Restaurant review: Videre offers fine dining with the best view in town

CHANTAY Logan reviews Videre Restaurant at Royal Pines Resort.

RACV Royal Pines Resort , Videre Restaurant food pics . Pressed duck Terrine -Caramelised campari , gingerbread , confit bloo...

REVIEW: The best seats for the summer storm light show aren't reserved for penthouse owners.

From a prime perch on Level 21, Videre treats guests to a picturesque perspective of our city and a flashback to fine dining in its hay day.

That includes service as it should be, overseen by restaurant manager Shannon Stewart.

Our waiter, James, not only knows the menu back-to-front, he knows his food, from the history of iberico ham to the quirky fact that KFC used to sell sweetbreads as a side.

He's invisible when he needs to be, but no tablecloth will be left uncrumbed or water glass run dry under his watch.

He steers us well when it comes to the menu, which manages to be at once old-fashioned and thoroughly modern.

Chef de cuisine Sean Chambers plays with taste and texture to make the familiar seem fresh.

Time-honoured combinations - lamb and peas; beetroot and goat's cheese - are reinvented as abstract art.

It's well priced at $18 for entrees, $33 for mains and $16.50 for dessert, with bread, an amuse-bouche and all of those fine-dining extras making the experience even better value.

Fraser Island spanner crab salad captures a Queensland summer on a plate.

Roast lamb loin, lamb belly, buttermilk ricotta, broad beans and spring pea nage.

A generous portion of the sweet meat is painstakingly coaxed from its shell and combined with pickled cucumber, quinoa, gin and tonic and toasted rice.

In another entree suited to the season, aerated Meredith goat's curd is dotted through a playground of beetroot - salt-baked and croquant (crisp) - with sauvignon blanc sorbet and caraway.

To really lap up the luxury, match it with a glass of NV Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial.

If you're a fan of lamb, you'll probably enjoy the belly for its extra quota of flavour-imparting fat.

For main course it's served with lamb loin, buttermilk ricotta and broad beans, and spring pea nage, poured over the dish at the table.

Valrhona Manjari is the pinnacle for chocolate lovers.

It's strikingly presented in parfait form with pistachio cake, salted caramel and cherry sorbet for dessert.

Valrohna Manjan chocolate parfait-pistachio cake, salted caramel and cherry sorbet.

There are also New York style cronuts, the much-hyped croissant-donut hybrid, oozing with strawberry gelee, a lemon verbena infusion and sheep's milk sorbet.

Staff are expert at suggesting wine matches to complete the picture.

Videre is open for dinner Wednesday to Saturday and high tea sittings on weekends.

Videre Restaurant

Go to: Level 21 of RACV Royal Pines Resort, Ross Street, Benowa

Book it: 5597 8700

Must do: Fraser Island spanner crab salad

Sum up: The vantage advantage

Pressed duck terrine, caramelised campari, gingerbread and confit blood orange.