Welcome to Darlington Estate Winery

Our visit to Darlington Estate Winery took place on 16/02/2008. The restaurant had recently changed hands, and we were keen to try out the deliciously simple menu published on their website.

We were greeted warmly and seated promptly. The location and ambience of this restaurant is delightful. The views alone are well worth the visit. The restaurant was full by 8pm.

My mouthwatering anticipation of Oyster shooters went quickly out the window with a quick perusal at the menu. It was totally different to the content and style on the website! Our waiter explained that a new chef had started 2 days previously. We were happy to find out that it was Paul Smith, formerly chef at Chesters in the Swan Valley. The menu was short, descriptive, and had a surprisingly autumnal slant for mid February.

Our entrees were the tasting plate which consisted of a terrine, prawns, scallops and other sublime morsels. I had an entree of prawns with a creamy garlic risotto. Both entrees were substantial, with some rich, complex tastes.

My main course of beef fillet was cooked as requested, and could not be faulted. A generous side portion of sauted french beans could easily have been shared by the both of us.

Desserts were a Pear and Ginger pudding - clean, strong flavours, and not stodgy. The Creme Caramel was well textured, but not outstanding.

The wine list consists of Darlington Estate wines only, at present. These were better than I remembered. The '06 Cab Merlot was soft and well rounded. The winery is not yet licensed for beer, but they were happy to serve our BYO Crownies.

Overall, service was attentive and well informed. Our initial waiter relied too much on charm, chat,and lots of apologies for forgetting items like bread. Luckily, his colleagues were much more efficient and quiet, and made up for his mistakes. Given the recent change of chef, floor manager, and owner, everything appeared remarkably smooth and professional.

We are looking forward to revisiting for Sunday lunch, in order to enjoy the relaxing view, and sample more great food.

Tucked away down a winding country road is the beautiful Darlington Estate. The building, both outside pagodas and gazebos as well as the main structure housing the restaurant and wine room have obviously been well thought out and well taken care of.

The service was impeccable, greeted at the door and immediately shown to our table. Very friendly, knowledge of both food and wine and happy to assist.

We were able to taste all the wines before dinner in the Wine Room. It was interesting to learn that the Estate had changed owners in the last 6 months; however they were very well informed of their new purchase. The Cab Sav/Merlot was a winner and the Sparkling.

The menu has a lot of meat a lot of which is game, with only one vegetarian dish comprising of a soufflé. I had the duo of Harvey beef (beef cheek & fillet). The beef cheek was grisly and the fillet was not cooked as ordered. The special was also chosen, a ballantine of quail and macadamias on a red wine risotto and it was outstanding.

Our waitress apologies for the delay in meals, as the Chef was 'missing in action' and therefore took 90 mins to arrive, not acceptable. We did get a complimentary basket of bread to tide us over which was appreciated. Thankfully we also had a wonderful view to look at for 60 of the 90 minutes and were able to walk around the beautiful gardens.

I had never been to Darlington Estate before (let alone Darlington) and yes, we almost got lost too, but what a beautiful area to get lost in!

5 of us enjoyed a recent Sunday lunch there and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The views over the vineyard are gorgeous, but it was a bit noisy with everybody sitting inside due to the slight chill in the air.

We ordered a bottle of sparkling pinot chardonnay (which was perfect) while we looked over the menu. Everything looked divine and it did take us a while to make up our minds. Our young waiter had some trouble remembering the specials of the day but we didn’t mind at all, the setting had put us all in such a good mood.

One soup of the day was ordered (pumpkin, lemongrass and coconut), along with a tapas plate and another special, salmon with scallops. The soup was declared a winner, the tapas (carpaccio with white bean sauce, pork koftas with tsatziki and dukkah crusted chicken with lentils) was a nice mix of flavours and while the salmon was cooked perfectly, the scallops were nowhere to be seen, they had been replaced with prawns. When we queried the waiter on this, he came back from the kitchen and told us very sheepishly that they were out of scallops. Two of our table were a bit annoyed as they had ordered pork belly and scallops for mains. The waiter dashed off to the kitchen again and came back with the offer of extra prawns on the dish. This was satisfactory although running out of something that was the special of the day and an ingredient in the mains menu was a bit disappointing.

There was quite a wait for our main meals and we did end up enquiring if they would be much longer. We ordered a 2006 Semillon chardonnay while we waited.

Mains consisted of macadamia and preserved lemon chicken (very tasty), the pork belly (and prawn) salad (lovely), navarin of spring lamb (divine) and another daily special, confit of salmon. The salmon was the only let down. Yes, it was a confit but it was undercooked and not enjoyed at all (the chef at our table did agree it looked underdone). When my friend told the waiter it was not enjoyable and could she perhaps have it placed under the griller, she was told another diner had also complained and the chef refused to do anything about it. We were quite persistent and eventually it was taken away. Some bread and olive oil was offered as compensation and a new, grilled piece of salmon eventually made its way to the table. It was a bit disappointing though, that two diners had complained but the chef was initially not prepared to do anything about it, is the customer not always right??

A wrong soft drink also made its way to the table and was left as a gesture of good faith. Sure, there were a few hiccups but our waiter did his best to keep us happy. There was lots of good natured ribbing and he really did a fantastic job of helping us enjoy our meal. As a previous reviewer said, don’t come here if you are really hungry, the serves are small and not exactly cheap (a side serve of chips with aioli and a basic mixed leaf salad were $9 each). But it was a great day out, the entertainment book meant that we got $30 off the bill and I would go again, maybe for a special occasion.

Darlington Estate is well worth the drive and if you are coming at night the possibility of getting lost for the food and the service.

A group of 8 of us had dinner on a Friday night and nothing could be faulted about the food, table service or the excellent jazz band that were playing.

We kept the starters very simple. All of us partook in the house made bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip. The bread was fresh and hot and really complimented the olive oil and vinegar nicely.

For some reason 6 out of our 8 group all decided on the Harvey Beef fillet with only myself and another opting for something different. Granted he opted for the beef cheeks so I guess he still decided to go with the theme.

Everyone rated the beef very highly and after having a taste I can also vouch for it. Not being a big fan of béarnaise sauce though I had to take there word that it was also of superior quality. All were cooked to perfection and extremely tender.

The beef cheeks, I was told, rated very highly. The very first comment from the diner was "Jesus, it is falling apart on my fork". It was a tender and tasty dish.

On a recommendation I had the pasta special. Now I am normally not a pasta man when I go out. I got sick of being disappointed so I usually avoid something that I can cook better at home.

The pasta was a spinach fettuccine, with Tasmanian salmon, mussels in a white wine sauce. It was simply one of the best things that I have ever tasted. Absolutely amazing. The pasta was cooked to perfection with an amazing flavour that was not overpowering.

Desert was a masterpiece. The majority going for the Chef's Chocolate Trio while I went for the Apple and Cinnamon Pannacotti with Apple Sorbet. Fantastic.

This delightful food was presented well and tasted fantastic. It was washed down with a few bottles of the estates Semillon Sauv Blanc. Very fresh with a great taste.

So what went wrong. Certainly not the food nor the table service. Grumbles were made about portion size. This is not a place where you come for a hearty meal that will leave you loosening your belt, but that isn't the point of Darlington. Our position was a little close to the band making conversation difficult at times.

Entertainment Card is accepted but for some reason gift vouchers are not accepted with the card. Now I may be wrong but a gift voucher is a prepayment. Someone has prepaid the restaurant for you to have a meal. For some reason they chose to refuse the use of the vouchers that we also had in our possession. The lawyer in the family pretty much stated that it was the same as cash so it was a bit strange.

Not somewhere for every week but definitely for special occasions. Highly recommended.