ROOFTOP restaurant Roundhouse at Crystalbrook Kingsley in Newcastle has reopened and launched a new seasonal spring menu to celebrate.
The ninth floor restaurant at Newcastle's first five-star hotel opened in June, offering an unparalleled dining experience for the region with panoramic views across the city, harbour and coastline, and a modern Australian menu that focused on incorporating native ingredients with locally-sourced produce.
The restaurant was open for two months before it, along with the hotel's sophisticated rooftop bar Romberg's and ground level casual eats cafe Ms Mary, was forced to shut as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.
"It's not very often you open a restaurant and then have time to step back and reflect," Roundhouse's executive chef Natalie Bolt said.
"Although we were devastated to be closed, it afforded us the opportunity to look closely at what we did well and where we could tweak and improve our offering across not only Roundhouse, but also Romberg's and Ms Mary."
Maintaining a focus on the company's key principles of sustainability and sourcing local produce in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, Roundhouse has launched a new spring menu that highlights the best ingredients the region has to offer.
"A notable feature is the inclusion of our dry-aged fish. We are working with local fishermen to bring in high quality line-caught albacore tuna and kingfish," Bolt said.
"They go into the dry ager, which accentuates the flavours and creates interesting dishes."
In line with the company's commitment to sustainability, efforts in the restaurant to reduce waste include the use of "imperfect" vegetables to create a complimentary amuse bouche for diners.
"These imperfect vegetables would have otherwise gone to landfill, but we are turning them into something tasty and beautiful," Bolt said.
"We want customers to be able to eat something utterly delicious, learn a little about sustainable food practice and engage in some great conversation with our team."
Bolt's picks from the spring menu include the Wallis Lake blue swimmer crab and dry aged albacore tuna with soba noodles and golden lemon myrtle broth.
"The crab is beautiful and delicate, it tastes amazing and utilises the watermelon rind pickle which is a great way to limit waste," Bolt said.
"The tuna is locally caught, line caught and it's dry aged. The dish boasts lovely light Asian flavours, with our signature use of Australian native ingredients shining through in the broth.
"The inclusion of gold leaf is a nice surprise and makes for a stunning plate of food."
The Roundhouse is open for dinner from Wednesday to Sunday. Book online at crystalbrookcollection.com.
.jpg?w=600)
