Sisco - Spring Hill
Sisco
1/500 Boundary St, Spring Hill
Ph: 3839 4995
Open Mon-Fri 7am-3.30pm Sat 8am-2pm. Unfortunately not Sundays.
15% surcharge on public holidays
Sisco has everything I want in a café: the food consistent and notches above most for choice and price, the staff charismatic, the décor aesthetically pleasing. The proximity to my house is merely a bonus. I’ve probably eaten breakfast out in Spring Hill once a year for the five that I have lived in this woefully foodless suburb. The music? Wait.. I don’t remember. That’s a good thing because I’m often painfully aware of what offensive tracks are ruining my appetite and raining on my weekend gossip parade with whichever girlfriend is also nursing a Sunday hungover.
On this particular occasion the friend is Mel and we visit Sisco on a Monday; hence we’re particularly worse for wear after prolonged drinking in the Queen’s honour. Our waiter Dan notices and is especially attentive to us lest we forget to order before storytelling begins.
As testament to our mental deficit we order frappes in winter, but are well rewarded for our stupidity. Mel has a raspberry, cranberry, lemon & mint frappe and I have a fresh espresso frappe (both $4.50). They are great. Frappes aren’t hard, but 9 times out of 10 you will get watery juice with chunks of ice rather than a harmonious blend of flavour and brain freeze. The beverage list also offers fresh juices with optional noni, goci or acai shots, smoothies, milk shakes, health shakes (protein shake with banana, whey, raw egg, wheatgerm, yoghurt & milk), t2 teas and gorgeous belaroma coffee any way you like it.
The breakfast menu looks good -in particular the bircher muesli, yoghurt & raspberry apple compote ($5.50) - but we choose from the lunch menu. In hindsight the tasty vegie sandwich with haloumi, caramelised onion, parmesan, tomato relish, rocket & mayo ($10.50) seems like a superfluous conglomerate of cheese and dip, and I’m glad Mel isn’t as pedantic when it comes to ordering, because it could easily be the holy grail of hangover sangas. There are too many rules I’ve designed to govern my meal selection that in theory offer consumer protection from ill-conceived flavour combinations, but the truth is that I often suffer plate envy as a result. Luckily my open Turkish with smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, red onion, rocket & lemon ($9.50) doesn’t disappoint. I usually regret smoked salmon at breakfast but this fresh combo proves to be a fantastic means to reintroduce solids into my post-party diet.
When the plates are cleared and conversation has run dry, our affable waiter, as if by telepathy, offers us a sample of the chocolate mousse tart that Mel has been eyeing off. We hang around the counter picking at the tart and discuss with him organic beers which sadly they aren’t licensed to sell. In another display of vagueness (and probably from spending all my coin the night before) I forget to tip the guy for such a pleasurable café visit, so I hope this review will suffice.
Decent serves, prompt wait times, personable staff.. in short, the team at Sisco do everything right. It’s such a rarity to find a Brisbane cafe that ticks all the boxes, which means I get doubly excited when I do. Definitely a newcomer to my Top 5 Cafes and they get the gong for best frappes in Brisbane.
We arrived at 6pm as a party of five and were immediately shuffled to our table. On the left is a bar where you can sit for cocktails and on the right are the tables. When Pauline turned up we were promptly served an amuse buche that was different for each of us and a total surprise. Cheryl was given small heads of asparagus which Chris christened green frogs penis’ - a name that amused the waiter. These little tasters are meant to give us an idea of what was to come and it was my first ever exposure to the foam technique that 
The real first course was a selection “Fresh from the Garden”. I chose a Salad of Greens which ended up being battered goats curd with beans, broccoli and a white sauce. The salty taste that is natural in the goats curd worked well with the fresh beans. I reckon I won that round but Gary’s Organic Terrine took out the prettiest award. Before we actually got to taste any of it we were “introduced” to our meals by the waiter. He really did use the sentence “Let me introduce to you the Risotto with a melange of forrest mushrooms, fresh chestnuts topped with shaved Reggiano Parmaggiano”. Chris and Cheryl had a giggle at that but I guess it’s to be expected when you go through around 8 sets of cutlery throughout the dinner. They thought it was a bit wanky whereas I quite liked it because it’s special.
Second course was from “Australian Coastal Waters” which meant seafood. I went for the Blue Swimmer Crab which had a tian of crab mixed with creme fraiche surrounded by a pickled cucumber topped with tomato gelee. For some reason I was expecting it to be heavy and was quite bemused by it’s summery freshness thanks to the cucumber. In Brisbane you don’t often get surprised by what you are eating so it’s a special event when you do. The wasabi that came with the Yellowtail King Fish that the others ordered gave the others a bit of a thrill at the back of their throat and Pauline commented that the fish was as fresh as the one cut up for us in the fish store in Adelaide - a great complement indeed. I again thought I won the round and this time mine was the prettiest.
“Ponds and Pens” was next which gave us a selection of Duck or Chicken. Pauline went duck, I went chicken and it paid off big time for me. My Poularde from Barlill in Queensland stuffed with herbs, poulee of double smoked bacon and corn with a petite salade was absolutely the best chicken I’ve ever tasted. When they say stuffed with herbs they actually mean that between the chicken and the skin they place a thin layer of herb mix which allows the skin to go crispy while keeping the white meat moist. I’ve never had a piece of chicken so tender it melts in your mouth. Sometimes chicken can be a little stringy but there was not a string in sight. Absolute perfection and the duck didn’t even get a look in. This is the course that topped all the others for me. Unfortunately my photo of the chicken is overexposed so you’ll have to look at the duck.
Main course came from “Paddocks and Pastures” which would normally be your meat and three veg deal at your local pub, but here at urbane it evoked swoons from many men and women who will never view meat in the same way again. The Wagyu Cap 6+ course was the most popular at our table but I went for the Milk Fed Lamb with Pecorino double baked souffle, leak fondue and roast garlic foam. My first ever souffle and as a potato lover I will take that souffle over a good roast potato any day of the week. There was not one flavour on the plate that didn’t belong there with the lamb. Chris couldn’t get over the Wagyu however and demanded that Drew figure out how it was cooked so he could copy it. Somehow they determined that it had a charred flavour with pepper. Chris has now added this dish to his very short list of best meals in Brisbane, previously only Marco Polo’s Peking Duck was on it.
The “Say Cheese” course was next and mixed by a couple of the diners. Chris had already had his Fromage De Chevre with beetroot, honey and rocket with hazelnut salad early so his goats cheese course was over. The rest of us went for the Roquefort Papillion which was a blue vein cheese with poached quinces and caramelised walnut mille-feuille. First few tastes were devine even if the green colour of the cheese was a little odd. The quince played the odd and even game with the white stuff and topped with a chewy incredible thing that I haven’t figured out how to describe. This course is way too rich for one person to consume however so by the end of it we really were forcing it down. They either need to lower the cheese portion or advise people to share. This was the only meal I had a complaint about and it’s odd that in a sea of small portioned meals I recommend to have less on this particular plate. 
Finally, the course absolutely everyone waits for (unless you are Chris and order two desserts, eating one at the start and one at the end). The P and J sandwich was the funnest meal of the night - essentially it’s the american favourite Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich deconstructed in to peanut butter ice cream, french toast and a rectangle of jelly matched to a sable biscuit with raspberry sorbet. Unfucking believable and something I’m trying again. Pauline, Chris and Cheryl went for the Turkish Delight which has valrhona chocolate fondant and white and dark ice cream. To some of the others this looked like a skid mark on the plate, but to me it looked like heaven. Surrounding the poo smear was rose flavoured sweets and pomegranate seeds which I originally thought was a lolly due to the colour and was stunned when I bit down and tasted nature. I reckon the P and J sandwich won this round, but the inside of the turkish delight chocolate thing gave it a run for it’s money.
As for the service in the restaurant, I didn’t notice. Which is to say that it wasn’t bad or good, it was exceptional. If you notice that the food is taking too long or the waiter is asking too many questions about water then that is annoying service. Not noticing means that you were having a great time with the people you were with, your drink was always full and the meals were spaced within an adequate time frame.