It was Lisa’s birthday on Saturday, so we decided to celebrate it (and include my belated birthday) at The Lab at the Treasury Casino.

Rachel, Matt, Danielle and Maggie were of course late (it’s not fashionable to be late anymore guys) so Pauline, Lisa and I amused ourselves with a bottle of cockfighters ghost chardonnay before Steve and Sam turned up. We made the wine decision based on the fact that I thought it would be funny to hear Lisa order the drink.

The Treasury Casino in Brisbane has 5 restaurants and the Lab is the 2nd most expensive. The decor is all dark wood and has a very long counter that doubles as the waiting bar. I had a great vantage point from my seat at the table to watch the barman make drinks all night. Shaken AND stirred. The Lab is in the hotel building, not the casino itself so to get to the Casino you have to walk through the park that separates the two.

The service is very impressive and attentive. My glass of water kept being filled without me even noticing that someone had even done it and they also place a napkin in your lap for you.

Pauline and I shared an entre of oysters with a horseradish tomato sauce. The sauce was so nice I kept eating it by itself long after finishing the oysters. It was kind of chilled and tasted like the tomatoes had been squeezed that day with basil and the horseradish for bite. For mains I had the flamed beef medallions, garlic mash, spinach with tarragon butter egg drizzle. Pauline had the veal scaloppini, sand crab flesh, asparagus, whipped potato with egg chardonnay sauce. I tried the egg chardonnay sauce and it was brilliant. It wasn’t really sauce, more like scrambled eggs with wine. I’ve never tasted anything like it and enjoyed it immensly.  

Halfway through the meal the table beside us was filled with a bunch of girls and a few guys that were all dressed in white and silver and looked like members of popstars or australian idol. Our table spent quite some time debating what they were. The words hairdressers was bandied about quite a bit, but Danielle got the gossip when she was in the loo. It turns out that one of the girls was having her 25th birthday and liked the colours white and silver so everyone had to dress up like that. Apparently they were quite uncomfortable with the upmarketedness of the restaurant which is probably why they trailed off in the enthusiastic singing of Happy Birthday later in the night. Danielle knows where to go to find the info! Mind you, to get to the loos you had to walk past lots of men in kilts at a wedding in another function room.

I had decided to not get dessert, but when Matty got his baileys irish cream brulee with biscotti I was forced to get one because I was drooling on the table. It was well worth the $11 – especially with the chocolate bits in it.

After spending the 5 billion dollars the dinner cost us, we headed over to the casino. The place was busier than I expected and Pauline kept exclaiming surprise that people actually go to the casino.  Danielle and I went and got some cocktails but the blender was broken at the Premier Bar so I had a cosmopolitan and Danielle had something with milk and chocolate. Then it was off to the betting tables.

Rachel lost $10 at Blackjack even though she was dealt 20. The bloody dealer actually got 21. Sam, Danielle and Matty had a go on the roulette wheel but only Sam made out even. The rest of us lost about $20 each – I lost mine on the pokies. I’m still not brave enough yet to bet at the tables. Maybe I’ll wait for when it’s not so busy.

Once it hit about 10pm we made moves to go home. We’re such party animals, but the smoking stench doesn’t really make you want to stay anyway. The car was still safely housed in the Casino carpark which normally costs a minimum of $20 to park there, but if you eat or play it’s free. You just have to get your card validated.

Like Pauline said, the minute we walked in to the restaurant it felt like we had stepped out of Brisbane and in to a holiday. Even though it was quite an expensive night I really enjoyed myself. Happy Birthday Lisa!

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