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Babae

Serene salon worshipping the seasons.

Steamed custard with vegetables.
1 / 6Steamed custard with vegetables.Chris Hopkins
Babae is Hotel Vera’s flagship restaurant.
2 / 6Babae is Hotel Vera’s flagship restaurant.Chris Hopkins
A summer strawberry dessert.
3 / 6A summer strawberry dessert.Chris Hopkins
Slow cooked lamb shoulder.
4 / 6Slow cooked lamb shoulder.Chris Hopkins
Goldfields cheese gougeres.
5 / 6Goldfields cheese gougeres. Chris Hopkins
Victorian venison tartare.
6 / 6Victorian venison tartare.Chris Hopkins

Good Food hat15/20

Contemporary$$$$

Cocooned in a gauzy dining room in a historic mansion, a handful of diners get the best of both worlds: a farmers’ market worth of produce, transformed into compositions as poised as the surrounds.

A small canoe-shaped rye tart is packed with smoked trout paste (from nearby Tuki farm) and beads of salmon roe. A cellophane-thin tube of pastry boasts a belly of mushroom parfait and a crown of perfumed pickled quince. Central Highlands corn-fed duck paddles in a preserved plum sauce sparked up with pickled rhubarb.

Dessert might star the season’s best fruit, like an ode to the Harcourt apple. Attentive service and a soothing ASMR soundtrack of chefs tending to sauces in the open kitchen complete this dreamy dining experience.

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Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/vic-good-food-guide/babae-20241115-p5kr29.html