Balfour Kitchen - New Farm, Brisbane. The Balfour Retreat in New Farm: Just to believe that this retreat is up the a side street from the main road, then unassumingly being situated among apartment blocks and suburban housing. Previously, it had been known for its breakfasts and high teas; then, it extended those services to night hours with dinner. Possibly as a way to promote this proposal, Dimmi sent out their usual deal. This is how I got here, along with my dining buddy and brother-in-law. After a small bit of trouble, that is some changes had to be made to the initial arrangements, a worthwhile and fantastic meal was enjoyed by all.
There are slight differences between the words of "atmosphere", "aesthetic" and "decor" while they all do imply a general aspect of the place. Without any doubts, all three of those nouns about this place can be said to be absolutely beautiful. This is practically fancy & fine dining we are talking about. The lighting is romantic, the modern look is picturesque, each table is laid out with a white tablecloth, some paper on top and a candle for lighting, and there are so many modes of seating. This is without going down to the minutiae What can basically be said is that this is a meticulously done restaurant, which is housed by a bed-n-breakfast, one which would be ideal for a really special date. This needs to be on the must-do list of Brisbane eateries to get the full extent of the options available.
The service is also exquisite and attentive. Think of the kind of service where your water is constantly being topped by one of the waitstaff doing a round of the restaurant. When it gets below a certain level, the water is topped up. These must be trained waitstaff, since it was relatively busy for a mid-week dinner and they were all lithely managed and organised. Going here in the service part of the review, the chefs are craftsmen when it comes to presentation as for a full minute I marveled at the looks of most of the meals that were ordered. You are in for a treat when you go here.
Coming here early for the booking, there was still a bit of time to check the place out. This included being able to use the roof-top bar. It is not very big, and could only fit a few people on at a time. For those lucky folk, they get some amazing views of the Brisbane skyline and the Story Bridge. If at some point you had not already fallen in love with the view of it, this ought to make it so.
As usual, there is an extensive range of alcoholic beverages to chose from to have some pre-dinner drinks Coffee was also available, and this is the only part of the night where I have reservations. This is not coffee you would want if you are going for something strong. It is fairly weak and does not have much of a flavour. Hopefully at breakfast, it is much stronger but regardless for those who like their coffee strong this should be an option. Aside from that, everything else was fantastic as a minimum superlative.
Looking at the menus, even the breakfast one sounded brilliant. Regardless, via the booking agent was only for dinner and there that was the arrangements. It was one that needed a few aspects fixed up beforehand, including adding another member to the party, and ultimately ended up being a brilliant meal out. The selection of meals to choose from is that fantastic equilibrium where the array is modest, yet diverse and distinctive. You know it is great when you have at least two that you are trying to decide between. That was the case here. Luckily, all three are into sharing.
For some starters, my dining buddy went for pumpkin bread, and I opted for pork belly.
This is when it starts to get optimistic, that when the bread is good quality, the following courses ought to be good. This pumpkin bread is homemade and comes with a hazelnut and chardonnay butter. Warm, soft, fresh bread which melts the butter soon after you put a bit of it on is one of the indefinite pleasures of eating out. When that happens, simplicity in motion is apparent. None of the flavours are overt; with bread it comes down to subtly to be truly winning.
The pork belly could have been a first course meal in itself. It came with a side of date and orange couscous, and that was infused with a pomegranate molasses.The meat of the pork was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, the fatty part was like butter and the crackling was crunchy. If pork belly meets all three of those criteria, then it is well done pork belly, tasty and brilliant. They could have just had the plain pork belly there and the dish would have been good on its own. That is not to discount the couscous, as it was also really tasty. It was an inventive twist; fruity and tart. So then, two great starters both great in their own way.
Three mains: duck breast, barramundi vindaloo, lamb vindaloo. These three easily looked the best of the lot, and by luck all three men here wanted one each from that selection. Each one was nothing less than absolutely great and tasty. All the ingredients were high quality, dynamically co-operated gastronomically and managed to be distinct from each other one. That is feat harder than it should sound.
The duck was infused with five spices, and served with sides of cauliflower almond puree and kale, sour cherry jus.I swear that I do not have to explain further about this; it just writes itself for how good it is and tastes. However, I will explain a bit. The puree had a few similarities to whipped potato, with a more tart flavour and occassional nuttiness. It suited the flavour of the duck, and the jus on the side was perfect for the meat. As for the duck, juicy flesh, crispy skin and a somewhat gamey flavour - as most great duck is like - highlight the brilliance of it all. It is rare for me to pass up duck or pass it by when it is on the menu, and this reminds me exactly why.
The barramundi vindaloo had a side of steamed broccolini and was on a bed of basmati pilaf. Blow me down if this was not among one of the more fantastically made, and spicy, curries I have tried. This stands up to some of the curries I have had at actual Indian restaurants, even in England. The fish was soft and tasty, smooth flavours and with a good crispy skin around the flesh. The basmati pilaf beside it was simply brilliant in its simplicity.
Alongside the lamb tenderloins were a warm zucchini salad, a chorizo salsa, a basting of mint, peas and a dab of yoghurt. This might be the most wholesome of the lot, and it was still really good. The lamb tenderloin was succulent, cooked medium-rare. With it, the sides were suitable and had different, distinct styles of taste which suited it very well. If I had to garner, I would guess that this dish was influenced a lot by Middle Eastern/Pakistani cuisine; one of the best cuisines to get inspiration for cooking from.
The most aforementioned dish was my brother-in-law's order; he did not opt to have a starter, and instead went with a side. The side ordered was simply called "potato crunchies", which came with a side of aioli. These were fantastic. They were kind of like cube-shaped rosti, crunchy and delicious with soft, moist potato inside. Both my dining buddy and brother-in-law were trying to figure out how they would be made. Essentially, it was a new take on the classic side vegetable - potato.
So it comes to the end of the main course. When it is a really nice restaurant, this always seems to be the case: dessert? Most places are strategic by having the dessert menu be its own separate entity. This is likely to make people check it out anyways to see if there is anything that would look good; it was different here; the dessert menu was with the rest of the menu.
Nevertheless, both of the other party members were reluctant yet still agreed to see the menus when I opted in. After a bit of looking, neither went for it. It is a pity as quite a few of the desserts sounded delicious as well; for me, from what I initially thought, it was "just a coffee" via affogato - dessert and coffee in one. So I ordered the tiramisu affogato and it was very different to what I thought it would be.
The menu mentioned the ingredients as follows: "ice cream, amaretti biscuits, coffee, amaretto, choc pearls". It did sound a little bizarre, but I like bizarre. The shots of espresso, amaretto and choc pearls were all in shotglasses while it was a tumbler for the ice cream, which tasted like it was made out of yoghurt. After putting the amaretto to the side and applying both the espresso and the choc pearls, I figured this was more of a deconstructed tiramisu. It was delightful, with the crunch of biscuits and choc pearls accompanying a smooth lot of ice cream. Inventive, and still going strong on aesthetics.
This was another place which was all-round fantastic. Great food, fantastic atmosphere and brilliant service were but three reasons to go here. It has that feeling of a world class restaurant that often is found in the countryside, yet it is right in the neighbourhood of the most inner-suburban suburb of Brisbane. The folk just want to give at least 100% each night. This restaurant is not only fantastic, but in such an extraordinary instance the term to be used would be "special". In a lot of ways, it just needs to be seen or experienced first hand to see why.
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