Laura is a complete restaurant experience. The location is incredible, at one end of a sweeping arc of a building overlooking Pt. Leo Estate’s sculpture park, tucked beyond the establishment’s cellar door and casual dining room. It’s a cosseted enclave that is both elevated and comfortable, and the set menu showcases Phil Wood’s questing romance with the Mornington Peninsula. Roasted, creamed potatoes are mixed with three types of goat’s cheese and magicked into steamed dumplings that explode in the mouth. Windfall acorns are turned into a pastry – a two-week process – that becomes the base for a savoury pear flan. A mussel is hidden inside a faux shell made from scallop mousse in a seafood charade that surprises and delights. Sweet custard is part-set so it becomes an oozy fondant pudding: the ingredients are beguilingly simple, but the creation is a canny blend of wizardry and sheer graft. In every dish, and the wide-roaming wine list, there’s a link between culinary heritage and contemporary mores rendered with a witty lightness of touch. It’s all underlined by engaged, informed and personable service, ensuring Laura is one of Victoria’s essential dining experiences.
Gourmet Traveller’s restaurant guide gives a yearly snapshot at the best restaurants to eat at right now. The best-rated restaurants, as judged by the reviewers’ first-hand experience, form our national Top 50. The wine star-ratings, which range from zero to three stars are made by wine editor Max Allen on the strength of the quality of the restaurant’s wine list. View our rating key here.
Laura
Australian
Pt Leo Estate, 3649 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Merricks
Photo: Julian Kingma
