Cheap Eats - La Rotisserie at the Gasworks

http://www.larotisserie.com.au/

We were wandering around the Valley and its surrounds looking at furniture a couple of weekends ago, which can be really quite draining. We're moving apartments really soon and want to have a fresh new look in our fresh new apartment!  After a couple of hours of getting in and out of chairs, measuring spaces in our heads and slowly going insane with the options and possibilities, we decided to give it up for the day and head to the Standard Markets to grab some groceries before going home to chill out. Normally, we'd head over to the Valley Standard but since we were closer to the Gasworks, we checked out the Standard there instead.

I digress, this post isn't about our shopping habits or the Standard.  We were feeling quite hungry from our furniture shopping and wanted something to eat and with a heap of options at the Gasworks, we were spoilt for choice.  We stood in a central spot and turned full circle trying to decide where to grab a bite to eat, with a flash of red catching my eye and a fragment of a memory coming to the fore. Ahhh, that was right, La Rotisserie was at the Gasworks and a sudden desire for chicken and chips struck me.

I'd known that La Rotisserie had opened at Gasworks and had previously resolved to check it out, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  As we walked through the front door of the very Parisian looking little restaurant, I was reminded of some of the best chicken that we'd eaten on our trip to Paris a few years prior.  Chicken is something that the French take great pride in doing well and even at little market stalls, the rotisserie chicken is a cut above what we'd experienced in Brisbane.  You only need to think about perhaps the most famous of all French chickens, the Bresse, to know how serious the French are about their fowl.

We were only having a quick lunch and didn't plan on sampling a large section of the menu, we wanted to keep it nice and simple.  Not that the menu at La Rotisserie is overly complicated, it consists mainly of chicken, chicken and more chicken - with some salads and rolls to provide a little option!  We were eating lunch quite early, it hadn't yet struck the lunching hour of twelve, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  Looking around the little restaurant, it felt quintessentially French but with a very modern feel, which extended to really beautiful looking hues of red that reminded me of a late Autumn day.  We were sitting inside, but there were very Parisian style seats outside, which provided just a little hint of a French style boulevard. 

It was never going to take long for our food to arrive and in short order SC's La Chick with rotisserie chicken arrived.  It was essentially a fancy chicken roll, on turkish bread with coleslaw and it tasted sensational.  The turkish bread was perfect, it was fresh and crispy but soft at the same time, which made eating the roll quite easy.  The roll contained plenty of perfectly cooked and moist shredded chicken and a healthy amount of coleslaw.  Interestingly, the coleslaw was not overpowering and had only a subtle mayonnaise flavour and really fresh.  It was a very, very good example of simple food tasting amazing.

My order was simpler still.  I'd gone with a quarter chicken with chips and believe me, it was not like any old Red Rooster or Charcoal Chicken slop that you'd normally get.  The crispy golden skin covered perfectly cooked, succulent and wonderfully flavoured chicken.  Health experts often warn that you should discard the chicken skin as it's most heavily laden with fat, but by crikey, that fatty chicken skin tasted delicious.  What I also loved were the chips, which reminded me very much of the great hot chips we'd eaten in Europe (where they seem to do chips really well).  Golden and crunchy, with the right amount of seasoning, we both munched away until they were completely devoured.  

It wasn't all smooth sailing with our La Rotisserie experience.  My main gripe was with the serving of the chicken.  I'd asked for the breast quarter (naturally), but when my quarter chicken arrived, half of the breast was missing, so it didn't really feel like a proper quarter chicken.  I definitely don't think that's very fair and I missed out on too much of that delicious chicken meat!

One of our very favourite things to do is to buy a whole chicken, lather up some bread with butter and make chicken sandwiches (I like to add a wee bit of salt too!) and sit in front of the TV munching away.  Simple food but really quite delicious.  Our trip to La Rotisserie felt a little bit like that, with the wonderful memories of our time in Paris and some stunning market chicken sessions.  We'd definitely be back on a nice sunny summer's evening, just to rekindle those memories - but also to enjoy some of the simpler things in life.

Rotisserie chicken is one of those simple pleasures and La Rotisserie at the Gasworks provides perhaps the best 'chicken and chips' experience in Brisbane (but if you know of better, I would love to hear about it!).

@FoodMeUpScotty

The chicken roll was huge and filled with delicious chicken and coleslaw

My quarter chicken was missing quite a bit of the breast - I was pretty disappointed with that!

Red leaves of Autumn

Pressed metal and red leather seats - all very Parisian! 

The al fresco dining could have been anywhere in Paris