London Fields, Brisbane: restaurant review

She – the greeter, I mean – wants me on a bar seat. Facing the kitchen, no less. I want the table I believe I have booked online, notwithstanding an earlier call to say I am one, not two. There is a moment. It’s good for the appetite.

Sensing friction, the den mother (who probably should have greeted me in the first place, but that’s how restaurants are these days) swoops to say that of course I can have a small table if I’d prefer. I do.

Ready for dinner now I’ve had my taste of waiter/customer tension, I have just myself and a magazine for company; a little comfort (plus the perspective of a seat rather than a stool) is required for the next two hours I will spend beneath the roof of London Fields, Brisbane’s newest “gastropub”.

A former commercial building of some kind (my waiter can’t say what), repurposed to sell food, booze and good times, the name may suggest British links, but it sure doesn’t feel like the gastropubs of my experience (that is, ones with amped-up food/wine and a chef retired from chasing Michelin stars).

No, it just feels like a semi-industrial converted space with pillars and exposed ducting, wood panelling and floors, all bright and open and pleasant enough.

Run by people with several restaurants in Brisbane, the fit-out and branding suggest acquired learning in the restaurant caper and plenty of investment, which is possibly why they can’t afford to give my neighbour a piece of bread with her $4 oysters (she asks, but it never comes). And for all that I order, eat and drink, which is lots, none comes my way either. The “gastropub” tag looks even shakier. Gastropubs should be warm and hospitable, possibly serve food with Euro origins where bread and butter is a given, not a request. Not here.

It’s easy, however, to say good things about the drinking: the wine list has plenty of well-chosen bottles at really fair prices. But the menu (which is really what you’d more accurately call bistronomy)? Odd. Some things are fairly priced; some silly. And the cooking? Uneven.

Shaved smoked tongue comes with parsley puree, wafers of pickled garlic, crisps of baguette and scarce specks of salt crystal that remind you the whole thing’s under seasoned ($15).

Moving up the fiscal scale ($18) is a bowl of clams tossed over heat with fresh parsley and nduja, the chilli-spiked “sausage”, served with a small, hot, crusty roll of high quality to sop up tasty juices: these are timeless flavours, and it’s a good dish.

An entree of smoky, torn and wet-ish cooked kingfish comes on a splattering of sorrel puree that looks like something a cow left behind, and is draped with limp, part-charred mustard leaves. Such a dud; all words on a menu rather than food on a plate. It’s $24, and I can’t see how they came up with that price.

The den mother happily says the kitchen will turn a main course into a fourth entree, as it should with something like golden, pan-fried sweetbreads on a pea puree with fresh peas, broad beans and a garnish of cress. It’s actually a good, seasonal dish, marred by careless use of salt. Anybody tasting in there?

My (principal) waiter? On the plus side, she’s friendly and engaging. Keen to please. On the minus? Let’s just say a bottle with a cork is a serious challenge.

Dessert on my solo DIY tasting menu is called “Roast banana, rosemary, honey, hazelnut”. It’s a stoner’s delight of crushed nuts, fruit, honey and a goodly portion of Nutella-like goo. Not sure about the rosemary. It’s rather delicious, but rather artless, too, and at $15?

I wouldn’t bother again, but by all means, make up your own mind. Insist on a table, though.

Address: Cnr Montague and Raven Streets, West End

Phone: (07) 3846 1593

Web: londonfields.com.au

Hours: Lunch, dinner daily

Typical prices: starters $18; mains $36; desserts $15

Summary: Not my field

Stars (out of five): 2.5

Source: The Australian, John Lethlean, 24^th October 2015
Originally published as: London Fields, Brisbane: restaurant review