Brents at Toowong, a real dining experience

http://www.brentsrestaurant.com.au/

Tuesday night for me is quite often fine dining night, its a night where you can book into a great restaurant in Brisbane within an hour of calling and making a booking.  That's not to say that Brisbane is not rocking it out on a Tuesday night, quite often it is, but its the start of the week for most restaurants and you can be guaranteed of a beautiful meal and great service.

On this wonderfully mild Brisbane spring evening SC and I found ourselves drawn to an old favorite that we had not been to in a while (that and the fact we still had our Entertainment Card to use).  Brent's always seems to the place that you love going to when you are there, but almost always forget that its only a few kilometers out of the city in Toowong.  I will admit that its much easier to wander across the street or down the road to a CBD dinner, but tonight we felt like treating ourselves and hopped in the car for the short drive to Brent's.

Brent's is a fabulous little French fine dining establishment in an old Queenslander with the main room downstairs catering to about 30-40 diners and an upstairs area for larger events.  The room is perfect for a romantic experience and tonight we were seated right at the front with an expansive view of Miskin Street, the view is actually better than it sounds!

The menu at Brent's is quite creative in its design, with many options available that sounded great.  Generally speaking, the entrees are reasonably priced at $22-$24 but the mains are starting to get on the upper-side of what you really want to be paying at suburban restaurant at $39.  One of the things I liked about the menu was the selection of appetisers available.  SC and I have eaten here many times before, so were unable to pass at the wild mushroom cappuccino, truffle oil & prosciutto crumbs.  But I get ahead of myself!

Unbelievably tasty mushroom cappuccino with truffle oil

Before the first dish came out was a lovely little amuse-bouche of salmon roe and creme fresh.  The combination of the creme fresh and roe worked in perfect harmony.  The sweetness and saltiness of the two main elements exploded in my mouth, or maybe it was just the salmon and tomato salsa, either way it was a fantastic way to start off the evening.  Now, onto the wild mushroom cappuccino, truffle oil & prosciutto crumbs.  All I can say about this dish is that its like a party in my mouth and everyone was invited.  I just loved it, there was a richness of flavour from the mushroom and its so well put together that all you can say is yum!  When the waitress took the empty dishes away I could not help but ask if we could get a 'bucket' of this lovely soup.

Scallops and chorizo, what a great combo!

I always find it hard to go past a scallops dish and tonight was no exception, however there was an added bonus of chorizo!  The dish was Sautéed scallops, Jerusalem artichoke, chorizo tapioca & oxtail jus.  This was a very tasty and interesting dish.  The scallops were well cooked with a lovely caramalisation.  The combination of the chorizo and scallops almost always works well together and the addition of the oxtail jus added a lovely depth of flavour.

While I really liked this dish, there is no doubt that another bout of food envy hit me once I saw SC's dish.

SC opted for the Seared venison, beetroot & foie gras raviolo, pecans & radish stems.  It really looked a picture on the plate, but the real star of the show was the perfectly cooked venison.  I really like strong flavoured game meat and this hit all the right notes.  Venison and beetroot is another classic combination and it worked well here.  Added to this was the silky foie gras raviolo and in combination this dish was spectacular.  I really wish I had ordered this one, oh well, next time.

The dish of the night for sure, venison.  Yum

There were quite a few mains on the menu that looked great, but once I saw the pork belly and ballotine, cardamon & blood orange sorbet & glaze & cinnamon jus, I knew that this is what I would be having.  Again, it looked great on the plate and was quite a generous serving.  I was a little worried about the blood orange sorbet as I have not had a main with a dessert on it before.  The thing about the sorbet was that it perfectly cut through the fat of the pork belly, mostly.  Towards the end of the dish it started to get a little too sweet and I ended up just spooning the rest of it into my mouth to get it off the plate.  I really enjoyed the pork belly and looking around the restaurant it sure was a popular selection.  I think about two thirds of diners had the pork belly!

SC had the crispy confit duck, butternut pumpkin, eureka lemon & liquorice wafer.  In line with the theme of the night, this was a really refined looking dish on the slate.  Its been a while since we were served a meal on slate and I thought it had well and truly gone out of fashion.  Having said that, it really did look amazing.  The combination of the duck and the butternut pumpkin worked well together, however strangely enough, there was a sorbet on this one as well.  SC did not really care for the liquorice wafer so set this aside.

Dessert was offered and after considering if there was enough room, we decided that we would indulge in a final round.  I didn't really know what to expect when I ordered the champagne marsh mallow, roasted strawberry ice cream, strawberry granita & flowers, but was delighted when what appeared to be a fishbowl full of coral was delivered.  Upon closer inspection it was in fact a dessert, with marshmallow as promised.  There was a strawberry sorbet that had really intense flavours, which worked well with the very subtle marsh-mellow with just a hint of champagne.

SC opted for the cheese, a Truffled Richmond Triple Cream Brie.  SC will have pretty much anything with truffle on it and as expected loved it.  However, buy the end of the brie SC was feeling so full she committed to no eating for a while!

The service on the night was excellent, as befitting a silver service dining experience, the waiters were unobtrusive, but there when you needed them.  It was definitely tip worthy!  I love Brent's and upon reflection wonder why I don't get out there more often, some of my favorite dishes ever have come from the Brents kitchen (love the seafood bisque!).  I think its much easier for me to walk across the street to my 'local' hot spots, perhaps I need to reconsider what the suburbs have to offer in future!

@FoodMeUpScotty

Amuse-bouche of salmon
and tomato salsa and creme fresh