KT Woods samples Campari Restaurant at the famous Fox Hotel in South Brisbane – to mixed results.  

The Fox Hotel at South Brisbane is a favourite spot for Friday afternoon drinks, especially in summer, on the rooftop bar with its cool tunes, happy crowd and inspiring views of the cityscape. We are enjoying the atmosphere of the full bar, but the early winter chill piques the appetite, and we need more stimulating food than the bar menu. So we head downstairs to Campari, the steakhouse restaurant with an Italian twist, on the ground floor, adjacent to the busy and palatial main bar.

The entire venue has been transformed from its previous guise as the Terminus Hotel. It has been an extreme makeover, with the old pub stripped back to create larger rooms that accentuate the good bones, including high ceilings. With an art deco fit-out, the grand marble bar has a huge range of high quality beers on tap, and a decent wine list.

The night is busy at Campari, and we are lucky to snare a table without a booking. The waiters are friendly and smiling, and it doesn’t take long for us to scan the menu for items of interest. We share a couple of entrees - I chose the salt and pepper crusted squid with lime aioli, and my friend orders the pork belly. Both dishes are devoured immediately, and their great flavour and beautiful presentation raises our expectations of our next course.  

Service is fast tonight, and in no time our mains are delivered – I’m opting for the comfort food of lamb shanks, while my dining companion goes for the pub grub staple of eye fillet steak. My dish ticks all the boxes as a decent slow-cooked belly-filler, with super-tender meat that falls off the bone in unctuous delight, surrounded by melted vegetables on a bed of rossini. But it lacks flavour, and although satisfying, the braised juices with root vegetables and red wine needed more finesse to really pop as a dish.

My friend’s steak is equally underwhelming. The 200 gram eye fillet is a reasonable chunk of beef, but has been charred beyond good taste, and is served with a very ordinary salad and not so crisp chips. Maybe it was an off night, but it’s disappointing for a steakhouse to fail to deliver on pub menu classics.

Now I’m wishing that I’d tried some of the pasta options, such as rigatoni with lamb ragu, slow cooked for eight hours, or the mushroom and three cheese risotto.

We seek consolation in a cheese board, and are uplifted by good blue cheese, brie and mature cheddar served with quince paste and crackers. The night is still young, and we amble into the main bar next door for more drinks.

The Fox Hotel is a huge venue with three floors of entertainment, and offers great atmosphere for a diverse crowd of regular patrons. At the end of the night, we agree that Campari restaurant, as the primo dining option of this South Brisbane pub, is worth a follow-up visit.

CAMPARI RESTAURANT

The Fox Hotel

Melbourne St (Cnr Hope St)

South Brisbane

(07) 3844 2883

www.thefox.com.au

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