Esquire

ESQUIRE BRISBANE CLOSED PERMANENTLY AS OF MARCH 30 2018.

When it comes to location, setting and food few restaurants come close to Esquire, Ryan Squire's stunning degustation only eatery at the edge of Riverside.

Here the pared back menu, an innovative culmination of Ryan's time spent at El Bulli, French Laundry and Per Se and chef Ben Devlin's stint at Noma, is the perfect match to the classic mod surrounds: Danish dining chairs, pale leather banquettes, bare wooden tables, coarse linen napkins and soaring ceiling to floor glass windows framing the Story Bridge.

Diners can choose from two tasting menus – seven courses for $90 or ten for $120, and unlike some degustation plates which are morsel size, each of these are like a small entrée. Meantime the menu has overtones of a medieval banquet, with tongue, tentacles, curds and whey (that Miss Muffet could only have dreamed of) in the intriguing mix.

The small but interesting wine list is well-priced, complemented by the odd drop of vintage champagne and featuring a page devoted to local Sirromet wines.

Service is the perfect blend of discreet attentive and formality is tempered with parts of courses that come in packets and designed to be hand-eaten.