2009 GOURMET TRAVELLER RESTAURANT GUIDE
E’cco awarded 2 stars & tops Gourmet Traveller Top Ten list
Australia’s leading national restaurant guide, Australian Gourmet Traveller, has just released their 2009 edition, the guide being the key to 400 outstanding establishments, and reviews of the nation’s best restaurants.
Making the cut for a review in this guide means the restaurant in question shows a commitment to the kind of values – and offers the kind of good time – that Australian Gourmet Traveller is all about: integrity, intelligence, care and good taste, whether it’s a hip bar, a bistro or an opulent fine diner.
The nation’s top 100 restaurants is compiled using individual reviewers’ star-ratings, moderated by the state and national editors before the final rankings by the Restaurant Guides executive judging panel.
Stars are only awarded to restaurants which are found to be genuinely and consistently exceptional in their food, wine and hospitality. The quality of a restaurant’s food isn’t the judge’s sole criterion, but in the final analysis, it’s the key consideration.
Only thirteen Queensland restaurants made the grade this year, with e’cco ranked number one in Brisbane, and one of only seven restaurants across the state to be awarded two stars.
We congratulate our peers for their outstanding achievement and thank our patrons for their unwavering and continued support.
“This is the restaurant that put Brisbane on the gastronomic map. Naturally, the food has become more assured since owner-chef Philip Johnson opened his doors in 1995. From the gleaming open kitchen a stream of dishes vindicates Johnson’s credo that natural flavours and fresh produce should take precedence. Witness the artful mingling of refreshing flavours and silky textures in his entrée of salmon tartare, sour cream sorbet, sorrel pistou and salmon pearls. For another essay in culinary restraint, try the seared scallops with white beans, cotechino and tomato. E’cco is bright and bubbly, as a modern bistro should be; staff bustle about with bread baskets and wine. Noise levels can rise but you’ll scarcely notice as you indulge in desserts such as tonka bean panna cotta, apple consommé and green apple sorbet, or elderflower jelly, Champagne sorbet and lime wafers. A class act.”
