Mitch Lowe
REVIEW
You’d be crazy to forgo the flavour-forward $75 prix fixe menu at this bastion of fair pricing, but be sure to add a turnip cake or two. Here, the rejigged dim sum favourite employs turnips in place of the usual daikon, creating a crisp-edged base for layered raw scallops, blinged up with inky XO sauce. At $6, it’s a tutorial in making magic on a shoestring budget, and that same cleverness pervades the entire dining experience, overseen with assuredness on the floor. The “all-class, no-fuss” theme is just as evident in the historic brick-and-timber digs and short all-Aussie wine list as it is in the simple desserts: plum granita with yoghurt mousse, say, or peach polenta cake. Sides like duck-fat chips and a righteously dressed leaf salad show an eye for detail, too, standing up to the likes of house-aged duck with greengage plum and butter-soft sugarloaf cabbage with ease. An inner-city diamond.
ABOUT
Clarence Restaurant
Australian
617 Stanley St, Woolloongabba
0452 655 996
Chefs Ben McShane, Matt Kuhnemann and Mitchell Tucker
Price guide $$
Bookings Recommended
Wheelchair access Yes
Open Lunch Sat-Sun; Dinner Thu-Mon
This review was written independently for the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide. The guide’s reviewers visit unannounced and pay their way. To learn more about the process, head over here.
Gourmet Traveller Annual Restaurant Guide
Our guide gives a yearly snapshot of the best restaurants to eat at right now. The best-rated restaurants, as judged by the reviewers’ first-hand experience, form our national guide.
