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All hail the Royal Mail

Gemima Cody
Gemima Cody

Robin Wickens, centre, in the new Wickens at the Royal Mail kitchen.
Robin Wickens, centre, in the new Wickens at the Royal Mail kitchen.Supplied

Good Food hatGood Food hat16.5/20

Contemporary$$$

What a difference a dining room makes. In one fell swoop, the folk behind the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld have not only moved their product from one of the dullest dining rooms in the country to what is hands down one of, if not the best, they've also finally exorcised the ghost of Dan Hunter in the process.

This is the fine diner Hunter put on the map in 2008, and though he left for Brae in mid-2013, the transition to the Robin Wickens era felt like exactly that. Everything you knew about the restaurant, from its kitchen garden philosophy to its staggering French cellar, carried on as if nothing had happened. A strong line was never drawn between the two chapters. Now, with Wickens' name attached to the restaurant and a space he helped design, this feels like the blank slate he has needed to make the Mail his own.

And what a slate. Ben Shewry might have transmitted strong elements of Australia into Attica this year, but this. This is a panoramic viewing box that sees you upskirting Mounts Sturgeon and Abrupt while a crackle of cockatoos is dive-bombing right outside the window. The tables, cool, and earthy, are made of solid stone. Detail is kept to diffused orbs that hover over tables and a chef terrarium where a group of fourmight sit and watch the tweezing go down.

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Butter-poached pork belly, hay and broccoli.
Butter-poached pork belly, hay and broccoli.Julian Kingma

Everything is streamlined, minimal in a way that's more beautiful barren outback than Scando, and designed to shoot your gaze straight up those peaks. It's like you're watching Picnic at Hanging Rock at Gold Class with significantly better snacks.

On that. Something else is new at the Mail. I last ate here three months ago, and granted, it was the winter menu offering less in the way of vivid garden greens, but there was nary a dish that was free from snows, foams and waxy gels. Perhaps Wickens' focus was already on the new project but the endless tricks felt dated and not in service of celebrating the house-grown vegetables and meat to its greatest potential.

Something has shifted. Wickens still occasionally gilds the lily. Behold the opening snacks: here's a breakfast radish dipped in a lovage gel to swipe through a vinegared cream; there's a carrot and orange candy roll-up, just like something from primary school, and just as intensely marmalade-y sweet – it's a fairly cloying amuse.

The view of Mount Sturgeon from the kitchen garden.
The view of Mount Sturgeon from the kitchen garden. Supplied
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But alongside: meaty strips of abalone swaddled in a soft milk bun with hot rocket flowers for liftoff; an insanely delicious puffed cracker made of pickled onion with a roo tartare given slight smoky edge from charcoal oil. There's markedly more restraint and focus on flavour. There's far less that feeling of a chef with something to prove.

Excepting a few gels and a lot of flowers, it's a fairly straight game now, fist pumping for the foliage and animals grown just down the road. Those snacks present in a 3D model of the garden.

When the meal proper creaks into gear it's with a pink, pretty, floral arrangement of eel, paper-thin beets and a violet-infused vinegar that combines to taste like savoury Turkish delight.

Sheep's milk blancmange, broad beans and their juice.
Sheep's milk blancmange, broad beans and their juice.Supplied

From here, things take a surprisingly intense turn with meaty hearts of artichoke washing in a bacon broth, peppered with radicchio and society garlic flowers. It's lovely in its directness, and might be lovelier still with a lighter hand on the salt.

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The crunchy F.X. Pichler gruner veltliner that's poured with it, on the other hand, is a surprisingly perfect foil for artichokes, one of wine's great frenemies. Brilliant wine service, and service in general led by Matthew Lance, is something that hasn't needed to change and hasn't changed. All three wine match options (a mixed bag from their cellar, a premium Australian match, and an all-French option) offer their own wins.

A surprise party of buttery 2003 Dalwhinnie chardonnay rounds out a herbal dish of juicy grilled blue-eye withhits of kohlrabi juice, chrysanthemum puree and celery. Next, a Sonoma pinot is the tool to carry the weight of Great Ocean duck breast with skin cooked to a perfect shard of crackling, brilliantly offset by sour accents of poached green rhubarb and barbecued cabbage.

The Royal Mail has one of the best established cellars in the country.
The Royal Mail has one of the best established cellars in the country.Supplied

There again, you could always buy a $10,000 bottle from the 30,000-strong cellar – available for tours and operating as a cellar door, if you're an investor chasing rare burgundies.

They've doubled down on little things like these tours (you can also check the gardens with the chefs). But where it counts, they've shed some fat. The moves are more economical. The vision seems tighter.

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The final meat course? Local lamb, partly cooked sous vide to softness (which will appeal or not) and paired with pops of peas, broad beans and aromatic bergamot.

Dessert offers a latecomer to the veg-as-dessert game that adds to the oeuvre: caramelised diced green tomatoes, teetering between tart and sweet riding on brioche with verdant, super peppery nasturtium petal ice-cream. Sparks ahoy.

The only advice? Make the vision tighter still by electing the five-course menu over the eight. As easy and engaging as you'll find it to sit in those chairs, fingering the most delicate plates and 9.47 Perceval daggers, it's enough. Enough to warrant a drive. Enough to warrant a stay. Enough to reclaim a fighting spot on Victoria's destination dining list.

Drinks: One of the best established cellars in the country, particularly the French collection.

Vegetarian: Vegan and vegetarian menu available on request.

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Gemima CodyGemima Cody is former chief restaurant critic for The Age and Good Food.

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