Garagistes

No offence to Tasmania, but when I researched best restaurants in Hobart for my birthday weekend, only a handful of places came up. Garagistes consistently was one of them.  The name may look French (probably because it refers to a group of winemakers in the Bordeaux region, producing Garage Wine), but the food at this restaurant in Hobart is Mod Oz with a Japanese twist (perhaps as Luke Burgess, the head chef, trained with Tetsuya Wakuda). I dined here for my birthday with 3 friends. We booked at the the last minute (well, about 5 days before, which is as last minute as I get normally), so we had to dine late (8.45pm) and sit on a communal table. Both were fine. The menu has just two options: 1) a 5 course menu or 2) a 5-course menu with matching sake. We chose the first option, as we wanted to try their wine. It is worth noting that all of their wine is organic, biodynamic or natural. However, this meant that there are not many Australian wines on the list, and even less from Tasmania (just one!) which I found surprising and a little disappointing. Having said that, all of the food produce has been sourced locally. Quite a contradiction, but one well worth exploring. I am not sure I loved it, but I love that Hobart has a restaurant like this. Hopefully there will be more of the same before my next visit.