Yellow Billy Restaurant — Restaurant in Pokolbin

Sunday lunch has a new destination. Flying under the radar, Yellow Billy Restaurant opened up quietly in Piggs Peak winery about a year ago. Named for local bush ranger William White, who took on Yellow Billy as a pseudonym, the restaurant’s food offering centres upon the fire pit. This mode of cooking reflects the foraged meals the outlaw would have had while he evaded capture in the nearby Brokenback Range.

While White would have no doubt liberated his lamb, the Yellow Billy team have ethically sourced their tasty Pukara Estate Lamb ($32/180 grams) from an hour up the highway in Denham. After spending eight hours over the pit that you can see from your table, your weighed portion of moist lamb is served with jus. The intensity is cut by a sharp mint and verjuice jelly that keeps things ultra-local by being made using unfermented grapes from the winery you’re sitting in.

With recycled timber archways dripping in grape vines, the dining room is accessed via an attractive courtyard, where an array of drought-resistant plants, from cacti to spiky grasses, help to create an attractive outdoor dining space. In winter it’s warmed by a large sandstone fireplace, though on the blistering hot day I attended, we quickly retreated into the air-conditioned dining room for lunch.

Inside repurposed timber beams and window frames are the highlights of a neutrally toned space lined with wine racks. We are in wine country, so as you’d expect, the booze list here is substantial – twenty pages in fact. The estate’s own wines – Chardonnay, Tempranillo, Shiraz, fortified Verdello – are all available by the glass. There’s also a Coravin system that gives you the opportunity to try wines usually too expensive to be available by the glass, like the 2016 Bret Brothers La Soufrandiere Climat Les Quarts Chardonnay ($36/glass), which offers up layers of unfolding flavour.

These systems also affords you the opportunity to try less popular varietals, like the 2018 Murdoch Hill Pinot Meunier ($16/glass), which impresses with strawberries before getting some of the lip-smacking acidity and leathery qualities I love about these light reds. To get the road dust from your palate, perhaps kick off with a craft beer. While the locavore ethos sees brews from the Hunter and nearby NSW well represented on the list, we can’t go past Gippsland’s finest brewery, Sailors Grave. We hit up their Lemon Meringue Cream Sour ($14.50) and their Down She Gose Ale ($13) that are both quite pricy here, but as they're such high-quality craft beers, you’re unlikely to mind. The lemon meringue sour kicks off with tart lemon curd, then after a hint of cream, ends on biscuity pie crust. It’s a definite converter beer for anyone who thinks they don't like beer.

We take our meal as a one-course shared family meal, combining the aforementioned lamb with Merrifield Suckling Pig ($32/180 grams). The Berkshire pork is moist and flavoursome against a homely apple jam; and the crackled wood-fired and oven roasted skin that crowns it, deliver just the crunch you want to get from well-executed crackling. Bathed in smoke on the top shelf of their fire pit, the 16-hour Black Angus Onyx Brisket ($34/180 grams) is the pit’s crowning glory. Smoky, juicy and topped with the best chimmichurri I’ve had (plenty of olive oil and dried mint), this fatty cut of New England Tablelands beef is perfectly handled - actually the most tender brisket I’ve eaten in a long while.

We break up our meaty feast with Spring Peas ($21) and snow peas arranged around creamy burrata cheese with eschallots and fresh spearmint leaves. Grilled Asparagus ($15) is another winner, adorned with pasture raised duck egg gribiche, shaved Parmesan, croutons and frisee, on an old-fashioned patterned plate that appeals to home for a Sunday roast vibe. With a whole section of snacks left to explore, I’m predicting another Sunday drive to wine country sometime in the very...

Myself and my partner attempted to come here on a Friday at about 3:45pm. We walked in and there was no staff in the garden area, but plenty of seats with QR codes, so we assumed we could sit and scan the QR code to order a glass of wine and a small bite to eat.

When we asked a staff member for the WiFi password so that we could load the QR menu, one staff member stated that the cafe may already be closed and she was going to check, while the other staff member gave us the WiFi code. We sat down and before we could even load the menu, someone who appeared to be a manager came rushing out and stood over us and repeatedly told us how the cafe was closed and the “times are written on the board” (the board is tucked away in a corner and not facing people coming through the entrance, may need repositioning if it is the oracle of opening times). Before I could state that we were actually looking to order from the restaurant which according to google was open til 8:30pm, he told us that the restaurant was also closed for food and wasn’t serving again until 5pm. After what felt like 10 minutes of him ranting about the opening and closing times and the board that states all of this (which was not visible until we went to leave), he finally stated that they could serve us some wine and cheese if we wanted. Ironically this was all we were looking for in the first place (not that they ever thought to ask us). We politely declined due to the way we had been spoken to, and left.

What could have been a simple “hi guys what is it you’re looking for today? Unfortunately all the venues are closed for food but we can offer you some cheese and wine”, was made to feel like a huge ordeal, and as if we were burdening a cellar door for a drop of wine.

Who would have thought getting a glass of wine in the hunter valley would be...

Fabulous food and delicious, interesting wines. Service not quite so good but we didn't mind!

We had a long lunch for 10 people on New Years Eve and were seated in the corporate dining room. The room itself is a bit odd, but once we got in and warmed up nobody minded.

We all had the $90pp banquet, with a few of us choosing to go with the premium wines matching ($135pp instead of $90). The entrees were on the small side but absolutely full of flavour - the BBQ octopus was a real highlight, as was the babaganoush and goat's fetta. And the mains were extraordinary. The porchetta was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten, the hangi style chicken was a touch dry but full of flavour, and the sirloin was huge and perfectly cooked. And the desserts were light and sweet and packed with local fruit, perfect for summer.

The wine matching was spot on, a fascinating Italian white with the entrees and a big Italian red for the mains. Others ordered bottles of local wines, and the staff's knowledge of these was terrific - lots of good recommendations which we visited for tastings in the following days!

Even with all these extra bottles of wine - and a few of us indulging in post-lunch whiskeys and ports - we still only paid $170pp, including a tip. A terrific experience and excellent value for money....