review

Cornelian Bat Boathouse
Queens Walk, Cornelian Bay Licensed
Lunch daily. Dinner Monday – Saturday
Telephone: 6228 9289

The glass-encased Boathouse has one of the most peaceful and relaxing atmospheres and daytime or dinner-time views of any restaurant in the city. Since opening in 1999, chef David Lamb’s eclectic mix of Asian and traditional flavours and his special theme dinners have made it a very successful Hobart favourite.

Somewhere along the way last year, it seemed to lose its edge, the food and cooking becoming uninspired and the service somewhat less than most regulars were used to.

The good news is that Lamb himself got back at the stoves late last year and, if a recent lunch is anything to go by, has brought the place back to its best.

Perhaps befitting the season, the autumn lunch and dinner menus have less spicy Asian-inspired combinations than I seem to remember with the daytime dishes divided into smaller lunches and

bigger lunches while the dinner menu is more traditionally constructed around entrees, mains and desserts.

Lunch for me was initially a toss up between the crystal-cooked salmon confit with semolina migas, basil oil and green pea sauce ($28.50) and the juniper-spiced daube of venison ($30). In the end, both lost out to duck confit with scrambled egg ($18) and the pork loin chop with braised red cabbage, licorice and beetroot ($29), principally because I was on the job and the three ingredients – duck confit, scrambled eggs and pork loin – are a true test of any kitchen’s skills. As it turned out, the duck confit was deliciously mellow and

flavoursome, obviously, and unlike most others in the city, cured and preserved in house, as it should be. The soft, buttery eggs were a model for most breakfast chefs round town and the pork was perfectly cooked and rested, its dense richness cut by the intriguingly flavoured red cabbage.

But the stand-out dish was my wife’s fresh, house-made pappardelle (wide pasta strips) with roasted pumpkin paste, pine nuts and brioche crumbs ($16), a delicious composition of flavours and contrasting textures that made for a perfect light lunch.

While the extensive wine list is fairly priced - 19 by the glass, $7 to $10, Ninth Island Chardonnay $32 - it’s top heavy on merchant-driven usuals and could do with bit of rev up if it’s to match some of the better, more modern ones now on offer in Hobart.

But that’s a minor gripe when everything from the bread to the duck confits and desserts are made in house as they should be and these days so often aren’t.

GP