Samarco 2 Cafe And Brasserie

We happened to be driving around Midde Park to put flyers for our business up (turns out, there are no places with billboards anymore), and noticed this new swanky shopping centre which used to be the daggy middle park shopping centre. Where on earth did this pop up from… and we live around this area. It seems a little out of place considering the surrounds and the general middle park area.
Samarco 2 stood out like a sore thumb on the corner outside of the main shopping centre itself. So we thought it’s hot, let’s sit down in this nice looking alfresco restaurant. Don’t know if it was because it was in the middle of the day, or they were a waiter short… not only were we shocked at menu prices for the location, but the place was a bit posh looking we chickened out and didn’t just walk away. Big mistake.
We waited to be served, I had to get up to ask if there was table service or not, then our food took forever to come out… but when it eventually did, it was very yummy. I ordered the Mexican Beef Salad (wasn’t this an Italian Restaurant?) and noticed there were Szechwan Duck Spring Rolls and Nasi Goreng on there as well… wasn’t it spelt Szechuan? What are they doing putting asian food on the menu with italian pastas… oh no not again with the fusion.
So the food was nice, but very expensive and they confuse me with their menu a little, mixing the original italian cuisine with a hodge podge of others I find… somehow cheapens the posh looking place… also they should spell check the menu.
Try it out, but it’s a little weird.

This suburban Mediterranean style café was a little out of the way to get to from the south side of Brisbane, but I’ve travelled further in search of little gems hidden in the suburbs.
Thankfully, Samarco 2 did not disappoint. Their spaghetti marinara was packed with flavour and was chock full of plump prawns and fresh mussels. The rest of the meal was equally good — especially dessert but you can’t really go wrong with crème brulee.
My only concern is that it’s very expensive for a suburban Italian café — entrees and salads are around $ 15 -$ 20 and the mains range from $ 20– $ 35. For those prices, I would probably prefer to go into the city where I could get equally excellent food at a nicer venue.