5 Boroughs Ascot — Restaurant in Brisbane City

So this was 5 Borough's first attempt at the breakfast crowd, a Mother's Day Brunch. The staff - helpful and attentive, the atmosphere - noisy but what you would expect from people enjoying a meal. At least there was no background music (that we could hear) to compete with. The seating - wicker garden arm chairs, seriously? These were too low for most people, even with pillows, to eat comfortably at the tables. Fine for drinks with snacks but not for dining. The meals - of the 8 menu items we chose 4. The general reaction was – mediocre. 3 of us had the Eggs Benedict with collard greens, house hollandaise sauce, crunchy potato rosti and a choice of ham (or bacon), smoked salmon or old bay crab cakes. The consensus as follows:- The ham, salmon or crab was as expected. No much can go wrong here. Eggs - poached well, white firm, yolk runny, all as you would expect. Collard greens – these will be new to most Australians. (Google them to find a definition). These were boiled to a soggy green dollop. They should have been steamed to a fresh consistency. Disappointing. Rosti – any resemblance to crunchy was only in the cook’s imagination. And the consistency again was soggy, almost that of mashed potato. All in all, for a special day it was a great let down. This could have been so much better. If the 5 Boroughs intend to continue with breakfasts as was suggested, they are going to have to lift their game considerably. Start thinking in terms of dining and not just...

BossMan up from Melbourne for a few days so wheeled him out on the road for a day of visiting clients. He’s a betting man so wanted to pop into Doomben for a geezer and being a Wednesday, surprised it was busy but no real solid food options, besides the pie warmer offerings. Said I’d take him off to the local cookie cutter Woolies pub (Hamo) for a counter meal.

While in the jalopy trundling down Racecourse Road, noticed the A-frame offering lunch specials at 5 Boroughs and in these troubled times, $20.90 sparked our interest. 200g Rump, Hunter’s Foul, Hand Cut Squid or Stone & Wood Battered Snapper all on offer with chips ‘n salad with a sauce addition. Opted for the steak and being ‘special and rump’ I usually go med at these generic joints to ensure it ain’t too tuff or chewy, as sometimes can be the case when ordered rare/ med-rare per usual.

Great service, quick table delivery, nice portion of sauce (pepper was ours with gravox and mushie also around) and a full plate given up. Great for a lunch special – if nit picking sauce felt a bit like a gravox with green peppercorns added as an afterthought without powerful flavour development but overall happiness as what was described was followed...

I came here to meet with some family I hadn't seen in about 6 months and it probably isn't the best place to go if you'd like a genuine conversation that you can hear (not entirely the restaurant's fault). Given 5 Boroughs is right on the corner of a busy intersection, it's understandable that it would get a little noisy. Despite such, in the actual restaurant there's a major lack of ventilation, especially in the bathrooms. We came when it wasn't too busy yet food took a good while to be made, and when a family member of mine attempted to get a waitress's attention to order a wine it took her 3 loud attempts to do so. The food itself is a little expensive but it's not too bad. Be warned that a lot of the salad-based foods (or at least the chicken tacos and the blackened chicken salad) are a tad spicy and are LOADED with red onion. Their range in the bar is rather fun, but the drinks are pretty standard as far as taste goes. All in all, 5 Boroughs is a cute place to go to, but there are better...