Last night Lana and I dined at Aria. No, not the well-known Sydney Aria, arguably one of Australia’s top restaurants, but the Brisbane outpost. Still, with the same co-owners (Matt Moran and Peter Sullivan) I was expecting something pretty special. The location couldn’t have been more perfect – at Eagle Street Pier and right on the river we had a beautiful view out to the Story Bridge, and as the evening fell it was nice to have the lights of the City switch on to give the Brisbane River and entirely new perspective.

After deciding that we would go for the tasting menu we were started on our journey with a chilled potato and leek soup. I’m not that keen on soups which are cold but I guess I could understanding serving it on a warm summer’s day. Kind of refreshing too I guess in getting our palette’s cleansed.

First course on our tasting menu was a seared loin and tartare of tuna with soy braised crispy pork, pear and daikon salad and ponzu dressing. Very fresh tuna and the citrus flavour of the ponzu dressing lifted the dish nicely, the crisp of the pork gave a nice texture to the dish.

The second course of shaved jamón ibérico with tomato, dried olives, and toasted brioche didn’t really thrill me – but it was never going to with two items I don’t appeal to me – the jamon and the olives. Tomato and brioche were pretty good though.

The scallops up next were divine. Pan fried and served with sautéed cuttlefish, witlof and radish salad and sauce nero – I wanted the scallops to last the whole meal. Yum. Not sure about the weird jelly that was served with it …

We were building up nicely now only to be disappointed by an over seasoned peking duck consommé with duck dumpling and Asian mushroom. On its own the dumpling was nice, soft and flavourful but the consommé was so overpowering that neither of could finish our dishes. A crime!

The next two meat dishes were an improvement on the duck consommé. Confit Bangalow Sweet Pork belly, fresh figs, spice walnut with apple and crackling salad was very simple in its presentation but lovely going down. Though let’s be honest, unless you do your pork belly and crackling seriously wrong, its not often that I would say this kind of dish would disappointment. I love pig!

Aged fillet with onion puree, sautéed mushrooms and red wine sauce was well cooked. Beef was very tender and the onion puree was nice. Its just a shame that we both started to feel really full at this stage and it was almost too rich for us. Didn’t stop me finishing it though …

A palette cleanser (pineapple granita with a creme fraiche foam) …

… and then we were on to the final course of the night – Dessert! A simple berry consommé with a berry salad and mascarpone sorbet. A really fresh dessert showcasing the availability of the fresh fruit available in Queensland. I loved the mascarpone sorbet.

At Aria coffee and Petit Fours form part of the tasting menu to round out your meal and as a surprise they give you a parting gift of macaroons.

I kind of have mixed feelings about my experience at Aria. Food was above average and certainly well presented though not (consistently) the most amazing I have had. Probably a little disappointing that there wasn’t anything in the food that was unique or adventurous. Service was a bit mixed. Fairly good early on but as the restaurant slowly started to fill up got progressively less responsive (I had to ask for my water to be topped up a couple of times.) Additionally they over-charged us! But I should have checked the credit card slip I guess … and they were good today in arranging the refund pretty quickly (after I called them.) On the other hand as a plus they weren’t rushing us to get us out of the restaurant and they chased us down a the end of the night to give us our macaroons.

Overall a pleasant experience.