Balgownie Estate Bendigo Restaurant

Fine dining experience choosing between a two or three course meal. My husband and I decided to share a starter and dessert wise choice as the portions made it easy to share. We selected the duck and sticky pork belly as mains both...great sumptuous choices. Good food with locally sourced ingredients. A lovely Sunday afternoon lunch. A bit pricey to bring the whole family and would say not a child friendly menu. Friendly and helpful staff. Our only complaint was the music not a relaxing playlist that detracts from the atmosphere.

It has been a long time since we enjoyed a meal as much as the dinner we ate while staying overnight at the Estate. We opted for a course fixed price menu; each course was a delight, starting with an unctuous pumpkin ravioli. For...mains I had the most succulent and beautifully cooked pork belly. My wife, who is a lamb connoisseur of a high order, proclaimed her lamb shoulder as the best she had eaten. The fruit sherbet selection for dessert cut through the richness of our mains, and was full of flavour. With wine, a pre-dinner drink and mineral water, we spent on the meal. Sounds like a lot for a regional restaurant, but this is up there with the best food you will find in a major city. The dining space is functional rather than opulent, but a window table looking across to the vineyards is a view that is hard to top. Service was country-friendly and professional.

We recently had breakfast at Balgownie for two days and found the food to be excellent. However, there were a few issues that prevented us from giving it a higher rating. Yesterday, I ordered sourdough toast which was supposed to come with butter and jam, but these were missing when it arrived. The waitress seemed confused when I asked for butter and I ended up giving up. Today, we requested smaller juices instead of the large ones and were served in a different glass that was supposed to be smaller but ended up being the same size as the tall glass. These small inconsistencies may not be significant, but they were enough for us to reconsider returning if we find ourselves in Bendigo again.

We had lunch at this restaurant on a Monday. There were both positives and negatives to our experience. The food, for the most part, was very good. My Skull Island prawn with broth was delicious, though the prawn was slightly overcooked and difficult to eat in its shell within the broth. However, my duck was perfectly cooked with no complaints. The pannacotta dessert was served flat in a bowl, masking the fact that it was slightly overcooked. The service was good overall, but the wine tasting with the older gentleman was particularly enjoyable and inspiring, even if he didn't seem overly interested. I would rate this restaurant slightly higher than average.

I have always wanted to go to Balgownie as I have heard it’s beautiful but I will not be coming back after my experience there. We had a small group booked in for a wine tasting. My friend had pre-booked but we were told they...lost our booking since my friend contacted a male worker and he did not write it down. We were told we could stay but we needed to make our wine tasting “snappy”. We were seated outside on a degree day with no shade even though there were tables inside available. As the wine tasting commenced, one worker stood at the end of the table the whole time watching us and making us feel very uncomfortable. The worker was also listening in on our conversations and commenting. Towards the end of the wine tasting we were told they had shut and were waiting for us to leave, even though there were other diners there. We were there for a total of We felt like an inconvenience even though it was their mistake for losing our booking. Will not be recommending to everyone I know and I will not be going there again.