In a former dental surgery, with pressed-metal walls and ceiling, Brisbane-born chef Jack Stuart, who worked in the UK before three years as head chef at Melbourne’s Congress Wine, returned home to South Brisbane’s Gauge for a year before heading for the hills to craft a menu from local produce including from his aunt’s garden up the road.

The set, multi-course menu is $95pp, with a few add-on options. Menus change but might include a starter of iced consommé of tomato and lemon verbena with just-picked basil leaves. Each dish reveals skill and a serious intent with stunning, intensely distilled flavours. Chunks of smoky zucchini, and spelt cannoli filled with savoury custard and showered with Towri Sheep Cheese’s pecorino are noteworthy.

Stuart and his kitchen offsiders deliver and explain courses, with a cheerful staffer taking drinks from a two-page, global list. Other dishes may include kingfish pastrami over a mound of devilled eggs, sangas filled with black garlic and mutton or rainbow trout topped with buttery sauce speckled with magical pops of finger lime, roe and pearl tapioca.

A tart yoghurt ganache crowned with strawberry slices and pistachio, surrounding a drift of apple-flavoured ice may conclude a wonderful experience. Worth the drive.

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