Restaurant Guide

Bistro Livi: Restaurant review

Livi’s bright dining room, in Murwillumbah’s colourful arts precinct about an hour from Byron Bay, is a celebration of textures.

REVIEW

Livi's bright dining room, in Murwillumbah's colourful arts precinct about an hour from Byron Bay, is a celebration of textures; the tessellated brick floor and coarse Venetian plaster walls framing leather banquettes and marble tables. It's an interplay echoed on the plates, where a warm, rough paste of salt cod bathes in olive oil, ready to be scooped up with glass-thin shards of crisp-toasted bread. Ingredients are left to shine without superfluous adornment, like hefty bug tails swimming in vibrant vadouvan butter, and smoky-charred padrón peppers dotted with thick slices of cured garlic. Co-owner siblings Danni (chef) and Nikky (front of house) wilson have returned home after a stretch in Melbourne, where Nikky worked with fellow co-owner/chef Ewen Crawford at tapas institution MoVida, but while there are lingering hints of Spain on plates of paleta Ibérico or Cantabrian anchovies, Livi – like the town in which it sits – feels welcoming to all influences and all visitors.

ABOUT

Bistro Livi
Contemporary
1A/1-3 Brisbane St, Murwillumbah
0499 711 590
bistrolivi.com
Chef Ewen Crawford
Price guide $
Bookings Recommended
Wheelchair access Yes
Open Lunch Sat; Dinner Wed-Sat
This review was written independently for the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide. The guide's reviewers visit unannounced and pay their way. To learn more about the process, head over here.