Magnolia Modern Chinese is serving innovative Shanghai-inspired fare in Fortitude Valley
Magnolia Modern Chinese, the St Paul’s Terrace restaurant formerly known as Private Dining Asian Fusion, has instigated a slick rebrand. The high-end hideaway is serving an elevated take on Southern Chinese cuisine in chic and intimate surrounds, unabashedly celebrating the potential of Chinese fare across its elegant, multi-course set menu. If you’re eager to try Chinese cuisine that’s different from what you’ve tried around town, this is one dinner spot worth snagging a booking.
If you ask Jack Hao, Chinese cuisine in Brisbane is due for a fine-dining glow-up. The talented chef at the helm of Magnolia Modern Chinese in Fortitude Valley reckons traditional Chinese flavours offer plenty of opportunities for exploration and reinvention, and is as deserving of attention and praise as spotlight-hogging European cuisines. His restaurant aims to show folks how it can be done. The intimate and upscale eatery, which until recently operated as Private Dining Asian Fusion, is instigating a culture shift in Brisbane’s culinary scene by using contemporary techniques and creative presentation to showcase Chinese food (particularly Shanghai’s Benbang cuisine and Huaiyang-style fare) as it’s rarely seen in Brisbane. Jack’s drive to cast Chinese cuisine in a new light is a conscious attempt to buck the commonly held perception that Chinese food is just a low-cost dining option – more akin to fish and chips or pizza than haute cuisine. “When people talk about Italian, French and Japanese food, they always say it’s fancy,” says Jack. “I think Chinese food can be fancy too.”
In his restaurant, a dimly lit and intimate space that caters for 20 patrons per sitting, Jack is pushing boundaries with purpose, blending old and new to deliver a premium experience. Though the techniques and presentation methods employed in Jack’s kitchen are western influenced, the plated result is still authentically Chinese. “I try to keep the real traditional flavours while using modern technology,” explains Jack. “The reason [the restaurant] was previously called ‘Asian Fusion’ was to make it more acceptable, but now we need to let people know that it is Chinese – but just not Chinese as you know it.” Magnolia offers a seasonally observant tasting menu (available in five-, seven- and nine-course sittings), with Jack weaving in regional-specific twists (including some that reference the Russian diaspora’s impact on Shanghai’s regional fare) throughout the entire offering. Plates range from dry-aged Grimaud duck breast with five-spiced soy dressing and thinly sliced wagyu eye fillet with soy broth, to line-caught coral trout with homemade special soy sauce and E-Fu noodles, and crisp pork loin with ginger, shallot and bok choy risotto. It’s all backed by a beverage menu boasting a tight edit of wines from Australia, New Zealand and France, as well as a clutch of beers and non-alcoholic options. All told, Jack hopes that when Brisbane diners think of Chinese food at its best, they think of Magnolia, and when they have a special occasion worth celebrating, that they choose to do it over Magnolia’s brand of considered Chinese cuisine.
Magnolia Modern Chinese is now open for dinner. Bookings are required – head to the Stumble Guide for more info.
The Stumble Guide is our comprehensive Brisbane dining guide with more than 2400 places to eat, drink, shop and play.