Featuring: Naga, Mr Percival’s, The Prawnster…

FOR chef and business owner Andrew Baturo and his wife Jaimee, Thai cuisine has always been a favourite. Their first holiday together was to Thailand and their chef at their French-Vietnamese inspired restaurant, Libertine in the Barracks complex at Petrie Terrace in Brisbane’s inner west, Suwisa Phoonsang is Thai.
So, it made sense to bring Suwisa on board when they made the decision to open an extended pop-up called Naga in the heart of the CBD complete with a colourful fit out and a mouth-wateringly vibrant Thai-inspired menu.
It is quite a shift away from the Baturo’s other venues, apart from Libertine they are also co-founders of the popular Gresham Bar in the CBD, Walter’s Steakhouse, also in the CBD and Popolo Italian Kitchen overlooking the river in Southbank.
Naga is located at the Eagle Street Pier overlooking the wide reach of the river and the Story Bridge, Naga took over from Pony Dining, which was an early Covid casualty earlier in the year.
The Eagle Street Pier is slated for redevelopment at some stage in the future (a date will be set once more certainty returns to the property market) hence the pop up.
And while a permanent place in the redeveloped site is on offer for now Baturo and his team are concentrating on the large and colourful menu and killer cocktail list.
The menu is designed for sharing and begins with a section helpfully labelled ‘Start here’. With dishes like 8-hour masterstock braised Jack’s Creek black angus ribs, slipper lobster with rice crackers and peanut curry sauce and beef massaman with pickled vegetables tucked into a housemade milk bun.
There’s a small stir fry section – goldband snapper and green peppercorns is highly recommended – then there’s curries and soups followed by noodles, salads and sides, all of which appeal but the fish dumpling green curry and the Shark Bay tiger prawn noodles are standouts.
All three rice dishes are crowd-pleasers, blue swimmer crab fried rice with lime is light and delicious as is the pineapple and king prawn and the more earthy brown rice with galangal and thai chilli paste is smoky and packed with spice.
The decor is as playful and colourful as the menu designed by much lauded interior designer Anna Spiro. With projects like Arc and Mr Percival’s at Howard Smith Wharves, Spiro is no stranger to the challenge of bringing life and vigor to industrial workspaces and, in this case, she has done it using a tropical fruit palette of lime, orange and lemon, modernist furnishings and a floor-to-ceiling mango hued bookshelf paired with an industrial style bar and open kitchen.

The high ceiling is festooned with thousands of white paper lanterns creating a cloudlike effect and there’s plenty of colour in the view from the wraparound verandah that overlooks the Story Bridge and up-lit cliffs of Kangaroo Point. Naga, Upper Level, Eagle Street Pier, 18/45 Eagle St, Brisbane. Phone (07) 3220 0505.
Also taking in the river vistas is The Prawnster, a seafood eatery on board a vintage prawn trawler moored at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane’s inner east.
Built in the ‘70’s the trawler named Del Fuego was decommissioned after a lengthy career hauling its delicious catch off the north Queensland coast for a couple of decades. Martin Brennan and his wife Donna had the idea to repurpose the vessel into a floating restaurant and then had the patience to wait for the all-allusive mooring in the inner-city locale.
There’s a small galley and prep area and a sturdy timber table that runs down the centre of the vessel. Polished timber beams attached to the edges of the trawler act as bar seats looking out to the river.
The menu is simple and understandably seafood-centric. As you’d expect king prawns are a major feature, mainly sourced from Mooloolaba, about an hour’s drive from Brisbane. The bugs are gleamingly fresh straight out of nearby Moreton Bay and the oysters come from further afield – Coffin Bay – as does the salmon, served raw with a tangy dressing, which hails from Tasmania.
Fresh sourdough and some simple sauces are all that accompanies the shellfish but honestly that is all that’s needed – so fresh and so high is the quality. At the time of publishing this article the Prawnster is BYO with a liquor license pending. Prawnster, Berth B1, Dockside Marina, 44 Ferry Street, Kangaroo Point. Phone 0450 447 886.