Jayden Ong Winery & Cellar Bar
Unpretentious, against all the odds.
Critics' Pick
Contemporary$$
It’s a barbecue in a car park, but not as you know it. Jayden Ong is part urban winery, part restaurant, located in the backstreets of Healesville. Tables spill out of the cavernous warehouse, which balances the functional (wine barrels, steel tanks) with pitch-black walls, dramatic florals and a chiselled limestone bar.
An efficient kitchen team works the outdoor charcoal grill, from which skewered whole prawns – suitably smoky, lifted with a squeeze of lemon – are dispatched. Shards of crackly chicken skin come sandwiched between weightless oblongs of white bread, a salty snack that’ll have you reaching for your lively skin-contact pinot gris.
Butter makes repeat appearances: as a caper-flecked pool under grilled flounder, and garlic-infused atop charred wagyu tri-tip. A saffron-poached pear half with vanilla cream is a winning two-bite finish, delivered by good-natured staff who know their stuff.
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Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/vic-good-food-guide/jayden-ong-winery-and-cellar-bar-20240520-p5jf3d.html