The Farm Eatery — Restaurant in Nuriootpa

I wanted to try a nice restuarant for our anniversary, this place has great scenery but it felt a little too boujee for us.

(Did I actually just drink rain water or do they just call it that?)

Overall it was a different experience and definitely worth trying even if you’re not into the whole winery thing.

The young bloke working on Saturday needs to improve his service a bit, he made us feel really awkward and out of place. Before arriving I called up and spoke with a polite lady who told us there would be room for 2 people for lunch and no booking was needed. On arrival the other guy seemed reluctant to seat us, he showed me the menu and said “this is our menu if you’re interested”, which was a bit akward given the same menu is already on display at the door and I had also checked it out online before making the drive.

Even though there appeared to be plenty of seating, were given a spot at the very back of the restaurant shared with other customers.

We ordered the $80 per person 3-course, when I asked if we could get some more bread the same guy said “yes but it costs extra”

Honestly I don’t know if it’s him or there’s something about me that gives off the vibe that I can’t afford to eat at a restaurant.

Food was a quite different to what I expected for $80 per person, it felt more like entres but some reason everything had pickled veges or fennel seeds.

Having been raised in a Mediterranean family, the food seemed familiar with a more modern, smaller portioned twist.

Some meze type things would have been great, maybe some different cheese and deli meats or a woodfire pizza options would have made a big...

We had the Eat menu and we were disappointed. The focaccia was delicious and the starters were good, but after that things went downhill. My husband's lamb was excessively fatty, and that's not a complaint he usually makes about meat! In fact, for some time afterwards he complained of the fatty taste that remained in his mouth. My chicken was okay, but far less appetising than other meals we've enjoyed around South Australia during our holiday here. The desserts were very underwhelming - the small pannacotta hadn't set and, like the pretty tasteless tiramisu, had a very sloppy, unappealing and unauthentic texture. To be honest, it was like something I might make for friends and then feel obliged to apologise for! I would have said this to the lady at the till, who I believe was Elli Beer, but she had already not appeared particularly welcoming when greeting us at the door, and then didn't do us the courtesy of asking if we had enjoyed our meal. So I'll post it here publicly instead. I'm aware from other reviews here that this restaurant has many happy diners, but from what we experienced in the second half of this meal, I really don't...

My friend from Sydney who is a massive Maggie Beer fan and my daughter visited on a lovely warm sunny Tuesday in early December. I tried to book at table that morning but the website, which is really bad, said they didn’t take “last minute bookings”. Rude.

Anyway we tried our luck and the restaurant was pretty empty. We were seated and ordered a couple of glasses of wine. Which were not great. Maybe they should offer BYO. A nice lady took our order but it turned out she didn’t put it through properly so we had to go again.

We had 4 dishes and the bread. Only one, the crispy chicken was up to par. I wouldn’t order any of the others again. The menu is limited and won’t suit a lot of people. Check before you book/go, although the menu on the website wouldn’t load on my iPad.

Quite disappointing given the fame and popularity of the venue.

The cooking demonstration at the farm shop was great although my friend was disappointed Maggie didn’t come...