Town Hall Hotel

As each new winter arrives, the youthful Australian truffle industry takes a few steps forward, and trained truffle dogs snuffle the earth around specially inoculated oak and hazelnut trees. The ethereal underground fungus is expensive – around $3000 a kilo – but you only need a few grams of these nobbly black nuggets to bring funky flavour and heady aroma to a meal. This fiercely seasonal ingredient is turning up on specials boards at Melbourne restaurants, especially those with ties to the truffle heartlands of France, Italy and Spain.

In Harry Lilai’s Italian kitchen, truffles are stirred into risotto to create a very simple dish that’s also extremely luxurious.  Extra truffle shavings loll on the rice, boosting the all-encompassing aroma. Another dish partners truffles with oozy polenta and duck egg. It’s hard to describe the taste of truffles but when they’re good there’s a potent swooniness to them, similar to oysters or fine champagne.

Town Hall Hotel has just popped a cork or two to celebrate its fourth birthday, which isn’t bad going for a place that’s treading the boards in an off-Broadway location. The building is an old pub but it doesn’t quite feel like a watering hole, even though you can hang about in the bar for a drink and a steak sandwich. I sense the chef’s heart is in the easy, warm, understated bistro where he can turn out his haute rustic version of Italian cuisine.

Truffle-free but still terrific is the smoked duck breast on crisp puff pastry with foie gras and jammy onions. The tortelloni is faultless, the pasta silky and al dente, its many crevasses trapping a nutty butter sauce, with fat little scallops, pinenut and currants adding sweetness and texture. Braised goat is heartily comforting. Desserts demonstrate more love for the seasons: chestnut and brandy pudding is served with spiced quince in a dish that’s almost as intoxicating as truffles.