Underbar a top-80 restaurant

GOURMET Traveller has named Underbar one of the country’s top eighty restaurants.

Included in the magazine’s 2022 Restaurant Guide, the Doveton Street venue offers a seasonally inspired, ever-changing, eight-to-10-course tasting menu from chef Derek Boath.

“It’s a really humbling award to have received just recently because it’s a restaurant guide that we definitely follow, and a significant restaurant guide nationally,” he said.

“Given that it’s only 80 restaurants in the entire nation, it’s huge for us. We’re a little Ballarat restaurant that can only seat 16 people, and we’re only open two nights a week.

“To get the recognition that we do, and to be included on a list that has some of our three and two-hat heroes and inspiration on it is a huge achievement. We are very proud to have received it.”

Boath said Underbar is an extension of himself, and his staff.

He produces dishes with “skill and care” that they love to cook and enjoy themselves, and wines they love to drink.

The Underbar team curates their own music playlist for the evenings they’re open, and care about the locally made “little touches” in the small venue, from the cutlery holders to the tea lights.

“We celebrate the great produce in and around Ballarat that we can find, and the little winemakers that we call friends that are locals as well,” Boath said.

“We’re a country restaurant, but we’re in the heart of Ballarat. We’re trying to bring a bit of the countryside into the city, so when people come to visit us they feel relaxed and energetic, but calm and comfortable enough to sit back and relax.

“The hospitality that we provide is in a relaxed environment that doesn’t feel stuffy, and our staff have personality that comes through.”

Underbar currently has one chef’s hat, and runs a vegetarian tasting menu once a quarter.