Pasta at Hollick Estates — Restaurant in Penola

Wonderful venue with a fantastic view unfortunately that’s about where it ended for us…. The menu was sparse to say the least. We both decided that the pork belly would be our safest bet as none of the menu items advertised on the website were available. Served with mushrooms, asparagus cauliflower purée and red onions we were anticipating a wonderful plate…. What we got was a very nicely cooked 150g slice of pork belly, 4 halved, pan fried button mushrooms, 2 pan fried sprigs of asparagus piled atop the pork with a garnish of red onion and rocket oh and I almost forgot (as it was very forgettable) a 20c piece size squirt of cauliflower purée. We joked at the redundancy of the side plates as there are no sides available… No breads, no veg or salads nothing but empty plates. To finish 2 choices whipped chocolate cheese cake or wild fennel panna cotta… oh tea or coffee that’s it!! You guys need to update your web page because if we’d been able to see the menu prior to booking we would have gone elsewhere. It really felt as though the “chef” was working from home and had decided to phone it in. As for the service sheep in drenching yard comes to mind. I know we’ve all suffered due to Covid ect but the only way to survive is to move...

Disappointing, following a warm and informative wine tasting downstairs, my partner and I went upstairs to the restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately our meals didn't live up to previous favourable reviews. My entree, a twice cooked onion souffle was delicious but my partner's Asian inspired lamb salad was tasteless with no hint of dressing on the coleslaw. Mains consisted of a dry and overcooked duck breast and ? Eye fillet steak,-which it obviously wasn't. Thus 3 out of 4 dishes were unappealing, considering the upmarket restaurant prices the experience was very disappointing. Feedback fell on deaf ears and my partner and I were relieved that we had decided against having the chef's degustation menu-perhaps it was his day off!

I would like to give credit to the restaurant manager for responding to my review by telephone today. The menu has been revised and my concerns have been acknowledged...

Let me start with the positive - the wine produced by Hollicks is superb. The cellar door team are knowledgeable, friendly and professional. However, we booked for lunch - and wish we hadn't - think of ordering a pasta at any bistro. It was awful. No table service to speak of - order at the bar. Cutlery handed over in a tomatoe tin. No ambiance or atmosphere and the quality of the pasta didn't make up for it. We asked to have fettuccini or linguini with the carbonara instead of spirals and that was a hard no. With some rubbish about spirals being the only pasta to serve with that sauce. We were looking forward to a lovely relaxed lunch and were very disappointed. Would not go back unless they dramatically change the way the...