Salon
Cuisine: European, Tapas
www.salon.net.au

Shop 5A
Cnr Florence, 110 Macquarie St
Teneriffe, Brisbane, 4005
Phone: +61 (0)7 3252 3911

When I was small enough to still get children’s meals, Teneriffe was the home of Paddy’s Market and derelict woolstores and warehouses. Today the woolstores are still there, but inside they have been converted into stylish apartments and the river is lined with more homes (that I cannot afford).

So tucked behind some trees, underneath an old woolshed is Salon. Inside there’s a bar and a warm glow bounces off burgundy and cream curtains. Outside you feel like you are sitting in someone’s garden filled with fairy lights and candles. The benches have comfy cushions and even though you are only a few metres from the street, you feel like you are hidden away.

It was a warm night when we were there and while we were sitting outside, the breeze was coming from the wrong direction. Happily though I realized that this is what the drinks menu is for.

One Strawberry Soda, with Chambord, fresh strawberries, lime & Vodka O, muddled and served tall. Oh and some mint, which made this almost like a strawberry mojito, refreshing and sweet.

The Salon menu is made up of mostly sharing plates for tapas style dining. They recommended 2 sharing plates per person, but it was difficult to pick only 4. Instead we opted for their FEAST! For $50 per person (or $95 with wines, $80 with beers) it seemed reasonable and we would then get to try almost everything on the menu.

Our first course was a scrumptious “make your own” bruschetta. Fresh sourdough bread (soft on the inside with a crispy crust) with vine ripened tomato slices, basil and Persian fetta.

Three more dishes were then brought out as our second course.

House cured Atlantic salmon, mayonnaise and baby herbs. I don’t eat a lot of salmon… but I loved this melts-in-your-mouth salmon.

To your left, baked ricotta tartlets with caramelized onion, cherry tomato and shaved prouscuitto. While these were tiny, they were packed with mmm’s. Another tick for Salon.

To your right, wild mushroom risotto cubes with aioli. The outside was crisp, the risotto inside was perfectly cooked and oh I want more! But no, if you have committed to the feast, you need to leave lots of room for the other dishes.

Maybe the chef absent mindedly cooked too many items, or perhaps we made so much mmm’ing and ooo’ing over the other dishes, but when our very friendly waiter presented us with our second course we were given a nice surprise. “The chef has decided to give you extra.” It took a lot of self-control not to simply scream out “Woohoo!” but we said thank you gracefully and turned to the food to work out what to eat first.

Roast pumpkin and goats cheese ravioli with spinach, almonds and beurre noisette (which I now know means a brown butter sauce). The pumpkin, cheese filling was sweet and the pasta was soft and of course delicious!

Italian meatballs with tomato coulis, full of flavour and meat of course.

Spanakopita – filo pastry layered with spinach and Greek feta served with minted yoghurt. Oh I was so happy that the chef was kind enough to give us extra of these. This was my favourite of this set of three.

Course three, and first there was the seared king prawns in chilli garlic and butter sauce with herb salad.

Next up, Portuguese spiced chicken cutlets with lemon and herb dressing. Yummy chicken, just remember to dip it into the bed of dressing.

And our favourite of this three, the sautéed Swiss brown mushrooms with roasted shallots and a truffle rocket salad. Very tasty mushrooms and the shallots were soaked in the flavour from them.

The final course before dessert was the rosemary lamb souvlaki, baby Greek salad, Tzatziki and grilled flat bread. By this point we were struggling a bit, while we love the chef for giving us extra bits along the way, it means you need more stamina for the end. We managed to get through most of this, to leave just enough room for…

Churros with chocolate sauce!! Soft and cinnamon-y, and we tasted a hint of citrus. Was it in the sauce we wondered as we each took a spoonful, no.. oh, its in the churros!

Finished off with a tea or coffee of your choice (mocha for me thank you), it was a lovely way to end our three hour culinary journey at Salon. Yes, we were there for three hours, though we barely realized it until the final hour and by then we were just appreciating the little rest we were given before the final courses.

It was such a beautiful evening and to be honest I’ve decided to bring a couple friends to lunch there on Saturday. I will let you know how it goes, or you could try it yourself if you like.