Happy Thursday!
I say this with a big sigh of guilt as I have been so slack lately with this blog! Sorry to all that are interested enough to read my blog. But anyway, Ill push on with a blog that I haven’t stopped thinking about writing since I was in the restaurant!!
Ok, so a few weeks ago, a girlfriend and I found ourselves without our partners at the end of a lazy and casual Saturday. We soon snapped out of our afternoon daze when we realised that we had an opportunity to satisfy our joint love of a food adventure that unfortunately neither of us can fulfil with our respective partners. So our brains started flying with great ideas. We contemplated going to Inverloch to the Japanese restaurant that we had heard so much about, then we jumped to the idea of going to Phillip Island to the Japanese tapas restaurant we had planned to go to the next time we had a chance, then we thought of a few restaurants in Drouin that we liked a fair bit but had been to before.
Then we summoned upon another friend who shares our love for an adventure and a girly night and we all decided fairly quickly to go to the old favourite that all three of us love so much and that none of us had visited for a while, much to all of our disgust, dismay and surprise!
Brandy Creek Winery near Drouin Victoria is the most ……beautiful, sensational, brilliant restaurant In the area. Well this is definitely my opinion, and I think the girls would agree closely behind me but possibly not to the acclaim I have given. I can’t rave enough about the atmosphere, the cuisine and the delicious an tasty food each and every time I go there. I have been for work breakups, small to medium birthdays and quiet family dinners there and each time, we have had a ball.
Ok, so down to the nitty gritty, what we had! We had….Garlic and Chilli Prawns, Potato Bravas, Twice cooked Duck, Anchovies and bread, Slow cooked mini lamb cutlets, Eggplant bake, and some lovely Turkish bread. Ok that sounds like a lot of food, but it is all in Tapas style dining. So small dishes and many of them is the idea here! Each dish has such a unique and delicious flavour that you won’t replicate in another dish. Each dish has a fantastic individuality that makes it feel so exclusive and delicate. You go from one dish to another, to another and back again and swap and change so much that you can’t work out which is the best and one you want to savour the most! The one thing that I learnt very quickly the first time I went is to order lots of bread because the great dishes have lots of sauce that you would not dare to waste, and quite frankly, it feels like a great loss to send a dish away with so much flavour still awaiting inside!
So when we arrived and looked at the menu we were very presently surprised to see there were a few new inclusions to choose from. A menu refresh is as good as a holiday when it comes to restaurants, but we were very glad also to see a few old favourites still there gleaming with pride. We decided that we were all very intrigued by a few items that we wanted to try and we most definitely had the old favourite that we needed on the list of things we would order. We tossed and turned all the items and came up with a semi-solid list of dishes we would order and decided on the seven mentioned. The anchovies was something that the three of us were very happy with and impressed that we actually enjoyed it. The Eggplant bake had us talking amongst ourselves all night about how it was made and how we could replicate it at home, and the little lamb cutlet things were something of a pleasant surprise. They were topped with a fantastically Mediterranean/Indian type pesto that we couldn’t get enough of. The meat fell off the little bones they were presented on and were tastier than they looked! The Chilli and Garlic Prawns…..enough said. All in all, we couldn’t complain about a thing.
So what is it that makes me so excited about this place? Well it is a glamorous but casual combination of a winery, gleaming atmosphere, envious food and a local location. The style of Tapas is a style of eatery that creates such a casual atmosphere, it creates a mood of conversation and appreciation of such great flavours that is only enhanced by the idyllic setting. Their wine is to die for and they have recently finished extending the inside dining area. During the day, the views are fantastic through the vineyards and across the Gippsland hills. When night falls, the colours come out in beautiful lighting on each table and throughout the rooms.
Well do yourselves a favour and take your friend/partner/family to Brandy Creek Winery for a look or have a look at their website and enjoy all it has to offer.
XO
NJC
