When was the last time your kingfish crudo was wild-caught and daringly kitted out with makrut lime, caramelised coconut cream and a curveball of white kimchi? Recall ever seeing dry-aged beef tartare accented with Pedro Ximénez then heaped over a hash brown with hot curry mustard? Where so many restaurants colour by numbers, Bar Heather colours outside the lines. Sure, head chef Ollie Wong-Hee may cook mahi mahi like the best of them, and serve it simply with gem lettuce coated in garlicky salad cream, but who else would dare bookend that with wicked Viet-inspired house pork sausages on betel leaves and a smart, grown-up play on the Weis bar come dessert? Much like the food, the largely lo-fi cellar’s reach far outstretches the proportions of the dark and squeezy room, which could well be ripped straight from the Right Bank. Inventive, inspired, distinctly Australian bistronomy right in Byron Bay’s beating heart.
Jess Kearney
