Ballarat’s dining scene is buoyant and leading the push into the future with an abundance of quality coffee and diverse and emerging restaurants.
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“It’s now the norm to do an all-day breakfast in Ballarat, whereas you go back five years and it was unheard of,” Ballarat resident and businessman Peter Burley said.
Meigas Restaurant owner Jose Fernandez said he has noticed huge changes since he opened his then-Spanish cafe in October 2013.
Jose, from Galicia in the north of Spain, said opening his cafe and cooking traditional Spanish food was the best way he knew to share his vibrant and diverse culture with the Ballarat community.
“My parents had a restaurant in Venezuela and I grew up between the pots in the kitchen. I always wanted to open a restaurant.”
Jose said when he first came to Ballarat to study he was always going back to Melbourne to eat Spanish food and, although it was good, it was more fusion than traditional.
“We opened a cafe first and we didn’t know how people would react.At first people were confusing us with Mexican food, it took us a couple of months to sell one octopus … now we sell a lot.”
Jose said the restaurant scene is far more vibrant now. “Since we moved premises, there have been about 4 or 5 more restaurants opening … it adds diversity and life to the street.”
Meigas’ offers traditional Spanish cuisine, including octopus, local smoked small goods, grilled seafood and the ever-popular paella. The restaurant is booked out most Saturday nights.
“I have a Chinese group, they booked from overseas and they are in Australia only one week and they are coming from Melbourne to eat here,” Mr Fernandez said.
Underbar Restaurant proprietor Derek Boath and his wife, Lucy Taylor, came to the city and opened their restaurant in November 2017.
His establishment offers a 12-seat fine dining experience with a Chef’s tasting menu of eight to 10 courses, and a wine-pairing option. Underbar opens only on Friday and Saturday evenings and bookings for the next month sell out within a day.
“We identified a niche in the market and we wanted to introduce a new experience,” Mr Boath said. He said the dining scene was changing and initiatives such as Plate Up Ballarat were helping to “put Ballarat on the map.”
His menu offers an array of carefully selected dishes, including:
sword fish, butternut pumpkin, bombay mix, vadouvan, curry leaf, paired with marcel joubert, cuvee a l'ancienne, gamay, beaujolais, 2015. At least one of the dishes changes weekly on a month-long rotating basis.
Mr Boath said underbar was predominantly locally supported.
