Breakfast gets cracking at 6am. Early birds can catch egg and bacon butties (the bacon is house-cured and smoked), slow-cooked lamb toastie and even a breakfast ramen with a 63 degree egg and house barbequed pork. The rotisserie threading Bannockburn chickens and pork onto the mechanical axels bring more substantial meals like hot rolls stuffed with rotisserie meats (chicken, gravy and mayo or pork, chutney and coleslaw), or fresh picnic sambos like ham and chutney or curried egg and cress.
You’d be mad not to go for the signature rotisserie chicken. These heavenly hens can be ordered by the quarter ($12.50), half ($23) or whole ($29). A quarter serve of breast and drumstick is juicy and sweet, its golden skin crisp with Pickett’s herb and spice rub with notes of thyme, bay leaf and parsley. There are chips, salad or confit vegetables to accompany your chook, but our pick is the slick carrots and fennel slices roasted down to a caramelised sweetness and creamy Kipfler potatoes. It’ll take you back in time to your nan’s Sunday roast.
Beef was the roast of the day on our visit. Two slices of Sher wagyu topside, a meaty field mushroom and pretty dutch carrots sitting atop a splash of sweet, creamy carrot puree surrounded by a sticky moat of jus. The beef is cooked medium, tender with a gnarly chariness round the edges. It’s not a big lunch, but it’s robust in flavour and quality and, happily, leaves room for dessert – an orange and almond cake that’s soft and fragrant, or a shortbread, memorably spicy with ginger, cinnamon and citrus peel.