Orana is a relatively new restaurant with a bar serving street food underneath. The focus here is on Australian cuisine – using both the history as well as native ingredients. It’s alarming that the reactions I was getting from non-foodie people was along the lines of “oh are they going to feed you witchetty grubs?” when I was looking forward to ingredients such as lilly pillies, bush tomato, quandong and saltbush. The prices were also pretty extreme, but it doesn’t disappoint – I’ve hyped up this restaurant amongst my friends, mostly because I have an incredibly well connected barista. On top of that, I managed to stalk Heston Blumenthal as I’d been given a heads up that he was visiting, as well as having read an article by Terry Durack from his visit. All the big names! How could I not go? So I went!
