Anise

ANISE HAS PERMANENTLY CLOSED AS OF MID 2016.

Anise is Brisbane’s most unique place to drink and dine – an intimate pocket-sized Euro-style bar and bistro tucked away in New Farm’s café and cinema precinct.

With its air of understated class, vintage motor garage brick feature wall, vinyl records playing on the turntable and a menu of exquisite food and boutique wines to match, Anise is the perfect rare blend of retro and cutting edge contemporary.

As such it manages to be the go-to for a date, special occasion, pre or post movie drink and/or delicious bite to eat (New Farm Cinemas are across the road), as well as a rare place that the solo traveller will feel right at home.

Seating at Anise is mostly around the bar, where the affable owner, chefs and sommelier interact with diners, giving things a home-away-from-home feel, and there’s also a few tables down in the window for those who don’t wish to be part of the lively counter scene.

The food, which is nothing short of first class, can be ordered as degustation* with the option of matching wines (which is highly recommended and amongst the best value in Brisbane) or a la carte and is based on the executive chef’s inspiration and what is available seasonally and locally.

Starters range from marinated olives to dishes like kangaroo carpaccio, cress, horseradish and goat’s curd to carrot, orange and fennel risotto with fennel marscapone or pork belly, celeriac, black pudding and raisins.

Mains include inventive offerings such as potato gnocchi roasted beets, chestnut cream and pecorino, duck breast with gingerbread, snow pea, pumpkin puree and plum jus or lamb rump, white polenta, peppers, rhubarb and salsa. And desserts are equally as delectable and creative – think eggnog parfait with pink pepper and raspberry poached pear and shortbread crumb or coconut sorbet with apple, passionfruit curd and butter puff.

In addition there’s top notch cheese sourced from countries such as Ireland, France, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Need to know - As well as being a great place to dine, Anise is probably one of Brisbane’s best kept secret wine bars, with an impressive range of Australian and international quality boutique wines, and customers are welcome to drop by for a glass or two. Check the Anise website for special weeknight deals such as Magnum Mondays.

Nice to know – Once upon a time, back in the 1940s and 50s, Anise was a side driveway of a Mobil petrol station. When the current owners scraped back the wall to expose the old handmade bricks, the original garage signage was found on the wall and is now a talking point feature of the restaurant.

*Degustation is available Tue - Sat. At time of writing in May 2015, a 6 course degustation was just $100 pp, and $150 with matching wines.