Spring, Felix St, Brisbane CBD

November 19, 2012

John Dory, rataouille, eggplant puree and fried basil

Came here for a dinner one night with a few friends... Though the place is abit timely to walk to, as it is located on the corner of Felix and Mary Street in the Brisbane CBD, on the way to Riverside aka Eagle Street Pier...

simple interior with the three types of cows painting

Interior wise, seatings were mixed between the whites and browns.. the whites hard seatings and the brown cushioned seatings... Photo below shows the "Chef's Table" where you can experience both an intimate meal and a cooking demonstration by their Head and Executive chef themselves... Prices vary based on lunch or dinner and on which days...

Spring's Chef's Table

I liked the idea of their wines being set up in accordance to the different meats and fishes dishes... Specified and recommended wines would be matched under their specified and designated column of chicken, fish, beef etc..

Wine for different kinds of meats and fish

Dinner menu was simple and not many choices to order from.. Some may say that this might not be enough for a dinner menu, some might say that this is enough, not so much choices given allows the diner to be able to choose quickly and to suit to their preferences... Daily specials are written on a blackboard in their restaurant...

Some of the white seatings had blue striped cushions, while some didn't... A variety of different paintings are up on their walls..

A typical thing now how each of us have two phones each, a Blackberry and an Iphone...

We were offered by the waitress for some bread to start off with... She did however come back a couple of times to continuously asking us whether we wanted it or not.. I don't know if that was good or was just tad annoying as we got interrupted through our talks... Water was served as soon as we all sat down which was good...

Freshly Baked Sourdough with Cultured Butter

Bought three different entrees to start off with.. Chose the three different ones which caught our eyes when we read it...

Organic Pumpkin and Lentil Salad, Pan Fried Haloumi and Preserved Lemon

Organic Pumpkin and Lentil salad, pan fried haloumi and preserved lemon.. This was not too heavy for a start which was good.. A simple yet unique salad combining organic pumpkin, lentil and pan fried haloumi...

The salad contained a mixture of various greens with the haloumi pan fried well... the pumpkin still had the skin unfortunately which was a bit of a hassle when trying to eat it though the pumpkin was cooked to the point where it was easily bitten off from the skin...

Organic Pumpkin and Lentil Salad, Pan Fried Haloumi and Preserved Lemon

Second, Slow Braised Rabbit, green olives, pasta and pangrattato was ordered and yes, the word 'rabbit' was what made this dish interestingly tempting to be ordered...

Slow Braised Rabbit, green olives, pasta and pangrattato

Slow braised rabbit was shredded or pieces of it was in the dish, olives sliced in halves, pasta used seemed to be Orecchiette pasta which are bowl or ear shaped pasta... You usually don't find them around, especially in supermarkets so I was surprised that they used it here... Maybe you would be able to find it if you go to gourmet fresh markets... For those who are not familiar with Pangrattato, it is basically breadcrumbs.. As you can see in the photo, you are able to spot breadcrumbs on top of the dish..

Zucchini flowers, grilled calamari, chive and onion risotto

Third and final entree was the Zucchini flowers, grilled calamari, chive and onion risotto.. Zucchini flowers were abit dissapointing to a few of us... Onion risotto was spiced well.. And now for the mains..

Grain-fed beef sirloin, roasted garlic, hand cut chips, bearnaise

Baby snapper, lemon, caper and parsley butter, toasted almonds

Prosciutto and Sage wrapped veal, braised red cabbage, caramelised apple

I thought this was not too bad with the prosciutto wrapping around the veal.. The sauce was also nice and not too overpowering for the whole veal..

Braised beef cheek, paris mash, cauliflower gratin

Braised beef cheek was very soft and the paris mash was nice and blended in well when eaten together... Some mashes tends to be too mashy or with lack of flavour, but this was good..

Braised beef cheek, paris mash, cauliflower gratin

Chicken Breast, baby peas, leeks, onions, roast chicken

Had a little taste of this chicken breast dish, I personally didn't really fancy it.. maybe it just tasted like chicken breast in a soupy based... I would've probably preferred it without the soupy base...

I ordered the John Dory, Ratatouille, Eggplant Puree and Fried basil...

John Dory, rataouille, eggplant puree and fried basil

John Dory

John Dory's skin was crispy though abit hard to chew off from the meat... The fish meat itself was abit dry, but overall, it was an enjoyable dish to eat and gobble up...

Ratatouille and fried basil

Ratatouille... hmmmm... reminds me of the movie, and that was one of the reasons why I had bought this dish... Mainly because of the word 'Ratatouille'... I had always wanted to try it since watching the film but never had the chance to do so, as I couldn't seem to find it anywhere... and now, I finally have..