What's it like inside the revamped Pialligo Estate Farmhouse?

The Pialligo Farmhouse always seemed inexplicably ambitious. What justifies this scale of expense and luxury, this scale of venue at Pialligo? You feel it must be part of a grand plan that is yet to be fully disclosed.

The restaurant opened as a high-end venue with undeniably fancy food to match the location. But more recently it closed and has been revamped, and now offers a much more accessible pasta-and-steak menu. Which is not to say it is downmarket - the menu is still sophisticated and the food cooked with care. But the focus is now on simplicity and the food bistro-style.

Pork, cognac and prune terrine ($20) is rustic and really good, all just squished together without fuss, clear lumps of prune in the mix, alongside apple and currant chutney and little toasts. We love this kind of food, and later wonder how we failed to order the beef tartare with Ortiz anchovies, capers and brandy.

Still more so the bone marrow ($17), which is served as a little bone chopped in half lengthways to expose the marrow, and then roasted. Nothing else here other than salt and rosemary, and toast to scoop the marrow onto. Just fantastic.

This food matches the feel at Pialligo, which is luxe country estate. You enter on a dark night through huge solid doors, into a foyer and then into the restaurant, which is a large space with high, heavy-beamed ceilings, tiled floors, loads of candlelight through tealights on the tables and banks of candles in the corners, and two big open fires, as well as a wood-fired oven visible in the kitchen. The tables are widely spaced, adding to the sense of expansiveness, and so inspired are we by the open fires that we move to the big chairs by the fire for dessert. It's that kind of place. 

The wine list is good and sensible, well focused on Canberra and with some appealing options by the glass from France, Spain and Portugal. We're pretty happy with a 2017 Ravensworth pinot gris ($12), which comes startlingly pink from the skin contact, and which tastes, as always with this local maker, textural and meaty, and is excellent with food. Rejoice – the bottles come to the table for pouring. If you're drinking by the bottle, you'll find similar happiness in Collector Lamp Lit Marsanne ($75).

There's a big focus on steak on the menu – from a 180-gram flatiron steak, aged 14 days dry and 14 days wet ($27), to a 1.2-kilogram tomahawk steak, 42 days aged ($150), and a "butcher's steak" special of the day, which we're told is a 300-gram sirloin on the bone ($42). Not that we're interested in steak.  

Instead, it's beef cheeks with polenta and roasted mushrooms ($28). And what an excellent choice. The meat is so dark, and gelatinous, sticky in the mouth, filling and rich with all that broken down connective tissue. It's meat that needs no cutting. The polenta is thankfully not a puddle, but gets the right balance between runny and solid. Again, it's rich, heavy, matching the beef. The sauce is subtle and spare, again a good thing.

Wagyu bolognese ($26) shows a similar combination of gusty, generous and rustic preparation, but subtlety. The meat and simple tomato sauce is minimal, just clinging to the fresh, wide pasta strips.

Portions are generous (but not excessive) here, and as it turned out we hadn't needed to order the cauliflower gratin ($10), which is simple, homely version, full of cheesy sauce.

Service is attentive and feels almost overly so, but it's willing and helpful, if not completely relaxed. 

Desserts are more complex in their presentation. "Lemon and buttermilk" ($15) is a tart with a thick cornmeal base and a good lemon curd on top, plus a lovely quenelle of fresh lemon sorbet. 

Lychee parfait ($15) is a big puffy tennis-ball-sized parfait of white chocolate with lumps of lychee, like a huge marshmallow, with a bland lychee sauce poured over, and a white chocolate wafer. Not a fan of white chocolate, I find this quite hard going, but the peach sorbet alongside is completely delicious, so delicate and respectful of the fruit.

We like the revamped Pialligo Estate, and would return more often in its less-fancy guise. A really pleasant place to eat, food that is very well done, and a lovely sense of removal from everyday life.