Gluten Savvy

Right at the front of the Federation Square atrium, in the centre of Melbourne, Tjanabi is a very upmarket restaurant serving indigenous and local produce. Four of us settled in for a full three-course meal and shared everything.

I’d e-mailed in advance with our booking mentioning that I was gluten-intolerant. When we arrived, we mentioned it to the waiter, who said that the chef had prepared a list of what I could eat on the menu. He came back and read from hand-written notes: the news sounded good. Most of what I was interested in was fine.

We ordered two of the gluten-free starters — crocodile with wild lime aioli and prawn and calamari with a bush tomato sambal — and a taster plate with two gluten-free items (smoked wallaby and mussels with a spiced mayonnaise) and two non-gluten-free items (a goat’s cheese tartlet and kangaroo chorizo).

Unfortunately, when they arrived, I was surprised to see the crocodile and the prawn and calamari all looked like they had flour or batter on them. I asked the waiter and he confirmed my suspicion. “I thought they were gluten-free,” I said. “Ah,” said he, “They can be made gluten-free. I didn’t understand you wanted it all like that.” We were a little frustrated, as we thought we’d made it clear we were sharing everything, but he offered to bring me a small, free sampler of both the dishes I was missing out on.

When they came, they were plain fried crocodile and plain steamed calamari with the dipping sauces. It looked like the spiced crumbing would have made the dishes unbelievably good, but as it was, the calamari and sambal was tender and scrumptious without it. The crocodile was a little bland, and could have used a dukkah dusting or some other spice mix without the flour.

We made ourselves much clearer with the mains: everything to be gluten-free. Not a problem. We had fantail of emu with berry sauce and a roast vegetable stack, duo of wallaby and kangaroo with a [sauce], barramundi with a lemon myrtle cream sauce and duck risotto with muntries and mushrooms. Every one of them was divine. All but the risotto was served with a sweet potato mash spiced with a native spice and served with some interesting native garnish. One, the saltbush, was intriguing and tasty, while another, the rosella leaves, were extremely hot.

Dessert was a little trickier. One couldn’t be made gluten-free, the sticky date pudding with wattleseed butterscotch sauce but my partner couldn’t resist. We ordered three others that were easily made gluten-free: white chocolate mousse with native pepper served with Davidson plum coulis (usually in a pastry basket but easily served in a ramekin), a lemon myrtle bavarois also with Davidson plum coulis, usually served with shortbread, easily omitted, and a chocolate and ryeberry icecream (and ryeberry bears no relation to rye at all, so it was fine). Again, everything was delightful: subtle and complex and unusual.

The price tag for four, including drinks and after-dinner coffees, was around the $250 mark, not bad considering the quality of the food. And, after a false start, the staff got the gluten-free issue and were very accommodating. My initial fear that making everything gluten-free would mean making it bland was not realised.

Certainly not an every day place, but great for a special occasion or for a visiting tourist looking for a treat.

Rating:

Tjanabi Restaurant
(03) 9662 1225

Shp 3a/ 2 Flinders St
Melbourne VIC 3000