delicious.100: Dunkeld’s Royal Mail Hotel is one of Victoria’s best restaurants.
Dunkeld can be a long way to go for dinner, but the Royal Mail remains a drive worth taking.
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IT not only boasts the largest working kitchen garden in Australia (1ha and growing), but the Royal Mail Hotel now also farms its own beef and lamb. It’s this ever-growing dedication to paddock to plate that’s defining chef Robin Wickens’ tenure at Dunkeld’s most famous dining room. That, and a sense of humour.
Whether an “alphabet soup” of clear tomato consomme to begin, a plate of “brains over brawn” — burnt butter-fried lamb’s brain with a pig’s head terrine — to follow, or duck fat ice cream with salted “Milo” to finish, there’s a playful whimsy to many dishes that makes dining here now a lot of fun.
The cellar is still filled to bursting with old world four-figure heroes (at odds with the somewhat functional dining room), but there’s much to delight mere mortals, too, which engaging service helps deliver with ease. It’s still a long way to go for dinner, but the Royal Mail remains a drive worth taking.
Must eat dish: Royal Mail lamb
ROYAL MAIL HOTEL
98 Parker St, Dunkeld.
Ph: 5577 2241
Cuisine: contemporary
Chef: Robin Wickens
Price: more than $80 a person for two courses, food only
Bookings: yes
Open: Thu-Sun noon-2.30pm, Wed-Sun 6pm-late
Instagram: @royalmailhotel
This restaurant was ranked the 19th best restaurant in Victoria in the 2016 edition of the delicious.100.
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