When looking for a top-notch place to eat in the Southern Highlands, one name stands out. Biota.
Consistently gracing Australia’s top restaurant lists, the two-hatted Biota is a must-do for anyone serious about eating, or just anyone visiting the magical Southern Highlands.
The word ‘Biota’ means the animal and plant life of a particular region, habitat or geological period. It’s a befitting moniker for this Bowral fine diner that uses seasonal ingredients exclusive to the local area in a clever tasting menu.
Expect things like smoked pasture-fed beef topped with a rich prune and walnut sauce, grilled fish wings gussied up with mandarins from a local orchard, and a frozen rhubarb sanga that you’re instructed to eat with your hands. All the inspired creation of chef-owner James Viles.
A refined, yet relaxed dining experience
From the Biota car park, you venture past a quaint duck pond and hedge-lined pathway into an expansive dining room that’s best described as Nordic chic meets Country NSW. Mid century modern tables and chairs are generously spaced apart – none of this city-style ability to hear every word of the conversation at the table next door.
In the centre of the room is a booze table, topped with oodles of local Southern Highlands and domestic wines, shadowed by an oversized native tree branch. Look to the back of the restaurant and you have complete view into the open kitchen, where all the magic happens.
A tasting menu that says modern Australia
Once seated, there’s only a couple of choices you need to make. 1) Whether you want the five or seven course tasting menu and 2) what to drink. Options include the wine pairing, a hefty selection of Australian wines and beers, and cocktails that use local ingredients, o course!
Then you’re in the hands of the highly competent staff.
We chose the five-course tasting menu ($100pp), plus bread, which was plenty of food. While I’m a sucker for a wine pairing, and I was really looking forward to the Biota interpretation ($54pp), we had spent the day wine touring and I was all wined out. A sentence I rarely say. A Tasmanian apple cider for me please.
The Biota food journey kicks off with a pile of fluffy bread, arriving in what looks like a fluffy hat, and some devine cultured bacon butter. This is followed up by the day’s ‘snax’: taramasalata tartlets, fig and blue cheese roll ups (not the official description), and mini waffles with sour cream and grated deer (yep, you read that right. Welcome to Biota).
Each of the five courses tells such a strong narrative with all the flavours and textures complementing one another – in the same way soda does gin. It’s an education in food pairings. I would never see artichoke and onion milk on a menu, and think gee jeez that sounds like the tastiest thing ever, but it really is. The entire Biota menu is an experience you won’t regret.
The fluffy bread, bacon butter and snax
Snax part two: The mini waffles with grated deer
Artichoke, with salted turnip, onion milk and pine oil
Smoked pasture fed beef, with bitter leaves, prunes and walnuts
Frozen rhubarb sanga
Salted chocolate, with toasted macadamia and blueberries
Biota is…
It only takes one course to understand why Biota has earned itself the accolade of being one of the best regional dining experiences in Australia. It’s bold, but friendly. It’s smart but casual.
Take a seat and relax, because you’re in for a gastronomic treat.
Biota | 18 Kangaloon Road, Bowral, New South Wales
biotadining.com