Malt Dining & Bar — Restaurant in Brisbane City

My partner and I had dinner at the Malt Attic, this evening and it was a rather disappointing affair. The atmosphere while spacious to provide something of privacy is lackluster and rather garish in its decor. A bar raised separately from the restaurant area with what almost looks like a hastily put together bookshelf as bar seating. The mixture of bare brick to light and dark greens gave an almost cheap feel to the restaurant and the wooden tables with metal supports felt more at home in a diner.

For the food and drink itself the experience was mixed, we both had different cocktails, I myself had a Among The Gum Trees, which was pleasant, refreshing and good mix of bitter and sweet. I would honestly say the downstairs bar and its selection was a lot more well thought than the restaurant. Entrees were dumplings served in a spiced and sweet sauce and gave a tantalizing peak into the coming meal, with the cocktails it gave a good start to the evening.

Unfortunately it was quickly downhill from there, both of us ordered duck and never before had I seen such a sad excuse for a restaurant quality dish. The duck itself looked sad, with no crispness, glazing or spicing done. I could almost feel the poor beast ask us to look away in shame at what it had become. The dish as a whole was missing variation in texture, with a distinct lack of crunch, the sweet sauce and poached plum combined made for an overly sweet dish.

For desert we both had the signature Malt Brownie, now its hard for any place to disgrace a brownie, its a simple dish. Unfortunately with an attempt to lighten a naturally heavy dish they have sprinkled it with puffed rice which I would almost mistake for simply being coco puffs. The bananas on top were either off or candied and if candied I would ask why they chose to candy an already sweet fruit for an already sweet dish.

Overall the dining and menu experience left me feeling as if it was a childs first attempt at fine dining, with sweetness being the main theme as...

My partner and I had a wonderful evening, upstairs at Malt dining on Friday night. We went with the $89 vegetarian version of the six course "tasting menu" but with just a couple of drinks (a really lovely brioche-y Collet champagne, and an Italian sangiovese) rather than the full wine pairing experience. The flavours and textures of each dish in its own way were punchy and imaginative, and gave us lots to discuss. Everything was good, but one stand out for me was the pea wontons which were soft, nutty, mellow, and sweet - almost dessert like in texture and flavour but with the right amount of umami. They reminded me of one of my favourite yum cha dishes, red bean cakes, or slippery steamed folded rice noodles sheets dipped in swirls of peanut and hoisin sauce. The serving size here too was perfect for tasting menu (some of the other courses, such as the kimchi melon, and the coal roasted cabbage, although delicious, appeared too too generous - not something many would see as a fault, but it did leave us both absolutely stuffed and rolling out the door!). The coal-roasted cabbage too was actually amazing. charred, sweet, tangy and soft, with a green goddess dressing underneath, earthy crunchy tempura enoki mushrooms, and a scattering of roasted hazelnuts. It was the kind of thing that you could imagine on a menu at an Ottolenghi mid-range restaurant, and i definitely mean that as a complement. The chef is obviously a creative soul in love with the possibilities of flavour and texture. The serving staff were both excellent : friendly and warm without being intrusive, and knowledgable advocates for the kitchen. The noise level was also perfect for conversation. There were other people there, and a bit of a buzz, but it was so great to be able to actually hear each other for once instead of having to shout above loud music. We look forward...

After reading such great reviews, we were quite excited to visit Malt, however our expectations may have been a little high.

Primarily our disappointment centred around the food and partially the service.

Whilst the service was polite, it wouldn’t be described as engaging or attentive. At one point a hair was discovered in my dish, and whilst a replacement was brought out in time, by this time my husband had well any truly finished his course meaning that we essentially dined alone.

There was no comped drink to make up for this error, simply an apology and a interruption in our dining experience.

The replacement dish once sent (fish) was also underwhelming. Though the skin was crisped up nicely it was completely devoid of seasoning, making it a very bland course.

The rest of the Taste of Malt menu was hit and miss. We found that at times the matching wines were poured well ahead of the courses being delivered, requiring a level of discipline and patience to ensure that the food and wine could be enjoyed together.

Some dishes may need a review and revision, including the straciatella and chickpea tartlet (unpleasant texture of the tart) and the iceberg salad, which included 3 different types of herbs - mint, parsley and dill. In my opinion, one of these should have been omitted.

The main course of black onyx was probably the best, but again not perfect. I suggest the accompanying snow-peas be replaced by another vegetable- perhaps beets.

The ambience of the restaurant is really quite nice, it’s only a shame that the warmth of the service and the delivery of the courses wasn’t what we’d hoped (and certainly not worthy of a $400 price tag...