Tonic Restaurant — Restaurant in Millthorpe

(3.5 stars) It has been six years since my last visit to the historic town of Millthorpe. The character of the village seems to have changed a lot. Bar for the longstanding village hub, the Millthorpe Corner Store, everything is now trendy and expensive, with fancy providores, cellar doors and high-end homewares stores all vying for weekenders' attention.

Tonic Restaurant has been a village stalwart since 2003. It’s a big airy space that’s air-conditioned and thus nice to dine in on a hot day; offering up a cool colour palette and good table separation across two split levels.

As you’d expect sitting twenty-odd kilometers from Orange, wines from the local region are featured across the wine list, which also ventures as far as France and Spain. Against a saccharine amuse bouche of sweet corn soup, the 2015 Bloodwood Riesling ($60) shows a good acid spine, rounding out with more texture and nuance as it warms and the food gets more savoury.

Sunday lunch can be taken as Two Courses ($70/head) or Three Courses ($80/head) and arrives with complimentary extras like bread and butter. It’s popular so I’d suggest booking ahead. When we arrive, blue plaid shirts abound in the dining room, mostly filled with older, middle-class Caucasian guests. Perhaps this is why the kitchen thought my pretty trio of kimchi scallops needed tempering with honey and crème fraiche. The kimchi itself is quite good, and the scallops, while small, are not overcooked. What I didn’t like, was eating something that tasted like an upmarket version of seafood with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce.

Duck tortellini are thick and doughy, leading to their filling getting somewhat lost. While the broth was neither here nor there, the fresh spring presentation with baby carrots, broad beans, pea shoots and sliced bird felt seasonally appropriate to the country locale.

Under rubbery skin, the roasted pork jowl is well rendered and tasty. The rich porky flesh is well cut by stewed spiced apple, a tiny celeriac salsa and an appropriately, lunch-sized dollop of smooth pomme purée.

Pan-fried snapper had a salt-encrusted, crisp golden skin and yielding white flesh. Flavourwise it’s my favourite dish, but with a fennel encrese (this a fancy way of saying crushed fennel) that was super-salty, salted fish skin and an appropriately seasoned bouillabaisse sauce, it had me reaching for my water glass over and over again.

Reconstructing a tomato is a pretty cute idea on the very well-presented Tomato, Bocconcini and Basil Side ($12). With good quality produce and vinegar, it provided welcome palate relief, but proved slightly harder to share than I was anticipating. You basically needed a band saw to cut the garlicy bread disc it was sitting on. Insert comically loud clanking of knives on crockery in a quiet...

Disappointed. As a pescatarian, I am always keen to see how restaurants attend to their non meat eating diners, and usually I am so impressed with the meals they have catered for me. Booked for lunch and advised that I am pescatarian prior, as I do with many restaurants we dine at. During the lunch, it was obvious that they did not prepare for my meal requirements. I was advised that with the Oxtail Ravioli with beetroot dish, that they will remove the ravioli and serve me Beetroot Salad. Yes, I was to be served only a side salad dish as one of the 5 course meals. No replacements just more salad. Very shocking for such a restaurant. I had no choice but to say serve me the Oxtail ravioli, and the staff said its a light red meat anyway so it's ok.. ummm no. I gave the ravioli to my husband as I am paying $80 for this whole experience not for side salad. For the Chargrilled Sirloin with mushroom and potatoe, they had advised that I will be served salmon, which was great to hear. However, was told after, that I will be given a pumpkin pie. Forty minutes later, the pie that replaced the sirloin, was quite small (would be appropriate as the first dish /entree, not the main dish in a set menu). However, food was plated lovely. Cauliflower (& pancetta) veloute was delicious. Seared tuna was enjoyed greatly as it was the only main dish I felt I had. The dessert, Strawberry Bavarois was presented exquisitely but the taste did not match. Unfortunately, not a good experience at this restaurant. Be very clear if you have dietary requirements, and I suggest you call them again day before to remind them of your dietary requirements. Hopefully this will help you have a more lovely dining...

Tonic lies at the crossroads of old Millthorpe village (20min from Orange). Until now had we the chance to visit Tonic whilst on our daytrip to Orange. We we seated by the window for lunch. It overlooked the village road and the views that disappeared into the hills surrounding.

$70 for 3 courses was our best pick. There is no al a carte. Choosing from an appealing menu was really hard! It did not help when the beautifully presented quail or the lamb passed us by to other tables. Regardless the meal was scrumptious.

Liked: Entree: Seared scallops w sweet corn velouté & confit chicken leg Entree: Braised oxtail crepenette w consommé Main: Roasted pork back strap w baked whole apple, stacked potato and sauce Main: Seared swordfish (stacked) w quid ink tortellini filled with crab Dessert: Baked Apple Pie with vanilla ice-cream Dessert: Lime souffle with Goats cheese icecream (definitely challenged the palate! Great texture, but not for me) Dessert: Creme Caramel with the slither of honey as the caramel!

Local staff was friendly and accommodating. Recommended a local savignon blanc that matched the swordfish and scallops. Equally was the amazing cauliflower gratin with fresh in season truffle from down the road.

Loved the place for a date and very easy to get lunchtime bookings.

For foodies, the natural light streaming in from the windows allows for great food photography (if only I brought my usual...