Why this humble hideaway in Tasmania has been named Australia’s BEST restaurant
A modest Australian restaurant with its own garden and greenhouse has just been named the country’s best restaurant.
The Agrarian Kitchen, located in Tasmania’s Derwent Valley, a 30-minute drive from Hobart, has been named Restaurant of the Year by Gourmet Traveller.
Rodney Dunn, of Tetsuya’s, moved to TAS and set up shop in a 19th century schoolhouse on the site of an old psychiatric institution. He dreamed of serving meals based on fresh produce and served simply.
Sixteen years later, the estate boasts a restaurant, kiosk and a lush, one-acre vegetable garden with a greenhouse, where guests can take a leisurely stroll before sitting down to a meal they’ll never forget.
Chef Stephen Peak draws on the bounty of The Agrarian’s garden, rich in vibrant clay soil, to create simple, elemental meals that fans are calling “insanely amazing.”
The menu features products from the state’s wealth of meat and cheese, creating surprising flavors without the fuss of a fine dining restaurant.
Inspired dishes include burrata with fermented lemon, crayfish and avocado tostada, polenta mushrooms and alpine cheese, and boysenberry jelly petit fours
Fans of this New Norfolk culinary institution also love the rotating menu of cocktails, with and without alcohol, made with fragrant, house-made syrups and fermented liquids.
Rodney Dunn has realised his dream of produce-based dining at The Agrarian Kitchen at TAS, where 90 per cent of the food used in the kitchen comes from the garden and greenhouse. What’s more, they recently won the Best Restaurant in Australia award from Gourmet Traveller.
Bresaola made from a three-year-old Dexter X Scottish Highlander from Plenty Provisions is one of the simple and ‘wonderful’ dishes that visitors to the restaurant call the ‘most memorable meal’ of their lives
The Agrarian Kitchen’s polenta with buttermilk, goat’s milk alpine cheese and black truffle is ‘stunning’ according to guests
The raspberry tonic, strawberry rhubarb collins and blueberry sakenegroni are three of the most popular spicy drinks from the kitchen.
For a more informal meal, head to the on-site Agrarian Kiosk, which serves items including filled focaccia-style sandwiches, delicious savoury pastries with lamb, goat’s cheese and root vegetables, and thick slices of delicious sourdough bread with spicy cheese and salami.
The kitchen is a hotbed of foraging, preserving, cheese making and bread baking and offers cooking classes for those who want to delve deeper into The Agrarian experience. Gardening classes are also available.
The well-maintained grounds host weddings year-round and are now home to some of the country’s best cuisine.
News of the win comes as no surprise to fans of the beloved TAS restaurant, who are already familiar with the culinary magic of Rodney Dunn and Stephen Peak, with some calling it their “most memorable” meal ever.
The cozy and enveloping interior is a perfect setting for the best dinners in the country
French breakfast radish and burnt leek, Tokyo turnip and hemp seed and puntarelle and celeriac miso is one of the dishes that distinguishes the culinary attitude of TAS
The ever-changing menu is based on the best products that the garden and the state have to offer
“This was a transcendental experience, set in a culinary monastery. Exquisite local produce contemplated, balanced, reduced without ego. I remain enlightened,” said one guest.
‘I loved everything about this place. The history, the ambiance, the energy, the food… It’s truly an experience,’ agreed another.
One of the most incredible meals I have ever had. I cannot recommend it enough. I would give it more stars if I could. 11/10,’ said a third.
The restaurant is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and offers a set menu with optional drinks.
Other winners of the 2024 Gourmet Traveller Foodie Awards included: The Lake House in Daylesford for the Readers Choice Icon Award and chef Pasi Petanen of Sydney’s Cafe Paci for Australian Chef of the Year.