For some reason I keep ending up at Pony on each of my Brisbane trips, I’m not sure why but it’s just one of those places that has clicked with me.
One of the many restaurants along the Eagle Street dining precinct, it is privileged have a higher vantage point for river and bridge views from its second storey location.
The interior design of Pony is sleek, almost industrial but still inviting, with its dim lighting, exposed concrete walls and pillars and a hanging basket garden covering much of the main dining area ceiling space. There is seating in main dining area for small groups (1 to 4 diners) with an interesting mix of scattered both round and square timber tables, larger tables off to one side for bigger groups, high tables outside with river views and bar seating. The kitchen is also open view with some bar-style seating running along one side.
Pony’s food menu is constructed well and divided into a number of sections – Small Plates with entrèe dishes, Big Plates with mains, The Butcher’s Block with an array of steaks and Big Share Plates with a small selection of large meat dishes, it includes a 1.2kg slow roasted lamb shoulder. The cuisine is largely Modern Australian with a focus on steak and some Japanese influences on the small dishes, with dishes like the wagyu tataki, gyoza and teared tuna.
On this visit I ordered the fennel cured salmon with wasabi tobiko, orange, dill and cucumber and a main of the 200g grass fed eye fillet with sides of truffled mash and carrots topped with whey, parsley and walnuts. The salmon was how I imaged it would be, cured salmon seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment, however the orange slices were an interesting and welcomed addition. The steak was cooked perfect, rare, and the quality of the meat was noticeable with some marbling. This was accompanied well by the flavoursome creamy, truffled mash and carrots. The size of the sides was a little too much for one person though.
Dessert was the mille-feuille tatin with apple, vanilla cream and almond ice cream. This was an interesting dish with the mille-feuille presented on its side which, although creative, unfortunately was a little impractical as cutting upright pasty caused the dish to fall apart.
Service was great, especially for a busy Saturday night. The food took a little while to come out, though expected.
I keep returning to Pony for a reason and its great food, service and views certainly contribute to a quality casual dining experience.