Parker St Project — Restaurant in Victoria

Was really looking forward to dinner. We were staying in Dunkeld with friends and dinner at Parker Street was a much anticipated part of the weekend. Staff were welcoming, a complimentary drink was offered to acknowledge the birthday being celebrated. The menu was limited with only one vegetarian item. Two of our group were vegetarian and thought the eggplant dish on offer would be fine. However, neither enjoyed the flavours and the dish presented more as a summer entree than a dish suitable for an autumn menu. The slice of eggplant was very thin and the dish very unsubstantial for the price. Sides of tomato salad, chips and greens were flavoursome and enjoyed. The chicken parma arrived with a large slice of ham on it. This was not mentioned on the menu but staff were very helpful and replaced this when requested without the ham. The very thick breast of chicken was too thick to really enjoy and only came with a zucchini puree, a small serve of chips. The other main ordered by our party was the roast lamb. The accompaniments were nice but as with the other mains, the dish was overpriced. We decided not to order dessert as we didn't feel confident these would be enjoyed given our experience with the mains despite how nice they sounded on the menu. Overall a very disappointing dining experience. With all the marketing hype around The Royal Mail and its garden, which inspres the menu, we were expecting a wonderful culinary experience. Unfortunately, this dinner will be remembered for the...

🥩 Sirloin Steak 🍞 Onion, Garlic and Thyme Milk Bread, Vegemite Butter 🐙 Octopus 🥩 Rib Eye Steak 🍌 Bread and Butter Pudding, Banana Icecream

Parker St Project is a casual dining restaurant located within the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. The menu offers a range of seasonal dishes, highlighting produce from their kitchen garden (the largest working restaurant kitchen garden in Australia!), orchards, greenhouses, olive grove. Their neighbouring farm Dunkeld Pastral supplies beef and lamb which are born and bred for use specifically in the Royal Mail Hotel restaurants.🐄

To start the Milk Bread came with Vegemite Butter, which for someone who doesn’t like Vegemite - loved. The Octopus was very small but delicious, the bbq flavour really came through and the capsicum dip paired well. 🍞

The Steaks were decent, both a little tough and mine was undercooked. I didn’t like the sauce so lucky I asked for it on the side, the Rustic Chips however were great. 🥔

Overall it’s a beautiful spot and quite possibly the only spot in town for a fancier feed. If you are around the Grampians it’s worth a visit and their Spring Menu looks lovely. For a more fine dining experience book in advance for Wickens at Royal Mail Hotel, their degustation style restaurant by Executive Chef...

There are three sections to the Royal Mail; Wickens fine dining, Parker Street restaurant and Royal Mail bar. We ate in Parker Street. Decor is simple modern. Lighting is just right. Visit before sunset to see Mount Sturgeon out the window. :) Table service was good, polite, mostly helpful; there are obvious challenges with itinerant staff. Kitchen service was quick. Food portions are reasonable for the price range. Overall, we felt that almost every dish was overcome by the sauce/jus/gravy. Unfortunately, that aspect masked the main ingredient of every dish. The sauces were well balanced generally (albeit the satay sauce on the bokchoy was a little boring), but in all instances, there was just too much sauce - which then masked much of the flavour of the otherwise lovely lamb, cauliflower, bokchoy, etc etc. Chargrilled lamb fillets on potato damper were good; but could have been better with less sauce and less oil that masked the flavour of the damper. Pork head "croquette" was beautifully cooked shredded pork meat. Cauliflower "raclette" was done nicely. We will return another time as their menu is very seasonal and changes all the time. (Chef, please lighten up on the amount of sauce/gravy/jus so we can taste more of the specially/locally sourced main...