A humble paean to hard yakka that’s become a statewide standard-setter for destination dining.
In a region crowded with finicky winery fine-diners, Glenarty Road is a much-welcome breath of bucolic fresh air. Here, in the handsomely rustic confines of a restored timber shed on Sasha and Ben McDonald’s regenerative farm, the mood is decidedly relaxed, the sense of hospitality earnest and warm. Over five courses, chef Jess Widmer presents a vivid, hyper-seasonal snapshot of the surrounding 240 acres, wisely letting produce lead the way.
In a region crowded with finicky winery fine-diners, Glenarty Road is a much-welcome breath of bucolic fresh air.
Absurdly thick and rich smoked curd is a deserving constant, joined in late winter by juicy mandarins and the mildly spicy crunch of radishes and turnips. Estate-reared lamb is another, roasted with enviable precision so that the clean-flavoured meat slides right off the bone. Easy-drinking wines, also grown on-site, do well to keep the closed-loop focus sharp, as does first-class charcuterie fashioned from the property’s growing family of Tamworth pigs.
Sure, it may sound a bit simple – and it is – but elegant plating and informed waitstaff invested in provenance and process push it beyond the banal. Better yet, it’s an experience so refreshingly free of the virtue-signalling and proselytising that drag down so many others of its kind. The South West is lucky to have it.
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