Piccalilly
Editorial
This is a strikingly elegant make-over and culinary upgrade of the historic old cottage restaurant Gondwana, where young chefs Michael Godfrey and Iain Todd have made Hobart’s best restaurant “debut” in years. Rather than entree and main courses, their menu is structured around a selection of 12 dishes portioned larger than a degustation serve but a little smaller than a normal entree, inviting you to randomly select and build your own dinner. Unlike trendy degustation menus where the kitchen decides what and how many courses you will eat and the order in which you will have them, theirs effectively leaves those decisions to the diner, putting you, rather than the kitchen, in charge of your one-course, three-course or however-many-courses-you-want meal.
And the menu they offer is as exciting and imaginative as the very best in town, starting with a beautiful little complimentary pea puree, pork crackling and mint foam palate-opener and finishing with a delicious cinnamon-spiced apple sponge. In between there are wonderful combinations like goats’ curd pannacotta with beetroot and chocolate emulsion, honey-glazed bacon with maple syrup jelly and carrot sponge, and yellow fin tuna with pickled daikon, shiso shoots and vinaigrette. They also serve something rarely seen on menus these days: devilled lamb kidneys, here beautifully presented with a grape tart and spinach veloute. Their cooking is flawless, the presentation quite brilliant and there’s a small, carefully selected list of wines. Altogether, a fabulous new addition to Hobart’s culinary scene.
Graeme Phillips, December 2007
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