Delicious 100: Village of 300 home to some of NSW’s best steaks at Graze restaurant Willow Tree

Mouth-watering steaks in a tiny town near the Hunter Valley has people travelling far and wide for a bite. But what is this restaurant’s key to success? VOTE in the delicious. 100.

About half way between Scone and Tamworth, the tiny village of Willow Tree only has about 300 residents, but it’s a top spot on a steak lovers’ map. So much so, some have travelled more than 600km return from Sydney just to sink their teeth into another one.

It’s also a top critic’s pick, with Graze at the Willow Tree Inn recognised in the top five steaks in NSW in this year’s delicious. 100, alongside heavy hitters like Firedoor and Bistecca in Sydney.

At the Willow Tree Inn all of the beef comes from the owners’ own farm, Colly Creek, just 2km up the road.

At the Willow Tree Inn, all of the beef comes from the owners’ own farm, Colly Creek, which is located just two kilometres up the road. Every month, 20 of the best Angus Black steers are selected for the Graze restaurant. The meat is processed at the Inn’s own butcher, which opened in December 2021 after repeated requests from guests to be able to take the Colly Creek beef home.

Graze at the Willow Tree Inn has some of the state’s best steaks.

One of the mouth-watering options

Co-owner of the Willow Tree Inn, Sam Hanna, said the steaks are so good because they use their MSA grading data to tweak the breeding program to target specific traits.

“It’s a process we’ve been doing for 15 years. It’s all bred on the farm from our own herd and we then fatten them on pasture and finish them on grain in our own feedlot.”

After the Hanna family purchased the local pub in 2009 they added the Graze restaurant as part of a 2013 rebuild, complete with a dry ageing room in the corner.

“The concept for the restaurant was always about having our own produce and dry ageing was the best.” Hanna says, “When we outgrew that we built a second one and now have a third one in the butcher’s shop.”

For the past five years Graze has had a full time butcher on site. Before the butcher’s shop opened across the road Peter Robinson could be seen working in the dry ageing room in the restaurant and answering questions from diners.

Graze at the Willow Tree Inn has some of the state’s best steaks. Picture: supplied

He’s still available to chat across the road and take special advanced requests for cuts in Graze. As well as continuing to work with head chef Ben Davies on menu changes.

“We like trying different things and finding ways to use up all the body parts.” Robinson said. “We now have a 400g sirloin on the bone, which gives it a bit more flavour.”

Davies grew up outside of Bath in Somerset, England, and was awarded his first Michelin Star at Les Bories, Gordes en Provence, when he was just 23 years old.

After collecting more Michelin Stars in UK restaurants he moved to Australia and joined the Willow Tree Inn team in 2020.

For Davies having a butcher on-hand is a great advantage, and he says Robinson is always experimenting with things like the beef bacon that is now found on the oysters Kilpatrick.

While the Graze menu includes lamb, fish and vegetarian dishes as well as ways to use secondary cuts including a chuck on the bone for the Rendang curry, most people come for those incredible steaks.

The steaks all come from the family farm.

Ben Davies, head chef of Graze in Willow Tree. Picture: supplied

Davies said the key is treating the meat with as much respect as possible. “You really don’t need to do a lot to it because it’s so good as a base product. The fact that we dry age it is wonderful. You usually lose 25 to 30 per cent of the yield when it is dry aged properly, but at the same time, it is second to none. It really intensifies that flavour.”

Davies seasons with Maldon sea salt then cooks over a gas fired char grill.

“It’s nothing particularly fancy but it does a really good job. It’s scrubbed clean during every service, because once the carbon builds up it insulates the cast iron and removes a lot of the heat.”

While the scotch fillet is the most popular steak on the menu, Davies said the sirloin on the bone has been going very well since it was introduced earlier this year.

“We’ve also got a 1.2kg rib-eye which we suggest strongly to share, but a lot of people do have it on their own.

“A few weeks ago someone had it blue. I think they were really going back to their carnivore days.”

As for the best way to order a Colly Creek steak? Davies always recommends medium rare.

“It gives it that time for the intramuscular fat to dissolve and add flavour and moisture into the meat.”

Wherever you are on the blue to charcoal steak range, if you love a good steak, add a Willow Tree Inn stop to your New England highway road trip. You’ll thank us for it.

Check out the top five steaks in NSW and vote for your favourite now at delicious100.com.au.

Voting closes on November 3.