Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant Ach is shaking things up with its new menu pivot
It’s one thing to change a menu up to match the shifting seasons, it’s another to mix things up day to day. The crew behind Hamilton-based Middle Eastern restaurant and wine bar Ach is embracing fluidity with its latest ambitious move – ditching a la carte dining in favour of a tasting menu dedicated to showcasing the complexity and depth of Middle Eastern cuisine. The new offering launches next week, but we got a sneak preview …
Marty Coard, Noam Lissner and Mat Drummond aren’t afraid to back themselves.
In 2023, the trio of hospo young guns opened their Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant and wine bar, Ach, in the most unusual of locations. Though situated in a far-flung corner of Hamilton, the restaurant quickly became a travel-worthy dining destination, with foodies flocking for a taste of the team’s cutting-edge offering, which ambitiously amalgamated influences from North Africa, the Levantine and the Middle East.
Almost a year and a half on from its opening, Ach continues to buzz. Today, it’s not just regarded as one of the city’s finest Middle Eastern restaurants, but one of the city’s best restaurants overall.
“It’s a living, breathing beast,” says Noam.
“It’s insane,” agrees Marty. “It’s been very interesting – there have been challenges that we foresaw and then challenges that we didn’t. It’s been a fun challenge to get the word out and to find ways to market ourselves.”
By just about every metric, Ach is a success. But the group isn’t content, not really. Ever since Ach opened – throughout its entire infancy – the team has been looking to shake things up. The goal? Delivering a dining format that better represents the cuisine at the heart of the restaurant.
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On Thursday April 24, the Ach team will back itself once more, exchanging its a la carte offering in favour of a tasting menu service.
“This is Ach evolving into what we have always wanted it to be,” explains Marty. “It’s something that we spoke about before we even opened – we wanted to do tasting menu dining. It’s how we like to eat and it’s, in a way, how you eat in the Middle East. There’s lots of shared items and lots of courses, so it’s very on-brand for us.”
The pivot will see the kitchen team expand upon the freewheeling creativity exhibited through Ach’s Falls Farm Wednesdays, which involves crafting a new five-plate menu every week from Falls Farm produce (good news for mid-week diners – these weekly dinners will remain).
In addition to unleashing their creativity, Marty is enthusiastic about the opportunity to engage a greater number of suppliers to obtain more obscure or premium ingredients that would previously be difficult to work into a static a la carte menu. So far the team has partnered with the likes of Australian Bay Lobster, Little Acre Mushroom and 9Dorf Farms, to name a few.
“Suppliers might not have a steady flow of the same thing, or they get something really special and it might not be enough for us to put on an ala carte menu,” says Marty. “But the idea with the blind tasting menu is we’re just going to get the best of whatever we can get and it’s going to be on the menu.”
“It’s just unleashed our creativity in the sense that we’re not scared to buy things that we’re scared might not move.”
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Additionally, the new approach will allow Ach to improve when it comes to sustainability. A new fermentation fridge allows Marty, Noam and the crew to minimise waste and experiment on a bigger scale, with the team already producing its own garums and misos.
Ach will give guests the option of two set menus – a shorter menu featuring between six to nine courses, and the Ach Experience, which will fluctuate between ten and 15 courses. Both menus will start with a glass of cardamon and orange tea, as well as Ach’s signature house-baked challah, which is orbited by a selection of salatim, otherwise known as mezze. “You go to a Middle Eastern household and there’s bread and dips on the table, no matter what time of day it is,” says Noam.
Though the tasting menu’s daily composition will be a fluid affair, sample menu inclusions range from malawach squares with dry-aged topside nayyeh, keshk, chickpeas and black garlic; Moreton Bay bug with chicken garum, spicy silan, shorbat adas (lentil soup) and prawn oil; latkes with midye dolma, paprika mussel cream, smoked red-pepper broth and Aleppo rice cracker; and Moroccan tagine with sous vide short rib, grilled skirt, Jerusalem artichoke and pomegranate jus.
Both menus will come with an option to add matched wines, with Mat leveraging the restaurant’s impressive collection of vino to craft pairings to suit every menu change.
“We work closely with the kitchen pretty much every single week,” says Mat. “We’ll try to incorporate both the Middle Eastern and Australian wines. We’re preparing to really ramp up on Middle Eastern wines in the next couple of weeks, expanding the list with new Lebanese and Israeli wines.”
The lunch menu will remain approachable, sandwiches, pita pockets, Persian rice, chicken shawarmas and hummus bowls. Post 4:00 pm, Ach will run a wine-bar menu for walk-ins featuring a selection of small snacks.
Though Ach has managed to cultivate a loyal customer base so far, the crew hopes this change in approach will entice a few more foodies to stray Ach’s way.
“We get comments every week saying that the flavours are so unique, the food is so unique,” says Noam. “Which it kind of has to be – we’re out here in the sticks, so we have to give people a reason to come and visit us.”
“The menu is only going to get better, more unique, more fun for us and more fun for the customer.”
Ach’s new tasting menus will launch on Thursday April 24 – head to The Directory for booking details.