best-restaurants-in-the-hunter-valley

Peterson House Cuvee Restaurant

The Hunter Valley has a tradition of starting the day off with bubbles. The modern Australian menu, which is available for breakfast, brunch, and lunch, features local specialties such as cheese from Hunter Belle and seafood from Port Stephens. Get a table on a sunny morning in the courtyard to enjoy a perfect Wine Country breakfast.

Fawk Foods Kitchen & Bakery

Fawk Foods is the creation of the team that brought you EXP. Fawk Foods is a traditional cafe that takes it to the next step. You can start the day with buttermilk pancakes baked in an oven or fuel up for lunch with a 12-hour-braised beef cheek sandwich with salsa verde. You can also take home homemade cakes, brownies, and crumpets.

Gartelmann Wines The Deck

The large outdoor deck overlooking a dam, bushland, and the cafe is what makes this restaurant and cafe so special. The breakfast menu includes classics, including a “hangover roll” if you have overdone wine tasting. Lunch and dinner are tapas-style.

Café Enzo

Cafe Enzo, located in the beautiful Peppers Creek Village, has been feeding hungry valley residents for over 25 years. Cafe Enzo’s sunny courtyard, Tuscan in style, complete with an Italianate Fountain, is a great place to enjoy coffee, breakfast, or lunch.

Chic & delicious

Muse Kitchen / Keith Tulloch Wine

This classic European-style Bistro is set in a postcard-perfect Hamptons cottage. It’s casual dining at its best. Chef Josh Gregory has created a menu that is based on seasonal produce and is meant to bring back memories of grandmother’s cooking. It is full of flavor, passion, and heart.

Leaves and Fishes

Leaves and Fishes’ motto is fresh, smart, and simple. You could easily be mistaken for being in Lombok, with its lush garden and casual Asian menu. You can choose to sit in the restaurant or take a quiet spot in the park and enjoy the Singapore chili softshell crab, Szechuan-spiced chicken wings, or pineapple and cashew Salad.

Pooles Rock Hunters Quarter

Chef and owner Brian Duncan has spent most of his career in Michelin-starred establishments. Hunters Quarter’s relaxed and elegant menu features dishes such as scallops with edamame and kiss peppers or mahogany spiced Duck with spiced carrots and caramelized pear. The views from the glass-walled room and the terrace that overlooks the vines are as beautiful as the dishes.

Yellow Billy/ Piggs Peake Winery

According to local legends, Yellow Billy is a gentleman bushranger who roamed around the Hunter Valley villages in the 1860s. This restaurant is named after his way of living, in which chefs forage for ingredients and cook most dishes directly over a fire. You can expect to find words like grilled Murray cod or lamb shoulder with a barbecue pepper glaze.

Calais Estate Restaurant Kawul

The menu is inspired by native cuisine. You can expect dishes such as lemon myrtle calamari bites, bush-seasoned and peppered calamari, and creamy wild mushrooms and garlic ragout. The walls are lined with Aboriginal art by local artists. Or, choose a table outside to enjoy the stunning view of the property.

Amanda’s On The Edge

Amanda Patton dreamed about owning a home-like restaurant, and Amanda’s On The Edge is the result. The weatherboard house has a variety of dining areas, each with a view over the vineyard and garden. A wood fireplace is available in winter. The menu has European and Asian influences and is paired up with wines from nearby wineries.

Wine & fine dining

Margan Wines / Margan

One-hat Margan, a pioneer in the “farm to table” movement, has been designing its menus around the produce, fruits, and vegetables they can pick, grow, or harvest on the estate for over 15 years. This means pasture-raised chickens and lambs as well as honey from beehives and fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs from their kitchen garden and orchard. Weekly, the five-course menu is changed. Vegetarians and plant-based eaters can enjoy a wide variety of options throughout the year.

Bistro Molines

Bistro Molines is a little piece of Provence in the Hunter Valley. It serves a traditional European/French cuisine on a pretty, paved patio overlooking vines. Robert Molines, along with his wife Sally, have been cooking in Hunter Valley since 1973. Their rustic Provencal cuisine has never gone out of style. Bistro Molines’ service is legendary. You can expect an impeccable meal from beginning to end.

Muse Restaurant/ Hungerford Hill Winery

Muse Restaurant, the stylish elder sibling to Muse Kitchen, is the only restaurant in Hunter Valley that has been awarded with two chef’s caps. The focus is on quality, innovation, and technique, resulting in a truly special dining experience. The five-course Australian contemporary menu changes regularly but always features the best Hunter produce.

EXP. EXP.

The only fine dining restaurant in the Hunter Valley not located in a winery, EXP. EXP is situated in the small row of shops which make up Pokolbin Village. The focus is on the food as part of an interactive and entertaining dining experience. The tasting menu includes more than 12 courses ranging from small bites to mains. Watch the chefs at work by getting a seat at the counter.

Spicers Guesthouse

The stylish emo knows how to keep it classic. This contemporary Italian restaurant is located within the Spicers Guesthouse Hotel. The menu includes fried zucchini flowers with ricotta and buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes in autumn, potato gnocchi topped with gorgonzola cheese and tiramisu. Choose the Avido menu if you are unsure what to order. The chefs will then serve you their favorites.

Spicers Vineyards Estate Restaurant Botanica

Restaurant Botanica, another hat-wearing high achiever from the Spicers Family, is part of Spicers Vineyards Estate. It offers comfort food with a French Bistro-style menu infused with English charm and Australian techniques. The menu includes dishes such as coq avin, white bean cassoulet, and chicken ballotine. Other unique items include sourdough caramel ice cream and white bean cassoulet.

Esca / Bimbadgen

Esca, a Hunter Valley institution, is feeling a lot fresher after a recent overhaul of the interior and menu. The menu is divided into four sections: the garden, the sea, the land, and cheese, and dessert. You can choose from these to create your ideal three–, four–, or five-course meal. Esca is perched high on a hill overlooking rolling vineyards and has one of the best views in the valley.

Sebastian

The famed Tower Lodge hotel will undergo a $6-million renovation in mid-2022. A portion of this money will be spent on a new restaurant called Sebastian. The name is derived from San Sebastian in Spain, which is the birthplace of Basque cuisine. It also has the highest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe. The chefs prepare the dishes at the table and explain the intricacies of the food, creating a bond between guests and the chefs.