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Table for Two and maybe you blog post - Tucked away in a laneway off James Street in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley foodie precinct, Gerard's Bistro is where Middle East meets West ... and the result is tantalising to the tastebuds.
Head chef and co-owner Ben Williamson has brought the experience of five years cooking for Gulf Air in Bahrain to the menu, which offers a mind-blowing selection of small and large plates, designed to share.
Vicki opted for the suckling pig with fermented pumpkin, raisins, barberry, macadamia, burnt butter and mint ($42), while I settled for the charred lamb collar with burnt eggplant and black cardamom, smoked dates and black cabbage ($42).
We also ordered a bowl of morasa polow - perhaps better known as Iranian jewelled rice, which comes with fruit, nuts, saffron, orange and rose petals ($19).
We attacked the suckling pig first, and it was simply mouth watering.
Combined with the pumpkin, nuts and fruits, not to mention the spectacular rice, this was a truly memorable dish.
The charred lamb collar was also delicious, although the combination of burnt eggplant and black cardamom, as well as the smoked dates, was "almost" too smoky for me - although Vicki loved it.
The black cabbage - which is actually green cavolo nero - was an excellent accompaniment.
The wine list offered something for everybody, and it would be remiss not to mention the service which was exceptional.
All in all, the visit to Gerard's was a memorable experience, and unlikely to be our last.
Had a wonderful lunch with a few girlfriends, the cauliflower dish was amazing, the smoked potatoes delicious, the pumpkin with pepitas oh my gosh ! Really great food , a little noisy inside, the music was a bit loud to allow a good chat, but we moved outside under a heater, with blankets which our waitress offered. It was fabulous, will be back and recommend to anyone.
Just want to really thank Jarrod for his impeccable service and attitude ! He was so happy to welcome us , service was incredible and drinks were delicious! Thank you Jarrod for making our experience amazing! 🙏🏽❤️
Highly recommend, nice atmosphere, all dishes were delicious, staff go above and beyond, I wish I tipped them more! We’ll be back.
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Wow! It has been over four and a half year since my last review on this renowned restaurant. It’s consistent high reputation among the other good restaurants in Brisbane is invaluable. Our lost of all three hatted restaurants such as Esquire, Urbane and Aria urges me to look for home of good food in Brisbane. Not until the Christmas Eve dinner at this restaurant, I regain the confidence on forbidding nice and unforgettable dining experience in Brisbane again.
Turned up around 6:15pm last night and we were warmly greeted by the service team. The first gaze on perusal of the menu, I smelt that something has been changed and it has been confirmed that it has the new chef - Adam Wolfers running the show in the kitchen. No wonder the menu shows off so many Middle Eastern cuisine dishes.
We explore it by ordering the Potato Kataifi, Kangaroo Kaftas, Raw scallops, Lamb Tartare, Morton Bay Bug and Wood-fried John Dory. All the dishes are very impressive. We have not had so many dishes that are well prepared with balanced taste in a restaurant of Brisbane for a while. Personally, I cannot point out any one is outstanding because they are flawless. All the interpretation are all above average.
A happy full review is definitely granted and has my sincere compliment to the whole team of Gerald Bistro.
Merry Christmas🎉
Last visit: Jim 17, 2015 Rating 4.5/5
I fell in love with this place! Like you can’t find a single mistake.
The ambience is a mix of sophisticated and comfy.
The service is brilliant, a very nice warm welcoming and happy crew ( as energy is contagious)
All that was nothing compared to the quality and taste of the food ( hat off to the chef)
We ordered more than three items and I can say all of them were great a very smart twist on the Mediterranean cuisines..
definitely will keep going to this lovely restaurant.
I’m curious about the new menu :)
Wonderful evening. All the food was extremely well balanced making for a flawless dining experience. Not behd!
The chicken wings were so delicious and unforgettable! The dining environment was really good but it would be better if the restaurant be lighter.
Simply amazing food here. Everything was on point. Service was great. Lovely atmosphere. Great place to catch up with friends or a romantic night out.
The food and service was exceptional, the mark of a great chef is how they treat their vegetables. And the vegetable dishes here give the protein a run for the money if not steal the show, only downside is the tables are a little too close together. Intimate dinners are not the same when having to whisper conversation across the table so not to intrude on the fellow diners on tables either side. That being said one of the few hatted restaurants where you will leave full to the brim - no exaggerations here. The mains were more than enough to share, so much so that we had no room for desert, highly recommended and will be back for another visit.
We went to Gerard's without knowing what to expect and were nicely surprised. Great service, and the food was amazing. We were in the area for just one night and we definitely picked the right place to go! I'm vegetarian and all of the options were fantastic. Highly recommended.
This place is amazing. I come back again and again and the service, food and drinks are consistently impressive. The staff have a great knowledge of the food and I have learnt to always ask their recommendation because they always know what the best items on the menu are. They also make an amazing French martini and don’t skimp on the chambord like many places.
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My goodness - I’ve been wanting to go to Gerard’s for years ! We finally went last weekend for my birthday - happy days !
We chose to sit outside which was a lovely choice - the rain was pouring but with the filtered lighting and draped greenery surrounding us felt otherworldly 🍃
We ordered the $75 p.p and added on 4 oysters (the best choice ever) to go with our bottle of champagne - can I just say, close to the best oysters we’ve ever had, and that’s saying something ! The servings were well portioned, balanced and complemented each other - it is a plentiful array and a little on the rich side, but a real treat
We finished the evening with a couple of zesty sidecars which were the perfect digestif
Couple of observations - staff were stretched by 7.30-8pm but were still as attentive as they could be - a sign of the omicron capacity stress possibly - but it did slow things down considerably towards the end. I did comment in the booking and during the meal that it was my birthday but it fell on deaf ears, but alas, the meal experience itself is the treat
Thank you Gerard for a lovely evening !
Fantastic. The flavour combinations and complexity of the dishes were outstanding. Great value too.
There were also a large number of dishes easy modified to be vegan with the service staff and chefs ready with a raft of adapted vegan and gluten free options.
Good vibes, great service, plenty of free car park behind. The deco is great inside and out. The menu is simple and the food overall is good but I think for its price point, it may have missed its excellent mark. Some items were quite salty but it may be a personal preference there. The portions are quite small here too. Some remarkable items worth mentioning were the bagel and lamb - everything else weren’t bad, but weren’t earth shattering amazing too.
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“Something new we eager to get and some specific days worth to celebrate each time!”by Peter Lee
I planned my wedding anniversary few months ago, I have no idea so I googled best restaurants in Brisbane. And I saw the gourmet magazine website have a post about top 10 restaurants in Brisbane 2022. So I review each restaurant and I make decision to choose Gerard’s Bistro to become my 3rd year anniversary restaurant.
When we walked in restaurant, we get warmed welcome from lovely staff and one guy who I think is manager to come to ask if he can offer some champagne for us first and we also order sparkling water as beginning.
According to entrée coming and surprised me and my husband and we’re lucky we can swap seat to indoor then keep enjoy our experience.
Next couple dishes are amazing and each dishes just blow our mind and fabulous taste.
Fabulous dining experience for celebrate some important day or friends come for gathering.
Thank you all the staff and chefs offer me a lovely night to celebrate my anniversary. (I thought chef will come to chat with me but apparently no lol)
Next time, please allow me to taste each gourmet from your page and I would like to write another review for each one who haven’t taste wonderful middle-eastern cuisine yet.
Thanks!
Gerard's bistro is unassuming but an unexpected surprise. The menu sounds simple, but every dish we tried had beautiful flavours. The swordfish was a highlight - perfectly cooked, and it was served with currants and nuts. Great contrast in textures and not something I've had before. I'm not even sure how, but they managed to make the vegetable dish (the dish we order because we feel obligated to, because you know, #health and #balance) taste good too! Our server was also really friendly and accommodating. Great work team!
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Dined on a Tuesday evening, so plenty inside seating available, wouldn't want to sit outside on winter nights😅.
Seems to be a popular restaurant and can see why, the atmosphere is very comfortable and intimate, the music sounded like a live band at first so was very inviting. Service took a while to bring menus and order so that could be improved, but all workers were very friendly.
Overall I wasn't satisfied with the experience, paid $138 I believe and ordered all the vego food items, even ordered an additional serving of the main dish sugarloaf cabbage, but felt still hungry afterwards. Ate everything but ended up going to Dominoes after to buy a pizza and garlic bread! Would be nice if there were more vegetarian options, the serving sizes were extremely small. I would suggest a healthy vegetarian soup or some sort of stir fry with brown rice to make it feel more like a meal. Some falafel, tofu - more protein needs to be included to create a satisfying, balanced, vego meal.
The cost of the meals seemed high with the portion size, and the food was very salty and buttery, very rich. Would have been nice to have simply more vegetables and less fat to make you feel full.
Sugarloaf Cabbage 4/5 🥙- small serving size, but this tasted very nice, a bit too much sauce flavour though. Ordered twice.
Broccoli 2/5🥦🥦 - I love broccoli but this dish was just a real disappointment, extremely small serving size, and the flavours didn't appeal to me, just tasted like broccoli mixed with lemon juice. And this was a 'main' dish as well.
Celeriac kataifi 4/5🥬🥬🍝 - this dish was a pleasant surprise, was a good balance of being filling and flavourful but not too rich. I felt satisfied with ordering this dish.
Wood-fired potato bread 4/5🥔🥔🍞 - a larger serving or some za'taar bread on the side to eat as well would be good. I prefer less fatty bread as well, it was extremely oil and then getting a glass jar of basically oil and goats curd wasn't too appealing.
A very nice restaurant, but as their websites states 'award winning Brisbane restaurant,' I was expecting a lot more. I try be vegan as well and felt there was a lack of vegan options. Would be great to see more menu vego items with more variety, and to ensure that vegetarians don't go home hungry 😊
Couldn’t fault a single thing about the food - amazing all round! Very prompt service and great wait staff. Such a lovely dining experience, thanks team :)
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