malt dining

ambiance abounds. i just last night visited this establishment.

deciding on a night out with a friend i trolled the urbanspoon website for somewhere new to go. as i did start searching on a saturday afternoon my options were limited, as being a shift worker limits my choices on occasions. i however emailed and called malt then managed at 3.30pm on a sunny saturday afternoon managed to get in contact with someone at the restaurant. got told i would get a call back, after a 10 minute wait a reservation was made. (the staffs attention to detail went to the fact that they know i had also emailed to make a booking - brilliant)

the surroundings
the restaurant aptly named "the attic" was up a small stair case. as the final corner was rounded, i was pleasantly surprised. a adequately open space with tables brilliant placed well apart giving the potential first daters the privacy to use their worst one liners, but not too far as to resemble the sterile environment of most new "fine dining" restaurants have plagued themselves with. lighting gave a warm feeling and not in your face as to give your unattractive date no hope of scoring. a baby grand sits to the right of the entrance which for a change was not for show, a live piano player graced us with entertainer later on through the night. we were seated next to a window that was open which was a nice change with a beautiful view of the street.

the service
we were seated and offered the usual options of water, given menus and the wine list with a quick rehearsal of the specials for the evening. the host for the evening easily adapted to us not throwing the usual platitudes of arrogance that you can sometimes get. when the food was bought out each dish was presented with a explanation of what was in front of us, all well versed in each dish. all the staff were attentive and plates were taken promptly and food did not take too long to arrive. the only con i could possibly throw out there was when my wine was finished i was not offered a top up or a different option, which was fine as one wine was my limit for the evening.

the consumables
entree: pan seared hervey bay scallops, cauliflower beignet, wild rice granola, coriander
main: seared rack & slow cooked shoulder of lamb aligot, black olive, baby vegetables
dessert: malt brownie - salted caramel, chocolate textures, peanut brittle

the entree was brilliantly cooked and not confused with too many different tastes well presented and mouth melting material.
the main was told by our host as the most popular dish it came out and smelt divine. the lamb was cooked medium rare, and also tasted beautiful however presentation was confusing and muddled it seemed that the garnish took over the actual plate. an array of different flavors bombarded the taste buds, though it did taste superb presentation of that particular dish could use a little simplification. however my cohorts chicken dish was very well presented.
malt brownie was a absolute winner we both walked away with smiles on our faces. presented well with the small amounts of ice-cream offsetting the luscious richness of the brownie. wow.

the dollars
overall i have paid more for meals in the past at other fine dining establishments but the pricing of the meals was reasonable and i did look at the final bill and raised the questioning eyebrow deciding that we may not have been charged for one of our items. however i was wrong to offset the reasonable price i did leave a little tip to say thank-you to a deserving service staff.

the hammer
in summation malt was a surprising brisbane jewel. as said by my counterpart it felt like we were having dinner at a associates house.
i tend to agree, a fine diningexperiencewithout the wankery of fine dining attitudes. i would strongly suggest a visit to this establishment for a romantic dinner or a intimate group of friends.
food andexperienceis subjective so i will not degrade it will a mark out of 10 but as mentioned above worth a visit.

great food and atmosphere. the greatexperiencestarted the moment we arrived. the food was beautifully presented with deep,and rich flavours. service was outstanding and the wait staff were knowledgeable a friendly.. the piano player and great music rounded out the night.....definitely a place to come back again and again......keep up the great work.....

feb 2020. belated review but went here with the partner for date night dinner. we took advantage of the fork discount as well as a dinner gift voucher.
we had the "feed me" option, which was a very goodexperienceof the delicious and innovative meal options that malt dining offered. no faults.
service was friendly and efficient. smart casual ambience with a lovely ambience for special intimate occasions. reasonable prices for the quality and quantity.
overall, an impeccable dining experience. highly recommend.

malt bistro not malt dining. don't get me wrong. we loved the food at malt, but the service let it down.
i had to top up my wine from the bottle twice and the sparkling water once for my wife and myself.
the pork scratching was forgotten when my main was brought to the table.
my soufflé was brought to the table before my wife's malt brownie.
the birthday card to my wife from all the staff was a lovely touch.
we dined there early, so i'd not like toexperiencethe service when it's actually busy.

we came with high expectations. while the staff were friendly and portions very generous, the food itself was disappointing. entree came out before drinks and was cold, sauce on dumplings very over powering, the lamb was cooked well, but vegetables bitter. the pumpkin with goats cheese was the standout, but with two dishes to go we couldn't eat it all. overall, it was more a family pub, than fine diningexperiencefor me.

i wanted to try this restaurant for a while from a great word-of-mouth recommendation, however myexperiencewas very underwhelming. firstly, the service received left much to be desired and the food was on the average side. i really wanted to like this place based on all the great reviews on zomato and google.

to start, the senior waitstaff didn’t look up unless you approached them and were more interested in chatting at the bar than attending to customers which was a major turn off for me. simple things such as topping up table water was like pulling teeth and the courses were also slow to come out.

we ordered the kimchi pancake, crab and heirloom tomatoes and the sugar snap dishes for entrees. mains were confit duck and the pork jowl. the crab tasted like it came out of a can, duck wasn’t crispy-skinned, pork jowl was more fat than meat and by the end, we didn’t even want to bother with dessert.

i don’t like leaving negative reviews but for the prices charged, and a $100+ bill at the end of the night i would recommend going somewhere else where your money and tastebuds would be more welcomed.

high expectations - let’s hope it was an off night ...

been looking forward to getting a chance to ditch the kids for a trip to malt. the bar downstairs had stacks of options if you are a whisky lover. great atmosphere / pictures of the place definitely taken with a wide angled lens but no worries we still got a seat!
heading upstairs for dinner we were surprised by the pianist (who, bless her, played non-stop for the majority of the evening) and the dining room - great atmosphere.
got slightly concerned when met with a server who said “hi sorry we are totally swamped tonight” ... umm ok good thing i can see empty tables and i booked a week ago! most of the staff were attentive but sadly one seemed totally off all night. took till course 2 of our 9 course degustation to be asked if we would like a drink...
but the water glasses were always full so that’s a big plus in my book
the standout dish was a mushroom course - from memory jerusalem artichokes and soft egg yolk. lovely.
then came some big problems with over-seasoning. a seared kangaroo which tasted more like sashimi dipped in too much soy and wasabi (neither in the dish - not sure what was going on there). noodles with bottarga. almost inedible. (when we mentioned this dish as super salty when paying the bill we were looked at like we obviously didn’t understand bottarga - yes i understand and this was waaaaaay to salty - (if you can’t taste the clams you’ve maxed out your bottarga / salt points). a duck course required the skin to be removed - again far too much seasoning.
having said that - the concepts are great just some challenges with execution. portions are generous (almost too much so for 9 courses) and the atmosphere is great. as i said i had high hopes and was disappointed - but given what the rest of brisbane says about malt - i’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk thisexperienceup to a bad night.
you give it a go - i’ll probably go back to deer duck
(sorry about the pictures - took them for my 7 year old who wanted to know what we had for tea!)

malt has a great location, and hearing a cut from bloomfield's super session as i walked in impressed me as that album has always been a deep cut favourite. sadly, the restaurant upstairs had a live pianist (that was a bit on the loud side) so the music wasn't as good (although his version of black hole sun was still on point). the dining room is otherwise comfortable and pleasant. 

the server was attentive, although she seemed a bit annoyed that we ordered the starters prior to the mains (we weren't in a rush). the wine service was well presented, although the server left the bottle on a window sill directly beside another table of strangers which came off as a bit awkward when our massive table had plenty of room. 

the food was a serious let down, as the market oysters were the only good thing we had (and i am not an oyster guy by any stretch, so you can be assured the oysters were good). the steak tartare was without doubt the worst i have ever had and we sent it back mostly untouched. i have never had a bad tartare in my life, but this was chewy to the point that i swallowed it whole as it lacked any flavour aside from a mild bitterness.

for mains, the charred beef was adequate but unremarkable and the duck was quite chewy (although not as bad as the tartare was, thank god). the duck and steak were both cooked correctly for medium rare but definitely needed more seasoning. the sauce that came with the duck was essentially a garnish as it didn't provide a noticeable flavour. the butternut that accompanied the duck was likely the best of the mains as it came with a candied nut that made for a really nice combination. 

overall the dinner could have been a 3, but the tartare was so bad that it dragged down the entire experience. i doubt i will return as myexperiencehas reflected that of a few other legitimate reviewers on zomato, so my money is clearly better spent elsewhere.

my partner and i celebrated our anniversary here by dining on the six-course degustation menu with matched wines. from making the reservation to the moment we left the venue, the service was impeccable. we were told that the degustation menu was usually done earlier (than our 7:30pm reservation) so as to give us the bestexperienceto take in all the course but they made it work for us.
the degustation was amazing and such a wonderful experience. we loved the cured cobia with piel de sapo (christmas melon) and cucumber: such a lovely, refreshing first course. and the tenderness of the duck breast and charred beef in the following courses was superb. we very much liked the fresh strawberry dessert. all the food was so beautifully presented and just the right portion size for degustation. we are also happy to have decided on the matched wines because they were worth it! every red, white and sparkling were perfect accompaniments to our meals (we especially liked the malbec). my partner is not a big wine drinker but even he enjoyed the drops that we were served.
claire was our server and her service was relaxed, welcoming and very appropriate. the signed card by the staff and piccolo bottle of champagne was such a lovely touch too.
thank you so much to malt dining for providing an anniversary and dining memory i will always be fond of.
my only regret is not taking more photos: the restaurant was very classy and the low lighting made for an intimate and richexperienceof the dining however, this meant that flash would’ve had to have been used for every course. i decided against that and to just savour the food. i highly recommend you take the chance to savour it too!

for a special occasion required some fine dining, and after hearing of the new 9 course degustation menu, we headed off to malt dining. on arrival, we had a pre dinner drink of a woodford whiskey neat each at the bar. sitting down to the degustation adventure, the waitress explained wonderfully the coming dishes and matching wines that we would be trying. 1st dish was a cured cobia and cucumber, followed by goats cheese and carrot with buckwheat. both of these beautifully presented and great flavours. we now jumped straight into the 3rd dish mount tamborine yabby with tomato and jalapeño, this was my least favorite, as the yabby and tomato just didn't taste like a great combination. moving right along to our 4th course, rye pasta with watercress with a soft egg on top, a wonderful flavour combination. 5th and 6th course was chicken with peas and gem, then roasted duck breast with butternut, rye and citrus. both beautifully cooked and prepared. loosening the belt, we went onto course number 7, charred beef with mushroom ketchup, asparagus and mustard greens. to finish off this taste sensation, came strawberry white chocolate with rose, yoghurt and lemon myrtle. this was so refreshing and cleansing to eat, and to prepare you for this finishing course of carrot and beetroot cake with blood orange and goats cheese. all the wines i thought were matched beautifully with the dishes. all in all, it was a great diningexperienceat malt dining.

ate in the bar as opposed to the restaurant. good ambiance, good food, air conditioned which was very welcome in summer. will definitely go back toexperiencethe restaurant upstairs

great atmosphere and service tonight for my second visit to malt. it was quite busy as it was a friday but the food arrived to the table quickly and was delicious to say the least. although the entrees were quite small, the mains were generously portioned. some standouts were the steak tartare we ordered for entree and the lamb rack and pork for main. the lamb was cooked perfectly and tender whilst the pork had lovely combinations of sweet purée and crunchy elements to give the dish a nice texture. malt's signature dessert, the brownie, was a wonderful way to finish the night and the combination of chocolate, vanilla and honeycomb is a classic. greatexperienceonce again.

we had an excellentexperienceat malt dining 2 weeks ago. i had the wagyu and my friend went in for the lamb. both dishes were top notch! the flavours and the sides truly complimented. we'll be back for sure!

we had a nice dinner at malt, but i wouldn't rate it as an amazing dining experience. the food was tasty, but not amazing for a 'fine dining' category restaurant. a few small details that really took away from theexperiencewere side dishes that came out after we'd finished our meals and stale bread. albeit minor details, these things really differentiate a 'good' restaurant from an 'amazing' restaurant. the ambience was lovely and pleasant and our wait-staff were attentive.

visited malt last night(monday night) for my partners birthday and it was fantastic. from the moment we walked in ourexperiencewas great. there was a birthday card on our table which was signed by the waitresses, who all came over to wish him a happy birthday. they were very attentive and knowledgeable throughout the whole night. food was delicious and portion size was just right. for entree we had oysters followed by complementary bread, vinegar and oil. we had salomon and chicken for mains. for dessert we had whisky brûlée and chocolate hazelnut soufflé which were to die for! they even put a candle in the dessert. everything about the night made it such a great dining experience. i would highly recommend malt to anyone especially for a special occasion. i cannot wait to return.