A GROUP of Warrnambool diners have crowned a city cafe as having the best food in town for a fourth consecutive year.
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The Warrnambool Wine and Food Society select 12 restaurants to rate in the district each year and last week crowned Bohemia Cafe as the best for 2019, above two Port Fairy fine-dining restaurants also in the running.
"All the restaurants we went to all presented excellent dishes. We have great talents in Warrnambool and Port Fairy," the society's Garry Askew said.
He said the seven dishes Bohemia chef Brenton Hussey prepared were "extraordinary", including a coconut poached prawn and crab salad, coconut and lime panna cotta and eye fillet with smoked brisket.
Mr Hussey, Bohemia's chef since 2015, served the dishes during a dinner function for the society, later receiving the honour for the fourth year since 2016.
"I love doing things a bit different, plating up food is my favourite part of cooking, I love playing with different texture, purees and colours," he said.
"I bring the fine dining stuff through the breakfast and lunch menu as much as I can, but when we do these functions we can really excel."
The society was unable to judge restaurants in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and had not announced the 2019 winner until last week.
The cafe has also risen to number one on TripAdvisor's top rated Warrnambool restaurants, drawing tourists and locals for breakfast and lunch.
Owner Steve Hickman said the kitchen team, also including Chelsea Ryan and Julia Lenehan, loved what they did and the proof was in the pudding.
He said while there were no restaurants solely offering fine dining in Warrnambool, "there are many that are capable of producing excellent fine dining".
"We've had fine dining restaurants in town, like Picked Pig, and the problem is that if you focus only on that in a country town it can be very difficult to make a profit and stay in business," Mr Hickman said.
"But there is plenty of capability, it's whether they want to chase that market."
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Jackson Graham
Jackson is a reporter for The Standard.
Jackson is a reporter for The Standard.
