Etna Pizza & Vino Restaurant Brisbane — Restaurant in Brisbane City

IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS: I’ve dined at some of east-coast Australia’s highest rated restaurants - Chefs hats, 5 stars, etc. For a smallish restaurant in a renovated, exposed brick section of the 1898 Stewart & Hemmant building, Etna surprisingly presents services and quality which position it amongst the best. Lauren and Andrea have found the perfect balance between cosy, elegant and peaceful for their second young Italian venue. From the initial appearance of floor to ceiling shopfront windows, ambient lighting and textured panelling of feature walls, to the thoughtful - yet out-of-view - sound-deadening and appropriately placed speakers, this new restaurant just feels comfortable. Upon entrance, we were greeted by a hostess who took a minute to make small-talk and greet us professionally - a conversation which she would reflect on as we said goodbye. Once seated, the lovely Sophia introduced herself to us. The small detail, such as placing the napkin on our laps or subtly wiping the table between courses, is something I pay attention to, and something only 2 other dining experiences have included. A sommelier helped us select our mains from the adequate range of the menu, and paired it with a delicious, acidic red. The entree of opera burrata with honey led tastebuds down a direct path to the mains, harmoniously complimenting the pumpkin-based, sweet, “mantovana” pizza. A delicious dessert of sliced candied strawberries in vanilla ice cream concluded the faultless evening. Our burgundy wine glasses were kept from emptying throughout the booking, while water was always topped. Although the booking was was timed, not once did we feel rushed, as the courses and service was fast and frequent. To find a fault in our experience would necessitate too much thought and would be asking too much of a reasonably priced experience close to the heart of...

Hello everyone, I’m back with another review.

My hopes were actually really high for this as I was recommended to go there and had seen a bunch of TikToks on it, but unfortunately I was very let down.

Let’s begin with the features and aesthetic of the place: a lot of light but at the same time moody, dim lighting, big bay windows and cute, dangling chandeliers and I found that everything was clean and neat with that wooden aroma. Unfortunately though it was extremely hot inside, the aircon was on but yeah my partner and I were sweating, which isn’t what you want.

I can’t fault any of the staff as they were all very well presented, nice, and they made the atmosphere very pleasant with laughter and talking about new creations.

The food: Starters: we shared this beautiful wood oven bread with pesto, mozzarella, and tomatoes. All in all, it was very delicious with a light drizzle of olive oil.

Mains: I had thinly sliced beef on a white base with cheese and cherry tomatoes. I found it to be way too cheesy, way too soggy, and overall I found the pizza unenjoyable because of that. My partner had a prosciutto with smoked onion and he said exact same thing. It was over cheesy and over oily, there wasn’t much crisp to it.

To drink we had some vodka lime soda‘s, which were really refreshing and nice considering it was so hot and then I had a white wine. It was, I think $28 or something as it was the last on the list but it didn’t taste all that great and I believe that they easily could have expanded their range for white wines.

Overall, the actual experience was really nice. In total the bill was about $160. I was let down with the food and the wine therefore it receives a...

We went to see Dark side of the moon in the Brisbane planetarium at the Mt Cootha botanic gardens. It was the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s album. It was great! I’m very glad I went to see this.

We booked a table at 17.00 as this is the earliest setting available on a Sunday. Thus we had time for a pre drink at Maya’s rooftop bar. My wife had a chilli margarita and I had an Estrella from the tap.

I hope you can imagine our mood was fabulous. As we walked up to the restaurant, being on a high, I took a moment to take pictures of the restaurant being mostly empty, but it gives a good impression of the professional design.

We discovered that the owner and our waiter are from Lombardia in the north of Italy. It got us talking and made me wanting a negroni. Whilst sipping on this and having a further conversation, the owner suggested a white wine from the mount Etna in Sicilia. Pietradolce, It’s a DOC from Sollicchiati. Very nice!!!!

We ordered a serving of Cantabrian anchovies on toast and fried calamari. Simply delicious. After those we had a pizza isola with a zucchini base and a rucola salad with balsamic which was delicious. We finished with a sticky from the Alsace (Pinot Gris) and shared a tarteletta.

To finish we had a complementary limoncello from Sorrento, which is just north of the Amalfi coast.

I highly recommend this experience. The pizza dough is unique and the ambience, service and food are five out...