Unfortunately our estimated 2 hour drive turned out to be more like 2 and a half hour drive - mental note made - do spur of the moment things earlier in the morning!
The Tea Rooms are owned by Pietro Porcu who also runs Da Noi here in Melbourne.
The Tea Rooms are housed in what looks like a normal country house of the area. You can order a la carte or you can leave it up to the Chef and enjoy a degustation. No surprise really but we opt for the degustation complete with wine matches.
We begin with glasses of Bellussi Prosecco
The first dish
is a simple Mixed Mushroom Pizza - this is probably the closest we've gotten to a real Italian pizza - misshaped with an extremely thin base, topped sparingly - we get misty eyed with memories of Rome over it.
Next up:
A trio of dishes
Pheasant Salad
a blurry photo of pork terrine
and pepperonata - this tastes like my mother made it and once again I'm wondering why I don't make it that much anymore.
Two more dishes join the table:
red wine marinated octopus - that is a carrot sitting atop the octopus pieces and it has actually absorbed but the flavour and texture of the octopus. The octopus is a pleasure to eat - tender, not at all rubbery.
house-cured trout with herbed curd quenelle
Onto the pasta course:
Gnocchi with Mushrooms - while the gnocchi are bigger than I'm used to they are tender and taste of potato so I'm very pleased.
Next course - seafood
Seafood Platter - Crab, mussels, baby octopus, vongole in a spicy rich tomato broth
This dish certainly had the heads of the other patrons turning - and for very good reason too.
Last savoury course - pork
Pork Ragù with caramelised fennel and Polenta
It takes time to make a ragù as good as this - the pork was full of flavour, deeply coloured, dense and rich.
By this stage we were the only ones left in the restaurant so the staff started setting up a table so they could have their meal - while we enjoyed our desserts
a lovely set of three
pastry cream filled profiteroles with chocolate sauce and strawberries
quince and chocolate cake with red wine poached pear
and a semifreddo
To end the meal, coffee and these biscotti
The drive home took a little longer as we were caught in this
there were emergency vehicles and what looked like diversions but by the time we got moving again we actually couldn't see any trace of what had caused the delay.
When comparing Da Noi to Tea Rooms, we both agreed that we enjoyed the Tea Rooms more - while the food is similar the atmosphere is more conducive to the enjoyment of the meal. It's a bit of a drive but the destination is more than worth it.
The details:
Tea Rooms of Yarck
6585 Maroonday Hwy, Yarck
Phone: 03 5773 4233
Open:
Friday: 5.30pm-11pm
Saturday-Sunday: 12pm - late
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