Six Russell Bistro – Remarkable Food

Six Russell Bistro – Introduction

We have already provided a substantial story about the Six Russell Bakery and Coffee venue as well as the food items that are on sale in that area. These parts of Six Russell have been embraced by Hobartians and many interestate visitors given the number we meet there!

And now the next phase has begun. The Six Russell Bistro has now opened to similar praise and is also drawing people in from interstate and even overseas. In the second week it was open, we were sitting at the large table next to a friend from Sydney who owns a number of restaurants in that town and an entrepeneur from America who was scouting out places for tours that he offers to small groups who are looking for the best food and travel experiences on the planet.

The chefs for the Bistro are young, enthusiastic and talented. Jye Ferguson is the head chef and the pastry chef is Julie Kettyle. Both have experience that belies their ages and the food they are turning out in the Bistro is superb.

The Bistro seats around 40 people with about 10 at the large share table and the rest on smaller tables that are designed for 2 or 4.

The waiting staff are good at their jobs and there are rarely any glitches in the service. We should add that in the first two weeks we managed to dine here three times so we have had a reasonable chance to work through most of the items on the menu.

We should mention the wine first because we supply the Bistro with some of the items on the wine list. The one we supply are natural wines that we have been importing from France for nearly two decades now. But these are not the only wines available and there are some real gems. If you are looking for one of Tasmania’s best wines try one from our friend Rory Duggan of R. d’Meure – these wines are sensational and show just what it is possible to do with Tasmanian grapes which he tends meticulously at his vineyard at Birchs Bay. They also go very well with the food here.

The staff at the Bistro are always willing to help with wines choices if you are not familiar with the items on sale here and whether they will support the food you have chosen.

Now to the Bistro food. There is a savoury menu and a dessert and drinks menu. The savoury menu is divided into five sections which we will show as we work through our experiences.

The first section of the savoury menu is shown below.

Notice that there is ver ygood bread and cultured bread available and it is well worth trying. This section also highlights some of Tasmania’s best fresh oysters and the selection is perfect. We have tried each option and enjoyed them very much.

And then comes a must-have dish. In Tasmania we thoroughly enjoy abalone and it is readily available if you know where to find it. The dish of Abalone Rockefeller here is sensational. Rockerfeller sauce usually has lots of butter and parsley and other green herbs. This one as you can see below certainly go lots of ticks for these and then there were breadcrumbs to provide some crunch. It was a lovely dish that was beautifully executed.

The next dish not only looked beautiful but, served at the peak of the tomato season also came to the table bursting with flavour. It was a tomato and stracciatella tart topped with very fresh herbs and flowers to make a visually stunning and flavoursome dish.

And now to the next bracket on the menu.

This time we ordered the beef tartare, parsley and onion rings and we were surprised and delighted with the way the dish was served.

Here it is:

Sp this is the beautiful beef tartare component of the dish which had been fastidiously cut and decked with capers and other flavourings.

And these were the promised onion rings stacked in a silver bowl sitting next to the the beef tartare and acting as a perfect foil to the richness of the raw meat. The crunchy batter on the onions provided crunch and a foil to the richness of the meat.

We were starting to get unhungry at this stage, however the king dory with an almond crusting sounded too good to miss and the wagyu rump cap with a poivre sauce sounded pretty good too!

This was a delicate and delicious dish with the rainbow chard playing a great role in providing flavour and goodness beside the fish which in turn was excellent and cooked perfectly.

As you can see from the photo above the steak was presented very simply (which we prefer) and was cooked quite perfectly for our tastes. It was butter soft and very flavoursome.

Now we should describe the dish that we paired with it and why it occupies a separate section on the menu shown below.

This section is the P.D.T. section which stands for Pomme de Terre or potatoes. Tasmanians love their potatoes and eat them at every meal. Potatoes such as pink eyes are revered as “new” potatoes and most other potato varieties are grown somewhere in the state.

So, they have three options of potatoes on the menu to pair with the main courses and we chose the “very good mash” and we were not disappointed.

And to give you an idea of what you might expect as dessert time in the Bistro we have shown one of the dishes we ordered on one occasion.

It was stunningly beautiful.

So that gives you an idea of what you might experience if you visit the Six Russell Bistro anytime soon! It is a great place with a good vibe and very professional cooking and service.

We have included Six Russell Bistro in our story about the best places to eat in Hobart which you can read here.

You can check their opening hours and other booking details on their Web site here.