Esca Bimbadgen Restaurant (Hunter Valley, AUSTRALIA) ★★★☆☆

A relatively relaxed 2.5-hour drive from Sydney brought us to Hunter Valley, the region famous for its winery.

Our first stop at Hunter Valley was the Bimbadgen Estate, a local winery, vineyard and cellar door. Like many local vineyards, Bimbadgen Estate has its own restaurant and they have a fairly good one in Esca Bimbadgen Restaurant that serves a brand of international cuisine with an Australian twist. As expected, there is an optional wine pairing for every course available.

The major selling point here, apart from the food and wine, is its view. This is the only restaurant in Hunter Valley located up high on a hill offering a magnificent view of the nearby vineyards. The view itself is second to none and is especially awesome on a sunny day.

I felt like I was at a French vineyard when I first saw a fountain and small garden at the entrance of Bimbadgen Estate. The main building of the estate includes a factory, the cellar door (tasting room) and the restaurant. The restaurant is situated at the entrance level where it's hard to miss.

Walking into the restaurant, we found the place to be divided into two sections, the indoor seating area which was totally empty and a patio that was fully occupied.

The patio was where we were heading since we have made a special request during our advance booking. On a sunny day like this, a seat overlooking the vineyards and township of Pokolbin is very much appreciated.

Lunch sets range from A$65 to A$150 with an a-la-carte menu available anytime throughout the day. A special ‘Christmas in July’ menu was also available at the time we visited. It should be noted that a minimum of one main course is required by each guest.

The wine list is very extensive and it was easy to find something we like. At this point in time, we started realizing that the restaurant was badly under-staffed resulting in the very slow service. So we kept ourselves entertained by taking pictures of the views and exploring the garden downstairs, while we waited for our server to take our order.



Freshly made bread was followed by the amuse bouche. The presentation of the amuse bouche was unimpressive but we did enjoy the molecular inspiration behind the olive caviar.

Smoked salmon with olive caviar, 1/10 (Oops!)

 

 

Seared line caught blue-eye cod, celeriac, braised fennel, cauliflower pangritata, 2/10



Bimbadgen Shiraz braised beef bourguignon, mushrooms, baby carrot, 5/10



Smoked duck breast, duck croquette, parsnip puree, bimbadgen garden Kumquats, duck jus, 5/10



Pork shoulder, roasted walnuts, apple segments, cannellini and tomato ragout, 7/10



Emerald Valley sirloin, beef ravioli, oregano and rosemary mash, hunter sauce, 7/10




Food rating: 4.5/10
Price: $$$
Address: 790 McDonalds Road, Pokolbin, Hunter Valley, Australia
Website: www.bimbadgen.com.au/esca



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