Why am I telling you all this? I am on my way to Pony Dining, upstairs at Eagle Street Pier in Brisbane’s CBD. Did I find a fillet of horse on the menu? Neigh. Pony is a curious name for a restaurant that doesn’t sell any. It should. It’s delicious.

How about a bacon-wrapped horse steak, fillet de cheval a cheval, “horse on horseback”, now all the rage in Toronto? Or how about Italian horse-heart salami?

Pony Dining is nevertheless a fine restaurant and if you go at night and reserve a balcony table you will be rewarded with one of the best river views in town. A huge cowhide rug on the floor at the entrance to Pony signalled its beefy credentials.

It was my fourth visit. My first was a family birthday bash where we ordered two delicious “big share plates” of barbecued lamb shoulder ($89) and Berkshire porchetta ($89) and were well fed.

On my latest visit I began with a delicate duck parfait ($16.70) and found it a wonderful addition to the Pony repertoire. It came with the apricots soused in Sauternes, asparagus and the thinnest of thin walnut bread.

I was not so enamoured with my companion’s Alaskan king crab starter ($17.80), which looked wonderful but to my tastebuds overawed in a confusion of jalapeño, corn salsa, brown butter and coriander.

I had the lamb rump ($37) from the organic Sovereign Lamb brand from the Victorian goldfields region and wondered why we abhor the slaughter of ponies yet welcome the infanticide of sheep. Anyway, it was delicious and came with smoked eggplant, a nutty skordalia reeking of garlic and a splotch of freekeh.

My mate was drooling over his hefty, grain-fed wagyu rump ($38) from Darling Downs beef provider AACo. Our rocket salad ($12) was outstanding; carefully oiled and festooned with house-made ricotta and macadamia nuts.

An idiosyncratic wine list offered some youngish vintages from boutique wineries but lacked representation from the big hitters like Penfolds or Wolf Blass. There were vintages from France, New Zealand and Italy but none, alas, from Queensland.

We paid $99 for a half-decent 2013 Swings & Roundabouts cabernet sauvignon, which we were told came from Heathcote in Victoria. Funny, last time I visited I was certain I was in the Margaret River.

Originally published on couriermail.com.au