It’s hard to find but worth the hunt: Hamilton wine bar impresses

This newcomer to the growing upmarket dining scene in this ritzy suburb may be incredibly hard to find thanks to its obscure location, but it’s well worth the trouble you may need to take to find it.

Caramelised carrots, sunflower seeds, lemon and garlic labneh at Ach.
Picture: David Kelly

I’m lost down by the river in Hamilton as I search for a new restaurant that sounds like it’s the love child of upmarket Middle Eastern stalwart Gerard’s and fire cooking virtuoso Agnes.

My GPS has gone rogue, leading me around various streets, docks and storage facilities, before eventually I find what I’m looking for – Ach – on the ground floor of one of a line of office buildings overlooking a swathe of largely undeveloped land that is the Northshore Hamilton Priority Development Area, one of the mooted locations for an athlete’s village for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

Ach Wine Bar and Bistro, 389 MacArthur Ave, Hamilton. Picture: David Kelly

Opening just after New Year, this Middle Eastern-inspired bakery/wine bar/bistro takes its name from the Arabic/Hebrew word that our waiter reveals can mean brother or fireplace, and is a nod to the friendship between the owners and the central wood-fired hearth.

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Perhaps to reap the benefit of being in a strip brimming with businesses, the venue operates as a cafe bakery each weekday morning from 7am, with sandwiches and pastries (think fig danishes, lamb sausage rolls, lamb belly bacon and egg rolls, pastrami sandwiches and ridiculously appealing chunky chocolate and tahini cookies) and coffee and then kicks into bistro mode with lunches and dinners Thursdays to Saturdays.

Hummus, garlic chive, zatar dip and challah bread at Ach. Picture: David Kelly

A collaboration between Martin Coard, Noam Lissner and Mat Drummond (who have worked together previously at venues including Knowhere in Spring Hill), Ach’s menu kicks off with oysters, breads and snacks, then moves on to skewers, share plates and sides.

At dusk on a hot summer evening the place is pumping, with a large work group and couples dining inside beneath pendant lights glowing golden against olive green walls. There’s a bar along one side and the kitchen at the back, beneath a shelf of pickles and preserves. Hard surfaces and music mean it’s reasonably noisy, while out the front the concrete floor and high ceiling make for a breezy courtyard-style area.

Ach Wine Bar and Bistro’s scallops, mango and pickled apple. Picture: David Kelly

It’s almost impossible to improve on a naked, freshly shucked oyster, but these baked with chilli and samphire butter ($7 each) are lushly indulgent, while baked Tasmanian scallops with the same butter ($22) have the additional va va voom of diced lamb belly bacon.

Bread options include pita-like laffa flatbread, or malawach (buttery, croissant-like flatbread) which starts out light and flaky but is a little doughy in the centre ($14) and shares a plate with a tangle of white anchovies, dill cream and qukes ($14).

Challah (a braided bread incorporating egg) is appealingly soft and fresh and comes with small bowls of olives, pickles and smoked
butter ($12).

A skewer of swordfish chunks ($20) teams well with golden raisins and preserved lemon while a portion of lamb ribs from premium NSW supplier Margra ($44) is softly delicious and titivated with chermoula, green olive and bone sauce and beetroot, which has been spiral cut and wound up again.

The 17 wines by the glass are mostly Australian, with a couple of Turkish and Lebanese selections for those keen to embrace the Middle East. Bottles include more Lebanese and Turkish options, as well as some from Hungary, Israel, and Spain’s Canary Islands.

Halva parfait at Ach. Picture: David Kelly

Dessert is either mint lemonade granita, lemon-curd sorbet and cardamom, or halva parfait with pistachio, rose and orange gel, and plum slices ($15), which is a fine, relatively simple conclusion.

Service throughout is conversational, warm and humble, with our waiter keen on feedback, adding to the sense that this is a venue where there’s a lot of care about what they are doing.

There were a couple of glitches in execution but the place was quite freshly opened and with a venue that wears its heart on its plates, you hope practice will make perfect.

Ach Wine Bar and Bistro

389 MacArthur Ave,

Hamilton

achwinebar.com

Open

Mon-Wed 7am-5pm Thur-Fri 7am-10pm
Sat 12pm-10pm

Must try

Margra lamb

Verdict

Food

3.5 stars

Service

4 stars

Ambience

3.5 stars

Value 

4 stars

Overall

3.5/5 stars

 

 

 

 

 

 

delicious.com.au/eatout