I’ve always
been interested in the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld, at the southern tip of the
Grampians, and its varied offerings. It’s been one of Australia’s best regional
restaurants for many years and I am particularly attracted by regional restaurants.
I took advantage of a regional road tour through Victoria to Adelaide to update
my first visit from several years before. In every respect the experience was
worthwhile. The attention to detail and focused application was apparent, from
the signature restaurant to the wider range of services it provides.
On a recent regional road tour through Victoria to Adelaide and back, I had a number of dining experiences which were memorable – each in their own way. These ranged from a breakfast of sourdough toast with poached quince, pistachios and honey at Big Table at the renowned Adelaide Central Market – surely one of Australia’s great wonders – to a counter meal by a roaring fire at the Gilbert Hotel in Adelaide city and finished up with an excellent Wagyu corned beef with onion sauce, capers, peas and mash and fusilli with bolognese ragu at the Mountain View Hotel owned by the Pizzini family in Whitfield in the King Valley.
‘Fit for purpose’
The high point of the whole trip were two meals other than these, one during the trip and one soon after arriving back in Canberra. The first was at Wickens at the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld, at the Southern tip of the ancient Grampians Mountains that rear up out of the flat plains around.
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| Stairway to heaven - the walkway to Wickens restaurant |
The second – which I will write about in my next article – was at the local Pulp Kitchen restaurant in the heart of Ainslie, one of Canberra’s inner north suburbs. Each of these two meals were very different, in very different restaurants. Yet they were both excellent in their own way, ‘fit for purpose’ as they say.
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| The Royal Mail kitchen vegetable garden - the largest of its kind in Australia |
The signature of food – a garden, wine cellar and restaurant at the foot of the Grampians
The first experience was an encounter with the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld and its signature restaurant, Wickens. This is one of the hottest restaurants in regional Victoria – even making it into the popular media by being featured on Master Chef a couple of weeks after the trip.
