Country Victoria proves it’s home to some of the state’s best restaurants

MELBOURNE foodies are shunning city hot spots to explore new and exciting restaurants in the bush — ahead of the reveal of the Herald Sun’s ‘Delicious 100’ next week.

Chef Steve Rogers from French Bistro Midnight Starling. Picture: Kylie Else

THEY’RE out there.

Hiding their light under a bushel and not always easy to find. But anyone looking for quality food and drink in Victoria should be getting outta town right now and dining in country restaurants.

Places like Catfish in Ballarat and Gladioli in Inverleigh, Petit Tracteur on the Mornington Peninsula and Tani Eat & Drink at Bright.

Sure, you’ve heard of Brae at Birregurra and Daylesford’s Lake House but have you sought out Patricia’s Table in Milawa and Masons of Bendigo? Or Igni in Geelong and Fen in Port Fairy?

They’re every bit as appetising and exciting as many big city diners and they feature in next Sunday’s delicious. 100 list of Victoria’s best restaurants.

In fact, 25 regional hot spots make the cut and make up a third of the top 20.

“What’s happening in regional Victoria with food right now is so interesting,’’ says Alla Wolf-Tasker, of Lake House. This dynamic owner-chef should know. Moving to the goldfields town in the 80s, with the dream of giving it a class country restaurant, Wolf-Tasker was all alone.

Things were so basic, she was sending napery to Melbourne laundries to get cleaned.

Thirty years on, Lake House is one of Victoria’s — makes that, Australia’s — best dining rooms and Daylesford teems with local producers supplying high-quality ingredients to the town’s many cafes and bars.

Wolf-Tasker says: “What we have now is what we’ve always wanted but used to have to travel overseas for, which is, ‘I want to go for a drive in the country and I want a guarantee to sit at a decent table and get a decent feed’. We never had that. We have it now.’’

Steve Rogers is also feeling the changes. Having trained with Jacques Reymond and worked overseas, this chef decided to settle in Kyneton “for lifestyle reasons’’ and open a French bistro. Midnight Starling was born and enjoys not just local support but “lots of people who live in Melbourne, who come up for the weekend and want to go out”.

Rogers says: “They get quality food and service and atmosphere. It might be easy to say because you’re in the country you can let those things lapse, but that’s not the case.’’

Out in the Western District, at Dunkeld’s Royal Mail Hotel, Robin Wickens is discovering “people are more willing than ever to make a long distance drive for a meal.’’

Wickens — who crafts his menus from produce largely grown in the hotel’s organic kitchen garden — also reports a “younger demographic’’ taking to the country.

“It goes hand-in-hand with better restaurants opening in the regions,’’ he says. “People are supporting them so more are opening.’’

For Wickens, there is just one downside: staffing.

“It’s hard to break down the stigma that it’s boring to live in the country. Not having the city life.’’

Don’t miss your Sunday Herald Sun on November 20 for the Delicious. 100, our first ever ranking of Victoria’s best restaurants