Restaurant Guide

Gauge: Restaurant review

This café-by-day and restaurant-by-night has become the yardstick for ambitious Brisbane dining.

Address

77 Grey St
South Brisbane, Brisbane, Qld

Hours

Brunch Sat-Sun 8am-11.30am;
Lunch Sat-Sun 11.30am-2.30pm;
Dinner Wed-Sat 5pm-10.30pm

Prices

2-3 courses $60-$78;
Dégustation $110

Gauge started life as a dynamic daytime destination, then morphed into an ambitious restaurant space for four nights of the week. Now the tables have turned. The elegant café fit-out remains, but brunches and lunches have been sidelined to weekends and its status as Brisbane's poster boy for big-flavoured, inventive and intricate dining has been cemented. Staff continue to overdeliver, ditto the clipped and mainly Australian drinks list, which tilts towards the lesser-known with juicy amber wines at its heart. Snacks are stellar – freeform chicken-skin crackers with anchovy cream or fluffy sebago loaded into a crisp potato shell and topped with potent malt vinegar cream and a savoury snow of cured egg yolk. There's a briny theme to many dishes. Mussel cream with yuzu ties together an elegant tangle of cuttlefish and kohlrabi noodles, while Spanish mackerel fillets, lightly salt-encrusted and blush-centred, are served over diced celeriac with roasted hazelnuts. Bright orange tobiko crowns a lamb tartare dotted with pale scallop, finger lime and tarragon, keeping interest levels piqued. Desserts are refined; consider the poached pear with a dulce de leche-style caramel ricotta and celeriac ice-cream. By any measure of volume for creativity and skill, this Gauge is dialled for maximum impact.
Phone:
(07) 3638 0431
Bookings:
Bookings recommended
Features:
  • Licensed
  • Vegetarian-friendly
  • Wheelchair access
  • Outdoor dining
  • Breakfast
Accepted card types:
  • Eftpos
  • MasterCard
  • Visa
  • American Express
Chefs:
Cormac Bradfield & Phil Marchant
This review was made independently for the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide. The guide's reviewers visit unannounced and pay their way.