Seasonal bounty decorates a refectory table, the open kitchen is hung with copper pots, and a lush vegetable garden rambles past a pretty veranda. If that sounds simple and cosily cliched, it’s not. This is a sophisticated, idiosyncratic eatery, with white linen and welcoming, professional staff. An in-house bakery makes the excellent bread that begins the meal and the cakes, tarts and desserts like bread-and-butter-pud that follow it. Start with antipasti: perhaps a simple salad of yellow peppers with fruity olive oil and lemon thyme; scampi with an enjoyably retro piquant Marie Rose sauce; or unctuous cubes of ox tongue with eggplant. A nicely rustic and chewy ‘pizza dough’ pasta comes with a ragu of pork and veal spiked with orange, while cuttlefish and calamari might be cooked slowly with a celery-rich sofrito. An Italian classic of pork braised in milk sings with sage and garlic. While lunches and Friday dinner are a la carte, Saturday nights are lavish set-menu affairs.

Open Wed–Sun 8.30am–5pm; Fri 6–10pm; Sat 7.30–11pm
Typical prices E $18 M $38 D $16; set dinner $95 (Sat)
Cards AE MC V Eftpos
Wine Proudly Yarra Valley with additional, mainly Old World choices; small by-the-glass selection, supplemented by specials
Owners Gary Cooper & Tim Sawyer
Chef Gary Cooper
Seats 80; outdoor seating; private room

And … Breakfasts are a bonus, so too organic breads to take home, plus a cooking school.