won’t believe what used to be Tom Tate’s Islander Hotel is dishing up now.

An Italian Island in the heart of Surfers Paradise

ANY place you can eat until midnight gets a big tick in our books, and that’s just what you can do at The Island’s new Italian restaurant.

On the second level of the freshly renovated Surfers Paradise boutique hotel, marketing co-ordinator Danielle Barber says The Island Restaurant unveiling marks yet another milestone.

“The rooftop been open since November and since then we’ve fully renovated 98 boutique hotel rooms and as of last week we launched our downstairs dining and bar area,” she says.

“It’s an Italian inspired menu headed by chef Anthony Fullerton.

“We’ve got an awesome wood-fire pizza oven — it only takes 90 seconds to cook a pizza — and there’s a few other things in the kitchen that will take our food to the next level.”

The Islander Hotel has been a Surfers Paradise staple. Pic: Lindsay Moller

Danielle says the Italian offerings from downstairs will be available to rooftop diners although the rooftop will soon have its own wood-fired oven as well, to be lowered in by crane.

By the sounds of it, they might want to keep the crane handy for the emergency evacuation of diners who have overindulged in Anthony’s authentic Italian fare.

“My background is Italian, I’ve been doing it for quite some time now,” he says.

“I’m a member of the Italian Chef Federation, I’ve been involved in chef hatted restaurants in Melbourne and I go to Italy every two years to research food and wine.

“This will be the 15th restaurant I’ve opened.

“What I focus on with cuisine is being an authentic as possible.”

Some of the offerings at The Island Italian.

Anthony’s vision for authenticity and quality is simple and it translates to every facet of his craft.

“Whenever I test or hire a chef, I asked them to cook spaghetti aglio e olio, which is a very simple Italian dish,” he says.

“It’s basically just spaghetti, olive oil, chilli and garlic, but if you don’t use the right oil, the right spaghetti, if you don’t have the right balance you can tell.

“If you can do the simple things well I think that’s the true testament of a good chef.”

Chef Anthony Fullerton creates some good looking dishes at The Island Italian.

When you’ve got top producer connections that Anthony has, there’s no need to interfere too much.

“That’s what makes us different — we focus on ingredients and produce,” Anthony says.

“I’ve done a lot of work over the years and built relationships with farmers, so the meat is individually sourced and some products we’re the only place in southeast Queensland to have them.

“Basically we’re really not skimping on any ingredients in order to produce the best food we can produce.

“Don’t overwork it, let product speak for itself. That’s what true Italian food is anyway.”

Save room for dessert if you dine at The Island’s new Italian restaurant.

Aside from the wood-fired pizzas, The Island Restaurant’s signature dishes deliver hearty flavour.

“The lamb shoulder we’re using lamb from Milly Hill, a small free-range farm in NSW, and we braise it and finish in the wood-fire oven,” Anthony says.

“The Bistecca Fiorentina style we’re doing two cuts: a 600g T-bone, a single origin sourced farm T-bone — natural, organic, traceable,

“The second is a 1kg dry aged black angus rib on the bone and that’s intended for sharing.

“We’re also doing beautiful, simple whole fresh baked fish, finished with Chianti olive oil, aged balsamic and lemon.

“So again it’s clean, simple and lets the produce speak for itself.”

The interior at The Island's new Italian restaurant