NEW TO BRISBANE: Agnes Restaurant
Agnes, the most anticipated restaurant for 2020 for food and drinks, originally meant to be a restaurant, but due to the current limitations they (cleverly) turned it into a temporary bakery, deli and wine bar 😊 (though I really hope that they keep the bakery opened once they can officially open their restaurant 😊). Their main focal point is the selling of wood fired pastry goods and freshly made in house deli goods.
We have actually gone to the venue twice (Miss Y and I). Massive lines both times 😂
The Menu:
The first time, we got some donuts, the malted grain and treacle sourdough (mostly because what we really wanted to try was completely sold out before we arrived! and this was at 9am!!! in the morning 😅) This is not to say the rest was bad, but we’d heard great things of the Kouign Amann and was so so so! looking forward to it!
But we still got some delicious baked goods that were baked wonderfully. (We showed a pastry chef friend of ours and her eyes gleamed when she cut into the sourdough bread!)
So we grabbed some donuts and they were great! Not oily and not overly sweet. We got one of each; so cinnamon sugar, plum jam and lemon curd + strawberry gum! You could tell everything was made in house - as there were real fruit flavours, not overly sweet and full of flavours…delicious!
The mixed grain treacle sourdough was nice, but not as amazing as the smoked potato sourdough! (We got the smoked potato sourdough on the second visit 😊) The first time we went, they’d also sold out of the wood smoked butter! What is interesting about this bakery is that they use wood fire to bake their goods, so a lot of their baked goods come out beautifully smoked - it was the same for the butter!
The butter looked so fluffy and airy….it smelt amazing! And seemed to be an amazing match with the sourdough! Even a couple days later, I was still able to enjoy the sourdough bread fresh and not toasted. And when you lather the butter on the bread, there is this delicious smoky aftertaste you get with each bite of the bread. (Of course the butter was super fluffy! so though I was eating butter, there was none of the oiliness you get that is sometimes associated with using butter!) It was amazing. Miss Y and myself in particular liked the slight smokiness aftertaste!
When we were at Agnes, we were also suggested the relish and were we glad that they did! The Aleppo pepper relish was really good! (Miss Y really liked it 😂). It definitely had a bit of kick to it, and tasted amazing when we tried it with the sourdough bread as a spread! Though Miss Y suggested maybe we could use the relish as a sauce to make a pasta salad….I am drooling just thinking of the possibilities of using this relish! And can’t wait to experiment!
The second time, we also got the last Kougin Amann - Custard + almond (sorry guys who lined up after us 😂). Kougin Amann pronounced as "queen a-mahn" is meant to be a mix of croissant and a palmier with layers and layers of delicious pastry.
As we bit down into the Kougin Amann, I remember Miss Y mentioning that it was quite interesting that the pastry layers are slightly crispy and not at all oily - which again, associated with butter you’d expect perhaps it to be a little bit oily.
The fact that we do not (get much of an oily aftertaste), tells of the freshness of the pastry. We sometime last week tried a pastry at another patisserie (won’t say which 😂) But we could tell that it was at least a day old and a bit stale. The pastry was a bit oily at the bottom and looked like the oil had collected/dripped to the bottom of the pastry….it was a bit disappointing. Agnes’s Kougin Amann was quite flakey and had multiple layers of pastry - which we found delicious.
The last item we’d ordered (because Miss Y loves a good cheesecake) was the cheesecake. It…..looked interesting! It was very black at the top 😅. It looked burnt.
However, when we cut into (and ate it 1 ½ days later) it was super fluffy and had a strong cheese flavor to it! I don’t really like cheesecake, but I really enjoyed it! It didn’t taste too much like the traditional cheesecake I’ve usually tasted. The black top didn’t make too much of a difference, just a smidge of a smokiness due to the woodfire that they probably baked the cheesecake in.
All in all, the pastries we’d chosen were quite delicious!
Our absolute favourite of the goods that we picked up from both times, hands down would be the sourdough bread! I was still enjoying the bread 2 days later (I’m surprised it lasted that long to be honest 😅) The bread was still bouncy and tasted great! And matched up with the butter? That was heavenly 😍
I really enjoyed Agnes’s pastry treats and I know Miss Y did too! I really look forward to seeing what other goodies they come up with! 😊
Summary:
Ambience ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Service ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Food ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PS: Food, was good - the butter, relish and sourdough bread was worth the 15 - 20 min wait we did.
Service, the people working that day were so calm and patient with us taking forever to choose (when it was finally our turn! 😂) They came out of the shop, as we were waiting in line (and again when we left) to thank everyone for coming and for our patience. Also explained unfortunately that some things had sold out! It's always nice to be respected like that. Instead of blinding waiting and when you finally got to the front desk only to be told that what you waited in line for had all sold out! You’d be a little upset if no one had mentioned anything!
All in all, despite the wait (which was worth it) It was well worth the wait! 😊
22 Agnes
Address: 22 Agnes Street, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006
Hours:
Monday : CLOSED
Tuesday : CLOSED
Wednesday : Bakery 7:00 am to 3:00 pm, bottle shop from 10:00 am
Thursday : Bakery 7:00 am to 3:00 pm, bottle shop from 10:00 am
Friday : Bakery 7:00 am to 3:00 pm, bottle shop from 10:00 am
WEEKENDS : Bakery 7:00 am to 3:00 pm, bottle shop from 10:00 am
