Piaf

South Bank has always been a pleasant and picturesque riverside tourist trap in Brisbane but for the last few years the restaurants and cafes along the Little Stanley street strip left a little to be desired.  There was plenty of variety on offer but most of the eateries were decidedly average.

That all changed in the past couple of the years and nowadays venues like The Sardine Tin, Dell’ugo and La Via are counted amongst some of the best new places to dine in Brisbane.  For an area so close by to where we live, Jen and I had tried very few of the places on offer.  We began to amend that by trying out Piaf before a Brisbane Flood Appeal comedy night with Billy Connelly.

Piaf is a French restaurant that offers a promising look menu at very reasonable prices.  The mains are all served at a fixed price of $24.

For my starters, I ordered the Beef carpaccio w’ bocconcini, lemon parsley dressing and ciabatta. It thought it was excellent.  The presentation was colourful and the dressing complemented the carpaccio nicely.

For the mains, I had the Confit duck leg w’ parsnip puree, brocolini & jus.  It’s not the best duck dish I’ve had in Brisbane by some margin but it wasn’t bad for the price I paid.  The portion size I got was pretty overbearing considering what little else came with the dish though.  Worse still, Jen’s lamb rump was seriously overcooked and chewy.  The waitress forgot to bring out our side orders and unfortunately the night pretty much headed south from there.

All said, I didn’t mind the Piaf dishes that I tried personally but the service was pretty underwhelming considering what a quiet night it was and from what I saw with Jen’s lamb dish, some of the dishes can be a bit of lottery when it comes to quality.  Ultimately, we came away pretty disappointed.