TasWeekend: Mountain-top eatery keeps it sweet and simple
Eat with your eyes at Mt Nelson’s popular Signal Station restaurant, where the new owner/chef is creating visually striking meals with vibrant colours — and serving a delicious dessert, writes JESSICA HOWARD.
Taste Tasmania
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MOST Hobartians will already be familiar with the restaurant perched high above Hobart on the site of the old signal station on Mt Nelson.
Renowned for its spectacular view stretching from the city down to north Bruny Island, the restaurant has had several different owners and different styles over the years.
It has been a favourite haunt of locals, including TasWeekend writer Charles Wooley, who was so enamoured with executive chef Robbie McLean’s Mediterranean influenced seafood chowder he devoted an entire column to it in the pages of this magazine last year.
The chowder remains on the menu, but one big change is that Robbie is now part-owner of the restaurant along with his brother Matt.
The pair took over the reins of the restaurant set in the 1897-built signalman’s quarters in April. Following the philosophy that “you eat with your eyes,” Robbie says the aesthetic appeal of a meal is key.
And the award-winning chef caters his menu very specifically. “I always go 65 per cent with my menus being women-orientated because they eat out a lot more than the men do — I make it a bit more colourful, vibrant and tending more towards seafood and chicken rather than higher in protein meats like steak or slow braises,” he says.
That is exactly the case for the current lunch menu as I discover one Tuesday afternoon, leaving my hubby — a steak eater extraordinaire — initially a little disappointed.
We’re seated in what is the enclosed balcony of the old house, with the stunning view set out before us. Like many of the others around us I overhear, we spend some time trying to figure out what geographical landmark is what. I like to go into an eatery well armed beforehand, usually sussing out the menu in advance, but without a website just yet, there is none online for a sneak peek.
I did spy, however, on the restaurant’s Facebook page, a new menu item that takes my fancy just from the look of it — the open lamb burger.
When it arrives at the table, the burger it reminds me of is one of the many meals I’ve enjoyed at Frogmore Creek — a visual masterpiece.
The lightly-spiced ground lamb patty doesn’t look like the one I saw online — it’s been cut into four pieces, presumably to make sure you get a bit of burger with each bite. It’s sweet and flavoursome, but reminds me a little of how I cut up food for my son.
It comes served on flat bread with salad leaves, fresh tomato, beetroot hummus, mustard and tzatziki — a liberal splattering of pomegranate seeds really lifts the taste and gives an extra textural element to the dish.
Many of the dishes I see going out to other patrons look equally visually striking. Hubby selects the mega breakfast from the all-day menu and, with chipolatas, bacon and eggs, he has more than fulfilled his protein requirement in lieu of a steak or another beef dish.
The highlight of the meal is our dessert. Tossing up between the lemon and lime curd tarts with coconut cream and meringue shards or the warm Dutch chocolate and coconut brownie, we go with the latter.
The brownie itself is warm as promised, and a little oozy — the spoon glides through it. Fresh raspberries and whipped cream cut through the sweetness while the hot fudge sauce adds an extra layer of decadence.
It’s a relatively simple, traditional dish, but the kind that leaves you with a smile on your face and a satisfied stomach.
That’s what the restaurant is all about now, says Robbie. “We’re trying to keep the locals happy, not trying to recreate the wheel — just keeping things simple but with a lot of flair and passion,” he says.
“Before it was the style of a brasserie — more high-end — whereas now we’re a much more relaxed environment where anyone can walk in in a pair of jeans, sit down and get a totally funky meal.
“We want it to feel like it’s the people’s place overlooking their river — it’s the most beautiful view in Hobart I believe.”
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