Healesville; Giant Steps

This weekend past, Mr. LL & I spent a long weekend in the Yarra Valley. It was amazing and I now want to move there, (until Summer, when I will want to move down to the coast. Rinse. Repeat), but this place was one of the food highlights;

We had lunch here yesterday. I'm not sure if it's Giant Steps or Innocent Bystander - maybe their web site will clarify. Whatever the name, we had lunch there yesterday and were super pleasantly surprised.

Open 7 days or not, I doubt you'll get a quiet day. It was Monday when we were there, freezing, raining and about 3pm. The place was packed. We had to share a table with another guest because there was no where else to sit and everyone was ordering pizza. We are rebels so we didn't order pizza. We didn't regret it, but we did contemplate buying it to take home for dinner because other people's looked so damn good.

They had so much Moscato advertising up and so many Moscato products, (like Moscato sorbet). I hate, OK that's mean - strongly dislike Moscato, so I didn't try any, but if any of the other things we tasted there are anything to go by, I'm sure it's a good Moscato as far as Moscato goes.

I did not drink this, but Mr. LL had the Giant Steps Merlot with his meal. He loved it, so I tasted it and I loved it. Have I mentioned that I love wine? Hi, I'm Natalie, and when everyone was drinking cruisers at a house party circa 2002, I was at home with my parents enjoying a glass of Cabernet.

This is what I had for lunch. It was, AMAZING. I went on about this so much at the table that I Mr. LL was embarassed and the table next to me was looking sideways. It was called fried polenta with cauliflower, or something lame like that that doesn't do the taste justice. It was nuts. I want to recreate it. There were currants and onion and pine nuts and AMAZING THINGS. I'm sorry, I'll stop, just trust me.

Mr. LL got a duck pie. He loved it, I liked the carrot mash. Mr. LL usually finds something wrong with every thing he eats, but there were no complaints on this dish.

I had a glass of Rose with my meal as recommended by the waitress. It was good, but not amazing. Mr. LL's Merlot was better, so we bought a bottle.


Paying. Not cheap. Worth it.

So if you feel like doing a day trip on one of these really horrible freezing drizzly days, may I recommend Healesville. Be sure to take home some of the cheeses from Giant Steps as well. The Stilton is super tasty, if you're into blue.
There's also a 'butcher' that sells even more amazing cheese, a cute chocolate shop and a Beechworth Bakery. It's just a cute town. If you stay for a while, try pizzas from a place called Bodhi Pizza as well, a shack-y looking place just down the street and opposite Giant Steps.
And now to plan the next escape.... they are needed for sanity!
Stay well,Nat x