15/20
Contemporary
Not many city restaurants are as ambitious or successful with their dishes as Pettavel, the hilltop winery complex just west of Geelong. This kitchen likes to take an ingredient – a tomato, say – and elaborately transform it, offering a slice of the garden-sourced original alongside a jelly, a delicately poached and skinned example, and maybe some Spanish ham. Cauliflower may be pureed as well as delivered as florets alongside perfectly roasted quail. Such refined technique starts with superb produce, where possible from the restaurant's own garden, and showcases ingredients like succulent local rabbit or rich Otway pork with rhubarb and black pudding. It's a set menu of five or eight courses; allow at least three hours for the leisurely feast, and bring a designated driver – both menus offer matching wines. You'll start with three entrees, then choose a main and dessert, or perhaps a St Agur blue cheese from the adventurous list. The one evening session, Friday, is something of a Geelong institution. Though the lavender decor is a little clinical – functions are a speciality – the country service warms things up. The cellar-door tasting area offers a smaller menu.
Open Daily 11am–5.30pm; Fri 6.30–11.30pm
Typical prices Set menus $75 (5 courses); $100 (8 courses)
Cards AE DC MC V Eftpos
Wine Full range of Pettavel wines expanded by succinct and wellselected Australian, French, Spanish, Italian and New World labels at good prices
Owners Mike, Sandi and Robyn Fitzpatrick
Chef Matt Dempsey
Seats 150; private room; bar 
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