aquitaine brasserie

second time at aquitaine and once again am so impressed! excellent service, atmosphere and food! current fave restaurant in brisbane. definitly try the pork and scallop entree and the fish main was excellent! will definitely be back.


-----21 dec, 2013-----

went for dinner and was really impressed! delicious,goodsized serves especially the entrees and really nice and professional service. will definitely go back. pork belly entree highly recommended!

visited this renowned french bistro last month. it was our first time to try it out.
lay out offers a comfortable ambience. service isgoodtoo.
we ordered escargots and steak tartare for entrees dinner duck breast and wagyu rump cap 5+ for mains.
both entrees were nice and tasteful. hero should be those mains. chef’s culinary skill wasgoodto prepare the duck breast with slightly pinkish at the central portion. i particularly appreciate the accomplished bone mellow with the steak, which makes the steak to another level.
overall impression is good.
😋👍😋

i had a delightful leisurely lunch here while on holiday from new zealand. the beef tartare to start with was generous and seasoned beautifully. the raw beef was cut into larger pieces than i'm used to, but it was perfect because it gave it a lovely chunky mouthfeel. i reckon anyone who's never tried beef tartare would find this texture less daunting than the more traditional finely-chopped version. the crispy home-made lavosh bread was really novel and delicious because i think it was deep fried rather than baked.

my main was the pan fried barramundi. i've never had barramundi before and this example of it was cooked perfectly. the skin was so crispy it was like a chip, but still attached to the moist, flakey flesh. i can see why is an aussie favourite. the dish was missing the candied fennel chips listed on the menu but i've only just realised that now that i'm referring to the menu as i write this. it would've been interesting to see what they added to the dish. despite their absence, i'm still giving 5 stars. i'm glad the apricot remoulade was served as separate blobs because i could control how much i added to each mouthful. i have a sour palate so i used the quite sweet (to me) remoulade very sparingly. the pearl barley and shaved fennel accompaniments made it a compete plate, with no need to order any side dishes.

despite not having much of a sweet tooth, i'm a bit of a sucker for french desserts. i knew a whole dessert would make my tummy explode so i opted for the petit fours. at $10 i thought it would be a couple of small morsels to go with my coffee. oh my god! those petit fours have to be the best bargain in brisbane. i'm still in a happy, happy sugar coma so i might have misremembered some of the flavours. there was a square of ginger and caramel fudge, a sesame(?) macaron, a piece of hokey pokey (honeycomb to you australians) and a square of lychee gel that was like a very light turkish delight. these were definitely not small morsels; each one took 3-4 bites to consume. the fudge is the best i've ever had. i'm used to fudge that is so sugary that the sweetness 'burns' your throat as you swallow it, which is why i'm not a big fan. this was not like that at all. it was also super creamy and not grainy at all. now i have a benchmark by which to measure excellent fudge! the macaron was very dense, but not unpleasant. maybe that's what brisbane macarons are like - might have to hunt when another macaron while i'm here in order to compare and contrast. i would've been more than satisfied with the petit fours on their own but aquitaine took them to a higher plane by serving them on a generous bed of white chocolate powder studded with pieces of fresh raspberry. the powder just melted the instant it touched your mouth and was like a separate dessert in itself.

the service was warm and solicitous but not obtrusive. aquitaine calls itself a brasserie, but i thought the food was far more elevated. the verygoodthing is that it charges brasserie prices!

i'd planned on what i was going to do with my day before i fly home tomorrow, but now i think i'm going to have to rearrange those plans to include another lunch at aquitaine!

really disappointing experience here - we had a 12:30 booking, ordered three courses each not long after 1. entrees came not long after and drinks service started off very well but after that things fell apart. we didn’t receive mains till close to 2pm. desserts didn’t come till well after 3pm! we had even ordered and finished coffees before they arrived. pretty sure pre-made lemon tart didn’t take an hour to slice up and put on a plate. we had to rush through dessert and what had been a lovely lunch out became stressful and basically a total drag. all the other diners had eaten, paid and left and we were still waiting for our orders.

i get that there are mishaps with timing in kitchens sometimes but we were there with a (very well-behaved) small baby so you’d think they’d make a small effort. the worst thing was that even after we’d had to politely chase the mains, and then dessert, and even though we ended up sitting there for more than 3 hours basically being ignored, no one apologised or explained or made any attempt to make things right. when we went to pay the $400 bill my guests complained about the delays and the server agreed to comp our coffees. wow, how generous. the food wasgoodbut i won’t be back.

had a date night with my partner at aquitaine before seeing a movie (dunkirk, see it!) and the booking experience through zomato was agoodone. we had the garlic bread which was a nice combination of butter and soft confit garlic cloves. the mains were king salmon for me and my partner had the pulled duck cassoulet with mushroom and broccolini sides. the king salmon was crispy skinned, and while very tender, it was mostly raw on the interior and quite cool to eat, but some of this was due to the weather being rather cold for brisbane. the sides were delicious. the wine was a clare valley cab sav 2013 at a reasonable $65 per bottle, which was a nice accompaniment to the meal. our waiters were attentive and mildly friendly on the whole, however, there could be some improvement to the experience towards the end of the night. all meals came out in an efficient manner and the two courses took only an hour to complete. overall, a pleasant meal out withgoodfood but not 5 star and a little on the expensive side for the mains.

had a lovely lunch, and really enjoyed the wine, staff friendly & setting great. shared the duck, which is one of the tastiest duck dishes i've had to date. was busy,goodatmosphere and will definitely return.

what a great venue with great views andgoodservice. the food! well we started off with fresh oysters, pork belly and ceviche scallops.

oysters with champagne + dill foam, very interesting but certainly top quality and fresh tho was a lot more shells in my oysters then usual. pork belly and scallops was delicious which went down like a treat.

mains we had the sword fish and duo of beef with buttered greens. the fish was very interesting with the lemon curd but the beef was also delicious.

finishing up with all things chocolate it was a great night out and would recommend to family and friends.

great location, nice view, friendly service and the food was verygood(but not great).  i've dined at aquitaine four times, including hosting a business dinner for 10+, but haven't been compelled to return for business lunches or date nights with my wife in the past 6 months.  i wouldn't be opposed to it, but there are other, more interesting options nearby.  my wife enjoyed the escargot and i recall the steak chasseur was nice.  i got excited to see pommed de terre sarladaises on the menu - i guess duck fat excites me - but they were ok at best.

very nice view, friendly service and a nice wine list. it's a great spot for a casual lunch or dinner date. the food is good, verygoodactually but its just a little boring to me. the food tastes great and the chefs execute it well but it's nothing new.

had a great meal out last night at aquitaine.. my partner had the kangaroo and said it was flawless, i had the mushroom entree and chocolate and salted caramel ganache which was also flawless.. the breads and cheese entree special weren't bad but felt like they were missing something.. would also begoodif they ask if you want all the elements on the plate explained prior to launching into a lengthy explanation. otherwise great food and service, just these few things would make the experience flawless :-)

situated in the new section of southbank near the goodwill bridge, it offers a nice view of the river and the city on the other side.  it was a shame that on the night we went it was raining.  service was okay; it did take them a little longer than usual to take our order and bring our drinks, considering it wasn't busy at all.  food was enjoyable, the escargot in butter and herb sauce were to delicious as was the pork belly and scallop.  mains was alsogoodwith the beef being tender and juicy.  all in all agoodnight out.

terrific food and service. we went using the entertainment guide and will most definitely be back again! i had the special which was a 'to die for' duck pie. the entrees of sardines were incredible as were the mushrooms. finish off by a great ganache.goodlocation and very attentive service.

it was time for a very long overdue catch up with my oldest friend and she had decided that aquitaine sounded like agoodoption for a friday lunch. we arrived nice and early and greeted very warmly by our friendly waiter.  the place was still empty so table choice was all ours and we chose to sit outside and enjoy the view.

the menu was with us quickly and our celebratory glass of bubbles in our hand ingoodtime. the menu was interesting, but neither of us could go past the winter lunch special menu - choice of two courses and a glass of wine for $35 ... bargain. on the menu for our visit was pumpkin risotto and coq au vin - with a choice of either a glass of chardonnay, cabernet sav or a beer.  we both went with the white and it was great!

now to the food - the pumpkin risotto made its appearance and it was seriously good, and such a generous serve, wasn't sure how i would fit in my main.  it was creamy, pumpkiny and had a generous serving of goats cheese sprinkled on top ... my hubby makesgoodpumpkin risotto, this was even better than his.  

the coq au vin was also delicious - a really large bowl of hearty chicken, loads of carrots, plump mushrooms, onion and potato mash/puree surrounded by a delicious wine sauce.  the waitress explained that the chicken had been suveed, then finished off in the pan and it was delicious - so moist, tender and melting off the bone. but those mushrooms - they were my favourite bit.

in all a lovely long lunch - the service was superb, the food was delicious and we both agreed that we needed to catch up more often and that aquitaine would be the place to do it!

rather let themselves down.

this is a fine location, perhaps a touch cool, semi-outdoors in late autumn, but the heaters are nice. the service is competent without being warm.

six of us - three couples who know a bit about food and about france and speak french - had dinner there one friday night in may 2015 and very much enjoyed the food. the "all things duck" entrée was seriouslygoodas was the special shellfish.

we actually chose to go there because we saw there was a bouillabaisse. well, there is a limit to howgooda bouillabaisse can be in australia, since we don't really have the right sorts of fish and anyway australian diners won't come at the ugly, bony little numbers that make a fish stew great (rock cod for example) but these guys get pretty near to that limit: plenty of saffron, a strong broth, a nice variety of textures and flavours.

one of us is a vegetarian and she was pretty well catered for - except that the rest of us kept pinching her stuff because it was so nice. go for the mushroom with cheese and egg!

a nice selection of cheeses for the grown-ups and a hugely chocolatey dessert for the rest.

and agoodwine list: not too expensive, by brisbane standards.

all very happy so far.

but then, the bill.

so we are three couples and - this is australia, you know - we want to pay for ourselves, so we will just divide the bill in three and pay a third per couple.

and we all have credit cards.

well, it appears we are in luck because they will take separate cards but no more than three.

but my card is amex. well, there is a surcharge. ok, i'm used to that. i know that amex actually doesn't charge so big a fee and it does deliver higher spend customers to the restaurant so the surcharge is just a lie, but i just accept it and mark down the restaurant as a place not to go back to.

but wait! the amex surcharge does not just go on my portion of the bill - if one card is an amex, then all the cards get hit with the surcharge.

"oh, the system just works that way."

what utter rubbish! this, guys, even in france, is the 21st century. cash is going out. people pay with plastic. you are not a hole-in-the-wall mum-and-dad eatery, you are a major player that can handle hundreds of diners, you want my money - you take my plastic.

and people split bills. you know that every time more than two people turn up at your restaurant, it is almost certain they will want to pay separately. you don't like this? then only have tables for two!

what worries me is that, if you have trouble with this, then what other basic 21st century technological issues also challenge you. food safety, perhaps?

went this saturday early afternoon - verygoodservice from knowledgable staff. food wasgoodand the venue very pleasant. the experience lives up to the price tag so a thumbs up from us!