Hobart might be known as the “gateway to Antarctica”, but you can now journey there via Lisbon and Lebanon at the city’s newest waterfront restaurant. Taking up residency at Hobart’s historic Brooke Street Pier, just below sister restaurant Aløft, Restaurant Maria is a love letter to the Mediterranean coast.
Maria is dressed to impress in soft peach pastels, with touches of terracotta, copper and linen capturing the romantic nostalgia of 1960s Europe. Her 58-seater dining room is spacious and airy, thanks to expansive floor-to-ceiling windows that offer shimmering views over the waterfront.
Head chef Christian Ryan’s menu draws inspiration from the Amalfi Coast and islands of the Aegean Sea, while embracing the best seasonal Tasmanian produce available. Local seafood, meats and veggies are cooked over a centrepiece wood-fire grill, then ramped up with punchy sauces and hand-foraged Indigenous ingredients.
You can take in all the action from one of eight front-row seats at the open kitchen bar, which along with the 50 seats in the main dining room, are reserved exclusively for Restaurant Maria’s chef’s table experience. During the cooler months, this multi-course features Campari-cured crudo; wallaby with macadamia hummus; and charred octopus from Tassie’s northwest with burnt lemon, taramasalata and mountain pepper. We hope the cheese-stuffed garlic bread with fennel and honeycomb; and lemon and kunzea filo cake with bay leaf gelato and rhubarb puree become mainstays.
If you wind up by the water, you can walk in for a casual wine and a cheeky trio of snacks at the communal high-top tables. Restaurant Maria’s beverage menu celebrates local Tassie producers, like Anim Wine and Domaine Simha, along with offering imported wines from Italy, Spain, Greece, Croatia and Portugal. Finish the night with a Lebanon Martini or a house-made Limoncello Spritz, or pick your poison from the post-dinner aperitif trolley.