Jellyfish Restaurant
Cuisine: Seafood

Boardwalk Level, Riverside Centre
123 Eagle St, Brisbane Queensland
Ph:  (07) 3220 2202

www.jellyfishrestaurant.com.au

Standing along the Brisbane river on a brisk night I drank  in the sight of the Story Bridge lit up on my left and the Kangaroo Point cliffs reflecting off the water to my right. But the Jellyfish Restaurant sat behind me and like a siren drew me closer, convincing me it was going to be much nicer waiting for my guests inside and to order a sweet cocktail and start poring over the menu.

We started with some cocktails.

Deciding on entrees was difficult because I wanted to try all of them. In the end we managed to pick just three.

Flash fried squid, spiced watermelon salad, curry leaf, lime $24 – Tender pieces of calamari fried with a spicy curry coating. This was a hit with 2 out of 4 of us, but hubby and I didn’t fancy the curry flavour. The watermelon salad really cuts through the spice and evens it out. 

Seared scallops, Jamon Serrano, truffled cauliflower purée, chicken jus $24 – Fresh scallops, though only three and we had to do some creative splitting to share it evenly.

Softshell crab $25 – This was a special entree of the day and my favourite of the three.  Full of flavour and I’d probably have a whole one to myself next time.

We had such a lovely dining experience right from the start. The staff were all very friendly and we soon discovered that they really do know their fish. Jellyfish boasts that their aim is to source and serve a school of 8 fish daily and have an understanding of each fish and be able to recommend to diners the best way to cook the fish and a sauce to complement it. You can either choose one 200gm  fillet ($28) or choose two (400gm) for $38. There are also some whole fish ($36).

Amongst us we decided to get 2 of the 400gm fish plates, plus another fish and a lamb main. WhiWe most certainly ordered a little too much food but I made sure I left room for dessert.

For one of the two fish plates hubby chose the Goldband Snapper cooked tempura style with a Vietnamese sauce and the second fillet was the Mahi Mahi grilled with a Nori buerre blanc.

For the second, Froggy chose the Barramundi oven baked with a lemon and shallot sauce. She then asked the waiter to suggest a good fish to accompany the barramundi. You can immediately tell that the staff know the fish well. He asked whether she preferred stronger fish flavours and from her answer was able to suggest that a good complementary fish is the Goldband snapper.

I chose the whole Suzuki Mulloway, crispy fried with a Japanese soy and spring onion sauce.

All the fish were excellent and the sauces really did accompany them well. The whole Suzuki Mulloway was lovely and probably a bit too much for me to eat on my own after entrees and sides. I think it would have been good if there were more crispy bits all over the skin instead of just at the bottom. The sauce was lovely and it was like eating a nice Japanese  grilled Unagi.

Jellyfish also has a range of mains which include other seafood and meats for those guests who don’t necessarily want fish.

Froggy’s Mr. Fireworks ordered the Cressi grain fed lamb rack, ratatouille, pumpkin purée, curry spiced jus. Tender lamb on a lovely ratatouille base that was perfect comfort food for the cold weather. The sauce was quite strong on its own but when eaten with the lamb and pumpkin it was a good combination.

There are also some salads and sides and I particularly love the 5 types of potato sides ($6). We made Froggy display some restraint and limited her to two types of potato only. The creamy baked potato and shoe string fries were the potato of choice. The baked potato was very soft and creamy but we would have preferred if it had more saltiness or just something else to liven up the creamy flavour.

After all that I did say that I had room for dessert and we ordered two, even though it was obvious the boys hadn’t planned this far ahead in the meal. Froggy and I ate most of the dessert and I’m glad we did.

The Orange crème brûlée, minted orange salad, black pepper biscotti, vanilla ice-cream comes out flaming and had the perfect amount of orange flavour, not too overpouring as some citrus desserts can be.

I ordered the Cashew nut semifreddo, fresh raspberry, Persian fairy floss which was really beautiful. The cashew nuts gave the dessert a good texture and the persian fairy floss had a nice soft nutty flavour and melted in my mouth.

We really enjoyed the food and the whole evening the staff were very friendly and attentive. We will definitely visit again. Jellyfish is also in the latest Entertainment Book (2009/2010).