La Petanque

Going up the garden path is rarely so rewarding: it leads to a restaurant whose inviting barn-like rooms look on to old cypress pines and across the slopes of the Main Ridge valley. Owner Philippe Marquet is the friendly, informative host. The menu moves comfortably between France and the Mornington Peninsula - local olive oil and vegetables share the table with French salt and French cheeses. A meal here is a leisurely and serious experience, with white cloths, fine glassware, and imaginative cooking. A prune-studded slice of rabbit terrine served with rabbit rillettes is balanced by sharp cornichons and crisp toast; a salad of winter vegetables, bright with all colours of beetroot, carrots and herbs, looks as fresh as a summer's morning. Crisp-skinned snapper, just cooked, comes with Mount Martha mussels, and fennel mousseline. Desserts are deliciously clever, maybe crepes filled with spiced Red Hill apples, paired with green apple sorbet and squares of apple balsamic jelly.