A Dunsborough favourite that celebrates the beauty and bounty of the South West.
What a lovely spot to sit this is: an airy, smartly appointed room fringed by a bar and open kitchen looking out over peppermint trees and Dugalup Creek. Couple the setting’s sense of occasion with chef and co-owner Aaron Carr’s pedigree, and you’d have every right to anticipate a certain level of fanfare and fuss. Instead, Yarri sticks to a local and seasonal script with native ingredients and Japanese accents deepening the plot.
The menu keeps it simple, offering two choices within each of the four courses. To start, perhaps meltingly soft cuts of raw bluefin tuna in a delicate dashi vinegar, given sweetness and crunch from compressed honeydew melon, cucumber and macadamias. Rare slices of vadouvan-spiced venison might follow, their gamy twang offset by tart muntries.
Rare slices of vadouvan-spiced venison might follow, their gamy twang offset by tart muntries.
Could certain dishes like a pungent Gorgonzola panna cotta showered in savoury granola achieve more by doing less? No doubt. Would by-the-glass wines outside the Snake + Herring stable invigorate the offering? Without question. Nonetheless, there’s a respect for the region’s produce and the fundamentals of good hospitality underpinning it all that’s hard to fault. A quiet achiever, with room to grow.
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