Boutique hotels
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Royal Mail Hotel
- Style
- Gourmet-stamped pub
- Setting
- Southern Grampians panorama
Self-catering properties
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Mt Sturgeon
- Style
- Cosy country cottages
- Setting
- Panoramic peaks
The Grampians Eating, drinking and dancing
Restaurants
(+61 (0)3 5356 4344)
D'Arcy's
Open for dinner only Monday to Saturday, and with a focus on elegance and fine dining, fully licensed D'Arcy's makes the most of Western District beef and lamb and adds the ever-popular kangaroo and emu to the changing seasonal menu. Sip an aperitif wandering around the pleasant garden out the back. It's the inhouse restaurant to the Best Western Halls Gap Colonial Motor Inn.
Grampians Road, Halls Gap, Victoria 3381, Australia
(+61 (0)3 5356 4222)
Kookaburra Restaurant
Thirty years of trading and still going strong, the Kookaburra is known for its crispy baked duck with brandy-cream sauce and duckling risotto with star anise. But it prepares all your favourites well, including roo, barramundi, steak, chicken and pork, pastas and salads, as well as Thai chicken salad and Thai-style prawns. Family friendly; book ahead.
125-127 Grampians Road, Halls Gap, Victoria 3381, Australia
(+61 (0)3 5356 4858)
Quarry Restaurant
Quarry is a popular Halls Gap stalwart and opens seven days a week for lunch and dinner. There's clever but relaxed Mod Oz dining with a shifting menu that features quality local produce with more than a nod to gourmet bush tucker. Wallaby and emu steaks, barramundi, tiger prawns and crocodile might be accompanied by bush tomato relish spiced with mustard seeds.
Stony Creek, Grampians Road, Halls Gap, Victoria 3381, Australia
(+61 (0)3 5577 2577)
Royal Mail Hotel
The brilliant historic Royal Mail Hotel, in Dunkeld in the Southern Grampians, is one of regional Victoria's most outstanding culinary experiences and has garnered countless accolades including most recently the prestigious 'Country Restaurant of the Year 2009' in The Age Good Food Guide and Gourmet Traveller magazine's 2009 'Regional Restaurant of the Year'. People come to the Grampians for no other reason than to dine at the Royal Mail, which is also a Smith boutique hotel. Exquisite food and wine in a superb rural setting make a meal here utterly unforgettable, with organic and heirloom vegetables, herbs, leaves and fruit grown in its own gardens and orchards. It's open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, and booking is essential.
98 Parker Street (Glenelg Hwy), Dunkeld, Victoria 3294, Australia
(+61 (0)3 5356 4232)
The Balconies Restaurant
Located in a sumptuous historic timber mansion and part of the Mountain Grand boutique hotel, The Balconies Restaurant is excellent. The dishes are artfully prepared and represent all corners of the culinary globe – Lombok lamb curry, Thai green curry chicken, French lamb cutlets and kangaroo fillets done medium rare with cranberry jus. Live jazz brings patrons from all over on Saturday night, and it's fully licensed.
Main Road, Halls Gap, Victoria 3381, Australia
Cafés
(+61 (03) 5361 4000)
Bushfoods Cafe
Part of Brambuk, The National Park & Cultural Centre, this cafe focusses on Aboriginal busktucker and native foods, from kangaroo, emu and crocodile to vegetarian fare. As well as hearty all-day breakfasts (served from 9am till 4pm), including scrambled eggs with native bush herbs on toast, you can enjoy lunch from 11am till 3pm or pick up light snacks to take away.
Grampians Tourist Road, Halls Gap, Victoria 3381, Australia
(+61 (0)3 5356 4222)
Morningside
This upbeat café behind D'Arcy's restaurant offers good coffee and cooked breakfasts served indoors or on a deck overlooking the sleepy fields behind Halls Gap.
Grampians Road, Halls Gap, Victoria 3381, Australia
+61 (0)3 9315 1415
Mt Zero Olive Grove
After a light lunch of terrine, gazpacho or salad in the Mt Zero cafe, stock up on pantry supplies in the gourmet produce store. Must-buys include Mt Zero's own olives, oils and delicate pink salt.
41 Mount Zero Road, Laharum, Victoria
