The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

Wills Domain

Gail Williams

Garden on a plate: organic carrots at Wills Domain.
Garden on a plate: organic carrots at Wills Domain.Gail Williams

17/20

Contemporary$$$

Slap! That was the sound of the menu hitting the table as the waiter responded to our request to shift to a table in the shade.

It's not exactly the sound you want to hear when you're about to fork out around $400 for lunch for four at a winery chosen to show off everything you love about the south west.

"Wills Domain! That's where I'll take you," I said to my sis, Jill.

Advertisement
Vino with a view: looking out over Gungulyup Valley.
Vino with a view: looking out over Gungulyup Valley.Gail Williams

Jill and my wandering son were both back in their home state and we wanted to celebrate with a slap-up lunch. We got the slap but not quite the one we were expecting.

"You'll love Wills Domain," I said. "Great food, a spectacular setting that will make you feel like you're back in France. And they make a jolly good Chardonnay too."

Once she finally got to sample it all, Jill agreed that Wills Domain is indeed something to brag about.

Chef Seth James' much lauded plating up of top-shelf produce foraged from the winery's vegie garden is a source of absolute delight. The setting, overlooking Gunyulgup Valley, is thoroughly uplifting and the Chardonnay is an elegant match.

Wills Domain has high end written all over it from its look-a-like Louis Vuitton-style menu - complete with coat-of-arms - to the bright ceramics and French linen in the adjoining gallery.

But, getting a table is a decidedly more downmarket affair.

We later discovered - thanks to recently married owner, Darren Haunold - there is a glitch with the phone calls going through to the fax machine.

But two unacknowledged phone messages saw us frock up anyway and take a drive on the off chance.

At 1.30pm the terrace was full of blissed-out diners finishing off lunch. A waiter listened, po-faced, to our story and led us to a table overlooking the playground.

With the sun heading over the yardarm it was about to receive the full glare of the afternoon sun.

"Do you think we could sit under the shade cloth on the decking?" asked my hubby, eyeing off a spare table on the verandah.

The waiter turned on his heel and headed off to shift the table, a 30 second exercise. But it was the slapping down of the menu, with just the faintest hint of attitude, that caused the exchange of looks between us.

Things improved as the lunch went along but it took Seth James' menu to bring a sense of joy back to the table and restore the seratonin levels. Just reading through the list of indigenous ingredients and sustainable produce he's hunted down sent a clear message that he knows his stuff and wants the diner to share his love of produce.

Beef tartare, marron with quandongs, Dorper lamb shoulder, beef fat potatoes - all departures from the mundane menu repertoire.

James, a Victorian with Cutler and Co and The Aylesbury restaurant listed high on his CV, has two main points of difference.

He's confident enough to put wallaby on the menu. And he's passionate about connecting the diner with their surroundings in the form of the winery's vegie garden and the local bush. Samphire and Illawarra plums and land cress are incorporated into the act resulting in vibrant flourishes on the plate.

I've never thought of carrots as the star of the show but here the perfectly cooked root veges came with ribbons of beetroot, quinoa and puffed grains in a dish that - garnished with pink and purple sweet peas - could have doubled as a table centrepiece.

The marron starter, literally one mouthful, was just as photogenic but was so fleeting I'm glad I took a pic. This tender little Blue Ridge number from Nannup was floating in a clear jamon broth with a spray of nutty bunya bunya (a seed of the bunya bunya pine) on the side. More eye candy came in tiny quandongs dotted around the bowl, a tart finish to the sweet marron.

Simple presentation of the lamb main, for two to share, belied the intricacies of the sci-fi lover's playground in the kitchen. A Dorper lamb shoulder had enjoyed an overnight stay in a steam oven and a slow reheating to a moist, golden brown finish.

Couscous salad stood out for what it lacked - glugginess and with a lick of dried apricots was the perfect sweetening sidekick.

They even managed to make beef tartare look appetising. Four little clumps of flavoursome wagyu, with an indigenous art dot painting of liquefied egg yolk. Crispy anchovy-laced prawn crackers completed the wow factor.

Oh, and the wallaby. It came from Flinders Island and was briefly seared to a delightful pink. Non gamey in flavour, it was christened with nicely acidic and cleansing Illawarra plums and lashings of fat hen - not a chicken but a herb from their garden.

By the time we got through that the sun was well and truly over the yardarm and we passed on dessert.

But we left with restored fond memories of Wills Domain which should be high on the bucket list for anyone with an interest in where their food comes from combined with a fascination with kitchen gadgetry. Both synergise to form edible works of art on the plate in one of the state's most desirable settings.

Just don't ask to shift tables.

Scoring system:

0-10 Don't waste your money
10-15 Worth a look
15-20 Put it on your bucket list

Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.

Sign up

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement