NewsBite

Advertisement

Flotilla

Innovative dining in a semi-industrial part of town.

A spread of snacks at Flotilla.
1 / 7A spread of snacks at Flotilla.Supplied
Fine dining without the pomp at Flotilla.
2 / 7Fine dining without the pomp at Flotilla.David Griffen.
Snacks from the five-course set menu at Flotilla in Newcastle.
3 / 7Snacks from the five-course set menu at Flotilla in Newcastle.David Griffen
Flotilla, Newcastle.
4 / 7Flotilla, Newcastle.Supplied
Flotilla, Newcastle.
5 / 7Flotilla, Newcastle.Supplied
Flotilla, Newcastle.
6 / 7Flotilla, Newcastle.Supplied
Flotilla, Newcastle.
7 / 7Flotilla, Newcastle.Supplied

Good Food hat15.5/20

Contemporary$$$

Tip one: arrive early for a drink at Flotilla’s schmick new next-door bar, Vecina. There’s lo-fi riesling. There are gildas. There are very good cocktails.

Tip two: when you sit down to dine in the restaurant – handsome and accented in brick and brown leather – put your wine order in the hands of general manager Eduardo Molina. The hospitality veteran always has a bottle of something rare on the pour (maybe an old Hunter shiraz, perhaps a natural Etna Rosso), and knows just what to pair with chef Jake Deluca’s food.

Expect the tasting menu to feature finely calibrated, seasonal flavours such as deep-pink tranches of wild fallow deer with beetroot and sticky bone-marrow sauce; warming Jerusalem artichoke soup beefed up with pickled shimeji mushrooms; and submissive hunks of butternut pumpkin and feta cloaked in scarlet-red swathes of coppa.

Tip three: finish with a deftly stirred Sazerac back where the night began.

Continue this series

Newcastle
Up next
Cape gooseberries and labne on charred sourdough at Humbug.
  • Review

Humbug

Charming bistro helps bring new life to Hunter Street Mall.

Beetroot with amaranth and buffalo curd at Jana Restaurant & Bar in Newcastle.
  • Review

Jana Restaurant & Bar

Glam hotel dining in Newcastle’s revitalised east end.

See all stories

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement

Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/nsw-good-food-guide/flotilla-20240207-p5f36w.html