Despite the whims of vintage, seasonal tourism and dining trends, this landmark Margaret River cellar door restaurant constantly delivers, time after time, long lunch after long lunch. One of the bedrocks of this consistency is champion hospitality: the handiwork of waiters that have bought in wholeheartedly to Vasse Felix’s strong service culture. Chef Cameron Jones’s cooking is equally exacting and obsessed with detail. A Japanese-style beef-cheek-and-lardo croquette gets finished with threads of crisp-fried gai lan and a peach tonkatsu sauce. Crunchy potato noodles with a warming ginger oil are played off against supple toothfish sauced with kombu-spiked béchamel. An oyster blade steak arrives accessorised with purple tapioca jewels poached in estate shiraz. (Clever, although the benchmark house wines fare even better in the roomy stemware.) While the kitchen has a global outlook, the snug upstairs dining room and downstairs Janet Holmes à Court gallery reiterate the Australianness of this vital wine country address.
