Seven years in and The Agrarian Kitchen Restaurant is more alive than ever, now that it’s flanked by the famed cooking school, a first-class takeaway kiosk and the one-acre walled kitchen garden where your lunch begins. From the opener of just-picked crudités to the closing delicata-squash miso caramels, freshness and purity are the constants, shaped by an uncompromising everything-from-scratch approach. Fleshy red peppers taste sweeter and truer in their own vinegar. Lemon miso gives house-made burrata an assertively tart backbone. A hand-pressed tostada with preserved albacore and dried pasilla chillies practically vibrates with the flavour of locally grown Oaxacan green corn. Whole-animal butchery, a comprehensive kefir-cultured cheese program and a Tassie-centric drinks list with unrivalled alcohol-free options round out the ethos-driven offering, backed by a professional young team that’s ardently invested in it all. And who wouldn’t be? This is dining with deep-seated integrity, at the height of its aspirational powers.
Anna Critchley
