Seasonal Feasts
&
Truffles on the Menu
Canberra has a thriving culinary scene with top notch restaurants, cafes and bars serving up food that is respected on the international stage.
Over Winter many Canberra establishments will be serving truffles and running special truffle menus. Whether you’re looking for a fine dining dinner, relaxed long lunch, or the opportunity to try truffle at one of your favourite restaurants, we’ll be sharing the best in truffle dining experiences over the season.
Seasonal Feasts Featuring Truffles
Truffle at Scrumpers Kitchen
Scrumpers Kitchen is a produce-driven, local food restaurant serving home-style dishes. Local food legend Ruth Gaha Morris dishes up a blackboard menu, with highlights such as Pasta Night on Thursdays featuring traditionally made pasta from Braidwood Food Co!
Add truffle to any dish for $5.
23 Malbon Street, Bungendore
Poacher’s Pantry Winter Truffle Dinners – 20 July
Join us at the Smokehouse Restaurant to enjoy the Canberra Region’s most sought after winter ingredient, the truffle! Exective Chef, Adam Wilson has created a sensational four course menu paired with Poachers Vineyard wines. Featuring award winning Terra Preta Truffles and Blue Frog Truffles.
$130 per person. A Poachers wine and dry beverage pairing is available.
DATE: 20 July
TIME: 6.30PM
PRICE: $130 per person, with an optional $38 wine pairing.
Truffle menus at Otis Dining Hall – throughout the season
Experience OTIS this winter with our OTIS Chef’s Truffle Menu. An elevated tasting menu loaded with truffle with an option of premium matching wines.
Enjoy a new exciting Chef’s Truffle Menu created by Chef Damian Brabender each month.
The welcoming nostalgia of OTIS Dining Hall is reflected in our food ethos. Executive chef Damian Brabender hosts you in his ‘lounge room’, with Damian and head chef Adam Wilson serving up an ever-changing seasonal menu that celebrates the highest quality sustainably sourced local produce to elevate classic dishes with Damian’s modern sophistication paired with local wines and house-made cocktails. Here at OTIS, we follow our nose, trust our gut and listen to your feedback.
Truffle Degustation Dinner at Parliament House – 26 July
Celebrate the Canberra Truffle Festival at Parliament House with an exclusive 6-course Truffle Degustation dinner in the Members and Guests Dining Room. You’ll enjoy some of the region’s finest truffles, handpicked from Macenmist Black Truffles and crafted into a unique culinary experience by Parliament House’s Executive Chef, David Learmonth.
Listen to the Executive Chef talk through his journey of menu design. You will discover the techniques he uses to infuse sensational truffles into the region’s finest produce including heirloom vegetables, wagyu beef and Australian cheeses.
Enjoy a variety of classic dishes that highlight Australian native ingredients including a warm chocolate pudding with a modern truffle spin.
Complement your dinner with perfectly paired wines for a truly unforgettable experience.
$190 for dinner only
$240 for dinner with wine pairings
Contentious Character Annual Winemaker Truffle Gala – 27 July
NOT just another truffle dinner. This season, expect only the best from yours truly. And that’s saying something because we’ve been running our Annual Truffle Gala for over 5 consecutive years. Good things don’t last forever—and this couldn’t ring truer for the exotic, decadent, delectable truffle. So get amongst it and get set to be truffully amazed.
Date: Saturday 27 July
Time: 6:30 pm
Cost: 5 courses degustation – $160 per person
5 courses degustation with paired wine – $235 per person
The Truffle Farm, Truffle Hunt & Degustation – multiple dates throughout the season
Join Jayson and Australia’s best truffle dog team on an exhilarating truffle hunt experience. Jayson will expertly guide you through everything you’ve ever wanted to know about truffles. Feel the rush of excitement as you join the hunt for the elusive black truffle through the forest of 6,000 oak and hazelnut trees.
Once the perfect truffle is found, we head back to the warmth of the truffle shed for a decadent degustation. Our Executive Chef prepares the truffle dishes in front of you while teaching you all the secrets to using truffles at home. Sit back and enjoy the dishes or get up and get involved in this interactive and entertaining event.
Date: multiple throughout the season
Cost: Truffle hunt plus degustation meal – $225 pp
Lerida Estate Winery Cellar & Cafe Truffle Menu – Every weekend in July
Lerida Estate Winery is located on Lake George. With stunning views over the Lake, guests can enjoy award winning wines with a guided wine tasting and fresh seasonal meals cooked by our team of Chefs. The A La Carte menu allows guests to choose 2 or 3 course lunch, delicious share plates and of course perfectly matched wines. Cellar Door & Cafe open 10am – 5pm, 7 days (lunch served 11am-3pm)
Dates: all weekends in July
Cost: 2 course $70, 3 course $85
Pilot Restaurant – truffle throughout the season
We are a small venue in the suburb of Ainslie in Canberra Operating for over 5 years. We offer the Pilot Menu, which is a 7 course degustation menu. It is a selection of nostalgic flavours, complex dishes and produce that we are excited by. We also offer a full alcoholic pairing or non alcoholic pairing to accompany the menu. Our wine and spirits list is 100% Australian. We currently hold 2 hats in the SMH Good Food guide.
We are offering a supplementary truffle course as an extra on our degustation menu over the coming months. This supplement features Terra Preta truffles served with homemade croissant pastry, savoury custard, and Comté cheese.
Date: throughout the season
Cost: supplementary cost for truffle is $15/pp
Meat and Wine Co Truffle Menu – throughout the season
The Meat & Wine Co brings personable service giving you the sense of a ‘home away from home’. While focusing on meat we bring you cutting edge modern cuisine. Serving world class produce and products including the exclusive line of Monte Beef. Designed from paddock to plate through a multi-channel monitored program to ensure only the most top graded products are served. Pairing with Australia’s most unique wines from favourites and award winners to under-rated and boutique we are sure to tantalize even the most discerning guests.
We have two different Truffle Menus – Seasonal Truffle which showcases a selection of menu items enhanced with delicious black Australian Truffle. We are also have our Iconic AGED Truffle Programme, where our chefs dry-aged steak encased in a truffle infused Wagyu butter.
Dates: throughout truffle season
Cost: a la carte
Cafe Viin private dining – by appointment
Cafe Viin is a cafe by day and offers French dining by night. The set dinner menu changes each month. There is a private dining room for 6 and another one for 12 people, and in addition, the cafe can accommodate up to 25 people in the main part of the cafe.
Dietary requirements or allergies are catered for (chef creates alternative dishes for those with special dietary issues). The cafe is only BYO, and NO corkage fee is charged.
Date: by appointment
Cost: $115 per person
Bookings: email viin2018@gmail.com
Peonee Restaurant – truffles on the menu throughout the season
Peonee is a small contemporary eatery in Campbell with an elegant yet, industrial feeling. We only serve a set menu designed around what’s best on the day and the seasonal produce. Out set menu will have a truffle dish that will be changing regularly throughout the truffle season
Truffle Nirvana at Beltana Farm – 31 July
Tucked away in the picturesque Pialligo, is Beltana Farm. Home to a trufferie of over 800 trees, featuring boutique accommodation and an iconic farm house restaurant. Truffle Nivana is all about exploring truffles in both traditional and new ways. Let’s leave the truffle risotto to the Italians, and instead get Australian: Australian Truffle Farmhouse to be specific. We kick things off with our signature truffle potato scallop and wrap up with a divine scoop of truffle ice cream. In between, laugh, share plates, and sip some fantastic wines, all while enjoying truffles freshly unearthed from just outside the new restaurant.
Truffles on the menu throughout the season
Anytime you visit Beltana Farm during Truffle season you can experience a special truffle edition of our Unearthed sharing menu with matched drinks.
They also do truffle hunts! Check out our truffle hunts page.
Pialligo Estate Pavilion Restaurant – truffles on the menu throughout the season
Newly reopened Pialligo Estate has several menu items featuring local pialligo truffles on their menu.
Enjoy wild creamy mushrooms, soft poached egg, & Pialligo truffles and 300g Berkshire crumbed pork cutlet, caper berries, pecorino, Pialligo truffle.
Molto Italian – throughout the season.
Award winning Molto Italian brings the vibe of a modern seaside trattoria to Kingston. The airy space has an open ktichen which feature a wood fire pizza oven. A perfect mix of Modern and traditional cuisine!
Enjoy truffle on the menu at Molto Italian throughout the season.
Pankhurt Wines Cellar Door – weekends throughout the season
Pankhurst Wines is offering a platter of truffle cheese to enjoy with their award-winning wines. The platter goes particularly well with the Pinot Noir and Dorothy May Cabernet Sauvignon, both of which won Bronze Medals at the National Wine Show recently.
Best to make a booking either by email (allanandchristine@pankhurstwines.com.au) or phone (0418 667433).
$30 for a platter for 2 people (plus normal tasting fees of $15/person).
Compa Truffle Menu – throughout the season
Matt Moran’s recently opened Italian steak restaurant, Compa, is launching its first truffle menu with truffles from local producer The Truffle Farm.
Truffle dishes: fire roasted scallops, cauliflower, truffle (entree, $16); risotto con funghi, truffle, mascarpone (main, $38); truffle polenta, pecorino (side, $15); and torta della nonna, truffle, pinenut (dessert, $16), truffle gelato (dessert, $16). Guests can also add truffle to any dish for $20/5g!
Truffle cocktails: Truffle Shuffle Negroni ($27) uses The Canberra Distillery Truffle Farm Gin with Campari, Rosso Antico,, Antica Formula and Truffle EVOO. Choco-Truffle Martini ($27) uses truffle infused vodka, dark chocolate liqueur and salted caramel.
&Sando Truffle Menu – throughout the season
Like sister venue Compa, &Sando will have two menu specials to be available throughout truffle season: ‘I knew you were truffle when you walked in’ is a truffle loaded grilled cheese toastie ($18), and they also have a truffle french onion soup ($13) on offer. These can be purchased as a combo for $28.
If you or your business is using truffle on the menu this truffle season, please fill in THIS FORM and we will list your event on our website and social media pages.
More exciting events coming soon! Don’t forget to follow The Truffle Festival – Capital Region on Facebook to stay up to date with truffle events in the region.
Past Events
A Truffle Dinner with The Italian Place – 26 June
Kick off the 2024 Truffle Festival by joining us for a night of luxurious local food and wine as we immerse ourselves in the Canberra Truffle Festival. A menu designed to tantalise, Chef Francesco will be showcasing Blue Frog Truffles, a proud member of the EAT Truffle Cooperative and Sapling Yard Wines from the Canberra wine District, this exclusive 5-course degustation dinner is one not to be missed.
What to expect:
+ Guest Speaker: Welcoming Carla and Mal from Sapling Yard Wines back to the Italian Place, to talk of their new Winter wines and how they’ve been paired to Chef’s 5 delicious truffle courses.
+ Guest Speaker: We’re thrilled to welcome Wayne Haslam, owner of Blue Frog Truffles as guest truffle speaker for the evening.
+ 5 Course Truffle Degustation
+ 5 Expertly Paired Wines: to complement the culinary journey, each course will be paired with Sapling Yard wines, curated to enhance the flavours of the truffle-infused dishes and to elevate your dining experience.
Tickets are limited so book early to avoid disappointment.
$170pp
Agostinis Truffle Extravaganza – 28 June
Join us at Agostinis for an exclusive truffle extravaganza. Step into our private dining space where luxury meets comfort with elegant decor and personalised service, you’ll feel like royalty from the moment you arrive. This is where unforgettable memories are made and culinary dreams come to life. Experience the intoxicating aroma and rich flavour of fresh truffles, sourced from the finest regions.
Three Courses
June 28
$90/pp
