Bowral, NSW - Biota Dining Restaurant

Biota Dining is not what you expect to find in the sleepy hamlet of Bowral in the NSW southern highlands

Head Chef Shaun Quade and executive chef and co-owner James Viles have embraced the bio/organic food trend and added their own exquisite twist.

The sprawling restaurant complex which includes a formal dining area and a more casual lounge area is set on rolling grassed property with a duck pond and organic kitchen garden.

The garden provides seasonal ingredients for the restaurant's menu from fennel pollen to edible flowers.

When I took a squiz there were beds of winters greens and root vegies

The formal restaurant also has an organic feel with Scandanavian furniture, lichen-covered floral arrangements and blocks of pink rock salt as table centre pieces.

We loved the wine list - extensive wines by the glass, local southern highland varietals as well drops from Jerez in Spain.

The kitchen pumps with a youthful energy. The staff clearly eat the fresh ingredients they cook!

Our amuse bouche: anise jelly with chicken parfat and peanut crumbs. Worth the detour just for this textural delight.

beetroot and king fish carpaccio

oooohhhhh....

Palate cleanser served on garden moss ( and , no, you don't eat the moss.)

strawberries and raspberries

Roasted local lamb with garden silverbeet

Organic chicken with grilled greens and polenta

Biota Dining has all the style and attitude of a 5 star city restaurant with the heart of a country kitchen.

Check it out before it is too hot to get a table!

The Newmarket Hotel, Melbourne - The Best Chef's Table in Australia?

I'm always on the lookout for good food experiences in great spaces.... and this weekend in Melbourne I think I may have found the location that gets my vote for the 'best Chef's Table in the country'.

This is the private dining space at the Newmarket Hotel in St Kilda, Melbourne.

It's like a Caravaggio painting.

A long wooden table with red vinyl and chrome swivel chairs seating up to 16 people.... buttressed by the glass-fronted kitchen and a roaring open fireplace to the left of frame.

And suspended above it... a magnificent installation of  hanging long red chillies, garlic bulbs and dried artichoke heads.

A food chandelier. Truly inspired.

And all behind this non-descript heritage facade on Inkerman St.

The Newmarket is the brainchild of the same group of food entrepreneurs who gave us Melbourne's Albert Park Hotel , the Middle Park Hotel and The Royal Saxon Hotel at Richmond.....

...and their architects Six Degrees.

The space is a mix of hip and retro...with these dramatic concrete arches, painted blue ceilings, skylights

flowing outdoor spaces 

...just made for gathering with friends.

A raunchy wallpaper frieze from the original building has been lovingly reproduced

va va voom....

Which brings us to the food.... a modern take on Cal-Tex (Californian Mexican)... rotisseried rare breed meats (goat, lamb, beef), wondrously soft tacos, salads and wood-fired flat breads to have individually or shared.

We start with the oysters. Squeaky fresh and filled with ozoney sea-water

Tom Thumbs and Rusty Wire

...and saucer-sized angassi's which were a meal in themselves

wood-fired cheese and tomato flat-bread

fresh buffalo mozzarella, basil leaf and pomegrante seed salad

And the dish to make men swoon....

beef rib-eye roast with jus, corn relish and corn puree.

Can Melbourne set the food bar any higher?

You just have to come here with a big party of friends.

This is a place where memories are made.

Margan Restaurant - Broke, Hunter Valley, NSW

The sustainability theme of our weekend continues with lunch at the Margan Wine estate in Broke in the Hunter Valley.

It's restaurant -  Margan  - was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide's Sustainability Award this year.

The restaurant is surrounded by acres of gardens...

... vineyards...

....and a sprawling vegetable garden that supplies the restaurant with most of its seasonal produce.

The restaurant is filled with natural light reflected onto its sandstone walls

Crusty homemade ciabatta with a grassy, peppery new season olive oil and a fruity balsamic.

The menu changes daily depending on what is ready for harvesting from the kitchen garden.

The freshness of the ingredients, the magical touch of the chefs and matching wines from Margan are going to blow you away. You MUST visit here soon.

amuse bouche:  salmon tartare on crostini

salmon carpaccio and roe with citrus vinaigrette, baby herbs and crispy salmon skin

as beautiful to eat as it is to look at it

grilled harissa prawns with a chilled green gazpacho soup

the spicy gazpacho was made from parsley, coriander, green peppers and cucumber from the garden - of course!

stuffed crispy-skinned chicken with  morcilla, king brown mushrooms and porchini jus.

This sent me to heaven.

The vegie garden is beckoning...

First stop the chook house which supplies the restaurant with its eggs

in return the chickens feast on organic kitchen scraps. Yum, yum.



A little foraging for bugs and grubs....

potatoes ready to harvest

onions

asparagus just beginning to poke through

every herb under the sun



I want to live here.


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