98 Parker Street, Dunkeld, Victoria, Australia (03) 5577 2241
The restaurant is open for dinner Wednesday to Sunday, the Bistro is open 7 days for lunch 12pm to 2:30pm and dinner 6pm to 9pm
My favourite way to watch a movie is
to go in completely cold - without
having read a blurb or seen a poster. This
is getting harder and harder to achieve, with massive marketing campaigns for
most major releases ruining any chance of surprise or genuine interest in the
plot. To have a story unfold in front of you and find yourself laughing
at a joke that hadn’t been ruined in the trailer or being actually concerned
for a main character is a great experience.
For me this kind of experience sits somewhere in the same
area as those unplanned afternoon get-togethers where a drink turns into two or
three and a little food and conversation and suddenly five hours have gone by
and you realise your cheeks hurt from laughing and you don’t know why you don’t
do this more often. But you
couldn’t have planned that
afternoon. It was a
culmination of particular people and moods and alcohol existing in that
specific combination at that specific time. It is the same reason that New
Year’s Eve is often recounted as an evening of regular disappointment due to
the existing expectations around what NYE should be. Reality doesn’t stand a chance trying
to live up to hype and fictionalised memory.
Expectations will almost always lead to
disappointment. The details
are what we need to pay attention to, the things that we weren’t expecting
perhaps.
When we arrived at the Royal Mail we
saw a sign saying that tomatoes from their kitchen garden were available for
sale. Not just regular
tomatoes – heirloom breeds. Varieties
that have been left behind because their characteristics didn’t quite meet the
requirements for industrial commercialisation. Not a high enough yield per plant or
not the right shade of red or they were just too soft for transit in mass
quantities. Their kitchen
garden was currently turning out such high quantities of fruit that they were
practically giving them away to diners. Suddenly
the conversation had turned from what we were looking forward to from the meal
to what we were going to do with these tomatoes. We were excited about tomatoes.
The Royal Mail Hotel has a definite casual air to its
dining room. überjoi
commented that this was because of the noise from the other parts of the
restaurant. The mostly full
bistro section of the dining room carried its air of amiable chatter throughout
the whole dining room, which stopped the ‘formal’ side of the room from being
too stilted or stuffy. We
felt fine casually chatting to the wait staff about the dishes and wine and our
own happy alcohol-infused rambling conversation just mixed in with the
atmosphere of the room.
The food is a mix of locally sourced produce combined with
inspired technique and preparation. The
menu changes every season but the individual dishes may change slightly each
night based on what was available that day. A more extreme example being that a
squid dish had been replaced by the egg yolk dish we were served because
quality squid was unavailable on that day. I enjoyed the egg dish so much that I
couldn’t imagine it not being part of the menu but a part of me is sure I would
have felt the same about the squid dish.
The food was all delicious. Its presentation and execution
made me jealous of the skill of those preparing the food.
We went into the weekend with the expectation of an
amazing dinner. Your
companions, and their excitement, are thrown into the mix. Add the weather and your warm wood
cabin. Then, wake up to an
early morning in the country with an air of contentment.
The ability to find enjoyment in unexpected small
pleasures is something we should all hope to never lose. Not that a meal at Royal Mail
should be considered a small pleasure – but within that experience, the
excitement of trying something new; the expectation and promise in a box of
tomatoes. A shared
experience of a night in the country. These
small moments should be enjoyed on their own. The meal was always going to be
good.
Those expectations
were clearly met. The other
experiences we take away are personal.
We
wandered around Dunkeld the next morning. We bought fresh eggs from the place we
were staying and sourdough bread from the local bakery. We hunted down fresh feta from the local sheep
dairy. We picked up the tomatoes from Royal Mail when we ate at the
bistro for lunch.
That evening we made our meal with those
ingredients – roasted tomatoes, poached eggs, feta and bread. As simple a meal as you could make. Trying to keep a hold of the weekend, making it
last a little bit longer. We
wondered why we didn’t do this more often.
Saturday
The Restaurant - Dinner
 |
| smoked house churned butter |
 |
omnivore menu: rice paper, finger lime and salmon roe
(vegetarian menu: rice paper, finger lime and fennel pollen) |
 |
| vegetarian menu: brassica chips |
 |
| omnivore menu: chicken crisp |
 |
omnivore menu: rainbow trout, coffee, black treacle
(vegetarian menu: flaxseed, rocket and sunflower) |
 |
| vegetarian menu: summer asparagus and frozen daikon |
 |
| omnivore menu: hot and cold prawns |
 |
| omnivore and vegetarian menu: tomato on toast, hand made sheep's ricotta |
 |
| vegetarian menu: zucchini flowers and smoked corn, almond and vegetable juices |
 |
| omnivore menu: air dried blue eye, lemon cucumber, aniseed |
 |
| omnivore menu: air dried blue eye, lemon cucumber, aniseed |
 |
| vegetarian menu: garden salad |
 |
| omnivore menu: egg yolk and brand new potatoes, salt fish and crackling |
 |
| vegetarian menu: heirloom beetroots, bitter and sour leaves |
 |
| omnivore menu: eel and bone marrow, eggplant, pickled vegetables |
 |
| vegetarian menu: eggplant in white miso, dried grains, cured kelp |
 |
| omnivore menu: salt grass lamb and broad beans, chard stem, malabar spinach |
 |
| vegetarian and omnivore menu: parsnip, apple and blueberry, fennel and creme fraiche |
 |
| vegetarian and omnivore menu: milk and berries, quandong cooked with roses |
 |
| vegetarian and omnivore menu: carrot, cocoa and cardamon |
Sunday
The Bistro - Lunch
 |
| vegetables from our kitchen garden |
 |
| milawa organic chicken, cauliflower and parsnip, wild rice and bread pudding |
 |
| risotto of crayfish and tarragon |
 |
| duck and muntries, beetroot, blackberry, bitter leaves |
 |
| rum baba, plum poached in grenadine, coconut ice cream |
 |
| baked meringe, berries, rose, pistachio |
 |
| rhubarb and brown butter tart, almond crumble and myrtleford creme fraiche |
 |
| Royal Mail Kitchen Garden - Organic tomato box, 5kg for $20 |
- words by pisso | images by überjoi.
Verdict? The Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld will always hold a special place in our hearts, as it was our first fine dining experience in Australia back in 2011. The weekend was a truly lovely way to revisit and validate our romanticised memories, while sharing with and showing our dear friends the place that inspired us to start our amazing food adventure.
Meal style: Dinner (degustation of 12 dishes)
Cost: $180.00 total per person for omnivore menu and $140.00 total per person for vegetarian menu (not including drinks)
Time and date of visit: 7:30pm Saturday 16 March 2013
Meal style: Lunch (4 main dishes and 3 shared desserts)
Cost: $169.00 total (between 4 people, not including drinks)
Time and date of visit: 12:00pm Sunday 17 March 2013
