Cooked at the table on volcanic stone.
THE FLAMES GALORE began as a small idea and a single kiln — a family-run venture on Canberra's Moore Street with an unlikely proposition: that dinner should be cooked at the table, on stones hot enough to sear a wagyu in eight seconds.
That first winter we served forty guests a night. Now we serve four hundred. The proposition, however, has not changed.
Every day begins the same way. The stones go into the kiln at half past seven. The sourdough is scored and shaped. The seafood arrives from the coast — barramundi, blue swimmer crab, king prawns — and the beef, always the beef, is trimmed and rested and trimmed again. Nothing here is bought pre-portioned. Nothing here is finished with a microwave.
Everything is made by hand.
The gnocchi is rolled each morning. The chowder simmers three hours before service. The short rib is rubbed at dawn and pulled from the smoker fourteen hours later.
We offer gluten-free and vegan variations of most dishes — ask, and it's done. Halal preparation is available with a day's notice. What we won't do is cut corners on the produce, the technique, or the time.
“It is, we'll admit, the slow way. It is also — we're told each night — the right one.”
Lamb rack. King prawn. Wagyu fillet. All at the table.