New chef, new reason to visit Balmoral Beach’s majestic Bathers’ Pavilion restaurant

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“Gosh, I haven’t been there for years,” says every single person when I tell them where I’ve just eaten. Certain restaurants get parked in the memory banks under the heading “Used to Go There”, and it takes something momentous to shift them across to the file “Must Go There Again”.

That “something momentous” might just be happening in this majestic building on Balmoral Beach, built as a bathing pavilion in 1929. But first, a little recent history (I’ll make it quick).

In the 1970s, it was Mischa’s, the finest brunch in town. In the 1990s, it was Victoria Alexander’s fresh and lively restaurant, Bathers’ Pavilion, with Genevieve Harris in the kitchen. The legendary Serge Dansereau took it upscale to fine-dining level for 17 years, until new owners Ian Pagent and his daughter Jessica Shirvington became custodians in late 2019.

Now, the whole place is cookin’ 365 days a year. Perry Hill heads up the busy bistro, Air Jantrakool runs Betel Leaf upstairs, and, in perhaps the most momentous move, Aaron Ward is the new head chef of the restaurant.

After cooking his way through such singular kitchens as Lumi Dining, Ester, Sixpenny and Shell House Dining, is he ready for the big jump, the deep dive?

A potato scallop ($9) tells me it’s possible, with its summer-holiday nostalgia and humour (Bathers’ Pavilion does potato scallops!) It’s bite-sized, dusted with seaweed, tangy with vinegar, and served with views of Speedo-clad swimmers and rolling waves.

While the restaurant is a la carte Tuesday to Friday, the weekends go to two- or three-course fixed-price menus ($105/$125), which deliver surprisingly good value. For clarity, I’ll post a la carte prices with each dish, but it’s the same menu all week.

A first course is refreshing, the diced Blue Reef raw coral trout topped with elderflower and bottomed with macadamia cream ($38), juiced up with cool green tomato broth.

Quail ($48) is an exercise in subterfuge. On show is the leg, claw one end, and crunchy crust of puffed buckwheat the other; the soft confitted meat sliding off as if it’s a lollipop. Hidden is the breast, gleaming mahogany with molasses and black garlic, lurking under a bitter leaf of radicchio, with attendant blackberries for acidity. Just love these dark, moody, flavours together, speaking as one.

The dining room is handsome, filled with art, orchids, and rotating ceiling fans, with fellow diners close but not too close. Tables are now unclothed but place-matted, and warm hand towels come after finger food, a legacy of the recent L’Enclume residency. Bright, personable waitstaff headed by Jess Mead and Tom Sykes set the right tone.

Ward is confident with timings and temperatures; not the sort to throw a lamb chop on the grill and hope for the best. Instead, the micro-marbled loin of WA’s Margra lamb is rolled, roasted and rested, sent out with a huddle of broad beans, yoghurt and a beautiful jus ($60). It finds itself in deep accord with an earthy, gamey Farr Rising Gamay ($165) from Geelong, Victoria.

By contrast, pure white John Dory fillets topped with fleshy mussels, zucchini blossoms and saffron ($56) are clean-tasting; all subtlety and light.

Desserts play across peach granita, champagne jelly and burnt honey parfait themes, with a koshihikari rice custard ($26) sparked up with rhubarb and topped with milk powder crumb and reduced milk ice-cream. Nice, but a bit milky.

Cheese is an absolute drawcard, for its total commitment to one cheesemaker (bravo!), Bruny Island Cheese Co. The range includes the aged raw milk raw George hard cheese and soft, white mould, double creme saint, served with oat crackers, fruit gels and juicy muscatels ($14 per cheese). It’s a treat.

Putting a young chef and kitchen team into a grand old dame like Bathers’ Pavilion is like a young winemaker working with old vines. The result is refreshing, and gives both a future. Move directly to “Must Go There Again”.