Ballarat Break(Out)

Usually when I go to Ballarat I stay with my brother and it is usually a family affair with brother and sisters dining out. However this time I wanted something different. Other people go to expensive restaurants in Paris, Berlin, wherever. As I have done in the past. This time we were keeping it local, but still going for that luxurious experience. So on 1 June 2024 we ventured up to chilly Ballarat – and boy was it chilly! We booked into the Hotel Vera in Sturt Street. Which I strongly recommend if you’re interested in a weekend getaway. The website is here. It’s in a magnificent old building – one of the original mansions on Sturt Street I imagine. It’s been very sensitively refurbished – nothing like a crass redevelopment. This is Joe outside the front door.

The internal structure – hallway, rooms, stairs – seems to be very much as it has been for years. In fact the hallway reminded me a little of my old school Mary’s Mount front entrance. But it all beautifully appointed with tasteful decorations like this lovely vase of flowers that greeted us on entering.

Past the stairs on the right – which we didn’t go up as our room was on the ground floor – this cosy little sitting room is available for guests.

Through an arch you reach the breakfast room – and possibly the restaurant, although we didn’t eat there. This is in a modern glass and timber addition to the original brick house. Despite all the glass it was warm as toast when we breakfasted the next morning. Note the proper teapot! The whole hotel is quite small, only about seven rooms I think. All of which have names not numbers; we were in Kingston.

The hotel is known for its original art work and our host explained their subjects as he pointed some of them out to us. I can’t remember names or the artists.

The one below depicts the powerlessness of textile workers. Note the headless bobbons in female form attached to their machines.

These lovely pieces by a local potter were in our room, attractively placed near the window which looked out on Sturt Street.

And these lovely pieces were above our bed. All the rooms, we were told, have different colour schemes. I liked our calming green one a lot.

Like the whole place our room was of course, beautifully warm. However we didn’t linger long after booking in (very conveniently you can do so any time after 2pm). We ventured out to the Champagne Bar just down the road in Sturt Street for a drink with sister and brother in law. All of us suitably rugged up. We were a bit earlier than those who’d booked so were able to get a seat. It was a great place, warmly appointed in green velvet. Lovely, hospitable proprietor. I strongly recommend a visit, but be sure to book because it is extremely popular. The website is here. Serendipitously it was also Ballarat’s White Night when buildings and other temporary bits and pieces are lit up. Like this lot, captured on our way to the bar. Can you sense the cold?

Back at the Vera we each had a very hot bath! Terrific although it made me a bit pink and also sleepy. Nevertheless, into our glad rags. Here’s me in my green velvet smoking jacket and Parisian jewels, bought ten years ago!

And here is Joe rugged up for the short walk down to Underbar near the corner of Sturt and Armstrong streets. We were perfectly situated for our purpose which was to visit this very highly regarded restaurant.

So back we ventured out into the cold. The White Night exhibits just starting to stand out in the gloaming. The big crowds had not yet descended and it was nice to see the little kids in their beanies and scarves enjoying the lit up phantasma.

And here I am settled inside, very happy to be there finally. Id been thinking about this expedition for some time. Joe carefully avoided photographing a moving video running on the wall behind me – all abstract shapes. I’d like to have seen it but was concentrating on our food and wine so didn’t. The restaurant is very small. We counted a total of seventeen guests this night.

Here’s Joe opposite me. We were seated in the middle of a long table with three young Japanese women on our left, two men on our right and four young people – two women, two men – at the other end. All being served by two men, chef Derek Boath and sommelier Tony Schuurs. You can read about the place on their website, for which I’ve included a linked at the end of this post.

There’s only a fixed menu on offer although they will deal with different food requirements if advised in advance. We chose to have matching wines; despite Joe’s resolve to give this style of eating away after we overdid it in Berlin a few years ago. I’m glad we did, you get to try some very interesting drinks. We started with this cider which, in fact I didn’t like much but it was interesting.

It accompanied the first item on the menu jerusalem artichoke, walnut. I nearly forgot to photograph it! A delicious dish. Just superb! A highlight.

We were then served a thick slice of grain sourdough which I didn’t photograph and only tasted a tiny bit as I didn’t want to fill up on it. As expected, very fine. Our next wine was this Spinifex, with which we were familiar and enjoyed.

It went well with the soup course – not that you would have known it was a soup when first presented – cauliflower, du puy lentils, smoked ham hock.

The creamy top layer was delicious, presumably the cauliflower. Further down surprises were in store. I am not keen on ham hock soups – all that pearl barley in Grandma’s put me off it for life! Nor am I keen on lentils although the du pey ones are special with things like duck. Nevertheless this was mouth wateringly delicious. I’m not sure what the green liquid was and there were little bits of the ham hock right at the bottom. I loved it.

Next cam a glass of this Crudo. Another drink that we were familiar with; a rosé.

Which accompanied the Underbar version of a steak tartare – beef, yolk, anchovy, kale.

This is another dish that I would never order. You get so many that are not very good. All depends on the quality of the beef and what’s mixed in. This one was terrific. The stand out dish amongst many. Looks terrible but was delicious.

This Chablis was served with our fish course.

Which was kingfish, sweet potato, lotus root, nori, mushroom. I liked everything here except the two small bits of sweet potato – one white, one red. I didn’t think they were needed and their soft texture didn’t go well with the other items. The lotus root was spectacular. As was the broth.

For our meat course we were served our first red wine which was excellent.

It accompanied a dish of lamb, pumpkin, pain perdu, nuts & seeds. I was feeling pretty replete by this course and only managed half but the little cut of lamb was the lambiest piece of lamb I’ve ever eaten. Amazing. The orange leaves are made of raw pumpkin. The pain perdu was a perfect addition to the lamb – eased the heaviness of the dish.

Our next drink was this Muscat which was not overly sweet – and all the better for that.

It went well with this little taster as it was called, which to our surprise consisted of tomato, strawberry, mascarpone. Absolute taste sensation. Cherry tomatoes dehydrated and then rehydrated with strawberry juice. Wonderful.

Still more to drink. It was very good, unlike in Berlin, we were served just the right amount of wine with each course, so we were not over-doing it. Always a risk with matching wines! This Madeira was more like brandy than port. It went down well after quite a big meal.

I had seen a photo of this wonderful dessert on the Underbar Instagram post and was I confess a little disappointed to find it on our menu although I had thought it would be. In the post they say lots of work went into this one … lots of technique and punchy flavors. A mille feulle with flavours of your morning trip to the cafe. On the menu it was called – mille feuille, coffee, english breakfast, chai latte. Great idea but I’m not keen on either of those teas and while I love a single cup of coffee a day (with a sweet pastry) I don’t like coffee flavoured foods. Also at this time in the evening I was rather full, but I had a taste and if you do like those flavours, pretty splendid. Really well done – cooking of a high order.

Here’s Joe about to attack the dessert.

We finished off with a rather wonderful tea, which when asked we were told consisted of thyme, meyer lemon, lemongrass, kaffir lime tea. It was perfect after our meal, warm and refreshing. It came with (unphotographed – we’d been there about four hours and I was a bit tired, but not emotional!) with two little truffles which were dark & white chocolate, mandarin, yuzu. A final delectable taste. Leaving we told chef Boath that the vibe and the cooking reminded us of the Berlin restaurant Ernst which is regularly included in lists of the world’s 100 best restaurants. He seemed pleased. It’s astonishing that this was all done by just two people! The atmosphere was warm and relaxed all night. A wonderful experience. Strongly recommended if fine dining is your thing. You can check out the website here

And here’s a photo of the menu which includes this definition of underbar: oon-de-bar – adjective – swedish / delectable, divine, gorgeous, great, lovely, marvellous, wonderful.

Back out into the freezing cold and a quick walk down to the corner of Sturt and Lydiard Streets where if we’d walked along Lydiard we’d have seen some great White Night photo projections on the historic buildings and also exhibits but we were just too tired so turned back. Throughout our meal people had been walking past the restaurant window; many, especially children, waving coloured sticks. But by now at about 11 or 11.30 the crowds had thinned out a lot.

There were still some people about and the big balloon like exhibits we’d walked past on the way down were now really vibrant in the dark. Here’s Joe getting into the spirit of the night.