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Fish Lane Bistro

Natascha Mirosch

Colourful bistro chairs add pop to the Fish Lane Bistro dining area.
Colourful bistro chairs add pop to the Fish Lane Bistro dining area.Glenn Hunt

13.5/20

Contemporary$$

What's in a name? Fish Lane in South Brisbane has nothing to do with fish. Originally called Soda Water Lane, it was rechristened Fish Lane in 1904 after a South Brisbane Alderman. The historic and quite lovely Fox Hotel and its restaurant on Fish Lane has had a few different monikers over time too.

From its late 19th-century birth to the mid-1990s the hotel was called The Terminus and attracted a delightfully raffish clientele.

Then it became The Sly Fox before an extensive renovation in 2006 saw it drop Sly from its name and open Campari as its house restaurant. From memory, this casual Italian eatery was rather good but inexplicably it became the Barbecue and Smokehouse, and quickly gained notoriety for its long-running promotion of $2 steaks.

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Tame: twice-cooked manchego souffle.
Tame: twice-cooked manchego souffle.Glenn Hunt

Last year the hotel underwent yet another revamp, and the steakhouse became the ill-fated The Meatball Co.

Just over six months later it was reborn as Fish Lane Bistro. Never having been tempted to dine from a menu based entirely on meatballs, I don't know how much the decor has changed, but looking at the meaty mural adorning the ceiling and the display of antique meat grinders on the shelf, I suspect the changeover was a hasty one.

Meatball references aside, it's a pleasant space, with a mix of shiny subway tile and weathered brick walls and banquette tables set with bistro chairs in primary colours.

Pretty: tomato tart served with olive tapenade.
Pretty: tomato tart served with olive tapenade.Glenn Hunt
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The dining area with its separate entrance feels next to rather than part of the hotel, although you can see the action at The Long Bar through the large window set into the wall. Heading the kitchen serving both is Jonno Bryant, who has plenty of runs on his culinary score pad, most recently as head chef at Peasant and Cabiria at the Petrie Barracks.

Bryant's an accomplished chef but I have to wonder whether the Fox's seemingly largely drink-focused audience who, on a steamy Friday lunchtime are all next door with burgers and frosty beers, will appreciate the menu? Do they care that the bistro's scallops (served with pancetta, green apple and celeriac salad) come from Hervey Bay? Or that the grilled prawns, split and rubbed with a judicious amount of chilli, olive oil and lemon are from the Gold Coast? Or that the pretty little tomato tart, with its buttery pastry and dobs of tapenade are made with heritage tomatoes?

One of Bryant's previous positions was as head chef at Anise in New Farm and he's brought some of his dishes with him from his days there, including a popular twice-cooked duck and smoked pork and goat's cheese croquettes.

Dense and delicious: olive oil chocolate mousse.
Dense and delicious: olive oil chocolate mousse.Glenn Hunt

A light manchego souffle served in a baby cast-iron pan has also been twice cooked, but suffers from being too tame, missing the bite of manchego. MIA too is the vinegar from our side of duck fat, sea salt and vinegar chips, but the chips themselves are perfect – irregular and chunky, crisp on the outer and fluffy inside.

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Wagyu ribs with Asian flavours are well balanced and tender, the meat flaking away with a fork prod. Sticky but not too unctuous and served with a palate-freshening coriander-led herb salad they are perfect with a glass of Logan riesling. Incidentally, wine here comes in stemless glasses. I'm not a fan, especially in a Brisbane summer, but I get it and it does suit the informal vibe. The wine list is pretty good – tight, reasonably priced and appropriately bistro-ish. Other drinks, including three beers on tap are in a similar vein, familiar but unlikely to be on special at your local bottle-o on a regular basis.

A main of "local" sand crab spaghettini is generous with sweet chunks of crab meat, but the flavours of too large pieces of chilli and the lemon and olive oil aren't integrated and pool at the bottom of the bowl rather than coating the spaghettini strands. The nest of rocket on top doesn't add much but colour.

While The Doors and Dylan play (a restaurant kitchen's playlist if ever I've heard one) we demolish a dense, delicious, slightly sticky bitter chocolate mousse made with olive oil and served with chocolate and hazelnut ice-cream and honeycomb shards.

Fish Lane has the potential to be a very good bistro – the kitchen just needs to pay a little more attention to detail. Whether it can do that while simultaneously serving burgers and all-you-can-eat mussel specials on the other side of window remains to be seen.

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