Spring Restaurant Brisbane: Review

Spring: 26 Felix Street, Brisbane QLD 4000

While on the topic of all things Spring, I thought I'd share with you my experience at a restaurant named just that.

When Spring first opened a few years ago, I was very excited, because it's selling point is a menu that reflects seasonal, local produce. They also have a 'Chef's Table' dining option, which is where a small group of diners get to sit in a private room, with some of the restaurant's chefs cooking several courses at their table and talking them through the dishes. To further appeal to foodies, the restaurant also offers cooking classes at night. These actually look pretty interesting, especially the 'Nose to Tail Butchery' class, which is not something you see often at a cooking school! I'll probably have to go to one of these ones to get over my slight fear of cooking with big cuts of meat. You can check out their current available classes at http://www.spring.com.au/cooking-school.html.

I was quite keen to have lunch there a few weeks ago with my sister, but, unfortunately, the experience I was to have there was not as wonderful as I had highly anticipated. Let's go in... 



A very bright and modern-looking establishment

The restaurant:

It took a bit a walking from the city centre to find the restaurant, as it is located on the relatively quieter streets of the CBD, closer to the business buildings. On first impression, the place looked fresh and contemporary, and the bright lighting inside made it seem very cheerful and inviting. Upon entering, I could immediately hear the loud buzz of chatter and laughter from the dining patrons (do note that there are a few tables out at the front of the restaurant too). The first room appeared to be full, so we were shown to a table against a wall in the second dining room.

The architecture of this establishment seems to have been focused on creating large open spaces. Doing without the usual flat ceiling makes the interior seem more spacious, and having open-ends to the restaurant allows patrons to be close to fresh air no matter which dining room they're seated in. However, unlike the door at the entrance, which can be shut to block out the wind if needed, the other end, which allows natural elements to free-flow through into the restaurant, is an iron-barred gate panel, around which strangely does not appear to be anything to seal it off with. Unfortunately for us, we were led to the seating against the wall, which was in line with this opening; in fact, we were seated at a table right next to it. While it might be nice to have a cool breeze flow through on a warm, summer day, it most certainly is the opposite in Winter (which it still was when I went). Even if not still recovering from a cold/throat infection, like I was, I can't see anyone enjoying the frosty bite of the incoming currents of wind.

An ill-placed decorative gate panel. The glass-walled room pictured is probably where they hold the 'Chef's Table' meals or the cooking classes.

Creepy decoration

Another thing that I didn't like were the decorative moulds of heads dangling randomly from the ceiling. I guess it's supposed to be artistic, in a contemporary way, but I don't find it particularly tasteful. It adds a touch of creepiness to an otherwise clean, chic-looking eatery.

I like how each table had sugar pots in the form of mini casserole dishes, in alternating shades of blue and yellow. It's a bit strange that there's more sugar than salt on the table though.

The food:

I wasn't that hungry on arrival, so I ordered a starter size of the 'Zucchini flowers, grilled calamari, chive and onion risotto', and my sister ordered a main of 'baby snapper with lemon, caper and parsley butter and toasted almonds'. Upon the waiter's suggestion, we also ordered a side of seasonal garden greens to share.

And then came the waiting part.

We waited for at least half an hour from when we placed the order. While this may be acceptable at a proper restaurant, this place functions like a bistro at lunchtime, which means that it should, accordingly, come with the same order-to-food-on-table time frame expected in a bistro. I find this long wait time quite peculiar, since the eatery is based in the CBD, which surely means that the clientele it largely caters for would be the people working in the city, while on their half-hour lunch breaks. I'm usually quite patient when dining out, as it is supposed to be a stress-free, relaxing activity in itself, but it took so long for the food to come out that I almost waved a waiter down to check if they had actually put our order in. While waiting, we checked its reviews on the Urban Spoon website - so, apparently Spring is infamous for its long waiting times. Nice. 

The Bistro lunch menu

My sister's lemon lime and bitter

When the food finally came out, my dish didn't quite look like how I imagined it to, but the presentation was nevertheless clean, and the portion size quite generous for a starter. First up, has anyone noticed the very obvious absence of the zucchini flowers? The main reason I ordered this dish was because I love zucchini flowers, and everywhere I've had it, I've loved it. Part-way through the dish, they finally made an appearance - there were maybe 4 zucchini flower petals dotted over the risotto, under the calamari. Words cannot express my disappointment. Why list zucchini flowers as the first item in the dish description if only parts of a flower are going to be used, and only extremely sparingly as a garnish? Maybe they should have listed parsley in the description, as there was certainly more of that.

The calamari, as you can see in the picture, was burnt in parts and these charred bits tasted so tarry, they were inedible. The popular guideline that one should not order risotto or gnocchi from a menu, as they are usually never made well, also proved to be true in this case. The flavour of the risotto was nice, I'll give them that, but the rice was unmistakably undercooked. The grains of rice literally had hard and chewy centres - a bit like cooked rice, on the dry side, that has turned cold and become even more dried out from sitting out in the open for too long. My sister, who is much less of a picky eater than me, tasted it and agreed that it was undercooked, so I know it's not just me. I would go as far as to say that it's the worst risotto I've ever had, because of that. I couldn't even eat any more than maybe half of it, in fear of facing gastrointestinal consequences afterwards. A pity it was a dud dish, because it looked great on the plate, for a risotto.  

Chive and onion risotto

My sister's dish, on the other hand, was on the other end of the taste spectrum, judging from the little sample I had of it. I love the combination of flavours, and the fish was perfectly cooked. My sister enjoyed it, but said it was a bit too salty. She was right, of course; the butter was a bit overseasoned. The smear of mash was quite tasty, but it's a strange complement to a fish dish. I have a suspicion that they must have confused it with someone's beef cheek dish, which comes with Paris mash, but couldn't be bothered to transfer the fish to a clean plate.  

Snapper with lemon, caper and parsley butter

There's really nothing much to say about the side of greens. It was basically a mix of broccolini and green beans blanched until bright green, but still crunchy, and dressed with oil and salt. I would have much preferred it if they had simply salted the blanching water instead of sprinkling so much salt on top, because it made certain parts of the vegies extremely salty.

Seasonal greens - broccolini and green beans

Overall, judging from this dining experience, I think the menu of this restaurant is a bit of a hit-and-miss. For the price point, which is $25-$35 for a lunch main, this does not meet my expectations. Undercooked risotto, combined with a windy spot on a cold winter's day; an extremely long wait time; and a single unisex toilet cubicle, which had a wet seat and spots of 'liquid' on the floor around the toilet (just thought I'd throw that in), made for a memorable experience....for all the wrong reasons.