Paella tastes better when someone else is cooking it. This is a fact I have decided is universal.
It tastes even better when the paella is being cooked in a pan bigger than your entire arm span, the person stirring it is wielding what appears to be a small boat oar and you are sitting on a rooftop looking out across Brisbane with a glass of sangria in your hand.
This is the situation at Iris Rooftop every Wednesday night.
The winter Bottomless Paella night is a very good midweek excuse to leave the house. From 5.30pm, giant pans of paella are cooked in the main dining room while live Spanish guitar plays across the rooftop. You can order bottomless paella for $39 per person, then add bottomless sangria for another $35 per person and settle in for the evening.
Iris is on the rooftop of The Alva Hotel in Fortitude Valley, formerly known as Hotel X, which means you get sprawling views across Brisbane while eating a bowl of steaming paella. It is a particularly good way to spend a chilly Wednesday evening.
The paella arrives hot. Properly hot. The kind of hot where the steam rises off the bowl and you immediately understand why this is the sort of food people have been gathering around for centuries.
Our version was loaded with chicken, chorizo and prawns, with the smoky chorizo bringing plenty of flavour and the prawns adding that lovely seafood sweetness. There is also a vegetarian option available on request.
We went back for more. Then we went back again. Then again.
This is the point of bottomless paella, really. You are not trying to carefully pace yourself through one perfectly portioned bowl. You can keep going back to the pan, which is a very satisfying way to spend an evening.
And the pan is a spectacle in itself. As is tradition, it was enormous. Bigger than my whole arm span, possibly large enough to qualify as a piece of outdoor furniture. The waiter mixed the paella with what looked like a bloody great boat oar, and the whole process of cooking and serving it in the main dining room becomes part of the experience.
You can smell it before it arrives. You can watch it being stirred. Then you get a steaming bowl in front of you and go back for more.
The bottomless sangria package gives you three options: red, white and rosé. I like the freedom of this arrangement because it means you can move around a little depending on what you feel like drinking. Red for the classic sangria experience, white when you want something a little lighter and rosé because, well, rosé.
The live Spanish guitar adds another layer to the evening without making it feel like you have accidentally wandered into a theme park. It gives the whole dinner a sense of occasion, while the food remains the focus.
This is a particularly good option for a Wednesday because there is no complicated plan required. Book a table, arrive from 5.30pm, order the paella and decide whether you want the sangria package. Then settle in with a view over Brisbane and let someone else do the stirring.
Bookings are recommended, with the last sitting at 6pm. Paella is served until sold out.
WHAT: Bottomless paella and sangria at Iris Rooftop
WHEN: Every Wednesday from 5.30pm
WHERE: Iris Rooftop, The Alva Hotel, Fortitude Valley
COST: Bottomless paella $39 per person; bottomless sangria package an additional $35 per person
In her spare time, she likes long walks down the makeup aisle and performing in Brisbane theatre. You can follow her adventures on Instagram and TikTok @thebeautypalate.
