Oakridge

The estate’s best produce, on the plate and in the glass.

November 18, 2024

1 / 9The menu uses produce from the kitchen garden.Supplied

2 / 9Soak up the estate’s scenery.Anitra Wells.

3 / 9Coriander grapefruit dessert.Fairfax Media

4 / 9Garden vegetable and cheese curd tart.Supplied

14.5/20

Contemporary$$$

If you’re lunching in the country, you may as well do it right. Set a course through rolling hills and past sheep-dotted paddocks before turning up a winding driveway to this handsome cellar-door restaurant.

Floor-to-ceiling windows offer views of birds dipping and swooping above vine-covered slopes. As ever, the kitchen garden, nearby producers and a sustainability mindset underpin the menu, more Euro-leaning under new chef Daniel Snooks (ex-Cumulus Inc).

Eager young staff blanket the table with shared entrees, such as crazy-tasty charred Brussels sprouts tossed with ’nduja under toasty breadcrumbs, swatches of sweet Corner Inlet calamari amid bitter puntarelle leaves, and hunks of fluffy focaccia.

A choice of mains might include a tranche of Murray cod whose elegant sauce showcases the house blanc de blancs. Naturally, there are e-chargers in the car park to power your drive home.