Corella Bar

Native ingredients make simple dishes complex.

Corella is addicting. I want to try every single dish that is currently being served at Corella, and every dish that will ever be served and has ever been served. But with great food, also comes a great restaurant. Corella was filled with white, black, and teal, along with some small amounts of wood. White, took up the vast majority of the restaurant, this included the walls and the ceiling. Black acted as a contrast to the white walls, every single chair was black and stood out from the white. Now for my favourite part of the restaurant (colour-wise), the teal accent. Roughly 1 meter high from the ground, all across the restaurant, was a vibrant teal. This teal accent looked absolutely stunning, and even though it was simple, it gave the restaurant an incredible feel making the overall experience more memorable. Finally, there were small amounts of wood splashed around the restaurant. This was mainly the tables, and the frames from the unique artworks and

paintings dotted around the walls. 

The kitchen at Corella was right at the back and had an opening where you could see their incredible chef's work. These chefs were definitely working hard, preparing and presenting incredible dishes that tasted and looked stunning. I have to say this, any meal (that I'm aware of) at Corella looks great from every possible angle. Some angles may be better than others, but everything is super easy to take a good photo of. The chefs would've spent so much time and effort making everything look incredible, from placing the "Scallop" into a shell which was on top of some white rocks, to adding some very finely diced chives on the "Spanner Crab Toast" to add some vibrancy. I don't think it's possible for these dishes to look any better. 

Corella is home to so much food that I've never tried before. From something simple like their "Scallop" to the insane flavours in their "Chocolate + Wattleseed Cake". Out of the five dishes that I ordered, there were 11 ingredients/flavours that I have never had. Some of these ingredients I've never even heard of, like "Pickled Guindilla Peppers" (which is a sweet pepper that is roughly 2.5 times milder than a jalapeno) in their "Murray Cod", and "Sumac Onion" (which is a Turkish onion salad that often includes parsley and lemon) in their "Eggplant Taco". I love it when restaurants experiment with flavours that most people have never tried. It makes you wonder how it tastes, looks, and feels, which then forces your brain into wanting to order it. 

When it was time for me to order, I asked the waiter if I could have the "Set Menu", she said that it is way too much for a single person to eat. So I asked for some recommendations, specifically for seafood. She told me that the "Scallop" and "Spanner Crab Toast" are some of the most popular dishes on the menu, and there is a good reason why (go to the "Meal Reviews" page to find out). Along with those, I ordered the "Murray Cod" and the "Eggplant Taco". I don't know how or why, but all of those dishes fit perfectly together despite how different they are from one another. I highly recommend that at any restaurant (especially Corella) that you get at least 1 dish that is out of your comfort zone. For me, this was the "Spanner Crab Toast" at Corella. I've never had crab, and have never even heard of "Sunrise Lime Mayo", but this dish was perfect. Let me just say that it is not your average piece of toast. After I finished my savoury dishes, she asked if I would like dessert. Even though I was already full, I was so impressed by the savoury dishes that I couldn't even imagine how good the sweet dishes were going to be. So instinctively, I said "Yes please" and ordered the "Chocolate + Wattleseed Cake". And I soon found out that Corella does their sweet dishes just as well as their savoury dishes.

At around 1:15 pm, the restaurant was absolutely packed. Every table had people sitting, eating, or just talking to their friends/family. It was incredible to see the diversity of people that Corella appeals to. From families doing their monthly catch-up to people there just for a snack. Everyone was there for their own unique reason, just like their website says "It's the perfect place for a casual drink, a celebration with friends, or a romantic date night". 

Corella is considered "Modern Australian" cuisine. But let's be honest, nobody really knows what Australian cuisine is. When most people think of Australian cuisine, it's just "bangers and mash", "vegemite on toast", and "lamingtons", but it can be so much more than that. Its native ingredients, such as "finger lime" and "wattleseed", are flavours that come from Australia and are difficult to find in other countries. Corella combines these native ingredients, along with modern cookery techniques, to create flavours and dishes that are impossible to find anywhere else. This explains why Corella is so popular. Once you go there once, you can't stop thinking about how much you want to go back and try the rest of the dishes, and then go back again, and again and again. 

"我爱你". I can imagine that the vast majority of people reading that have no clue what it says considering this blog is in English and that is Mandarin. Well, that's the quote that I got from Matt (an employee at Corella). He says that the chefs say that all the time to the other employees. It means "I love you" in Mandarin. I think it's a good quote for my quotes section (which is on the home page) because most people will be curious about what it says. It also shows the cultural diversity in Corella's kitchen, even though it is an Australian restaurant, they can still have non-Australian chefs make tantalizingly incredible Modern Australian dishes. 

Corella deserves more than a simple blog review, they deserve an award for expressing Modern Australian cuisine. They use native flavours and traditional cookery techniques to create a totally unique style of food that most people haven't tried before. If you want to try Australian flavours, seafood or something you have never heard of before, go to

Corella, the flavours will blow you away.

Thank you for reading.