Too Zero Bar and Inn of Indulgence

You've got to love a grandiose restaurant name. Ganbaranba Noodle Colosseum in Cairns, a hole-in-the-wall ramen shop, is a personal favourite.

The first part of the name of new venue Too Zero Bar and Inn of Indulgence refers to the street address. The second, along with the bucolic wall mural, hints at owner/chef Mark Rowsell-Turner's love of the bistros and inns of provincial France.

"Staff-Ford", as the robotic voice on my GPS calls this north Brisbane suburb, is certainly no Avignon and seems an unlikely place for someone whose CV would make most travel-hungry young chefs green with envy. Rowsell-Turner spent a couple of years as executive chef for the royal family in Bahrain and has worked in five-star hotels in Doha, Fiji and the Maldives. He was also executive chef at Brisbane's Treasury Hotel when its flagship restaurant Marco Polo was a hatted fine diner.

So why the off-piste location? Rowsell-Turner reckons that Brisbane is missing the little local bistros and bars of Australia's other cities – that we tend to eat in precincts dictated by developers. He has a point and certainly as far as suburbs go, Stafford has a dearth of dining options, unless you favour all-you-can-eat food court Chinese. 

A hybrid cafe/bar/bistro, Too Zero caters for most occasions and appetites.  The menu offers a handful of share options designed for grazing, alongside more traditional main courses.

These days, most savvy hospo operators know they need to hook up the American food junkies with their fix, so there's the ubiquitous buffalo wings and ribs, as well as a cheese dog and a burger.

An entree of Fat Duck pancakes takes its cue from Asia, tender shreds of meat to be folded into house-made pancakes, along with crisp cucumber batons and a sweet-tangy sauce made from tamarind, golden syrup and red wine vinegar. As far as an old standard goes, it's a pretty good version.

A small terracotta dish arrives with firm sweet prawns bathed in a gently spiced butter and served with cornbread triangles. The same ethos of quality and simplicity is evident in a main of flank steak, pre-sliced and partnered with enoki and chestnut mushrooms and a simple sauce of butter, white wine, herbs and pan juices.

A fish pie, with golden, tissue-paper puff pastry has an indent in its lid, filled with fresh al dente peas. Inside are nuggets of salmon in a properly made veloute infused with fish stock, confit fennel, dill and a touch of Pernod. There's also tea-smoked salmon and coq au vin, as well as some substantial salads, while desserts are created daily and described verbally. Breakfast is also served Friday to Sunday.

The libations component of the venue is comprehensively covered by a drinks list that includes cocktails such as the "fortune teller" (Hakushu  12-year-old single malt Japanese whisky with house-made smoked green tea syrup and fresh pressed apple juice) and "the cult of Too Zero" (Cargo Cult spiced rum, fresh lime and mango juice with mango liqueur). 

Coopers and Sapporo are on tap as well as a range of local and international bottled beer. Top-shelf spirits line the green backlit bar, including a couple of fine whiskies, along with a rare mescal and other more everyday spirits, numbered with their price per nip.

Those who favour the grape over grain are provided for with a well-considered and reasonably priced wine list.

From the recycled fence panels of the bar to the blacksmith-forged wine rack, almost everything in the place has been handmade.

Too Zero is not dishing up molecular trickery or purporting to be haute dining, but does good honest food very well, and with its drop-in-any-time policy, it seems to have struck up a mutually advantageous relationship with the locals.

It's a model that Rowsell-Turner intends expanding, with five Too Zeros slated to pop up in other suburbs.