Healesville Hotel

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
The old Healesville Hotel has known boom and bust cycles since it was built nearly a century ago. Well now it’s boom-time again. The dining room, with its ornate pressed metal ceiling and timber floors, looks on to a beautiful country garden. The room is quite formal, but softened by casual chairs and the openness of the design. There’s also a bar and bistro (with its own menu) along with a neighbouring produce store and cafe. With accommodation within the hotel also available, this establishment is an impressive achievement.

Within the dining room, the menu is smallish – half a dozen starters, five main courses – but supplemented by daily specials. There’s a focus on locally sourced ingredients, but not so strict that oysters are excluded. The cooking style is contemporary, and there are French, Italian and Mediterranean influences – a charcuterie selection, for instance, as well as a ham hock terrine with sauce gribiche and chicken liver parfait. We ate an entree of peppered kingfish – rounds of kingfish coated in cracked pepper, so that the effect was of hot spice and cool texture, rather than the flavour of the fish coming through. There’s an excellent drinks list, with a very fine selection of Australian and imported wines including some by the glass. Those who want to take some of the experience home can go into the neighbouring produce store and pick up Yarra Valley pasta, locally baked bread and preserves.

Rita Erlich