Antara 128
Contemporary$$
A shapeshifting bakery and restaurant.
The hybrid bakery-restaurant trend is firing at Exhibition Street’s Antara, where a vast open kitchen bridges the day-to-night divide with its workaholic wood oven. The newest addition to the Sunda and Aru family brings a sleek industrial fit-out – brutalism meets Fritz Lang’s Metropolis – that makes an occasion of breakfast for the top end of town. By night it’s a different beast.
The bakery buzz is muted, although the menu still extols the joys of carbs. Fat wodges of sweet and spicy shokupan add to the enjoyment of textbook duck liver parfait with wood-smoked prunes. Mini potato “croissants” swaddled in crunchy pastry tendrils go the canape route with salmon roe and creme fraiche.
And then there’s a sticky-savoury tarte tatin, assembled with miso caramel shiitake mushrooms for maximum umami. A well-rounded wine list keeps pace with the freewheeling flavour stylings.
Good to know: Aperitivo hour (4.30pm-7.30pm) brings snacking excellence and drink deals to the after-work crowd.
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