Gazebo Wine Garden

With its romantic inside/outside Parisian garden setting, Gazebo has always been more about dating than dining. That changed in 2012 when ex-Balzac chef Matt Kemp was appointed to ramp up the kitchen ops. While he has since moved on, he left a lively menu of British comfort food. A generous serve of fish and chips comes on the house ‘newspaper’; terrific sausage rolls are filled with a rich mixture of duck, pork and liver; and a reconstructed prawn cocktail is a hoot, with king-sized king prawns hanging on the rim of a giant preserving jar layered with lettuce, prawn and cocktail sauce. Some of the more serious food is seriously good, such as a confit pork belly cleverly teamed with grilled nectarines, and a lovely heirloom tomato salad that is a riot of colour. Pavlova loaded with mango, banana and cream is typically good value, but needed some acidity for balance. It’s good to see our top drinking destinations becoming dining ones as well.