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RCA 2002 Modern Australian Restaurant of the Year - Hunter Region & Regional NSW

RCA 2002 Restaurant of the Year - Hunter Region & Regional NSW

RCA Modern Australian Restaurant of the Year - Hunter Region - 2003,2004,2005,2006

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 14/20

Shakey Tables Restaurant

By Franz Scheurer

The Hunter Country Lodge offers accommodation with bush and vine views in peaceful surrounds and this is where you find the Shakey Tables Restaurant. Run by Simon and Paula Rengger this is indeed a gastronomic find.

The Hunter has long been promoting itself as a Wine and Food region but the food component has definitely been lacking. Shakey Tables is certainly putting the Hunter on the culinary map.

A wooden structure houses the restaurant and the wood theme is mirrored inside. Polished floors, wooden wine racks, fantastic wooden tables and chairs upholstered in no less than 11 different colours immediately make you feel at home. The theme of many colours is repeated in everything from the lamps on the tables and the lights on the ceilings, to the paint scheme and the outstanding modern art displayed all over the restaurant walls. Paula Rengger, it seems is not only an artist in the kitchen but a considerable force with a paintbrush too.

Everything is solid and glass and tableware are excellent. The flair for visual stimulation is obvious in the brochure, the menus and the wine list. In fact, everything works seamlessly together.

You are greeted with a superb amuse gueule of ‘Salmon Mousse with Pickled Ginger Sorbet, Salmon roe and deep-fried Nori’ served in a shot glass and accompanied by a fresh, warm bread roll and a small dish of olive oil with a dash of Balsamic vinegar. The olive oil, grassy and fragrant, is called ‘Lucy’s Run’ and is produced next door, and sold in a rather striking bottle with a label designed by Paula.

The menu is a good read and a mixture of Mod Oz and Modern European. Paula hails from Scotland, Simon is Swiss, and together they ran a restaurant on the Isle of Skye before opening here. This explains some of the dishes on the menu, like the ‘Herb crusted Beef Fillet with a medley of baby root vegetables, Yorkshire pudding and a Shrewsbury Sauce’ or the ‘De-boned roast pigeon, stuffed with Black Pudding and Prunes, wrapped in Bacon, Cabbage parcels and a red wine jus’, which is a fabulous dish. Perfectly rare pigeon, crisp bacon, succulent black pudding, a sauce worth killing for and excellent presentation really make this one a standout. Presentation is individual, in your face and I like it, although some might think it a little fussy. An entrée of ‘Sticky Hoi Sin Pork belly, spinach, pineapple, chilli and coriander salad with seasoned crackling’ is another winner and vegetarians are catered for with a ‘Layered Char grilled vegetable stack with gourmet Fetta, chilli jam and Petite Salad’ or ‘Peperonata tart with herb coated goats cheese & parmesan crisp’.

Desserts too are excellent. I loved the ‘Blood plum & White Chocolate parfait with coconut crusted ice cream in baked plums’ and watching the rapt expression on the face of a diner at the next table demolishing his ‘Apple charlotte, custard pot with apple crumble and vanilla ice cream’ it must have been as good as it looked.

Whilst Paula looks after the magic in the kitchen, Simon is the sommelier and the face in the dining room. His wine list is one of the better ones I have seen and focuses, rightly so, on Hunter wines. Wines by the glass are brought to the table, offered to taste, and then poured. I wish every restaurant would do that! Although the food is not cheap, value for money is excellent and the mark-up on the wines is very reasonable. Service is attentive, friendly and professional. Something rarely seen outside the city.

Will I be back? You bet!

Score: 7.5 / 10

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