Martin Benn at NGV
Martin Benn is one of Australia’s most feted chefs, best known for running Sydney’s Sepia, an avant-garde Japanese restaurant, with his partner Vicki Wild from 2009–2017.
Currently between permanent projects, the chef is in the kitchen at the NGV Garden Restaurant from now until February 16, 2025, with a menu inspired by the blockbuster Yayoi Kusuma exhibition in the main gallery. What a perfect match.
It’s open for lunch daily from 11.30am–4pm, with an a la carte menu and two- and three-course set options priced at $84 and $96. Pick from entree dishes including pumpkin with smoked salmon roe, maple and marigolds; tuna with dashi cream, sake, shiso and salted plum; and duck prosciutto with white nectarine, burnt honey and black vinegar.
For mains, there’s kabayaki eggplant with taberu rayu, koshihikari rice and pink peppercorn furikake; roasted miso toothfish with fermented white asparagus, caviar and sakura leaf; and spanner crab buckwheat risotto with shellfish mustard butter, just to name a few. Finish with a choice of three desserts aptly named Infinity Room, Dots Obsession and Obliteration Room after the Kusuma exhibit.
But if you really want to experience the full force of Benn’s cooking, secure a Friday night booking, for a five-course dinner ($165), which includes a ticket to the exhibition.
From 11:30am to 4pm daily
Friday nights from 6pm till late
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