Location: Little Stanley Street, South Bank
Meal: Lunch
Cost: $4.50 – $26.50
Overall Experience: 5/10
Food: 3/10
Service: 6/10
It is not often that we give bad reviews. But at the end of the day, as bloggers, we have to give an honest opinion. Our articles are honest and a true reflection of our experience and I would not want to falsely recommend a menu that failed to deliver.
Next Door Kitchen & Bar is located in a prime spot in South Bank, only a stones throw from the Brisbane River. The atmosphere is relaxed with an urban feel to it. A perfect location, for a Summers lunch.
We sampled the following 2 dishes on the lunch menu:
SAFFRON LINGUINE
Paired with prawns, scallops, a tomato chilli salsa and preserved lemon. This dish costs 18.50. I would only rate this a 2/10 at most. Yes, it was edible, but it left a foul taste in my mouth. The natural flavours of the scallops and prawns were completely dissolved in a over bearing tomato salsa. The actually linguine itself, was cooked perfectly, but that was about the only positive aspect of the entire dish.
CARVED NEW YORK SIRLOIN
Served with a fondant potato, pancetta crisp, truffle butter and cress. It makes me a little sad to see a piece of sirloin over cooked to the point where it is difficult to cut through. Such a beautiful cut of meat, destroyed with just a few minutes of extra time on the pan. Unfortunately, our piece of meat was not medium rare; it was very difficult to cut through and was dry in the throughout the bottom. The dish would have worked well with a thicker sauce as the fondant potato soaked up most of the juices on the plate. As much as we love to promote businesses throughout Brisbane, unfortunately this dish was not worth the $26.50 that it was priced at.
Criticism isn’t always a bad thing, it allows for restaurants to make changes to their menus and ensure that future errors in the kitchen are minimised. Perhaps this was an unfortunate visit for us, and things were not going too well in the kitchen. It was kind of sad considering we were the only people in the restaurant at the time. However, if you have had an outstanding experience at Next Time Kitchen & Bar, we would love for you to share it with us and other readers.
I would definitely recommend their drinks though. Perfect on a hot Summers day!
View their full menu here