aquitaine brasserie

great food in wonderful riverside location
this is a great spot forlunchon a sunny afternoon. we had a teamlunchhere on a saturday afternoon and everybody loved the food and wine. the views are lovely and the service is attentive! it's nicey but pricey!!

i had a delightful leisurelylunchhere 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 very good thing 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 anotherlunchat 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 lovelylunchout 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 was good but i won’t be back.

hadlunchwith a friend here. crowd was pretentiously posh if you'd ask me. don't know if it's because it's us two asian ladies trying to enjoy life and people were staring at us weird but it was definitely not welcoming. but hey i'm paying for the food, came here for the food, had every reason to be there and expect nothing less than stellar. food did not disappoint, but wouldn't mind the waiters to be a bit more friendly :)

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

it was time for a very long overdue catch up with my oldest friend and she had decided that aquitaine sounded like a good option 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 in good time. the menu was interesting, but neither of us could go past the winterlunchspecial 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 makes good pumpkin 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 longlunch- 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!

good food, great service. went forlunchwith my elderly parents. a massive downpour meant we had to be moved twice to stay dry. despite this, the staff were great, the food and service were excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed our meals. beautifully presented and tasting food with staff who can know what the menu items are

birthday lunch. came to aquitaine for a birthdaylunchon a fine sunday afternoon. surpassed all expectations! superb food and great wine list. the bordeaux egg entree was brilliant as was the tuna entree. the boullibaise main was amazing! the presentation of the carrot cake dessert was incredible. came here 12 months ago when it was a good restaurant. now it is a great restaurant!! well done aquitaine!!!!

gorgeous. dined here on saturdaylunchwith a girlfriend. i have been here a few times before and have always been impressed. we both had the fish and it was delightful. staff were attentive but not intrusive. wine is a little on the expensive side but i guess that's what you have to expect in that area

had a fantasticlunchthere today ! great service , great food

fancy french cuisine. my partner and i dined here the other night as a spur of the moment outing. we were a bit concerned about the cool weather but this venue has heaters and blankets to keep you warm!
the house bread with confit garlic was a prefect little appetizer to share between the two of us.
i enjoyed the market fish for my main with amazing flavours, colours and textures and my partner loved the corned beef cheek. you must try the brussels sprouts and pork belly side, it simply delish.
we finished off with the summer snickers and the crime brûlée for dessert - we could have had two desserts but was simply too full!
staff were friendly and knowledgable about the dishes. the food was outstanding and we will definitely be back for more indulgence :) loved it!!!!


-----01 dec, 2013-----

i recently celebrated my birthday here with a group of friends on a lazy sunday afternoon.
staff are friendly and attentive. they have a good knowledge of the menu and helped me match a nice bottle of wine with my entree and mains. the pork entree is a definite winner and the lamb main is divine!!!
but the stand out for me was the snickers dessert, delish!!!
best birthdaylunchto date :)

lee & rachel buckingham. we hadlunchtoday at aquitaine
and all i can say is wow.
the service was great and the food will give and two hatted restaurant in brisbane a run for there money.

we are looking forward now to our next visit

i dont eat desert but the snickers desert was just amazing

great jobs we will spread the word, and we will be back soon.

oh great views and the price was good too.

lee

very disappointing. we recently hadlunchat aquitane and found the food to be very ordinary. one of the wait staff had attitude which is unforgivable when you are paying the bill. would not return and would definitely not recommend.

pretty good!. we went for a birthday lunch. bloody mary was amazing and spicy!
friendly staff but a bit disorganised. they forgot specials board, side dishes, and gave us other customers food and coffee.they were friendly though.

steak was amazing, snails were great and right amount of garlic, homemade breads were excellent, fries yummy, vegs perfectly cooked and brussels sprouts were actually amazing..roasted in oil.

didn't like which way we were facing..towards the ally. they need to make this look nicer if you don't have a seat with a view. so that is really the only negative, even though we pre booked a table and asked for a nice one. they also made out they were fully booked, but upon arrival it was 40 percent full. so havinglunchat preferred time would have been nice.

favourite restaurant. beautiful food, bothlunchand dinner, we've been back many times. great atmosphere - always buzzing with lots of people. gorgeous outlook onto the river & staff were excellent. favourite restaurant by far!