Florentine Italian Grill & Wine Room

FLORENTINE GRILL & WINE ROOM HAS CLOSED AND BEEN REPLACED BY SANTORINI RESTAURANT GRILL BAR.

Florentine Italian Grill & Wine Room is a charming little piece of Italian carnivore heaven tucked away in a narrow side street of Newstead.

Sharing an entrance with its sibling Gianni’s Kitchen, the local go-to for traditional pizza and pasta, Florentine specializes in unique Chianina steak* and Italian wines.

The ambient moodily lit dining room features soaring arches and a wine wall and diners can sit here or out on the covered terrace, where stunning log tables and benches are carved out of fallen trees by a local sculptor.

Chianina steak is the hero here at Florentine, with the signature dish ‘La Bistecca Fiorentina’, regarded as one of the high points of Tuscan gastronomy. The mammoth thick cut T-bone (the largest in Queensland) is grilled for up to 45 minutes and served sliced on a plate to share, surrounded by Tuscan style potatoes.

Diners can also order Chianina cuts including rib eye off the bone, skirt, rump, eye fillet or sirloin with choice of sauce – port wine Chianina bone jus, peppercorn jus or porcini sauce.

Other mains include Milky Hill milk fed veal with fennel gratin and bread sauce, H.R. Woodwood Tasmanian boneless lamb leg with chefs rub (to feed 2 or 4), Market Fish with pumpkin puree and pickled fennel or king brown mushroom gnocchi.

For starters there’s prime charcuterie board, smashed broad bean bruschetta and duck rillette with cooked apple butter and charred baguette while entrees include Chianinia beef tartare, Tuscan slow cooked Chianina ragu, twice baked cauliflower blue cheese souffle or gulf prawn with burnt citrus.

And for dessert there’s lavender crème brulee, vanilla bean gelato or a cheese platter that can be designed for a table of 8 to share.

As well as the impressive range of Italian regional wines on offer (including a wide range of Tuscan and vintage from the 1990s and early 2000’s), there’s a small selection of international varietals including from Portugal, France, USA and Australia.

On tap are a couple of Italian beers and grappa, prosecco and Italian digestives are available by the glass or bottle.

Meanwhile highlights of the cocktail list include the Italian Tradition (real Bellini from Cipriani Monte Carlo) – fresh white peach blended with prosecco - and the Florentine Signature cocktail (cachaca, lime & grapefruit juice, lavender syrup, honey and basil).

Nice to know -  The story of Chianina beef hails back to the early 1970s, when a village in the Chianina Valley, Tuscany, had suffered a severe drought so that they lost their cows that they bred for beef. In desperation they turned to the breed of working cow that for 2000 years they had been using for their village and farming transport. To their surprise they found that the beef from this cow was marbled and higher quality to that of the cows they had been breeding and Chianina beef was born. Florentine is the only restaurant in Queensland to serve the enormous steaks from the quality prime-cut beef originating in the Chianina Valley.

The menu may have changed since our visit.

See our full list of the best Italian restaurants in Brisbane HERE