Bracu Restaurant

What a gem on the city edge... Bracu is a very special place for a fine dining experience among the olive groves. Pricey and totally worth it, they also do a lot of special events (valentines, fathers day etc). While the location is a huge part of the eperience, I do wish it were closer so I could visit more often!

This place is awesome. The food was superb and the staff were great. Would be perfect spot for an event. It's quite a drive from the city but well worth it.

This is well worth the trip out if you live in the city. We visited in winter so arrived in the dark through sleepy Bombay and were greeted with twinkling lights at the gate. It was only 7.30 but there already about 15 cars in the car park, and each car gets its own little slot. The entrance is separate from the main dining area, so once seated you feel secluded enough. I really want to go back in summer as they’ve got a lovely verandah seating area round two sides of the venue, that look out on to grass and a little rotunda (wedding anyone?). There were plenty of people out there on our visit as it’s covered in winter. The menu is precise and being vegetarian weren’t offered the degustation as there’s only one option and it includes meat. We had the smoked tomato salad to start which came with eggplant, pureed broccoli, broccoli florets and goats curd. The goats cheese was really subtle and didn’t overpower the salad at all. The smoked tomato was divine (I am now thinking about getting a smoker) and mixed perfectly with the natural smokiness of the roasted eggplant. The broccoli added a smooth subtlety to the mix of flavours and the whole thing was delicious. I wanted to eat it all over again. I slightly reluctantly chose the risotto for my main – it was the only veg option – but the maitre d’ said it was voted the best vegetarian dish in the country (or something along those lines). I was very pleasantly surprised when it arrived as there is no rice in it at all. It’s a five-grain ‘risotto’ of brown lentils, barley and maybe bulger. It came with truffle creme and a smoked egg yolk. At one stage I had my eyes closed savouring the flavour sensation. Yum doesn’t really cover it. The way the chef has mixed each ingredient is amazing, and you can taste the flavour of each ingredient even when mixed together. Only thing I think would add to the experience is if they do what the French Cafe does and explain what’s on your plate as they serve it. The sides of potatoes and steamed vegetables were huge and very good value. As you can imagine, being at a vineyard the wine list was fabulous. I had the Misha’s Vineyard Central Otago pinot gris and will now be hunting that one down. It has the nicest finish of a pinot gris I’ve had so far in my pinot gris experience. With our banoffy and creme brulee desserts I had a glass of the Cloudy Bay reisling dessert wine (either 2006 or 2008) which was melt in the mouth but not sickly sweet. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable evening, crowned by the maitre d’ running out the door to us with a bottle of the Simunovich extra virgin olive oil as a thank you for coming out to visit them.

We went to Bracu on a Sunday night intrigued by their reduced, fixed price menu with mainly local ingredients. This is definitely fine dining and getting three courses and a salad for $55 doesn’t happen very often in that category. As most diners seem to book early tables to account for the long drive home, we pretty much had the place to ourselves from when our mains arrived but we never felt rushed or unwelcome and in fact the chef took the opportunity to check in on some personal preferences for our dishes making it a truly special experience.