Imaginative, thought-provoking and strikingly beautiful – just like the artworks that grace the walls at GOMA, so too is the food at the gallery’s signature restaurant.

The dishes here aren’t just ingredients on a plate, they’re stories told through the eye of the chef.

If the Australian bushfire were a dish, it would be GOMA’s “after the eucalypt fire” with emu three ways (tartare, jerky, pan-fried) gathered on the plate like a burnt out bonfire with dots of rosella gel and beetroot embers, while charcoal pretzels sit like blackened twigs on top. It’s a dish as tasty as it clever. So too the locally caught rosy snapper, gently poached till flaky tenderness, balanced on a block of sweet, tofu-textured scallop mousse and garnished with scallop and its roe transformed into chips. Red seaweed and crisp, dried cauliflower florets, are elegantly gathered on the plate to resemble a piece of coral.

Elaborate presentation, however, occasionally gives way to outstanding flavours, as with the modern take on a roast chicken dinner. Different cuts of the bird are roasted, fried and pressed, accompanied by a chip-like herb paper, lemony avocado puree, segmented fresh fig, macadamia and a jus worthy of licking the plate.

Taking the food as seriously as the chefs are the waitstaff, who explain dishes with pride and passion, as well as offer wine pairings from the Queensland-centric list.

With the fit-out a relatively blank canvas of polished concrete flooring, bentwood chairs and white walls, it’s a venue where the food will always be on show.

Must-eat dish: The sky is falling chicken