Dark Shepherd

The Queen’s Wharf restaurant line up is starting to look like a who’s who of Brisbane’s hospitality scene, and the latest crew to join it is Tassis Group, who have just opened the doors to Dark Shepherd, a lamb-focused Mediterranean restaurant on The Terrace, and the eighth restaurant in the Tassis portfolio, which also includes Longwang, Fat Cow, Massimo, Opa, Yamas, Fosh and Rich & Rare. 

With dark and moody interiors featuring plenty of marble, black furnishings, mirrored ceilings and spacious circular booths, the UNITA-built venue also boasts a sunken seating area plus a few details to get you excited for the meal to come, including live seafood tanks, a massive dry-ageing lamb cabinet and a live oyster tank. 

Following in the footsteps of sister venues Opa and Yamas, Dark Shepherd will be all about classic Greek and broader Mediterranean feeds cooked over a wood-fired grill, emphasising exceptional produce, clever cooking techniques and punchy flavours. The real difference here though, is the focus on lamb—specifically White Pyrenees Lamb or the ‘wagyu of lamb’ from Victoria’s Pyrenees Ranges, slow-cooked in a wood-fired oven.

Husband-wife chef duo Dianna and Vangjel Jorgo, previously of Opa, have put together a menu that will definitely have you over-ordering. Start with snacks of rolled sand crab pastries and lamb, pasta and bechamel pastitsio bites, and small plates of spanakopita, saganaki and woodfired brussel sprouts with yoghurt and honey, before moving on to large plates like lamb with lobster orzo and youvetsi (slow cooked beef with pasta, Greek pastry and flamed cognac). 

Just make sure you save room for the main event—that uber special lamb, which you can get as a lamb shoulder, leg, tomahawk or ribs, all served up with woodfired peppers, roasted potatoes and tzatziki. Or if seafood is more your style, you can also opt for lobster fresh from the tank, with orzo pasta, creamy spaghetti or just lashings of butter. 

If you’ve got room after all that you can finish off with desserts like poached pear with Greek yoghurt mousse and meringue frappe, and of course it goes without saying that the cocktail menu and wine list is top notch—the signature Notorious F.I.G with Flor de Cana 7yo, Licor 43, pear juice and spiced fig syrup is a must.

Image credit: Markus Ravik | Supplied