Town Restaurant & Cafe

Karl and Katrina Kanetani’s combined CV includes the likes of Quay, Pier, est. and Tetsuya’s. That’s an awful lot of cooking talent to toss at a casual country town. By day, their ground floor Downtown is a bustling bistro but at night Town goes to town, offering one of the region’s few big nights out; a nicely gauged, seven-course degustation dinner in the snug, formal dining room upstairs. Kick off with elegant little shot glasses of clear smoked tomato consomme, then segue into delicate fingers of semi-cooked salmon with shun giku leaves and miso. Local produce stars - Northern Rivers snapper is punchy with ginger and shallot, while slow-cooked, melting Bangalow pork is teamed with broccoli and katsuoboshi (dried, smoked tuna). The last hurrah, of milk sorbet, apple granita, dulce de leche and caramel ‘caviar’, sits lightly on the plate like freshly fallen snow.

And … There’s always a big, freshly baked cake cooling on the kitchen pass downstairs.

THE LOW-DOWN
Vibe Big city dining in the country.
Best bit The focus on local produce.
Worst bit Lacks the buzz (and air-con) of downstairs.