Mr & Mrs Smith

Lake House

Daylesford, Australia

When you want to explore the produce and wine of rural Victoria, and your partner feels like recharging their batteries, Lake House hotel in Daylesford is the ideal furlough. Fans travel for miles to indulge at chef Alla Wolf-Tasker’s multi-award-winning restaurant overlooking a tranquil lagoon. For the past 25 years, she’s built around its success to create a 35-room rural lodge and state-of-the-art spa, complete with treetop hot tubs and Hydrostorm shower. That it’s set on the edge of this unique spa country town makes it all the more seductive.

Need to know

• Rooms 35, including 12 suites and two villas.
• Rates Double rooms from AU$500.00, excluding tax at 10 per cent.
  The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (AU$500) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
• More details Room rates include full country-style buffet breakfast, WiFi, car parking and daily newspaper. Packages that include a la carte dinner are also available.
• Facilities Salus Spa, gardens (including kitchen garden), tennis court, DVD library, private cellar and tasting room, guest lounge with billiard table and fireplace, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: flatscreen TV, DVD/CD player, iPod dock, minibar.
• Check-out 11am, check-in, 3pm, but flexible, subject to availability.
• Children Kids are welcome. Extra beds cost AU$185 a child a night, including breakfast, available in suites only. Baby cots are AU$20 and babysitting can be arranged.
• Also Co-owner Allan Wolf-Tasker’s talent is in the artist's studio – which is nestled on site with views over the cool fern gully. Featuring the kitchen and restaurant, his works can be seen throughout the hotel.

Food and drink at Lake House

• Hotel restaurant In 1984, chef Alla Wolf-Tasker opened a 40-seat, weekend-only destination restaurant called Lake House. In the past 25 years it’s evolved into a boutique hotel, but still it’s the food (and unbelievably sleek yet warm service) at this award-winning eatery that many people come for. Wolf-Tasker is a champion of local producers and almost everything on her modern Australian menu is grown in the region. The menu changes according to season, but expect house-made charcuterie, heritage vegetables and fruits, local trout, eel and cheeses, free-range pork and wagyu beef. For the full experience, order the tasting menu.
• Dress code This is a smart, rural restaurant where food is celebrated and devotees come for a special occasion. It’s about understated cool: Marni and Zimmermann for her; Lagerfeld or Saba for him.
• Top table Inside, there’s a long banquette with tables overlooking the lake. On a warm day, the veranda is the place to be. For something more intimate, private dinners can be arranged in the cellar.
• Last orders Lunch is served from 12pm–2.30pm, dinner from 6.30pm. The restaurant kitchen stays open until late to accommodate those languishing over the tasting menu, but you wouldn’t want to sit down much after 8pm.
• Room service A full bistro menu is available until 9pm. In-room minibars are also worth raiding, as they're well stocked with hand-made delicacies from the Lake House kitchen as well as local drops from boutique breweries and wineries.
• Hotel bar The main bar – a relaxed, quiet venue – sits adjacent to the dining room, but when the weather is mellow guests often migrate to the veranda, where grazing plates and tipples are served between 3pm and 6pm, with drinks at the bar until 11pm. Wing your way towards house cocktail the Flying Goose, a quirky mix of vodka and cherry brandy with a secret ingredient.

Lake House 4 King Street, Daylesford, Victoria 3460