Delicious December 2011/January 2012

Article: Byron Bay and Beyond
By Danielle Oppermann

In Brunswick Heads, fatbellykat is the destination diner for chef Katerina Williams' modern take on her Greek culinary heritage. The mezze menu teamed with Aussie and Greek drops, is perfect summer dining - house-made spring onion flatbread, slow-cooked lamb filo pastries and pan-fried whiting with roasted Greek salad all feature, with a mix of mod and more traditional desserts such as loukoumades (donuts) soaked in honey syrup.

Sample – A Taste of Northern New South Wales

Issue 3, Winter 2011
Column: Kat’s Kitchen Chat
Article - Beetroot: the new black? Written by Katerina Williams
Restaurant Recipes: Mediterranean Trio of Dips

There is nothing quite like starting a meal with an accent on healthy ingredients, this trio of dips are a cinch to prepare, each enlivened with a variation of herbs and spices, which can be served alone or in combination to make a tempting snack or starter. Recipes supplied...

The Courier Mail Queensland Food and Wine Guide 2011

Score 14.5/20

Sharing is the secret to enjoying Greek food and the beautifully named fatbellykat reinforces this wonderful notion. Husband and wife owners Kat and Damian Williams describe their food as ‘Grecian cuisine with fresh eyes’ so don’t expect anything clichéd here, like lamb souvlaki. Home-cooked, fresh and flavourful is what you’ll get in the seasonal menu in such dishes as the rich vegetarian moussaka, spring onion flatbread and eggplant and fetta balls. Gently reminiscent of Greece in the venue’s decor are the wicker chairs, doors that open out to a spacious courtyard and warm breezes that waft in from the ocean. Damian attends to the tables with a visible passion for the food and the intensity of a family restaurant owner wanting to keep every single customer content. Share everything, including dessert, and you’ll leave feeling far more satisfied but more because in Greece – and now in Brunswick Heads – eating is truly a social affair.

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011

Score 13/20

The line ‘shared food’ beneath the restaurant name clearly signals the owners’ instructions for use – and what better food for dipping into, ‘family style’, than small plates of Greek mezedes? Fatbellykat runs with the idea, making it a good place to come with a number of hungry companions, or for a snacky meal or glass of ouzo. Occasionally, dishes intended as home-style end up as merely tame, such as goat’s cheese and ricotta balls, and vegetarian moussaka. But confit duck and kipfler potato dolmades with orange yoghurt works a treat, as does the simplicity of warm beans tossed in olive oil, tomato and roasted hazelnuts. Even classic dips get a comtemporary tweak, such as beetroot tzatziki or carrot and cumin skordalia with spring onion flatbread. It’s a modest space, parked under the wind of a roadside motel, the interior softened by personal photographs and idiosyncratic touches (a lamp wrapped in chicken wire), along with eternally friendly service.

The Weekend Star 2011

December 11-12, 2010
Profile: Meet a Local Chef
What was your first job?
I worked for Melbourne chef Stephanie Alexander at Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder. Before that, I had finished a master's degree as a high school teacher of art and design but really I'd always wanted to cook.
How would you describe the style of your restaurant?
Modern Greek. I am Greek – my maiden name is Kavuki – and I like that style of eating.
What are your most popular dishes?
Eggplant and fetta balls and ice-cream terrine served with dried figs and red wine.
What do you cook at home?
I have 3 small children and I cook a lot of Chinese for them – fried rice, beef and blackbean and dumplings.
What's the secret of a good moussaka?
Roast all the vegetables separately and put nutmeg in the béchamel.

Grazia 2010

October 4, 2010
Weekend in Brunswick Heads – by Susie Burge

For mouth-watering magic. We love the Greek-inspired dishes at fatbellykat. Think oysters with lemon granita and pomegranate syrup or shredded lamb filo pastries. The atmosphere is super friendly – Kat is the chef, her husband is front of house, and her mum helps out in the kitchen.

The Northern Star 2010

Restaurant Review 2010 by Sue Cram
The warm welcome we received at the door set the tone for an enjoyable evening  of shared food at Fatbellykat in downtown Brunswick Heads....It was a quiet night in Bruns but several tables already occupied by locals who have been patrons for years...there is a wide choice of plates to share, and most of them use fresh local produce; fish and prawns from Ballina, Bangalow duck, macadamias from Billinudgel and honey from Northern Rivers hives...We chose 2 dips to accompany the generous serve of spring onion flatbread, which was still warm and melted in the mouth. The first was white bean and roasted garlic and the second red capsicum and crushed walnut. Both were delicious, tangy and satisfying...My friend swooned over the little goat’s cheese, salted ricotta and potato balls with tomato chutney and all I could do was agree. They were light and fluffy on the inside and golden and slightly crisp on the outside. It was a joy to be served our meal by someone so clearly into the food their restaurant was serving. Each dish was explained in detail, including the origin of the ingredients and Kat’s creative process in the kitchen...Dinner at Fatbellykat is an exploration of taste sensations, prepared with love and served in a professional and friendly manner. You feel like a guest in their own home. I can’t wait to go back and try more things on the menu.   

Good Food Guide 2010

Score 14.5/20

Consider moussaka that’s not gluggy, sauce nutmeg-fragrant, cuddling chunks of chicken, squishy eggplant and sliced potato, and served in the restaurant’s signature ovenware. Savour a sweet beetroot salad judiciously scattered with cold-smoked fetta. Plump local prawns sit in a reduction of red wine, raisins, pine nuts and English spinach, the sweet-sour flavours intensely concentrated. A splodge of rice “pud” with poached pear is sparked by a clever crunchy pinch of basil-infused sugar. Indulge in just one chocolate truffle of the day, say, champagne and pomegranate. The menu is wonderfully varied, from shared mezze to main courses or banquets, plus a full dessert list. Olives from Adelaide and Lismore, house-made bread and haloumi, spiced local cuttlefish and more-ish lamb meatballs are enthusiastically served in clean, fresh, sparsely furnished rooms of light colours and blond wooden tables. Six years and three children later, Katerina and Damian have a true family restaurant. Like “Bruns” itself, we hope it never changes.

Good Food Guide 2009

Chef Katerina Williams was heavily pregnant when this unassuming motel restaurant first opened. Now it's the diners sporting big bellies - well fed and purring with delight as host Damian charms, delivering his wife's mod-Greek marvels to a casual dining room with beech timber tables. Oyster lovers take note: Kat serves them seven ways, including hot with grilled saffron, kaffir lime butter and crunchy fried onion, or cold with pickled ginger and toasted sesame dressing. Mezze include dense eggplant and fetta balls, crisp on the outside with more-ish cheesy centre or melting pieces of local cuttlefish, sumac-coated and served with citrus mayonnaise. Hand-made haloumi is as good as it comes, slender slices draped over a healthy mix of asparagus, sweet caramelized tomato and balsamic onions. House-made spicy lamb sausages burst with flavour. Can't decide between smooth burnt honey panna cotta and a creamy specialty, crema kataifi, to end? Share the pair with friends - that's what it's all about at fatbellykat.

Lonely Planet - East Coast Australia 2009

Easy to miss in a daggy motel, Fatbellykat is a much lauded Greek restaurant that brings feta cheese seekers from afar. You can’t get food this good in the Old Country.

The Courier Mail Queensland Good Food and Wine Guide 2009

Score 14/20

For a modern take on a traditional Greek meal that will leave you waving the blue and white flag, head to the quaint Fatbellykat at sleepy Brunswick Heads. Owners Katerina and Damian are the perfect double act; Katerina trained under Stephanie Alexander at Cafe Larder, cooking and hosting alternately. The family warmth bounces right from the first friendly welcome and makes you feel like you are dining amongst friends. Meals are inspired by Katerina’s Greek heritage and are generous, flavoursome, bursting with the local areas abundant fresh produce and are best enjoyed shared in a help-yourself spread. Gluten-free, dairy-free and vegetarian options are available.

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008

Score 14.5/20

Foodies keen to escape Byron Bay’s bustle head away for this little gem...There’s an easy warmth to the room with its lime splice colours, casual wicker chairs and well-spaced tables. This same refreshing simplicity and style are reflected in the engaging service and the highly individual cooking of Katerina Williams which springs from her Greek heritage. Beautiful produce from the family vineyards and orchards finds its way into many of her soul-satisfying dishes. In a finely tuned balancing act, roasted garlic aioli and creamy goat’s fetta add punch to the earthy sweetness of crunchy beetroot croquettes. From the family plot come sharp little olives in a rustic dish of organic chicken kofta with rich tomato sauce and sparkling tzatziki; ditto the sugar-sweet prune plums and delicate red wine syrup that anchor an ethereal Greek honey and mastic bavarois. The wild sage tea that follows is a breath of Greek mountain air.

The Courier Mail / Good Life (Brisbane)

March 4, 2008

Brunswick Heads: Run for the Border – by Natasha Mirosch

Fatbellykat’s modest exterior belies the delights to be savoured inside. A family affair, Katerina Williams (who no longer has the fat belly she had when they bought the place, having since given birth) has worked with Stephanie Alexander and heads up the kitchen. Husband Damian, former food and beverage manager for Terence Conran’s Le Pont de la Tour in London, takes the floor. The food is unpretentious, with clean, meticulously matched flavours divided by mezze and more substantial banquet dishes pointing to Katerina’s Greek culinary heritage – like the crisply delicious, deep-fried aubergine and haloumi croquettes...or home-made spicy lamb sausages with potato skordalia and sour cherry reduction. Almost everything is made in-house, even the red wine vinegar Kat uses. Popular with locals and out-of-towners, you’ll need to book to get in..

Australian Gourmet Traveller

March 2008

Bay Watch – by Pat Nourse

Brunswick sits on the river just back from the sea, and has a bit more going on in terms of restaurants and cafes, with the likes of fatbellykat, a Greek accented mod-boho diner, competing with the likes of the beer garden and the charm of the deco and wonderful Hotel Brunswick.

Vogue Entertining and Travel Australia

February/March 2008

Greener Pastures
And let’s not forget dear old Brunswick Heads which for all its down-home board-shorts-and-t-shirts charm, boasts some great eateries such as fatbellykat, where chef Katerina Williams cooks ambrosial mod-Greek food to share.

Selector – Life.Food.Wine | Summer 2007

Byron Bounty – by Belinda Jeffrey

I’ve no doubt I shall get some stick from regulars for mentioning this restaurant, as they would rather keep it a secret – however to leave it out wouldn’t be fair to the warmly hospitable and talented owners, Damian and Katerina Wiliams. It’s a serendipitous find, tucked as it is in a neat motel on the Old Pacific Highway in Brunswick Heads.
As always, the mouth-watering aroma of garlic, herbs and olive oil greets us, and in no time we’re settled in with a glass of wine...and nibbling on tea-smoked tomatoes, olives, house-made bread, superb marinated fetta and curls of tender pickled octopus (that Kat makes from her Greek mother’s recipe). For once we forego their fabulous oysters, and settle on sweet-polenta crusted Brunswick prawns with a subtle citrus mayonnaise, and sand whiting with sensational cashew and dill paste and pickled beetroot stalks. Hmm...this is seriously good food. Despite our vow not to have dessert, Damian twists our arm...to try Kat’s latest creation – a brilliant pairing of a light-as-air Greek honey and mastic bavarois offset by sweet/tart plums...and as we wind our way back through the hills we feel nurtured in body and soul.

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007

Score 14/20

Combine a talented chef who learnt to cook at her Greek mother’s side, a stint with Stephanie Alexander, a husband who is a thoroughly courteous and professional restaurateur, and a sleepy seaside village and what do you get? This disarmingly relaxed, incongruously perched in a motel, serving terrific modern Greek food. Indeed with its doors flung open to the salty breeze and the clean lines broken only by a few paintings, soft lighting and a sun-washed lime feature wall, this neat-as-a-pin room could almost be by the Aegean. The simple aesthetic is echoed in the food. Speck-wrapped artichoke with a rich olive-and-fetta stuffing is at once gloriously sharp, mellow and salty; delicate pan-fried baby whiting fillets are offset by gently vinegary pickled beetroot stems and dill-scented cashew paste. Satisfyingly crunchy smoked salmon and trout croquettes have their creaminess lifted by a jolt of piquant celeriac mayonnaise. Leave room for the glorious kataifi crema, a mastic-and-cinnamon mastic slice.