Spicers Balfour - tranquility near the CBD

http://spicersretreats.com/spicers-balfour-hotel/dining/

One of the finest dining experiences I'd had in a very long time was two hatted regional restaurant, the Long Apron (see post here).  It was my first real exposure to the Spicers Retreats, which have always had a reputation for excellence, both with romantic getaways and fine dining. I guess it makes sense that amazing restaurants would form part of a romantic weekend getaway.  I've normally associated the Spicers Group with regional locations, and have always been perplexed by the Spicers Retreat in trendy inner city suburb New Farm.  When the opportunity arose to get along and check out the Balfour Kitchen's new Pacific-Indo menu, it was a no brainer!

The Spicers Balfour Hotel is just a few minutes from the CBD in Balfour Street, which is on our regular walking path when we saddle up for our weekend walks.  Even though it is within easy walking distance from our apartment, we jumped in the car and made the trip through peak hour Brisbane traffic and found a park just around the corner by the Wilson's Lookout cliffs, which was already a world away from the busy Brisbane traffic.  As we walked around the corner and up to the retreat's front door, we could see that it was an oasis of quiet, right on the city's front doorstep.

The nearly hidden resort on Balfour Street is a huge converted Queenslander and passing the traditional brass plate announcing that we had arrived at a Spicers Retreat, we made our way up the stairs into another world.  We were greeted warmly by one of the many fabulous and well trained staff members, who showed us to our table on what was once the front deck of someone's home, but now a beautifully renovated outdoor dining area.  We were given a couple of menus and brief explanation of the menu, which had small plates for starters, which were specifically designed for sharing.  Looking over the menu, we could see the distinct influences of Indian cuisine.

The Foraging Quail - beautifully presented stunning food

http://theforagingquail.com.au/

What an amazing time of the year.  Not only have there been two long weekends in a row but the weather has been absolutely perfect, with sunny days and a perfect 28 degrees celsius.  When the weather is this perfect, I love nothing more than getting out of the CBD and going for a walk in Brisbane's surrounds. We'd done over Paddington, South Brisbane and West End the previous long weekend and thought that a walk along the river to check out how the new river walk was coming along was next.  It was such a beautiful day, we just kept walking and walking and before too long we were at the Powerhouse in New Farm.

We'd been out in the sun for quite a while and decided it was time to walk home and chose a much more direct route than the meandering Brisbane river.  As luck would have it, we started to wander down Merthyr Road and stumbled upon the very new The Foraging Quail.  I was pretty excited to find out exactly where this shiny-new restaurant was, mainly because we had a reservation for dinner that very same night.  I was left wondering if it was serendipity that we'd found the Foraging Quail or if subconsciously I'd taken us to New Farm for our walk in the hope that we would in fact find it?

The Foraging Quail is one of the newest restaurants in Brisbane and had only opened a few days before we'd booked in for a Friday night meal.  As we walked by and I had a sneak peak inside the dining room, we could see Minh Le and his team already hard at work doing the prep work for the very meal that we would be back to enjoy later on that evening.  The name Minh Le may strike a chord with those of you from the inner west and that would be because Minh was the head chef at Auchenflower favourite Deer Duck Bistro.  Responsible for some insanely creative food at Deer Duck, Minh had finally realised his dream of opening up his own place and after scouring Brisbane for just-the-right-spot, found an interesting space in New Farm.

Dell'Ugo New Farm - Ristorante Italiano

http://www.dellugo.com.au/

I've been feasting on plenty of Italian cuisine lately.  It's been pretty easy really, I quite like Italian food and the philosophy that the Italians have of using simple fresh ingredients to extract maximum flavour.  There's also the share aspect and while many cultures centre their lifestyle around food, the Italians seem to do it with just an extra little bit of flair.  We've been to check out many of the newer Italian dining destinations lately, so I thought it was time to check out Brisbane's long standing 'Ristorante Italiano'.

Dell'Ugo is the passion of Giuseppe and Gloria Robertiello who saw an opportunity to fulfil a dream of providing the people of Brisbane with a restaurant that delivered authentic Italian cuisine.  One day in 2000, Giuseppe was in the New Farm area and noticed that a beautiful old restaurants was available for sale.  Such was his passion and drive, Giuseppe had made the purchase and within a month had opened Cafe Dell'Ugo Ristorante Italiano. It was only a few short years later that Giuseppe and Gloria teamed up with friend Soula to open up Dell'Ugo at Southbank and at around the same time shortened the ristorante's name to Dell'Ugo New Farm.

In all the years I've lived in Brisbane, I'd never been to Dell'Ugo at New Farm.  I'm sure I couldn't count the number of times I've driven or walked up and down Brunswick Street and thought to myself I need to get along and check it out.  I've even been to most of the restaurants in the little strip that Dell'Ugo is located along and checked out the sister restaurant over at Southbank.  Yep, it sure was time to check out one of Brisbane's most respected traditional Italian diners.

Cheap Eats - DA'Burger

http://www.daburger.com.au/

Ever since I came back from New York, I have had a new appreciation for the humble hamburger (see post here). Before I spent time in the US of A, I thought that we had it sorted out here in Brisbane with burgers.  What I came to realise is that we are 'babes in the woods' when it comes to producing great quality and tasty hamburgers.  The Americans really know how to do a good burger, and I don't mean the generic, production line type that has infiltrated our shores already.

Since returning from the States, I've had cravings for the type of wonderful and humble burger that I munched on through my Manhattan journeys, but have come short each time.  I was quite hopeful when walking down Mary Street one day I spied the big red shipping container that housed Miel Burgers.  I'd heard great things about these burgers and one Friday afternoon I went along to check it out, but alas it was not even close.  I was so disappointed with that burger I just walked away after a three or four bites.

While I have not had any luck in Brisbane trying to find that elusive US style burger, I did strike gold when I was in Perth for Eat Drink Blog, the food bloggers conference.  As part of the EDB dinner I came across the Butty's Food Truck (http://buttys.com.au/), which promises and delivers American style burgers.  When I ate my buttys burger and closed my eyes, I was transported back to Manhattan and I was in heaven.  Sigh....

Au Cirque - now also known as 'Cirque by night'

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Au-Cirque/119059328152640

There are so many new restaurants opening in Brisbane you would wonder why an established Brisbane breakfast institution would take the risk of opening up for dinner.  That's exactly what's happened with New Farm favourite Au Cirque, who've recently launched their 'Cirque by Night' dinner menu on Thursday and Friday nights.

I was invited along with a couple of blogger buddies and online publications to check out the new offerings and provide some feedback and thoughts.  Au Cirque is extremely well known as one of Brisbane's best breakfast spots, a reputation that is well deserved and well earned after years of hard work and toil.  I've written about my experiences with breakfast at Cirque and was blown away by the breakfast (see post here), so I was extremely keen to see what they would do with their dinner offering.

As is usually the case, I arrived pretty early for our 6:30 kick off, I really need to get better at my timing my arrival, but I would always prefer to be early somewhere than late.  I sat in my car for a while before deciding to 'bite the bullet' and head into Cirque, my fears of being a 'Nigel no-friends' quickly allayed once I saw our host for the night.  After some quick catching up some of the other guests for the night started to turn up and there was a great mix of known and new people.  It's always fun putting names to faces because most of us are connected through Twitter or Instagram, so I'm continually meeting people in person who I follow.

Breakfast Series - Pablo of Newfarm

www.pablonewfarm.com/

It's no secret that I eat out a lot, I mean my blog is like a personal journal of how much food I've eaten in the last twelve months.  As a food blogger, I'm always looking for an excuse to go out for dinner or breakfast or lunch, well, any time or reason in fact.  You would think this amount or rich restaurant food would take its toll on a body and I've been pretty luck, up until recently that is...

I recently went and had my eyes tested and apart from getting the news that I now needed glasses, the optometrist dropped a bombshell for me, I had cholesterol rings in my eyes and she recommended a doctors visit.  Crap, it seemed as if my lavish eating out lifestyle had finally caught up with me.  Timing is a funny thing but the day my glasses arrived I watched a documentary called "Eat Fast and Live Longer" by a guy called Dr Michael Mosley (see documentary here).  Talk about serendipity, were was a solution to all of my problems, a way to reduce my cholesterol and solve a myriad of other potential health problems and a way to possibly live longer!!  All I had to do was fast for two days a week, then I could eat whatever I wanted for the other five days - a bloggers dream.

You may ask why I am telling you this?  Well apart from now being completely sold on the idea and have been recommending it to everyone, its the first time I have typed up a post while fasting.  I'm not sure how it's going to go.

Watt Restaurant and Bar - the restaurant at the Powerhouse

http://www.trippaswhitegroup.com.au/our-venues/Watt-Restaurant-+-Bar/10

It's a lovely time of the year.  The warm dry sunny days of Spring are here but the heavy hot rainy days of Summer have not yet arrived.  It's at this time of year that I love getting out and about, checking out all that Brisbane has to offer.  Last month was the annual Brisbane Festival and there were great times to be had, but the great times don't need to end just because the festival has finished.  The Brisbane Powerhouse continues to be a source of endless entertainment and again saw SC and I head over to check out one of the events, this time Grindr - a love story.

The Powerhouse is one of Brisbane's greatest achievements for me, and the conversion of the old electricity powerhouse from a run down and decrepit former glory to a modern and funky performing arts centre was genius.  The powerhouse was originally built in the early 1900's to generate electricity for Brisbane's tramway system and at its peak supplied electricity for the largest tram network in the Southern hemisphere.  Eventually trams were replaced by buses (pretty shortsighted) and the building fell into disrepute after being decommissioned in 1971.

Fast forward to now and the Brisbane Powerhouse is many things to many people, not only is it an amazing performing arts centre with three areas that seat up to 800 people, it's so much more.  The Jan Power markets call the area home and it has to be the most popular spot in Brisbane for wedding photos, you can even learn to be a circus performer there.  It's also the home of a couple of bars and restaurants, which are very popular spots on any given weekend, especially when the sun is shining on a beautiful spring day. 

Breakfast Series - Ponycat Cafe

https://www.facebook.com/theponycatnewfarm

We didn't really plan on going out for breakfast this morning, the plan was to lounge around in bed and sleep in after having friends around for the fireworks of Riverfire.  In the back of my mind I thought we might go for breakfast but we didn't want to go somewhere and wait in queue to start off the day.  As it turns out, I woke at around 7am and held off on having my normal bowl of cornflakes until I confirmed if SC would sleep in past 8am, my cut off for heading for breakfast.  While I watched the clock, secretly hoping SC would get out of bed, I looked over urbanspoon to decide on where to go.

Sensing my mental vibes to get out of bed, SC stumbled out of bed at 7:30 and the game was on, we were off to get some breakfast.  The plan was to head over to Ponycat at Cafe in New Farm, but there were a couple of back up places on standby in case there was a queue at the popular New Farm cafe. As we drove down Brunswick Street and parked the car, we noticed that we had beaten the rush and, apart from a few diners outside with their dogs, the place was practically empty.

I'd never been to Ponycat before, despite trying to get there a number of times over the years, but I had heard great things about it.  Ponycat is well known for being a really relaxed spot where it's cool to bring your pooches down to share a breakfast with you.  This was abundantly clear with about four dogs at the feet of their owners while they enjoyed their breakfast.  As we walked into space, I was struck by the amazing street art that is proudly displayed down one wall of the cafe.

Burger Urge - 10 Year Celebration Party

http://burgerurge.com.au/

A lot can happen in ten years, countries can rise and fall; wars can be fought; theoretically man could fly to Mars and back!  Ten years ago, Brisbane lads and brothers Sean and Colby Carthew had a dream and started down the path of making that dream a reality.  Their dream was to create a healthy alternative to the fast food outlets that were littering city streets with 'junk food'.  This might not sound so visionary now, 2013, but you need to remember that this was before movies like Supersize Me brought the notion that fast food was bad to our consciousness.

Burger Urge has been a local hangout for of mine for quite a while and I recently wrote about Burger Urge in my blog (see post here) so I was really happy to accept an invitation to their ten year birthday celebration with a number of other Brisbane Foodies and some of Sean and Colby's loyal customers.  It was also an opportunity for the boys to launch their new menu, so there would be some new taste sensations to write about too!

Breakfast Series - The Little Larder

http://www.thelittlelarder.com.au/

I love living in the Brisbane CBD and one of my favourite pastimes is to wander around the city and surrounds to see what's going on.  Being in such a central spot, it's easy for SC and I to pick a direction and just go, but invariably in the 'River City' we tend to stick to the suburbs along the river.  Moray Street New Farm has been a favourite of ours to walk down for as long as I can remember, it's such an awesome street with lots of lovely buildings and houses.

In all the years that we have been wandering down Moray Street, we have often marvelled and wondered about a little cafe that was always so packed out.  In a quiet part of New Farm which is almost exclusively houses and apartments is The Little Larder, which over the years has become a local favourite and Brisbane institution.  We thought we would marvel no more and finally get in and check out why it's usually so busy.

On a normal day we would have put on the walking shoes and taken the more personal approach to getting to The Little Larder, it's only a 25 minute walk.  However, with this unusually cold period that Brisbane has been forced to endure, we decided a nice quick (and heated) drive would be the prudent option.  Cruising down Moray Street, we almost overshot the cafe, which is fairly non-descript and much easier to spot when casually walking by on the other side of the street!  Because we overshot the cafe, SC let me out to secure a table while she ably scouted for a park.

Casual Dining - The Smoke BBQ

http://thesmokebbq.com.au/

Talk about hard to get into.  The Smoke just about takes the 'kewpie doll prize' for that.  I guess it was partly my fault too, I kept calling up on the day I wanted to go to try to get a booking, mmmm, good luck with that.  I had been trying to get the planets to align and visit The Smoke BBQ, and after a few false starts I managed to get a mid week booking.  CI and I were trying to head out for a boys night out eating meat. The Smoke BBQ was a place that CI had been to a few times before and quite liked, while I was going for my first time.  I was keen to find out why this place was so popular.

While I am a big lover of protein, especially pork and beef, I've only come to eating American style food recently and was still buzzing from my last experience at Carolina Kitchen (see post here).  The Smoke has perhaps the biggest reputation as an American style food joint, so I was pretty excited to get stuck in.  The only other American BBQ experience that CI and I had shared before was over at the SSS Steakhouse in the CBD, which I thought was pretty good.  With those two experiences in mind, I was raring to get stuck into some authentic American style ribs.

The Smoke BBQ has been around for quite a while and opened its doors to New Farm locals in 2006 and has steadily built a reputation as the BBQ joint in town.  Founded by American restaurateur Steve Johnson, the concept was created by Steve's desire to bring a genuine American BBQ to Brisbane.  Steve specially imported a smoker from the United States to ensure authenticity.  The place was originally called Blue Smoke BBQ but after some renovations in 2010, which included an outdoor patio area, it was renamed to The Smoke BBQ.

Vine Restaurant & Bar - Italian in the heart of New Farm

http://www.vinerestaurant.com.au/

On a cold and rainy night the only option for me was to have a nice dinner somewhere.  I had originally arranged to visit Aria with some workmates as a special treat, but had to cancel the plans on the day due to unforeseen reasons.  Once the Aria plans fell through I went into research mode. I was keen to visit somewhere I had never been before.  I had a look at all the restaurants on my (long) list to visit but really felt like something different, so I turned to my friend the internet and began my search.

One of the restaurants I came across was Vine restaurant and bar in New Farm, which had a really slick website and piqued my interest.  What was surprising was that I had never heard about Vine, but it had been around for over seven years, so it was looking promising for a visit.  Next up was a trip to Urbanspoon to  continue my research and to see what others had to say about Vine.  It only took me a few seconds to see that Vine was our destination for dinner, it has a massive 92% of visitors liking it and there were heaps of great comments.  Perfect!

As we made our way through the back streets of New Farm, SC had a thought that this may have been a restaurant she visited a few years back.  Pulling up out the front and scoring a park right out front confirmed her suspicions; it was the same place.  Vine is an Italian restaurant quietly tucked away in Moray Street, a street we have walked by hundreds of times, yet I had never noticed it.

Anise - Intimate perfection

http://www.anise.com.au/

In a suburb flush with great dining and restaurants sits a gem that defies the usual concept of a fine dining restaurant.  Anise has been an institution in New Farm for what seems like generations, but is probably more like a decade or so.  This little bistro has taken a different approach to dining and is all about intimacy.  Anise seats more like a traditional bar than a diner, with practically every seat at the wrap around bar that dominates the space.

Anise has been on my list of restaurants to visit for as long as I can remember and its reputation as a beautiful little french bistro only added to its allure.  A reputation that not only led to a loyal and regular following, but led to recognition by way of a Chefs Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide.

Recently however, the Anise that most people knew and loved received a makeover by new owners Dan Finn and Thames Delaforce.  Dan and Thames, who many know from their time at 1889 Enoteca, completed the fit-out themselves and while doing so uncovered some wonderful history of the building by way of a massive Shell petrol station sign, which now dominates the interior.

Breakfast Series - Cirque

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Au-Cirque/119059328152640

There are almost too many great breakfast places in Brisbane, but that is no excuse for me having never visited Cirque before.  I have known about this New Farm favourite for quite a while and had it on the list of 'perhaps one day' breakfast cafes for me to visit.  Well today was that day and I am rueing the lost time and lost breakfasts from ignoring this gem for so long.

I had heard all the tales about how hard it is to get into on the weekends and that often there is a long wait to be seated and if I am being honest, this plays a large part of why I had not been to date.  I simply hate waiting for breakfast.  SC and I had a cunning plan, we would set the alarm for an early start and get to Cirque just as it opened.  I sure am glad we did this because even though we got there a few minutes after opening time, there were already cyclists and people streaming in.  I've always had a thought that cyclists tend to flock to cafes that do great coffee and food, and they certainly were flocking in to Cirque.

We managed to score a seat right out the front of the serving area on some of the tiniest tables I have ever seen, I mean, these were small.  Not only were they small, but they were pretty close together as well.  I took this as a sign that Cirque was keen to squeeze as many customers into their cafe as possible.  We were warmly greeted and offered menus and had our drink orders taken and then set about deciding on what to have for breakfast.  It's not an expansive menu but it is a creative menu with a good mix of contemporary and traditional breakfast offerings.  This morning SC and I both felt like traditional breakfasts.

Pintxo - casual tapas in New Farm

http://www.pintxo.com/

What to do on a Sunday night when your usual plans for a movie and dinner with friends falls through?  SC and I thought long and hard about going it alone to see a movie and grab some dinner but the movie we wanted to see was not on at a good time.  Still wanting to get out of the house, we decided on a nice simple dinner at one of our favourite Spanish tapas restaurants in the New Farm.

Pintxo is an interesting little taperia located on Brunswick street that has gone through a bit of an evolution of late.  At one time there was a tapas train taking up half of the restaurant and it was a great way to come in with mates and sample different spanish delights.  Recently Pintxo has moved away from the tapas train and converted the area to more traditional dining.

The name pintxo comes from the Basque region of Spain and literally translates to 'spike' and is in reference to toothpick that is spiked through bite size ingredients.  Usually associated as starters in Spanish cuisine they are often found in bars or taverns across northern Spain.  The main difference between a tapas and a pintxo is the 'spike' through the food.

Cheap Eats - Bitter Suite

http://www.bittersuite.com.au/

Sunday night is usually movie night with SC and a couple of good friends, CI and TB, but due to a bit of a sore back from SC we decided to skip the movie and just have dinner instead.  We all wanted to avoid the usual Sunday dinner spots that we often frequent and try something a new.  After hunting around on Urbanspoon we finally decided upon a little beer bistro in New Farm called Bitter Suite.

As we booked into Bitter Suite, it struck me that I had heard the name before and went searching through my emails.  After a little digging I came across an email from the enterprising owner of Bitter Suite, Katherine, who had emailed me to introduce herself and the bistro.  I say enterprising because the email obviously stuck with me when I looked for a restaurant that we would not normally have frequented.

Bitter Suite is very much a beer bistro, they have seven different beers on tap and over 55 bottled beers available, as well as a pretty comprehensive cocktail menu.  TB was pretty excited about this...  Oh, I almost forgot, they serve food too!  As befitting a beer bistro the food comes out tapas style and is very much share dining.  After the CI and TB ordered cocktails and SC a beer, we set about ordering a pile of food to share.  We could not really decide on what to share as a quartet, so we ordered as couples instead.