Nel: Native Australia 2024

Nel

📍 Surry Hills

👀 Imagine my excitement when I was invited to the launch of the new menu at Nel. 🥹 It’s my absolute fav restaurant, I love everything about it. This was also our first night out together without bub, first date night, so so special. We arrived to Nel and got a welcome drink which was Corey Grech’s creation of rum and lemon myrtle, refreshing!
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Native Australia, such a beautiful menu curated by Nel Robinson and Corey Grech as his First Nations advisor. Corey a Wonnarua and Gamillaroy man is the manager of Indigenous bakery Native Foodways. This menu’s purpose is to showcase these exceptional ingredients, support first nations farmers and make them more accessible to all, we all should be cooking with these ingredients!

💥 It was such an awesome night celebrating Native Australia and literally breaking bread with the people around us, I sat between the lovely ladies from Timeout and Broadsheet. I was so surprised with how many people were experiencing Nel for the first time! To start the night we had an explanation of the menu and how it all came about, also an amazing indigenous performance, I loved how the dances coincided with the ingredients used like fishing dances etc. It was such a nice surprise and I seriously loved it so much.

💁🏼‍♀️ I am such a regular here I have started to recognise all the wait staff haha they do an amazing job as usual.

🍷 Tim had his white wine topped up throughout the night haha I was on the waters!

🍴 We started with the Smoked Burra  *Dharug language which is smoked eel. In the little mini cone filled with smoked eel mousse and the surprise at the bottom is a beetroot and Davison plum puree. It was like a savoury cornetto and I am here for it!

Now this was my absolute favourite of the night, the Pepperberry Jaffle crocodile and chicken farce with Pepperberry and native lemongrass, macadamia and Pepperberry puree. Nel’s take on a jaffle, the Australian iconic toastie. I actually had no idea, Aussies are the only ones that call them Jaffles! Originated from the jaffle iron product you make them in. I don’t think we had croc on the night but it’s on the normal menu. I want a full size one of these it’s absolutely amazing, crunchy, rich but light. Delicious flavours!

How stunning is this plinth bowl! I love it! Riberry Kangaroo Kebab the riberry glaze gave it a spicy flavour and the kangaroo was perfectly cooked. In a little dippy egg cup was sesame hollandaise, delicious!! I love hollandaise with my meat. This was very enjoyable and such a good way to start the snacks, we were left wanting more! It also gave it that Aussie BBQ vibe everyone sharing the same bowl and picking up a skewer to eat.

I love me a Nel bread course, seriously he does bread SO well, when I win the lotto I will invest in a Nel bakery. Bush Tomato Damper Bread with Bush tomato butter brushed with charcoal smoked oil and topped with saltbush. This bread was a cross between focaccia and a crumpet. Definitely not the authentic damper I remember making at school camp around a stick, this is a fancy version! For such a simple dish I appreciate all the thought that went behind it, the Charcoal flavours to mimic the smokiness coming from cooking bread directly on coal. Look at that golden top of the bread, seriously beautiful and the butter was a perfect sphere.

The pretty dish of the night, Wildfire Kingfish Carpaccio Wildfire spiced Kingfish topped with a sorrel emulsion, wildfire oil, puffed quinoa with wildfire spiced, pickled cucumber sphere, herbs & flowers. I consider myself to be a Kingfish sashimi dish expert, if it’s on the menu, we order it. It’s Tim’s absolute favourite. This Kingfish dish was SO different!! In an amazing way! The wildfire spice brought a welcome peppery type taste to the dish and the green cream was like a savoury dip to compliment the other textures so well.

Tim’s favourite dish of the night, Spanner Crab Risotto saffron and lemon risotto with tomato concasse, chopped herbs and crab meat topped with crab bisque bubbles. The chunks of crab and prawn in the risotto were so generous we were loving it. The bubbles were light and airy but so rich in flavour, I spooned it all up in the end.

Suddenly down the table we got handed down part of this beautiful Saltbush and Fenugreek loaf Corey made. His family handed it down the table for us and we broke some off and passed it on. It was such a cool moment and I dipped it into my risotto. It went perfectly.

My most anticipated dish of the night, I love Lamb and especially Lamb ribs or Belly! Anise Myrtle Lamb Belly with white and green beans. Native curry bubbles. The lamb belly was perfectly slow cooked on the inside but crispy on the outside. These bubbles were also delicious I wanted to soak them up.

When Nelly and Corey first met up they drank Coffee with wattleseed, which inspired this dessert of Coffee & Wattleseed “Coffee bean” is made out of a wattleseed and chocolate ganache, white coffee ice cream, coffee and wattleseed sugar tuile, wattleseed caramel and a wattleseed and coffee crumble. Wattleseed is a seed from native acacia tree that can only be found in Australia. When roasted and grinded down it has the flavor of cocoa, hazelnut, coffee, roasty and nutty. It goes really well together with coffee because it elevate the roastiness of the coffee giving it a more nutty and roasted flavor. The Wattleseed and chocolate ganache is set in a coffee bean mould which is then dipped in a cocoa butter and chocolate coating to gives a more realistic perspective. This was so cool, I LOVE little big food, like a coffee bean for a giant. All the elements of the dish worked so well together and I particularly loved the flavours in the sugar tuile, you could really taste the wattleseed.

To finish off this amazing dinner was the Elements of Australia *petit four* different flavoured bon bon including lemon myrtle, wattleseed and lamington. Perfect way to end the night. How cool is the tree stump presentation?

✨I actually couldn’t believe how many people on the night were experiencing the magic of Nel for the first time!! I worked out this was my 10th time to Nel, and unlike other repeat restaurant vists, I document every single time I go. I appreciate the love and time that goes into creating every single dish. Especially being the start of 2024, our first date night as parents and this Native Australia menu. During the performances Tim commented I was so happy, I was in my fav restaurant, with my fav person, creating content and watching a performance I love. It was so so special and I feel so lucky to be invited and hope to be able to bring you more reviews from more Nel menu launches. Thank you so much to the Nel team for making this happen. The Native Australia menu runs till mid April so whether you’re a regular Nel nerd like me or one of those people that tell me they want to go. This is a great menu to start!