Ten Top-Notch Regional Restaurants with Their Own Kitchen Gardens and Farms

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Spring is synonymous with freshness and vitality. It's the season of weddings and births, spring cleans and fresh starts. The days are longer — thanks, daylight savings — and the temperature that perfect mix between hot and cold. Brisk mornings are followed by warm, sun-plenty afternoons that summon us to get out and explore. And, we don't just mean exploring more of Melbourne. To really make the most of the season, you need to escape the city and go bush.

With crisp spring vegetables and juicy fruits ripe for the picking, regional Victoria is in full blossom. And, thanks to the farm-to-table approach taken by many regional restaurants, you can really sink your teeth into spring and treat your tastebuds to some of the best seasonal produce around — expertly prepared by the likes of hatted kitchens, award-winning chefs, as well as family teams that just have the savoir-faire of homegrown produce.

To help you navigate to these locally focused culinary champions, we've created a list of restaurants in regional Victoria where you can get a glorious springtime feed thanks to the on-site farms and kitchen gardens putting the freshest fruit, veg and meat directly on your plate.

BRAE, BIRREGURRA

Set on a hillside farm 30 minutes from Geelong, Dan Hunter's world-class fine diner Brae boasts an ever-changing set menu that's dictated by the produce grown on the on-site organic farm. Each day, Hunter and his team carefully select fresh ingredients from Brae's veggie plots and orchards and formulate the day's menu. Practically everything, from the eggs laid by a flock of free-range chickens to the olive oil produced from a grove of more than 100 trees, comes from the farm and is irrefutably fresh. Crunchy, nutty, tart and sweet — Brae proves time and time again that when you've got a great ingredient, you don't need to fancy it up. This restaurant lets the produce speak for itself, and it says plenty.

LAKE HOUSE RESTAURANT, DAYLESFORD

Set among six acres of country gardens, the Lake House in Daylesford is a multi-faceted venue that's grown to include hotel accommodation, a day spa, cooking school and an award-winning restaurant. Co-owner and culinary director of the restaurant Alla Wolf-Tasker champions seasonal produce, serving up a cutting-edge modern Australian menu based around ingredients from the on-site orchard and kitchen garden, as well as meats from local farmers. Seasonality is naturally apparent, with spring delivering dishes such as an artichoke tart with burrata, preserved lemon, candied olives and smoked creme fraiche.

PROVENANCE, BEECHWORTH

Since 2009, chef-owner Michael Ryan has been serving high-quality regional produce with a Japanese flare at his Beechworth restaurant Provenance. And it seems it's provenance by name, provenance by nature — specifically when it comes to ingredients. Dishes are accompanied with an anecdote about how the ingredients came to be on the plate — with personalised and rather cute descriptions like 'weeds picked from under Ryan's daughter's trampoline' — highlighting the hands-on foraging that's practised by the chef. With both a meat and veggie degustation available, Provenance will have your springtime cravings well and truly covered.

DOOT DOOT DOOT, MERRICKS NORTH

Within Willow Creek's new luxe hotel Jackalope, you'll find hatted fine diner Doot Doot Doot. Executive chef Guy Stanaway and Head Chef Elliott Pinn have crafted a produce-driven menu featuring seasonal ingredients from the hotel's kitchen garden and various Mornington Peninsula producers. At Doot, you eat with the seasons via a five-course tasting menu; think spring lamb with chinese broccoli, white soy and ice plant or spaghettini with broad beans, goat's curd and fresh sorrel. We suggest adding the wine pairing for an additional $90 to sample some fantastic local drops.

MONTALTO, MORNINGTON PENINSULA

A hatted restaurant, a sprawling vineyard, a celebrated cellar door and an expansive sculpture garden, Montalto has it all. Making the most of its Mornington Peninsula locale, Montalto Restaurant offers a warm and relaxing dining experience, stunning views and top-notch estate-grown produce harvested from the four-acre kitchen garden. Head chef Gerard Phelan reflects the rhythm of the seasons and knows how to make seasonal ingredients sing, bringing a refined rustic feel to each dish. We suggest ordering the confit cabbage with stracciatella, orange and macadamia ($17). Cabbage is in season and incredibly tasty when plucked straight from the farm and put on your fork.

MERRIJIG KITCHEN, PORT FAIRY

Within the oldest inn in Victoria, you'll find a food-lovers haven boasting all kinds of tasty regional fare. Encompassing a DIY ethos, the Merrijig Kitchen cures its own meat, smokes its own fish and grows its own produce in a thriving kitchen garden ensuring guests are treated to the best ingredients the region has to offer. The seasonal menu, which changes daily according to what's available on the day, includes decadent French-style fare — think duck liver parfait and new season whole artichokes, as well as a throng of local bio-dynamic and organic wine. If you're driving along the Great Ocean Road, be sure to plan a pitstop here.

WICKENS AT ROYAL MAIL HOTEL, DUNKELD

Accessible only via bush trail, remote fine diner Wickens at Royal Mail Hotel is all about getting back to nature. Taking over a new standalone space on the Dunkeld property, the venue boasts floor-to-ceiling windows that frame striking views of Mount Sturgeon and Mount Abrupt and executive chef Robin Wickens' hyper-local menu changes regularly. Using daily hauls from the on-site olive groves, orchard and 1.2-hectare organic kitchen garden, the kitchen plates up garden-fresh goodies that refect the micro-climate of Dunkeld. In spring, we suggest opting for veggie dishes over meat — the broad beans are particularly delicious. 

DU FERMIER, TRENTHAM

In the tiny town of Trentham amid the breathtaking landscape of the Great Dividing Range sits Du Fermier, an understated French restaurant that immediately feels like home. Channelling farmhouse-style cooking, chef-owner Annie Smithers plates up hearty seasonally driven fare, featuring ingredients she's rustled up from her kitchen garden earlier that day. The menu is comprised of the classics — there are no Blumenthal-esque shenanigans here. It's just honest-to-god cooking that doesn't need to work for your attention. The set menu is $75 per head, available for only two nights each week, so be sure to book for this one. 

LITTLE GREEN CORNER, GEELONG

Geelong's Little Green Corner is all about keeping things both seasonal and sustainable, an ethos established by owner Hugh Whitehead. Both resourceful and inventive, Whitehead applies that old 'waste not, want not' adage, turning excess fruit into cordial and excess milk into ricotta. The menu showcases produce from the venue's farm in Waurn Ponds — run by Whitehead's in-laws — and the kitchen garden just 20 metres from the cafe's front door. While dishes are constantly changing based on what's ripe in the garden, we suggest the made-to-order rolled oats with fresh, seasonal fruit — it's the perfect spring brekkie.

FORAGE ON THE FORESHORE, PORT CAMPBELL

As its moniker implies, this venue is all about foraging on, well, you get it. The waterfront cafe is located by the popular Port Campbell beach and, unsurprisingly, seafood is the dish of choice here, specifically the pan roasted great ocean wild abalone with garlic butter and raw celeriac salad ($28.50). The cafe is a real family affair, with the husband and wife duo and their four children all fetching produce from the local area. Whatever is in season, they'll collect and transform into something special. Head here to get a little dose of family and a big dose of spring.

For more spring places, spaces and events to discover in regional Victoria visit Your Happy Space.