Harvey's is a deli-restaurant located in Fortitude Valley that offers both lunch and dinner in a bright, airy setting. The salad and small plates options on the revised autumn menu sound fresh and flavorful. Dishes like warm duck salad, salt and pepper calamari, and beef brisket curry incorporate global influences in creative ways. Both the outdoor and indoor spaces provide welcoming atmospheres for enjoying high-quality, seasonal dishes.

1. restaurant[>
with alison walsh
NIGHT AND DAY
HAVE A PICTURE-BOOK PERFECT LUNCH OR WARM UP OVER
DINNER AT A SLEEK FORTITUDE VALLEY DELI-RESTAURANT
W
ALKING towards Harvey's in
Fortitude Valley's groovy
Centro enclave on a sunny
autumn day is like walking into a page
from a comic book.
The sky is impossibly blue, the clouds
are plump cotton wool balls and the
Palace Cinema and shops that lie
behind the low-se� deli-restaurant are
chunks of robust-coloured concrete
jagged against the sky.
We sit at one of the undressed metal
tables at the edge of the marquee-like
outdoor dining space and watch the
fountain tinkle over sculptural blue slabs
next to a huge date palm. Glass walls
lined with metal racks filled with cans of
olive oil, boxes of tea, and cellophane
bags of biscuits separate the area from
the inside air-conditioned seating and
the extensive deli section.
Lunchtime service, overseen by
owners Matt and Kate Harvey, is swift
despite the crowd and soon I have a
bottle of water and a glass, and a
Warm duck salad ($17) delivered by a
fast-movingblack-clad waiter.
The salad is beautifully presented on
a large white plate and tastes as good
as it looks. Bean shoots, snow pea
shoots, slivers of red capsicum and
onion, mint leaves and cashews are
mixed with plenty of small pieces of
crispy-skinned, distinctly unfatty, duck.
A shallot pancake, rolled very thin, lies
across the top with a soy and lime
dressing to bind the lot into a
harmonious whole. Other light meals
on chef Timmy Kemp's revised autumn
menu, in place for both lu.nch and
dinner, include Shanghai noodles,
Change of season: Harvey's head chef Timmy Kemp, above, and Market fish with crispy garlic and
leek, tamarind sauce and steamed greens, left, from her newly revised autumn menu
Saffron risotto and Grilled
Mediterranean baby
octopus.
On a dinner visit a few
days earlier an unexpectedly cool
evening made the concrete-floored
outdoor area less pleasant. But as soon
as the really cold weather kicks in the
tented sides will come down, the metal
venetians on one wall can be closed
and the huge umbrella heaters will be
wheeled out.
Still, that night we were keen to
warm up and began with lightly
battered, beautifully soft Salt and
pepper calamari ($14) that came with a
small pot of red capsicum aioli. Three
fine Thai fish cakes arrived on slices of
green papaya with a chilli, lime and
coriander dressing ($14).
BYO up until now, the restaurant will
become licensed this week, with a
compact list of 10 reds and 10 whites
sourced from Australian boutique
wineries. Eight of the wines will be
available by the glass.
Beef brisket curry ($21), one of the
restaurant's signature dishes and a
menu mainstay, was streets ahead of
the standard Thai curry, with a thick,
creamy, piquant medium-hot sauce over
soft, stringy meat and crowned with a
cluster of lime leaves.
The Loin of lamb ($22) was stuffed
with feta and walnuts and lay in the
centre of a wide bowl surrounded by a
·-
richly flavoured braised vegetable and
lentil ragout ($22).
I continued the Thai theme, but the
coconut and mung bean pudding ($8)
was too beany for my taste. The
Banana fritters ($8) were excellent with
two bananas laced in'feather-light
batter, a drizzle of chocolate sauce and
served with coconut ice-cream.
the check
[> Harvey's, Shop 4, 31 James Street,
Fortitude Valley Phone 3852 3700.
Open seven days for breakfast and
lunch from 7.30am weekdays and8am
weekends. Dinner from 5.30pm
Tuesday to Saturday Licensed. BYO
wine. Major credit cardsaccepted.