Elements

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
Free Spirit is a large, popular resort complex within a 15 minute drive from Darwin’s city centre. You don’t have to be a tourist to visit the resort; their signature restaurant, Elements is more than worthy of a special visit and the food certainly rivals anything in the city. Elements is attractively designed, blending rustic furnishings with contemporary sheen. Dressed up like a luxurious bush lodge, there are woven chairs, raw wooden pillars, tables dressed with vases of native flowers and a smart bar fashioned from corrugated iron and perfectly lacquered timber.

Most entrees have a distinct Asian lean; there are more-ish little fried wontons, filled with chicken and coconut served with Asian leaves and sweet and sour sauce, and pan-seared prawns tossed through a garlic pepper flambe with steamed jasmine rice and green chilli sauce. Mains are a diverse affair, ranging from a beautifully hearty grilled rib eye on the bone with crunchy salted potatoes, sweet braised capsicum and tomatoes with pink peppercorn and brandy sauce, or try the Thai red curry soup with slow poached squid, prawns, scallops, salmon, bugs, barramundi and New Zealand mussels. It’s a little off the well-worn dining trail, but Elements boasts one of Darwin’s most sophisticated menus at present. Worth the effort.

Fiona Davies