Jimmy's on the Mall--Is it a tourist trap?

Every Brisbane local and possibly tourist is familiar with or at least 'sight familiar'--Jimmy's On the Mall. You can't miss it-- it's smack bang in the middle of Queen St Mall and since it's renovations (rumoured $5mil plus) it's turned from few outdoor chairs and tables to this behemoth of vertical gardens, marble benches, modern copper lighting and waiters in stripes.

Classy upgrade--but how's the food? Don't know about other locals but I always thought it would be a) expensive, b) poor quality and c) marketed at tourists. After wondering past daily though-- at least the tourist part seems to be false as I do see a lot of what appears to be locals having food/drinks there--ALOT--good luck getting a table on Friday night when it coincides with CBD late night shopping.

Anyhooo hubby's always wanted to go--sucker for presentation this guy and I wanted a cold beer so somewhere around the frantic hot 2 days before Christmas when we were doing some shopping we had dinner there.

Promptly seated-downstairs-quite busy and noisy-- live music upstairs but seems to be more of a drinking rather than eating scene so downstairs suited us fine. Menu is typical 'Australian'  or in otherwords--disjointed mulit-cultural mix of everything--burgers, chips, Fish and Chips, pasta and a few Asian influenced or Asian dishes--FYI the owner is Asian so that's no surprise. Waitress pushed the specials (Moreton bay bugs with noodles, rice, sweet chilli sauce) but no thanks-- screams tourist.


Settled on the Salt and Pepper calamari for entree, with chips before I ordered the spaghetti with mussels and hubby had some mexican steak dish.
When the food came out we knew for sure it definitely fulfilled criteria a) above--For what it is, it is expensive. Scanty salt and pepper on limpid , semi cold (possibly microwaved) salt and pepper calamari. Chips were ok--but it's chips you can't mess that up even with something more mayonnaise rather than 'aioli'.

Chips, salt and pepper calamari 

Seafood Angelhair pasta 

Some mussels on my angel hair spaghetti wasn't opened --feeling a bit ripped off especially since wasn't much on there in the first place. Flavour of pasta was ok, spaghetti slightly over cooked but still acceptable.

Don't bother with the steak dish--- tough as nails beef and funny sauce reminiscent of tinned mexican chilli soup and possibly frozen veg. So there we go--criteria B--poor quality food ticked.

Steak forgot what it's called don't bother 

While the food may be sub par-- there's definitely a plus to the atmosphere eating semi al fresco in the middle of the mall. Tourist trap? Maybe, for those willing to pay the price. So definitely not a place for regular eating, but if you want to sample the ambience then consider ordering maybe some of the Asian menu items (minus the salt and pepper calamari) and stick to more typical, takeaway fare e.g. fish and chips, burgers--those looked half decent as they sailed by to other tables.

Jamie's Italian Brisbane

The celebrity chef thing really works--if a celebrity chef opens a restaurant in your city--trust me you will go, no matter how much you say you won't.

Jamie's Italian has been open in the Brisbane CBD for over 1 year now, maybe it's me walking past it everyday to get Starbucks or all the initial buzz that was around it--I finally went with hubby after stubbornly saying 'NO' (due to a poor experience in Sydney)

Since it's opening theres been a lot of mixed opinions--from bland food, to cold food to long waits to bad service and again long waits to OMG awesome food. We chose a Sunday afternoon (4:30pm ish) to have an early dinner or late lunch--whatever you call it. You'd think this time would warrant expedient services but nope Jamie's Italian Brisbane's reputation for long waits is definitely well deserved.

We waited so long for our appetiser (crispy porcini arancini) that we had time to look at the decor and come up with reasons as to why the wait was so long? Could it be those ridiculous stairs the staff have to climb to get access to the kitchen? Or the floor manager who likes to be texting rather than working?

Soon we were wondering if the meats  and vegetables hanging above the bar counter were real and if we could just eat that--don't bother slicing.

For the record food above the counter is not for eating

I'll say our arachini was delicious -- anything is when you've been waiting 45minutes.

We've tried the polenta chips, squid ink pasta all at the Sydney place and was not impressed by how oily, bland and skimpy the servings were. This time we decided on some meaty goodness with bolognese pasta, prime strip loin steak bundled with chips and a salad. 

Thankfully everything was meaty enough, as you'd expect from a meat sauce and steak. Still, for a guy that says 'punches and loads of flavour' alot-- don't expect the food at this place to deliver these sort of punches--it's better than what we had in Sydney but still on the blander side. 

Portions appear decent and everything was well cooked and hot despite the long wait. So obviously food's not sitting around waiting to be served--maybe it really does take a long time to cook things properly--like 60minutes? Maybe they were making the pasta from scratch and butchering the cow from scratch. Last time I checked, pasta especially fresh, takes less than 5minutes to boil.  

You can't make friends (or customers) with salad. Especially when it arrives 3/4 into the meal and has no flavour

It's a lot harder to take a pretty photo of bolognese especially when you want to inhale it from hunger

Well cooked steak..not worth the wait 

It's easy to see why Jamie Oliver's food is popular ---but I think he should  change the menu at this establishment to one that showcases the 15minute meals. That way, you may get a chance to eat the food within 1 hour of arriving at the restaurant.  They offer free parking now when you eat there on Saturday nights--so I guess you can prepare to spend the night there.

Restaurant II

So we finally made it here. Over the past 10 years Brisbane's dining scene has come a long way with increased interest and competition. Business is not as easy as it used to be with many supposed 'fine dining' institutions from years past succumbing to increased competition, a more discerning market, economic pressure and bowing eventually out of the dining scene altogether. Some, suffer a lot worse being relegated to the ranks of 'it used to be good'.

Yet--for those who've stayed, it may well just prove that they deserve to be there--Darwinian evolution of the restaurant scene I suppose. So where does Restaurant II fit?

Menu changing seasonally is a good start. Contemporary, elegant decoration --tick. Service? Well I guess the waitstaff do have lives outside of the restaurant --they're not all sommeliers and don't rely on the wine advice--or lack there of.

Between us hubby and I could sample most of the dishes so we decided to give the degustation a miss. The combination of the dishes on the degustation menu were not dishes that we would order off the a-la carte. And personal peeve of hubby's is when the degustation menu is just all the a-lacarte combined--what's the point? the man asks.

Presentation is tight with all the dishes from the complementary canape (forgot what it was) down to the dessert. Timeliness was not a strong point with many tables (especially those eating degust) waiting well past 30minutes between some courses.

My entree of the Mooloolaba tuna showcased the beauty of all the ingredients in harmony but unfortunately the sinew in the tuna was just difficult to saw through.

Mooloolaba tuna with watermelon

Hubby's pork belly with the layers visible looked enticing and lived up to the presentation in taste--exactly what you'd expect--porky poorness.

Pork Belly entree 

The mains showed generous portions and a 'it is what it is' approach. When my lobster arrived there was a collective 'wow' and delight that yes it is genuinely, no messing about, undisguised lobster. Texture of the flesh was not what I expected-- seemed to be a lot more 'frayed? with a processed food texture' rather than firm and sweet meat expected. In a nutshell--croquets are croquets -- not a fan and should be reserved for a food court. Hubby's duck was cooked wonderfully but in the end he commented 'this is just duck with orange'--yes dear it is, but the meat was cooked nicely.

Duck 

Lobster with Jamon croquettes 

Dessert menu had a few proven crowd pleasers-- fondant, creme brûlée..Meal ended on a high with familiar desserts executed perfectly. Oozy chocolate fondant anyone? Banana had a rich dark caramelised top. Bacon ice cream with creme brûlée?sure , especially when accompanied with a piece of salty crispy bacon. 

Proof in the pudding--oozing chocolate fondant

Free standing creme brulee with bacon ice cream

It's not surprising Restaurant II has managed to stay in the business through the years. Ingredients, reputation, past achievement all helps but the key ingredient to success remains to continuously improve and refine--I for one, hope Restaurant II continues to do that (especially more of the refine).

Lennon's Restaurant and Bar @ Next Hotel

One of the revamps of part of Brisbane's Queen St in recent times is the Next hotel (formerly site of the Chifley) -- very noticeable as it's right next to and above the also recent Forever 21. 

Inside the restuarant

Walked past many times and you have to be intrigued by the hanging pendant lamps that seemed to be part of the very new, very industrial meets suburban loft decor through glass windows. Huge improvement to the gold and concrete that was there before. 

Decided to satisfy the curiosity and see if the restaurant offering has improved too--surely they couldn't have let the run down Chinese place stay? 

No Chinese in sight --instead you find Lennon's Restaurant and Bar with it's bar, open kitchen and the pendant lights you see from Queen St Mall. 

This place does the first impression right with the decor but it needs to follow through with the service and food. Surly waitress more intent on slowly punching in her docket to the computer than greeting us--we get you could be busy but at least acknowledge us. 

Seated to our table with a grunt and menus chucked down in front with a 'so and so should be with you soon'. No offers of drinks, not even water and yes we had to hail down a waiter to order. 

Menu is your standard 'modern Australian'--which is a nice way of putting meat and 3 vege and it's modern because you put spices and other not so common stuff on it. 

Entree was a stunner--when it was placed on the table it definitely lifted our spirits-- generous portions of pork belly and octopus and even hubby had to say 'best piece of pork belly he's had this year'--not so oily, nice texture and very flavoursome. 

Pork belly & octopus

Long wait between the entrees and mains--not surprising since when we got our mains they were luke warm. No grill marks on mine or my hubby's steak and it's hard to go past the streak of fat on my steak. Often you go to places where the chef seemed to have squandered an ingredient--in this case I think its the opposite where the chef had to make do with what's there. Meat flavour not up to par, greyish tinge and hey if you got something substandard why should you care about cooking it well. Highlight was the roast garlic on my plate. At least they didn't use the usual leaf mix for the side salad. 

eye fillet 

sirloin steak--note streak of fat

If Lennons wants to extend the clientele beyond the hotel guests who eat there for convenience and ignorance of other choices, food and service need to catch up to the decor.