FEATURED IN: TOP 10 BOUTIQUE HOTEL GUIDE
As anybody with even a passing acquaintance of Daylesford’s Lake House knows, this pioneering luxury regional hotel started life more than four decades ago as a 40-seat, weekend-only restaurant. Owners chef Alla Wolf-Tasker and her late husband, the artist and builder Allan Wolf-Tasker, wanted to emulate the kind of high-end dining you’d find in regional France, a radical concept in 1980s Australia and one that has served as a template for the nationwide wave of destination dining that followed in its wake.
Since then, Lake House has expanded to include accommodation in the form of studios, suites and villas, a renowned day spa, 2.5 hectares of beautifully maintained gardens and, most recently, the nearby Dairy Flat Farm which offers stylish accommodation, a bakehouse and, being a working farm, an ever-increasing proportion of the produce that is served in Lake House’s still-renowned restaurant every day.
While there is much to enjoy about Lake House – the Narnia-like feeling of entering another world the moment you drive through the front gates, for starters – the fact that the culinary is still centred as the heart of the experience, its philosophical compass, is proof that the commitment to finessed, creative and regionally focused dining is as strong as it was on day one.
The restaurant is a charming, well-upholstered space, banks of windows flooding the place with light during the day while also providing serene views over Lake Daylesford and of the surrounding gardens. The opportunity for pre-dinner drinks, either in the clubby Argyle Library Bar or on the terrace overlooking the infinity pool adds to the sense of dining as an event, encouraging you to slow down and take your time.
It helps too that the service, led by the charming Robin Wilson (married to the equally charming Lake House manager Larissa Wolf-Tasker) is so assured. And that the lengthy and wide-ranging wine list, which embraces the local while still displaying a fondness for the Old World, is one that eliminates any chance of disappointment for novices and wine geeks alike.
Lake House menus change seasonally and have, in recent times, shown an increasing fondness for vegetables, many of which have been harvested at Dairy Flat Farm just hours before service. There might be a tartine of broad beans and snap peas served with burrata and preserved lemon or a potato pavé teamed with white asparagus and local morels. Local cheese and meat – excellent capretto, for example – sit alongside desserts that take advantage of the region’s affinity for fruit and berries. The overall impression is of a meticulously sketched portrait, both of this neck of regional Victoria and of the amazing ingredients that the surrounding farms and Australia more generally are capable of producing.
The restaurant is also the venue for breakfast which is another highlight of the Lake House experience. Is it just the setting or do the locally produced bread, pastries, eggs and honey served here really taste so thrillingly of the place you’re consuming them in? It’s more likely a winning combination of the two that has made Lake House such a standout.
Best Hotel Dining: Highly Commended
Ace Hotel Sydney, Sydney
Como The Treasury, Perth
Hyde Melbourne Place, Melbourne
Qualia, Hamilton Island
Raes on Wategos, Byron Bay
Stillwater Seven, Launceston
The Calile, Brisbane
The Eve Hotel, Sydney
The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter, Sydney
The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne
The Ritz-Carlton, Perth
The Tasman, Hobart
All winners in the Gourmet Traveller Hotel and Travel Awards have been determined via an esteemed panel of industry experts, including Goumet Traveller editor Joanna Hunkin and seasoned travel contributors Michael Harden, Lee Tulloch, Alexandra Carlton and more. Led by Hunkin, the judges and an expert team of critics also reviewed and endorsed more than 50 hotels across Australia to deliver the Gourmet Traveller Hotel Guide.
How we pick the Gourmet Traveller Hotel and Travel Awards winners
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