“As usual, the food was really interesting and very delicious”

This was the feedback when Exhibition owner Tim Scott received from us at the end of the meal when checking in on our experience.

It really feels like a massive understatement to call what we’d just experienced as just a meal; a better way to describe the previous two and a bit hours was a multi sensory journey showcasing how exciting food can be when put in the hands of someone both experienced and passionate.

This wasn’t our first visit to Exhibition. In the 11 months since we’ve been back in Brisbane, it’s actually our 3rd trip down to the old Metro Arts building to visit Chef Scott and his team, the first being in our very first week back in Australia after living in Hong Kong for a decade.

We’d had a plan upon leaving Hong Kong; visit our favourite restaurant for one last hurrah (this was Aulis/Roganic), then as close as possible to that visit, check out Brisbane’s best and do a comparison post. Directly comparing Chef’s Hats to Michelin Stars.

I started writing a post about this experience, but decided not to for various reasons… It was a harder exercise than I’d intended, so just dropped the idea…. for now.

Exhibition is a fairly new dining spot, even though it feel like it’s well established and been around for a long time. It’s only been open since June 2022, but the concept had been in the mind of owner Tim Scott for quite a while prior, with the fit out taking a couple of years of personal blood, sweat and tears.

Leaving his very successful previous restaurant ‘Joy’ in mid 2020, Tim spent a couple of years focussing on the concept, design and fit out of Exhibition. Transforming the 130 year old Metro Arts sub-terrain basement was no easy feat as Tim had a clear vision of what he wanted, which included the continuation of the heritage of the location by incorporating visual arts into the concept. This is really clear when you’re sitting in the space with an astounding array of nods to the locations history.

The space is tight, it only seats around 24 people max; with around 10 prime seats at the bar style arrangement where diners get up close and personal with the ‘performance’ that denotes the 2-3 hours that a person will spend dining at Exhibition.

I really love this style of dining, getting up close and personal with the team, and seeing first hand the amount of effort that goes into plating and presenting each course.

Exhibition is an omakase style of dining – essentially a tasting menu – with a lot of small and beautiful bites that come rapid fire one after the other; before slowing down a little with some ‘mains’ before picking up pace again with deserts and small bites to end the meal.

We started off the night with an asparagus and curry leaf tart, which was beautifully presented on a dainty and ornate plate with gold edging. A simple quick bite that we instantly devoured had a lovely balance of crunch and flavour. The hints of sweetness of the asparagus were there, but not overpowering. A great start with more to come.

Next was another simply presented bite that was filled with confit duck and had hints of lemongrass and kohlrabi. Similar looking tarts had been present in all of our previous visits, but this time the texture was softer on the palate and had a bit more of a punch than the first bite.

Bringing it all together to finish of this initial trio of bites was a duck dashi masterstock that was poured in front of us in small cups that hid the big flavours of the dashi. Each sip of the liquid was a delightful and punchy reminder of how delicious things can get at Exhibition.

The next set of three bites started with a 14 day dry aged yellowfin tuna senaka with shish and yuzu kosho, again presented on a gilded floral plate. It was fresh. with that unmistakable yuzu (not quite sweet and not quite tart) flavour balancing out the sweetness of the tuna. It was a small bite but delicious.

I loved the presentation of the Hokkaido scallop tiradito with tigers milk and koji and it was close to my favourite individual element of the meal. There was a strong umami flavour in this dish, so along with vibrant colours, exceptional texture of the scallop and just a hint of heat from the sweet and creamy tigers milk, left me wanting another couple of serves of this delightful dish.

And then there was the Abalone liver parfait with shokupan; looking like a cake with icing that could have been part of the desert element of the experience. This seems to be a staple on the Exhibition menu, with good reason. it’s deceptively simple but packed with flavour and texture. The parfait was intense in its flavour, but balanced out so perfectly with the toasted shokupan base that was so light in its construction. Just exceptional and moreish!

The final set of three bites made its way out to us, with a distinct set of instructions on the order in which to consume, with the first being an elegant tartare of 9+ wagyu with truffle and cured egg yolk. We’ve had this (or very close variants) dish every time we’d been to Exhibition, with good reason. Not only is it classic, but it’s delicious with a rich umami flavour that has you wanting more. Alas, it was gone in a single bite for me (the girl managed to savour it over two bites!)

We devoured the wagyu tendon wafer with fermented beef salt next – this is like the most luxurious version of a prawn cracker you’ll ever eat. Rich in flavour but so light that it dissolves as soon as it enters your mouth. A bag of these while watching a movie would be pretty luxurious!

While everything had been delicious to this point, a real highlight was next. Half spherical tarts of spanner crab with sweet corn Aji Amarillo and topped with Royal Sturgeon caviar. Immaculately put together, beautiful on the eye and outstanding on the palette, these were creamy and both salty sweet at the same time. Simply delightful leaving us wanting a repeat.

Due to the nature of the kitchen layout, these were prepared right in front of us, so we had the torturous benefit of having these sitting in front of us for the other diners for some time. It would have been all so easy to reach out and grab ‘just one more’; but where would it have stopped?

No sooner had we smashed this trio of bites, the next two came out rapid fire. A lovely looking little taco of torikawa tsukune and baby sweet corn with combo and brown butter, the simplicity hiding the fact that the preparation of the kombu brown butter being one of the longer processes for the meal.

Chef Tim explained a lovely little narrative about going camping with the ingredients and getting the dish right over many attempts and an open campfire flame.

In true omakase fashion, the hits kept coming thick and fast with a couple of dishes that could not have been different in their composition and effect on my palate!

Chu-toro is the fatty part of tuna that is considered the most like the wagyu version of fish; it’s buttery and fatty and just incredibly delicious. So a generous dish of tuna Chu-toro with brown rice miso and fragrant Kombu was next, the sweet and fatty tuna underneath a lightly textured foam. We went digging and were rewarded with a sweet and subtle set of flavours that lingered on the palate for the new moments it took to look towards our next bite…

Simply called ‘Nduja + Lemon tart, the next dish was so beautifully presented on an ocean blue plate, so that the colours on the bite popped and called our names. As you’d have expected with ‘nduja as the main dish, it was hot… Very hot, almost too hot for me to bear. It has a sweet hot chorizo feel about it, and after devouring in one bite, just as I thought I couldn’t bear the heat any more, the sweetness kicked in to save me…

It should be noted at this point I’m a spice/heat lightweight, so the girl laughed at me and noted that she thought it was pretty mild!

The rapid fire small bites that had constructed the first part of the menu then gave way to the ‘mains’ for the evening; of which there were (you guessed it) three courses to come.

We’d noticed a series of Lobster heads sitting along the back wall of the kitchen, which were new from our last visit and had us wondering why they were there. Any questions we had were answered when the first main of Southern rock lobster with summer gourds and XO were presented. There were theatrics and props for the delivery of a simple but delicious lobster dish. Dry ice was set alight and the lobster heads placed on top with the steam from the dry ice seeping all over our table spot.

There was a lot going on all of a sudden, the lobster head came with a second plate that was oyster shells filled with a crumb of some description (which I didn’t catch) and a small bowl filled with chunks or lobster and a lovely foam covering. The idea was that you poured the crumb onto the bowl for added texture. I’m really not sure what was accompanying the lobster, but whatever it was was lovely, so the sweetness of the foam, texture from the crumb and lobster combination was delicious. The crumb likely included elements that contributed to the rich, layered umami flavour of the XO sauce that tied the dish together

The fish course of the evening was toothfish with peas and asparagus and a fragrant miso curry and accompanied with applewood smoked focaccia (to soak up that miso curry). The toothfish was sliced thin and had a miso glaze that provided an additional sweetness. While I loved the combination of the dish, in particular the exceptional miso curry, I did find the fish a little too thin and therefore lacking in texture that I usually love with toothfish; there’s something about the flakiness of toothfish that I love and was missing. It was a shame, as the flavours really hit it nicely.

We were starting to fill up by the time the final main arrived. A perfectly cooked 9+ Wagyu was presented on a bed of a parsnip foam, which hid a pile of fermented mushroom and topped with a parsnip tuile nest. The beef was expertly cooked and had a texture and taste that was butter like. The acidity from the fermented mushroom paired nicely against the sweetness of the parsnip foam. It was a fantastic finish to the savoury part of the meal, added to by the girl’s inability to eat all of her wagyu (which of course I helped with)

At last the savoury part of the meal was complete, and we were onto the sweet end menu with the first of two desserts. Like the rest of the menu so far, the honeydew melon with rice paddy herbs and whey looked beautiful. Interesting textures that were crunchy and creamy sat underneath a tuile that provided a little crunch as well. It was surprisingly sweet and well balanced.

The final desert was part performance and part brilliance; more theatrics with dry ice (this time honeycomb) with the sweet chunks of honeycomb poured onto a smooth parfait kiwi ice cream. It was another visually beautiful plate, with crunch and sweetness with a smattering of candied lemon, each of the little segments adding tartness to the overall sweet dish. It was eminently moreish and as a consequence, I’d definitely have loved more!

What I love about the end of a meal at Exhibition, apart from being completely satisfied, is the final few bites comprising of fruit to finish off… This time it was Abiu (Pouteria caimito) a tropical fruit from the Amazon that tasted of candy, and Colombian Pitaya (a variant of dragon fruit, only more intense). The freshness of the fruit just helping to settle the palate after a multi hour and multi course assault…

There’s something pretty special about Exhibition and we’re very lucky to have somewhere pushing the envelope when it comes to the dining experience. The handful of times we’ve been have been outstanding, with just enough change to the menu to keep it interesting, while still feeling familiar.

One of the big differences between a hatted restaurant, even one as good as Exhibition, and a Michelin starred restaurant (and this is doubly true when you get to 2 & 3 Star restaurants), is a number of incredible dishes that remain consistent and always on the menu, almost drawing you back time and time again.

I see the beginnings of this at Exhibition, with a number of the dishes remaining persistent in visits we’ve had since returning eleven months ago; but there’s still no absolute classic ‘knock the ball out of the park’ delicious course or two. It would be interesting to see if Michelin ever comes to Australia (lots of politics to get through before this happens) and where Exhibition sits… I’d be confident that it’s equally as good as many Michelin Starred restaurants I’ve been to..

But, we’re in Brisbane; and as far as experienced here are concerned, Exhibition is right at the top & well worth getting along to.

If you’ve been, I’d love to hear what you think!