Now Open: Babae Is Ballarat's New Degustation-Only Restaurant Championing Goldfields Produce

Hotel dining all over Australia is currently having a renaissance. Top chefs are being brought in to shake up less-than-inspirational menus. And architects are creating spaces with their own unique identities, separate from the accommodation. Hotel owners are finally seeing the power that comes with turning these restaurants into proper destinations — not just doing the bare minimum to get hotel guests to book a table.

One of the latest hotels to really invest in its new restaurant is Hotel Vera out in Ballarat. At the end of January this year, the team launched Babae with Culinary Director Tim Foster (The Gold Mines Hotel and ex-Source Dining) at the helm.

This 26-seat fine-diner has no a la carte offerings, instead plating up a seven-course degustation for dinner and a shorter four-course spread for lunch. Foster has worked with farmers, breeders, and providores in and around the Goldfields region for a long time now, so plenty of hyper-local produce will find its way to the plate and into your wine glass. Stuff grown in the hotel's own garden will also feature when possible.

Cuisine-wise, it can best be described as contemporary Australian, but it mostly has European influences. Dishes will change frequently, depending on what's in season, but you can expect to find a selection of snacks to start, followed by a bunch of larger dishes and two desserts when heading in for dinner.

Wines are unsurprisingly a mostly Victorian affair, with a few sweet Italians also up for grabs when taking on the suggested wine pairings.

You won't have a stack of choices when dining at Babae, but with Foster running the show, there's no need to worry. His previous restaurant Source Dining was hatted for nine years in a row, and Babae might just follow suit.

You'll find Babae at 710 Sturt Street, Ballarat Central, open for lunch from Friday to Sunday and dinner from Thursday to Saturday. For more details and to book a seat, head to the venue's website.

Images Emma Duzhnikov