Queensland 2014 in food: What we loved and hated

What a delicious year 2014 has been for Queensland. In April we hosted the revered Spanish chef Ferran Adria, of former experimental restaurant El Bulli, to announce Good Food Month and give a highly anticipated talk on the future of food at the Gallery of Modern Art.

We followed with Good Food Month in July, including visits from top chefs such as Peter Gilmore of Quay and Melbourne's own Andrew McConnell, while nearly 180,000 people attended the inaugural Brisbane TimesThe Brisbane Times

It didn't slow down in the second half of the year, with enough restaurant openings to make your head spin. So settle in with your cup of kombucha or your Anchor Steam beer for a recap of the year that was and what's to come.

Flipping chefs

Chefs turned burger slingers. The esteemed Philip Johnson of E'cco Bistro initiated a city-wide takeover with Howzat Burger, now with a third branch at the Triffid in Teneriffe. The former executive chef at Stokehouse Tony Kelly opened Hello Harry on the Sunshine Coast, while the crew from the one-hatted Coast at Hervey Bay gave us Badger & Brown. Sydney's Chur Burger moved into town and Public's Bonnie Shearston and Tom Sanceau opened Red Hook in the CBD, which quickly garnered a loyal following for their burgers. Meanwhile, Ben's Burgers took over the Pink Flamingo in Fortitude Valley's Winn Lane.

Clean and green

Where it was once de rigueur to clutch a coffee while shopping, this year we were more likely to be drinking something that looked more like swamp water. Brisbane's first 24-hour juice bar, Liquefy,Nutri-bullets. bullet-proof" with butter instead of milk bought from one of the many paleoraw food cafes

The year of beer

Beer lovers must be feeling a little smug right now. Their time has finally come and the level of investment suggests it's more than a fad. The monolithic The Charming SquireBrewski, The Hop and Pickle, New York Brew House, TomahawkYard Bird Ale House, who've all picked up the baton from early adopters such as Bitter SuiteThe ScratchTippler's TapEsquire to start up his own beer- and bread-focussed business, the pop-up Beerkary.

Restaurants also upped the ante, invigorating their beer lists in response to much closer scrutiny from diners.

Ingredient of the year

It's a close call between coconut (water, yoghurt, oil) and chia seeds. Kale, while still high on the hit list, seems to have slipped from its pole position and anything fermented is still popular.

Shopping centre dining

The redeveloped Indooroopilly was the first to go upmarket with its food offerings - cleverly creating a distinction between venues "in" and "at" a shopping centre. In the centre's Station Road strip (not accessible from inside the shopping centre), The Gerard's crew opened The Mero, South Bank's Ole introduced Ole Fuego, Harajuko Gyoza opened a second branch of their popular dumplings venue and Nantucket Kitchen gave west-siders a taste of East Coast America.

Then came Mt Gravatt with Hatch and Co, The Palms and the soon-to-open Motto Motto, by the owners of Sono.

Beef, bao and bruschetta

Ribs and steaks ruled with Black Bird Bar and Grill and Buffalo Bar, sibling to Mighty Mighty, opening in the city as well as Che Asado Argentinean venue and Live Fire Steak House, both firing up at South Bank. Across the road at The Charming Squire, there's often a whole beast in the window waiting to be carved up by the kitchen.

Kwan Brothers, Longtime and Happy Boy all held up the end for the new, cool, casual Asian. We also went a little "pazza" for Italian, with Locanda Osteria opening in Fortitude Valley. In the city, Marchetti Cafe bought old-style Italian back to the CBD while the long-awaited Jamie's Italian finally began welcoming diners and stylish little Coppa Spuntino Bar and Restaurant across the road began dishing up a short, sharp Italian menu. Meanwhile, the guys from Beccofino at Teneriffe opened little brother Julius Pizzeria at South Brisbane.

The best and worst

In terms of positive trends, "complimentary" bread seems to be making a comeback. (Yes, we know it's built into the end price, but still ...) and more thought is being given to comfort over cool factor in restaurant design when it comes to seating. This year we continued to see lots of gorgeous and imaginative plateware, often made to order or carefully sourced, and sommeliers and restaurants worked hard to make drinks lists more interesting with a range of offerings and serve sizes. The "plate smear" aka "the skidmark" seems to have been hated into extinction too.

The share plate concept continued to be popular in 2014 but still wasn't always thought through, with table sizes often not commensurate with having more than two plates on the table at a time. The quality of menus still varied widely, with a lot of poor or wordy descriptions and still far too much use of the word fresh for our liking.

There were lots of great playlists, but there were equally as many restaurants where the music was just too loud or not suited to the venue. Ditto the low lighting. Yes, we want it to be atmospheric but we still need to be able to read the menu.

For those of us who eat out a lot, there's still a lot of follow-the-leader mentality to restaurant interior. (For example, this year copper lightshades replaced Edison bulbs everywhere.)

Onward and upward ... 2015

Keep an eye out for new venues from Ryan Squires of Esquire and Damien Griffith (Alfred & Constance, Alfredo, Kwan Bros, Chester St Kitchen). Sichuan Bang Bang's Renata Roberts is opening a pizzeria next door to her bijoux Kenmore Chinese joint in February, while Cabiria at the Barracks will be transforming into Los Villianos Cantina and Blue Raven in Auchenflower will be dishing up American-style food.

Our predictions for Queensland in 2015 include a growth in yakitori bars, savoury beignets taking on the arancini, artisanal ice-cream bars and some serious creative attention being given to vegetables.