As the seasons change, so too do the seasonal menus around the country. With Autumn kicking off, fruit and veg like apples, carrots, and mushrooms are beginning to appear, Sydney rock oysters are making way for their Pacific counterparts, and dishes are starting to become heartier.
Bacchus Brisbane
Nodding to the budding season, hazelnut and apples crop up throughout Chef de Cuisine Marco Sfamurri’s menu. Small plates and entrees include crispy layered potato with buffalo curd and salmon roe; oysters served naturally or with tomato water, yuzu, kosho, and shisho oil; and kingfish sashimi with green gazpacho, compressed apples, ponzu, and furikake.
A generous 650g Berkshire pork tomahawk is the menu’s centrepiece. Sfamurri serves it with apple ketchup, jus, and chimichurri. Another dish of note is the contemporary wagyu tartare, served on warm brioche with macadamia, egg yolk, and fresh chives.
For dessert, the famous Bacchus Apple makes an appearance, blending sweet and savoury honey, cinnamon, and blue cheese. For those with a sweeter tooth, petit fours, seasonal gelatos, and a hazelnut dessert with genmaicha and caramel are available.
Reine & La Rue
Melbourne’s New Restaurant of the Year in The Age Good Food Guide 2024 has launched its latest menu, featuring seasonal vegetables and palpable French influence.
The menu features wood-roasted leeks vinaigrette with hazelnut; scallop meuniere, with kombu, beurre noisette, and almonds; a delicate pea tartlet, layered with smoked crѐme fromage, and finished with walnut pistou; and burnt carrot, with Caillé de Chèvre, truffle honey, rosemary, and pistachio.
Other highlights include grilled Skull Island tiger prawns, with fennel, and café de Paris butter; a potato and comté terrine, with confit onion, black garlic, mushroom; and the Loddon Estate duck, with sugarloaf cabbage, and roasted grapes.
Finish the meal with Pain perdu, brie ice cream, apricot, and chamomile; or Jersey milk soft serve, with strawberries, and St. Germain.
Prefecture 48
After a successful launch in October last year, five-venue precinct Prefecture 48 is updating its menus for the first time as Sydney transitions out of summer. At contemporary Kaiseki restaurant Garaku, Head Chef Derek Kim brings together regional, seasonal ingredients on the seafood-heavy menu.
Kim has added shokuji, a rice dish with octopus and roe to the menu, alongside Western Australian marron with koji butter and herbs. The dish is inspired by Kagawa Prefecture’s freshwater shrimp and the team describes it as having “delicate smokiness, richness, and purity of flavour”. The precinct is also doing yakitori nights in The Courtyard from Thursday to Saturday with no bookings needed.
Apollonia
The cinematic bar has launched its third menu, Playbill – Vol. Three. And while not an Autumn-specific offering, the refresh is a significant move away from the bar’s original Godfather theme. House Made Hospitality’s Jason Williams and Apollonia’s Harry Hasan devised the menu in four acts. “The cocktails are named after icons with Italian heritage from film, theatre, and music, tying everything back to the storytelling and performance we love,” says Williams.
Standout cocktails include the Frankie Avalon (a modern take on the piña colada, with Planteray 3-Stars white rum, Husk Pure Cane rum, pineapple, coconut, vanilla, cinnamon, and citrus); The Monica Belluci (Fords gin, Campari, rhubarb, grapefruit, eucalyptus, and neroli); and the Francis Ford Coppola (Michter’s bourbon, Mr Black coffee amaro, cherry, wattle seed, and orange see oak and fruit meld boldly).
Flora
Newtown’s recently launched vegetarian restaurant Flora is geared towards seasonal cooking with its fresh produce-focussed menu. The Paisano & Daughters restaurant is currently making the most of the ripe, late-season stone fruits, with a queen garnet plum and yellow nectarine Bellini.
The menu also features a medley of grilled chestnut, king brown, and oyster mushrooms served with garlic bread sauce, mushroom garum, and egg yolk; whipped fava bean dip with sautéed agretti, Aleppo chilli, garlic, and lemon; and woodfired beetroot with walnut tarator and tarragon.
Keep an eye on Flora’s Instagram – the team serves up regular specials (such as a recent dish of wilted mustard greens with sherry garlic oil, lacto chilli powder, marinated curds, flat bread, and coal roasted pepper sauce; and Sift Produce radishes blanched in whey and served with harissa labneh and charred citrus) based on available produce.
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