With several restaurants around Sydney, and a couple of them up in Queensland, the Bavarain Bier Cafe has introduced an outlet for Australia to engage in the celebration of Bavrain culture that other major cities actively take part in. In only a few short years, the destination in Brisbane's central area has become really popular with both locals and tourists
Taking advantage of being on the top floor of one of the pier buildings, this restaurant is huge. I mean, very big. When my friend and I had arrived, we inadvertently had entered at the back of the restaurant. This space around the back is certainly needed, as there is plenty of seating within the main part of the restaurant, spilling onto the balcony. Tables are everywhere, and plenty of cases are freestanding just to contain the many glasses of beer that will be drunk from.
Looking outside, there is a great, panoramic view of the Story Bridge, river and the northern skyline. This is the definition of dining with a view. When it gets to night time and the city lights turn on, then you are in for a treat. It truly comes alive and transforms into a must-do experience. Bookings may be required to get into this place as it is guaranteed to be nearly full; my friend and I got in with a stroke of luck during the Friday lunch rush merely walking in.
The atmosphere has a partial hint towards the beer hall experience, albeit having a more upmarket aesthetic. That means it can get rowdy inside. In saying that, they take beers seriously here hence their namesake. Tasting platters of different beers can be purchased, with each beer being given a due description. If that is not your thing, there are also quite a few varieites of schnapps available. It all centres around a giant bar.
Taking a deep influence from the Bavarian region of Germany, the idea is to present some of the most authentic and traditional fare possible. It is not recommended for vegetarians in any way; meat of all kinds rules the roost on the menu. One touch I personally like is how they put the sections in the German language. There are different sizes of dishes to accomodate to varying degrees of appetite, and whatever the degree is it shall be satiated. While they still keep up the philosophy behind Bavraian cooking, there was been a recent tweak to the menu. Now it is in two sections, one for more modern fare, and the remaining ones who like their traditional classics.
Meeting a friend of mine after work, she was keen for going to lunch. Again, she is not the finicky type therefore almost anything was a-go for her. One aspect that was the deciding factor was that I had a huge apetite, and German cuisine is often a suitable candidate for that. Also, this place is one of the most reputatble and popular destinations of the inner city. Thus, it was off the to the Bavarain Bier Cafe.
With such a loud crowd to please, and many whims to attend to, it can only be assumed that the service would be really good. This lot of waitstaff were some of the hardest working that I have seen in a very long time. Looking back on it, sometimes the most busy restaurants have the most willing waiters to please who manage to tune into the smaller aspects of a meal' service, including refilling water which happened quite a bit.
Starting out with drinks, they also manage to do coffee here and I ordered the usual doppio. Beans used in the coffee are organic, and are from Vittoria. This coffee was quite good, a strong little number that did everything right. It had the typical astringent taste, was dark in tone and quite hot.
Scanning the menu, all sorts of the dishes looked tempting and delicious. Particularly so were many of the innovative, less pricey moderI ultimately ended up ordering the "Bavarian Tasting Platter". This was a good value choice, giving a bit of everything often associated with eating in Germany. It will satisy any carnivore out there with an array consisting of: a cut of pork belly, crumbed veal schnitzel, four different kinds of sausages, sauerkraut, red cabbage, and mashed potato, with apple compote and a bier jus on the side. Did I mention I was feeling hungry?
For sheer volume of food, it is hard to go wrong with the platter. It was every bit tasty and delicious as one could hope for; all of the flavours were pure and simple. Starting off with what impressed me the most initially, the pork belly was probably the most beautifully cooked and present piece that I have ever had the pleasure to eat. It was made from a tender cut of meat, had a generous lot of buttery fat that went down a treat and the crackling was almost its own identity. It was really crunchy and had a distinct form.
The schnitzel was also pleasant, using a tenderised cut of veal and being very well crumbed.With the sausages, the ones provided were a numberger (small pork sausage, with herbs, spice and majoram), a thuringer (another pork sausage, herbed and with caraway seeds) and two frankfurters, a classic beef-pork sausage. Each of these were pure in taste, using only good quality meat. They were smoked well and tender, no nasty bits to be found at all. That always equals a plus for sausages.
The sides were all good, sauerkraut is sauerkraut - and I happen to like it, plus the red cabbage was basically a red-coloured sauerkraut itself, albeit with a different flavour. The potato was smooth, very creamy and went down well. It had a generous amount of butter mixed right through it. Both the bier jus and the apple compote - which was made from Granny Smith apples - both provided the right amount of extra flavour and seasoning to the meal. They were not ostentatious, contrasting well with the flavours as opposed to overpowering them.
My friend was not feeling as hungry as I was, and thus went for one of the lighter meal options. Fortunately, she is also a sharer so a bit of food swapping went between the plates. Her meal was a mozzarella and speck sandwich which came with a side of fries. This came from the modern section. From the bite that I had of the sandwich, it was also quite good. The bread that they used was a good quality wholemeal which makes a heap of difference. Both the speck and mozerella were delicious and a good combination. It goes without saying that the fries were also good.
Afterwards, there was the discussion of finishing the meal with a dessert order. It was decided a yes. For this course, it is smaller than the other menus so not as much indecision is apparent. Still though, you know it is good when there is a small array of options and it is still hard to select from them. Regardless, the two of us ended up splitting an order of the doughnuts. These were basic cinnamon doughnuts, and they came with a couple of dipping sauces - spiced chocolate sauce and strawberry coulis. They were a good way to finish off the meal. The chocolate sauce was rich and semi-chunky, with the strawberry being semi-sweet. Of course, the chocolate was naturally the better of the two. Heck, even the cinnamon had a bite of flavour on the hand-made doughnuts.
There is no mistaking the popularity of the Bavarian Bier Cafe; it has the location, the views, the good quality, generous foods, the atmosphere and it definitely has the service. It can be safely said that it is worthy of the reputation that it has.
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