Gold Coast restaurant serves up too generous portions

This new SEQ restaurant in an arts precinct serves up creative dishes, but one thing left our reviewer “amazed”.

The pumpkin risotto dish at Palette at HOTA.

What are England’s greatest literary stars, Shakespeare and Jane Austen among them, doing in Surfers Paradise?

Aside from the fact they haven’t been alive for several hundred years, it’s rather a shock to see them not far from the thundering surf, at the Gold Coast’s Home of The Arts (HOTA).

The pair are in town as part of a Writers Revealed exhibition of portraits and manuscripts on loan from London’s National Portrait Gallery and the British Library.

The works are remarkable, the 1610 painting of Shakespeare is the only portrait of the Bard to have a good claim of being painted from life, and the tiny unfinished sketch of Austen by her sister Cassandra is the only known portrait of her.

Also on show are the works and likenesses of a stellar literary line-up, from James Joyce to Sylvia Plath, Beatrix Potter and Oscar Wilde.

Here and there among the exhibits is a sign noting that Dylan Hartill-Law, the executive chef at HOTA’s restaurant Palette, has been inspired by a work to create a dish on a tasting menu designed to accompany the exhibition. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, for example, led to a spanner crab dish with Japanese influences.

Interior at Palette at HOTA.

It sounds interesting so we eventually head to Palette, nearby on the ground floor, for lunch. It’s a spacious, light room with wooden floors and ceiling battens, comfortable seating and a large terrace overlooking parkland.

We’re told we’d need to allow 2½ hours for the $150-a-person multi-course tasting menu but there is also an a la carte offering, and a Writers Revealed lunch menu with a choice of two dishes for each course (two courses $60 and three $75), with the selection generally inspired by the exhibition as opposed to dishes being matched to particular works or writers.

We settle for the short version but begin with a Korean salt bread roll encasing a blob of miso ($6) made by the Coast’s Pixel Bakehouse. It’s served with a whorl each of sesame butter and brown butter and it’s absolutely delicious.

I’ve chosen the entree of Hervey Bay cuttlefish and I’m amazed when it arrives, it’s the largest starter I’ve ever seen.

An offering from the ‘tart cart’ at Palette at HOTA.

A huge bowl is filled with layers, with Japanese egg custard at the base, then a furikake seasoning mix with toasted macadamia, lemon myrtle and native pepper berry, a generous amount of thinly sliced tender cuttlefish cooked in a buttery broth, some of which is thickened and sprayed over the top.

It’s undeniably appealing but the huge serving is rather inelegant.

The other starter features a sweet potato that has been cooked for days at 60C in a bag with herbs including lemon aspen, then glazed and served atop sunflower seed puree, with a crisp flax seed cracker and snow pea tendrils.

It’s a pleasant enough combination with a loads of textural contrast.

Next, a skin-on, sausage-shaped roll of chicken is moist and flavourful and served with celeriac – roasted, as a fondant and shaved, and with a wine and mushroom sauce, it’s a lovely dish.

The other main is a risotto with pumpkin pureed and mixed through and roasted pieces scattered on top, a drizzle of chianti reduction and a chunk of lightly torched taleggio-inspired Section 28 Monte Rosso cheese.

It’s a dazzling combo of flavours but the rice lacks that slight firmness that makes a risotto sing.

Dessert at Palette at HOTA.

We’re done, but dessert options are a three-cheese toastie with black apple, and a hazelnut, apricot and soju concoction. Or diners can also visit the a la carte menu which offers the likes of an apple pie souffle or a “tart cart” selection.

Palette fits its location well, the kitchen creating intriguing dishes from the very best produce.

Service is top shelf and teaming a visit – there’s even a themed Sunday high tea – with a Writers Revealed exhibition seems like it could well be something to write home about.

HOTA: 135 Bundall Rd, Surfers Paradise

paletterestaurant.com.au

Open: Wed-Sat 11.30-2.30pm and from 5pm Sun 11am-4pm

Originally published as Gold Coast restaurant serves up too generous portions