{"id":7999,"date":"2012-09-02T22:29:57","date_gmt":"2012-09-02T12:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=7999"},"modified":"2014-05-10T12:08:24","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T02:08:24","slug":"esquire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=7999","title":{"rendered":"Esquire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tagfood\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For Jen’s birthday, I took her to one of Brisbane’s most decorated new restaurants.\u00a0 Esquire’s head chef is Ryan Squires, formerly of Buffalo Club<\/a> fame.\u00a0 It’s been three years since we dined at Buffalo Club but it still rates highly for Jen and I as one of our favourite dining experiences so we eagerly awaited Squires’ new venture.\u00a0 His food was inventive, playfully presented and absolutely delicious.\u00a0 We were ready to be wowed once more.<\/p>\n

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Air dried beef jerky and kim chee, served in an envelope (?)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Scampi nagiri<\/p><\/div>\n

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BBQ Kettle Chip, Truffle and Ham<\/p><\/div>\n

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Raw Wagyu and Fried Rice<\/p><\/div>\n

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Ike Jime Coral Trout, Macadamia and Mustard<\/p><\/div>\n

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Squid – Bisque and Cauliflower<\/p><\/div>\n

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Bone and Bread<\/p><\/div>\n

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Spatchcock, Barley and Mushroom<\/p><\/div>\n

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Deckle of Beef, Yoghurt and Parsley<\/p><\/div>\n

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Popcorn Ice Cream<\/p><\/div>\n

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Chocolate, Berries and Hazelnut<\/p><\/div>\n

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Coconut and Cocoa Rocks<\/p><\/div>\n

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Campari Orange, Curds and Whey<\/p><\/div>\n

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Strawberries and Tea<\/p><\/div>\n

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Home Made Chocolate<\/p><\/div>\n

Jen and I came away very happy with the food.\u00a0 Some of the quirkiness didn’t quite hit the mark on the second time around – I can live without having any more food served in an envelope – but some of the best dishes of the night came from Squires at his most creative: like the Bone and Bread course and the Popcorn flavoured icecream which was delicious and mimicked the texture of actual popcorn surprisingly well.\u00a0 For the best flavours of the night, I’d be hard pressed to choose between the nigiri and the wagyu beef.\u00a0 Both were flavoursome and worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n

While Squires clearly hasn’t lost his flair in the kitchen, its a shame the rest of the operation isn’t of the same standard.\u00a0 The venue itself is bland and unremarkable, with uncomfortable wooden seats that have no back support and a floor plan that seats the majority of diners about twenty feet away from the open kitchen.\u00a0 Why even have it if you’re going to sit everyone so far away?\u00a0 Bizarrely, the restaurant apparently does not have a sommelier.\u00a0 There was no matching wines list and the drinks service was slow and out of sync with the meals.\u00a0 Three dishes were served before our first drinks of the evening arrived.\u00a0 The staff also had to be reminded of our second drinks order and the bill at the end of the night.\u00a0 The service didn’t hold a candle to the experience we had a Urbane, Vue De Monde or Quay earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

I can’t quite recall a dining experience having such a disparity between the quality of the food and the level of service.\u00a0 An off night, perhaps?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Jen’s birthday, I took her to one of Brisbane’s most decorated new restaurants.\u00a0 Esquire’s head chef is Ryan Squires, formerly of Buffalo Club fame.\u00a0 It’s been three years since we dined at Buffalo Club but it still rates highly for Jen and I as one of our favourite dining experiences so we eagerly awaited …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,15,415],"tags":[1348,1349],"class_list":["post-7999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-blog","category-food-and-drink","tag-esquire","tag-ryan-squires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7999"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14556,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7999\/revisions\/14556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}