1 week ago
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Decked retired successful black, with achromatic marble counters and sheer curtains, it’s serving hefty wagyu tomahawks, oysters and lobsters from the tank, and a 300-bottle vino list.
If Michael Tassis’ Longwang, which opened successful the CBD yesterday, is ambitious successful 1 sense, Fatcow is ambitious successful another.
Longwang is simply a edifice designed to lucifer the skills and estimation of its prima cook and partner, Jason Margaritis; Fatcow is designed to conscionable the demands of James Street.
You request to travel close connected this glitzy portion of Brisbane’s nutrient and beverage scene, which boasts immoderate of the astir celebrated eateries successful the metropolis – Hellenika, Gerard’s, Essa, SK Steak and Oyster, Same Same and Bianca among them.
It’s a switch-up from Fatcow’s original, impermanent location, which was successful the aged Cha Cha Char premises astatine Eagle Street Pier portion Dexus prepared its $2.5 cardinal overhaul of that precinct. The restaurant’s reception implicit its 14-month residency meant Tassis was initially looking to travel it with different CBD location.
But past helium heard the siren telephone of James Street.
“We had an opportunity, a truly bully abstraction – astatine the aforesaid clip arsenic this abstraction came up – successful the ‘Golden Triangle’ [financial district] successful the CBD,” Tassis says. “It came down to which 1 we wanted.
“I’ve ever enjoyed what James Street does, truthful erstwhile this was presented to me, it was excessively bully to refuse, truthful we went afloat steam ahead. But each relation present is astatine a higher calibre, and it feels similar they each person the aforesaid thrust and passion.”
Fatcow opened contiguous connected the crushed level of the aged boutique David Jones store connected the intersection of James and McLachlan streets. The evident edifice to comparison it to is SK Steak & Oyster astatine the other extremity of the precinct, but Fatcow is simply a antithetic beast to that slick Simon Gloftis-owned operation, which is arguably the modern yardstick for steakhouses successful this city.
Where SK is airy and agleam during the time and carries itself with a quiescent glamour successful the evening, Fatcow has been fixed a darker, moodier and somewhat glitzy attraction by regular Tassis designers Clui Design.
The venue is furnished successful achromatic leather, timber and parquet floors, with achromatic marble counters and mirrored ceilings. A signature diagnostic is the tiled acoustic panelling that lines the venue’s walls. Much of the seating is arranged successful intimate booths sectioned disconnected from 1 different by sheer achromatic curtains.
Steak is of people the leader of caput cook Garry Newton’s menu, with Black Angus cuts ranging from a 180-gram, grass-feed oculus fillet up to a 28-day dry-aged 800-gram T-bone that goes for $220. There’s besides a wagyu paper from which you tin bid a 150-gram, 12-score A5 oculus fillet for $165, oregon a fourth-cross tomahawk oregon rib connected the bony that outgo $22 and $38 respectively by the 100 gram.
All steaks are cooked connected a parilla grill implicit robust bark and served with a complimentary side, with sauces and different add-ons specified arsenic eggs and foie gras disposable for extra.
But Tassis made his people successful Brisbane with the prime of his seafood, and it besides features heavy here.
For entrees, determination are earthy scallops with a coconut dressing, kaffir lime-pickled turnip and chilli oil; earthy kingfish with smoked ponzu, plums and shiso; lobster and prawn ravioli with a crustacean bisque; and char-grilled prawns with a lobster bisque, piment d’espelette and digit lime.
On the mains menu, there’s baked Patagonian toothfish served with a parsley puree and pickled turnips, and there’s besides unrecorded seafood from the tank, including oysters – a rarity successful this city.
Away from the steak and seafood, different dishes see char-grilled Brisbane Valley quail with grapes and jus; braised lamb enarthrosis with yoghurt, Israeli couscous and lamb jus; and a buckwheat risotto with watercress puree and a herb salad.
The vino database runs to much than 300 bottles and includes the requisite large Australian shirazes and cabernets alongside awesome selections of champagne, burgundy, New Zealand pinot and vintage Italian reds. There’s besides a cocktail database that mixes signatures and classics, and includes an Old Fashioned menu.
“I’ve tried each my beingness to enactment worth successful things,” Tassis says. “If you’re going to walk $100 successful my restaurant, I effort to admit each dollar. For that price, I privation to springiness you the champion service, the champion food, the champion vino I perchance can, whether it’s $100, $200 oregon $50 – everyone’s welcome.”
Open regular 11.30am-late
10 James Street, Fortitude Valley, (07) 3123 5325
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