Reviewed and Recommended by

The Age Good Food Guide 2006

The Restaurant might only be 10 minutes from the city grind, but its idyllic setting at the Studley Park Boathouse creates a sepia-toned atmosphere. Rowing boats rock gently near a curve of the Yarra, geese squabble on the banks, and the breeze sighs through the willows. The majestic 142- year-old boathouse, with its polished floorboards, high-backed chairs and latticed balcony, is the perfect setting for classic fare, served to a well-heeled clientele. Chef Oliver Fulljames’s Entrees draw from Japanese and Middle Eastern pantries. There might be gamey boneless quail and shitake mushrooms wrapped in pastry with a basil and garlic aioli, seared sea scallops on a perky wasabi mash, or dukkah-coated goat’s cheese wrapped in kataifi pastry with spiced eggplant and mint yoghart. Main courses follow a more conventional path, as in grain-fed aged eye fillet of beef on creamed potatoes with a deeply flavoured oxtail sauce, or Gippsland lamb rump with tomato gratin and the salty edge of anchovy relish. While diners may no longer carry parasols, the service remains old-fashionedly attentive but unobtrusive.

Reviewed and Recommended by
The Age Good Food Guide 2003