Apres Restaurant, Vintage Drive, Rothbury

Apres Restaurant, Vintage Drive, Rothbury
Thursday 28 December, 2006

The Vintage is Greg Norman's golf course in the Hunter Valley (just under 2 hours from Sydney) - it has expanded to include residential blocks, apartments, a club house, gym etc. Today we were visiting a friend who has Blueberry Hill vineyard (opposite The Vintage) and then lunching at Apres Restaurant within The Vintage estate.

Apres looks over the golf course and during the day offers a mixture of club sandwiches, salads and light meals. We had a drink in the bar first where they had the cricket on the TV. It was relaxed and we watched all the golfers come in off the 18th hole for a cleansing ale.

We moved into the restaurant and ordered some starters - turkish bread with 3 dips (olive tapenade, tomato salsa and baba ganoush) and steak fries with mustard aioli. The mustard aioli was sensational and the perfect compliment with steak fries. The wine list didn't have any of the Blueberry Hill wines on the menu so we had a bit of fun with our waiter around this.

For main I ordered the daily market special - filleted snapper served with scallops and salad. Four of my lunch buddies also ordered this and our other lunch buddies ordered the beef burger and prawn risotto. We all really enjoyed our meals - the snapper was delicious served with the skin on and filleted - the scallops were large and tender - I believe this was the pick of the mains.

As we sat back and enjoyed the atmosphere we were presented with the dessert menu. I shared the Max Brenner chocolate fudge cake with one of my lunch buddies and two lunch buddies shared the dessert plate that consisted of samples of several of the dessert offerings. Coffees all round we tucked into our desserts - the fudge cake came served with espresso gelato so my caffeine intake shot through the roof but it was very good.

The service was patchy as the staff had to keep track of all the bar patrons, the golfers seated outside and the restaurant patrons.

We could've stayed for hours but had to return to Sydney - there was hardly any traffic on the road so it was smooth run. What a great day!

Apres Restaurant - Vintage Drive off McDonald Road, Rothbury - (02) 4996 6789

http://www.thevintage.com.au/