Fine Dining

The real joy of wine is found in good company enjoying great food together and the gifted chefs of Hunter Valley Wine Country are every bit as picky about what they present to you, as our skilled winemakers are. Locals love nothing more than to carve out an afternoon for long lunch and lively conversation about the wines they’ve laboured all year to bottle, so don’t be surprised to find yourself rubbing shoulders with them at any one of our 30+ eateries.

You’ll have your choice of five, hatted restaurants, no end of intimate settings overlooking vines that the wine in your glass has been harvested from, wickedly good dessert bars, and relaxed pubs or cafés where you can kick back in country ambience without missing a beat on deliciousness.

The heart and soul of Hunter food culture is producedriven menus and passionate people who work tummyrumbling magic with their pick of an abundant regional crop, much of it grown within a stone’s throw of where you’re devouring it. Our fanatical foodies believe the perfection of what they plate-up, hangs on out-of-this-world, locally farmed raw ingredients, so bursting with flavour that you can almost taste the sunshine. Chances are, the chef was up to his knees in mud and gumboots just before your arrival, foraging some finishing touches from the kitchen garden.

Park yourself by an open woodfire and you’ll quickly acclimatise to a food adventure with a share plate of artisan cheeses, from the dairy down the road, dripping with honeycomb that’s fragrant with the gum blossom of towering local eucalypts. Really savour the sweetness of local lamb and beef that melts so beautifully onto your fork, the crispness of veggies you never knew tasted so good, and a smokiness that sets your mouth watering as it wafts in with your sourdough. It’s all part of the trophy-wine-worthy food experience that is, in essence, wonderfully simple, defiantly regional, and certain to leave you craving more.