100 Gavan Street, Bright
Opens Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 6.00pm until late and Friday and Saturday from 4.00pm until late
Bike friendly / dietary requirement friendly
Visit their website here
No surprises this Chef is hatted!
Anyone familiar with Victoria’s North-east would know that this region is giving the big smoke a serious nudge when it comes to memorable foody destinations.
Walk into Bright’s Tani Eat & Drink and you see exactly what I am talking about. Partners in life and business, Hamish Nugent and Rachel Reed run a restaurant that has notes of Japanese and European tastes and techniques. Although the ambience is down-to-Earth, I’d be recommending Tani Eat & Drink as more of a special night out during your holiday.
In their first year of opening the restaurant was awarded the ‘New Regional Restaurant of the Year’ in the coveted 2014 Age Good Food Guide, before ‘getting hatted’ (one Chef’s Hat) the following year. No wonder.
Work up an appetite riding the Mystic first...
The menu looked so delectable we decided to go for a four-course set menu matched with some local brews and regional wine. Tani delivered – each dish had that work-of-art aesthetic synonymous with fine Japanese dining, but there were most certainly traditional European influences at work to create a genuinely exciting experience for us all. Hamish uses local produces wherever possible, like the Harrietville River Salmon, which is cold smoked with snowgum, pickled watermelon, orange and fig leaf. Or the Fresh Goats Curd with candied olives, nasturtium, grains and seeds. For those more adventurous, there’s a Cured Flinders Island Wallaby, heirloom tomatoes, kombu, lemon balm and ice leaf.
They even served seaweed butter with fresh local bread – an absolute taste sensation.
Although four courses were definitely substantial, this is not the sort of place you’d come to for a massive meal after a big day out riding or exploring the outdoors. Instead, you’d head to Tani Eat & Drink for refined, elegant dishes but in a welcoming setting, as opposed to an intimidating one.
Rachel and her front of house team looked after us beautifully, but she wasn’t keen to go to the front of the camera! So we caught up with Hamish after service to find out a bit more …
