We don’t usually do anything special to celebrate our wedding anniversary, but last Wednesday we broke from tradition and dined at our favourite restaurant. We were surprised to see a new addition on the way from the car park, a very impressive sand sculpture.

Bayviews Restaurant is so named for obvious reasons.

Every seat in the house has a wonderful vista of Bass Strait, beautiful in any weather.

We opened proceedings with a glass of exquisite Josef Chromy Pinot Gris

and were soon presented with a tasty pre-dinner morsel of beef fillet with carrot and cumin purée.

Dogs are prohibited on Burnie’s West Beach but we were entertained by an ambitious young fellow walking a rather uncooperative shopping trolley.

The palate cleanser of Pink Grapefruit sorbet was dispatched too quickly to photograph, you’ll just have to imagine it.

The main event was superb. I had slow cooked lamb shoulder on butternut pumpkin gnocchi, mushrooms, shallots with a salad of baby cress, toasted walnut, sheep’s fetta and 8 year old balsamic vinegar.

Michael chose from the specials board, pan fried Tasmanian scallops with housemade fettucine tossed through lemon beurre blanc sauce with cherry tomatoes and fresh dill.

A glass of d’Arenberg The High Trellis Cabernet Sauvignon complemented the flavours perfectly.

It was very relaxing watching the gulls mingling on the shore below and their indifference to the appearance of a pied oystercatcher.

For dessert, Michael once again chose from the specials, lemon curd tart with crisp meringue, local currants, raspberry coulis and honey & vanilla bean ice cream.

I couldn’t decide what to have, so I had them all!

The dessert tasting platter had smaller versions of Snickers semifreddo, chocolate mousse, caramel sauce, almond crumble, peanut praline & dark chocolate;

salted caramel tart layered with caramel sauce, banana chip praline, fresh banana & chantilly cream served with salted caramel ice cream;

basil crème brulee, Tamar Valley yoghurt, sable biscuit, fresh berries, passionfruit & lemongrass sorbet.

A big thank you to my husband for gallantly assisting with the devoration of my dessert. Sunset is past our bedtime these days but the shadows were lengthening as we made our way home.

I think we may have just created a new anniversary tradition.