Igni, Geelong: restaurant review

The food at this Geelong diner, mostly cooked over charcoal, is surprisingly nuanced. But that’s just the start of it.

Batons of fermented baby cucumber with grilled marron on a crustacean butter. Picture: Jesse Marlow

I’m sorry. Did that waiter just say, “Thank you for coming to see us”? One sentence, so much meaning. First, of course, is the emphatic suggestion he is glad to see new customers. Second is the message of pride it conveys. Finally, that little word “us”. A team.

I’ve seen him before, this charming man, who can share wine and food wisdom with the best. He ran the floor at Loam — late, lamented, confined to the history of great Victorian restaurants — where his new/old boss, chef Aaron Turner, ran the kitchen. That was then.

Now here they are again, in, of all places, Geelong. Mind you, it’s in a gritty back lane that could be anywhere. But if Igni (Latin meaning, “from fire”) has signage, it’s subtle. Don’t judge the book: behind bland brown bricks is an almost austere, greyish dining space. In one corner, where chefs toil, is a stainless steel, charcoal-burning pit. Turner, whose Noma-esque food at Loam has become simpler, more elemental, uses it for almost everything.

Take a dish that arrives once we subscribe to our five or eight courses. It’s a noodle-like nest of raw calamari, thin, uniform strands of cool, creamy ocean protein to which is added a hot, bisque-like sauce/soup made with crustacean shells roasted on the grill and chicken fat, which just-cooks the strands and melts an umami-rich wafer of laver. It’s one of several powerful food memories you’ll take away from Igni, which doesn’t make an ostentatious statement about charcoal and smoke, despite how much the grill is used. It may not have the theatre of Surry Hills’ Firedoor, but it has more culinary nuance.

Batons of fermented baby cucumber with grilled marron on a crustacean butter. Picture: Jesse Marlow

It starts with a series of snacks. Emu bresaola, cured with cacao powder and dressed with fennel oil; a wafer of lardo-like guanciale, creamy and persistent in the mouth. Sticks of dried, almost candied beef, like unspiced jerky; baby zucchini flowers grilled with just-cooked local mussels inside; whipped cod roe on crisp wafers of chicken skin; salt and vinegar saltbush. And an oyster, warmed in its shell, dressed with a seawater emulsion and oyster plant, a leaf I’ve not seen before.

Lovely little buns come with hot-smoked, whipped butter. At each turn, these little details are nailed. Another three-element dish of utter simplicity and beauty: batons of fermented baby cucumber with a just-set, grilled piece of marron, all in a pil pil, or crustacean butter. My goodness.

Beets and whey is another three-part harmony: a slice of sweet-yet-savoury roasted beetroot, a layer of nasturtium leaf cooked in some manner, and a lactic moat of gently acidic whey. Each flavour is clear and pure. Charcoal roasted squab leg/thigh, and a piece of rare breast meat in a wild plum sauce, is as pretty as it is desirable. Garnishes of plum, beach succulent and leek ash are almost superfluous, the meat superb and expertly cooked with a lacquered skin, ruby muscle. And it’s hot. Have you forgotten what it’s like to eat hot meat?

Don’t ask how they create noodles of King Edward potato that look like spaghetti in society garlic butter with garlic crisps. The texture is quite extraordinary, crunchy but soft. It’s good fun (something Igni maybe could work on a little more).

“Old ewe, new ewe” is a clever little dish of Roquefort with sheep yoghurt granita, the rich flavour of the cheese played off against the fresh, cool acid of the local product.

Fresh local berries and sabayon are intriguingly mixed with icy pellets of lemon curd and berry juices made, presumably, with liquid nitrogen. The effect is superb; quinoa wafers dusted with green tea powder, sandwiching a sticky and sweet seaweed ice cream, is more polarising. But interesting.

Beyond the food, which is almost uniformly excellent and lacks the arrogance so often seen in this kind of place, Turner has created a really hospitable new restaurant. Visit. They’ll be pleased to see you.

Address: Ryan Place, Geelong, Vic | Phone: [phone], restaurantigni.com | Hours: Lunch Sat-Sun; dinner Wed-Sun | Typical prices: Set menu $100/$150 | Summary: Ignition | Like this? Try … Aloft, Hobart; Brae, Birregurra; Silvereye, Sydney | Rating: 4 out of 5