Echo readers love the great food and produce we have here, but also travel all over the place and are often telling us about the great (and small) restaurants, cafes and bars outside the Byron bubble.
If you’ve travelled farther north than Tweed Heads, or farther south than Ballina, and found some food or wine you love, please tell us about it!
We might publish your tip, with your name, in the paper, and every now and again we’ll reward a good tip with a $50 voucher generously donated by Harvest Café, or a similarly fun treat.
Simply email your 100-word tip, plus a photo if you have one, to [email protected]
Onion, tapioca … just the start of the flavour journey
BRISBANE – Urbane
Okay, it’s no secret that this is a great restaurant – it’s received two hats from the GFG for the last three years and Gourmet Traveller ranks it QLD’s second-best restaurant after Esquire, but it’s easy to be disappointed when your expectations are raised.
It’s solely degustation, five or eight courses, vegetarian or omnivore – the herbivore option is top-notch as Argentinian chef Alejandro is a vegetarian. He was 2013 GFG QLD Chef of the year, but he hasn’t lost his edge if our visit last week was any indication.
Of course, it’s expensive! Five courses $110, eight courses $145 but if you’re really looking for something special I don’t think you’d be disappointed, especially if you took the matching wine option.
MELBOURNE – Seamstress
This is a quirky, small pan-Asian restaurant upstairs in a 120-year-old former textile factory in the Chinatown district. The food is great, with an emphasis on sharing, and the staff are friendly and there’s a fun, casual atmosphere.
We went there last month over Melbourne’s comedy festival and loved it – they open at 5.30pm on Friday and Saturday nights to cater for diners visiting Her Majesty’s Theatre and the Melbourne Comedy Theatre that are practically next door. If you just feel like a drink, there’s an excellent cocktail bar even farther upstairs.
