16/20 Country Restaurant of the Year
Contemporary / Mediterranean
In these straitened times, the degustation menu seems especially indulgent, but when the food is this good it's the only way to go. Six courses or nine, with or without matched wines, takes you through what the a-la-carters are having, and then some. As you settle in to the petite 19th-century dining room you anticipate an evening of genteel pleasures, but when Ryan Sessions' food hits the table it's as modern as anything in the capitals, and better than most. There's a hunter-gatherer aesthetic at play when local crayfish shares a plate with the coastal plant samphire and a 'sea foam' made from mussel water. Sea and land make for inspired plate-mates in dishes such as grilled calamari with jamon consomme, or prawns with braised pork, truffle butter and deep-fried fennel. Foams, reductions and jellies add magic without overwhelming, and sweet and savoury tastes play mix-and-match – roast pear sneaking into a Middle Eastern duck dish, sweet 'tzatziki' turning up in a stunning dessert. The wine matching is superb and if the service is enthusiastic rather than slick, it's no less charming for it. Out-of-towners would do well to book a room knowing that bed is just a merry jig away.
Open Daily 6pm–late
Typical prices E $24 M $35 D $16 (set menus $90–$165)
Cards AE MC V Eftpos
Wine Around 300 bottles, many in the $40–$60 range, from Australia and NZ to France, Italy, Spain, Austria and Germany
Owners Ryan Sessions and Kirstyn White
Chef Ryan Sessions
Seats 45; private room; bar 
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