New Spanish restaurant for Brisbane CBD
Spanish restaurant El Matador has opened its doors in Brisbane’s CBD.
The Burnett Lane restaurant seats 80, with an open kitchen showcasing a humidor filled with cured meats and a Pira oven from Barcelona.
Owner Leo Castelluccio, who is behind Melbourne venues Cato, Graffiti Club and Bakers Gallery, says he’s hoping to bring some of the energy and atmosphere of Melbourne’s laneway culture to the middle of Brisbane with El Matador.
The venue offers breakfast daily with dishes such as corn fritters with smoked pimenton labneh, wood-roasted cherry tomatoes, smashed avocado, crumbled Spanish blue cheese and pistachio dukkah and Spanish tortilla with cheese and onion crisps.
The menu also features an expansive pinxtos and tapas menu, with plates including three-cheese tarts with baby figs and honey; croquetas de jamon with confit chicken and mojo picon; and Sunshine Coast Padrón peppers with burnt cauliflower, cumin and olive oil.
Seafood items include Shark Bay scampi, Moreton Bay bugs, Eatern rock lobsters and Queensland prawns are all available on ice with salmorejo, aioli and lemon, or a la plancha with garlic butter and lemon.
A range of Australian and Spanish cheese and cured meats, including La Boqueria Provisions’ Trufa salami of NSW wild boar and truffle, are available.
Larger meat dishes include Rangers Valley pure Black Angus tomahawk, dry aged for 30 days with romesco and a half suckling pig with crispy skin direct from Segovia.
Sheridan Randall, 17th April 2019
