The Newmarket Hotel restaurant was one of the leaders of the new trend for upmarket Mexican that has arrived in the Melbourne dining scene. It is located in the Newmarket Hotel as you'd expect. This pub used to be a complete dive and has been extensively renovated and now has the feel of a Morrocan palace, which is out of keeping with the style of cuisine, but somehow it works. The food is really interesting and full of flavor, with extensive use of fresh herbs and exotic ingredients. For those after more traditional pub fare, the male members of my family say that the very upmarket burger on the menu is the best they have ever had. The staff are very knowledgable and professional. The prices are moderate to high.

Dandelion serves Vietnamese food, but not of the Victoria Street Richmond variety. The restaurant is owned by Geoff Lindsay, and as you can guess from his name, he isn't Vietnamese. He clearly has an affection for Vietnamese food, and is bringing it to the people of the Bayside suburbs, who perhaps think Richmond is too far away. If they did visit Richmond they would find food that is quite similar, and significantly less expensive than is served at Dandelion. I have been there twice for lunch and had a good experience the first time, but a somewhat average experience the second time. The ingredients are of high quality, and the concepts are interesting, but they sometimes suffer in the execution-I found some of the dishes to be lacking in flavor, and to contain excessive amounts of raw bean shoots. In fact bean shoots are very liberally added to virtually every dish, and although they are certainly healthy, they add little flavor and I suspect are used as a filler so that less of the expensive ingredients are required. The food is generally light and quite healthy if somewhat bland. The prices are moderate. The ambience is casual and trendy.

Steer describes itself as a New York Steakhouse and as you'd expect steak is the specialty but the menu is otherwise quite extensive. The variety of different steaks offered is a bit overwhelming, but to help you choose they bring over a huge wooden slab with at least 10 different types of raw steak on it, and your waiter describes each one. We have been there twice, and I haven't had a better steak anywhere. They also have a selection of beautifully cooked side dishes, and very interesting entrees and non steak choices. In my experience the desserts let them down a bit. Despite the non steak choices it is definitely a place that favors carnivours, and the food falls into the comfort food category-rich and very tasty.
The prices are in the fine dining range, but are justified by the quality of the produce and skill of the kitchen. The ambience is cool and trendy.

I have never been to Japan, but I would guess that staying at the the the Shizuka Ryokan would be a pretty accurate recreation of that experience. The guesthouse is designed on Japanese principles and has a wonderful air of calm and tranquility. The hosts aren't Japanese, but they employ Japanese staff which give the place an authentic air. You must remove your shoes at the door and may only wear the slippers they provide for you inside. You are welcome to wear the comfortable cotton robes they provide at all times. There is no TV and no phones with restful Japanese music playing the the lounge area, and in your room when you arrive. The room is very simple with a few Japanese decorations, tatami matting on the floor and a low table and chairs, which is replaced by futon bedding at night. Each room looks out to a tiny Japanese style courtyard garden with a water feature. The bathrooms thankfully have all the mod cons including a huge 2 person spa bath. We chose to have the Japanese banquet served in our room and it was a wonderful experience. The food was very nice and seemed authentic, but the best part was the giggling Japanese girls who very politely delivered each course, and the indulgent feeling of being served a feast in your own room. The low table and chairs did get a bit uncomfortable after a while.
I also found the futon beds to be a bit too firm and had a sore back in the morning, but you can choose to have a double layer of futon bedding, and I would definitely do that next time.
The traditional Japanese breakfast of teryaki salmon, rice, miso soup and various vegetables was a real highlight.

This is a great place to have as a local cafe. It is big enough that you will always get a table, the menu is varied enough that you will probably find something you feel like, service is friendly and efficient, the food comes out quickly and is of good if not outstanding quality. Georges is very family friendly with a nice kids menu. The prices are moderate.

The Lakehouse has a great reputation as the premier dining destination in the Daylesford-Hepburn Springs region so it has a lot to live up to. Fortunately in most respects it meets expectations. The dining room is lovely with views of the lake and decorated with striking paintings, the service is polished and knowledgable and the food very well cooked and beautifully presented. The menu sounds quite interesting and has a strong central European influence. Where the restaurant is a bit disappointing is in the flavours which are somewhat pedestrian and lacking in creativity. The prices are also pretty high, but are as you'd expect for the quality of ambiance and service.

When we arrived at A Perfect Drop for lunch we were the only customers there. Our waiter a rather eccentric man in a hat invited us to sit anywhere so we chose to sit on a couple of huge Chesterfield arm chairs next to a low table. What followed was an absolute feast. We left it up to the chef to send out various small dishes (for a fixed price of $65 a head). My husband left it up to our waiter (obviously a wine expert) to chose his matched wines ($25 for about 6 very generous half glasses). The food was fantastic mainly middle eastern flavors with lots of great quality fresh ingredients including king george whiting and venison, fresh herbs and vegetables (including some from their own garden) and well balanced spices. The wines were all local, and according to my husband, excellent. Our waiter was a font of knowledge and obviously very proud of what he was placing in front of us. The restaurant filled up as we were there including a family with young children and we overheard the young child being treated as an honoured guest with special child friendly dishes offered. All up it was a very special experience and highly recommended.

I was looking forward to eating at Yeah Maan-I had never tried Carribean Cuisine before and had read some good reviews of this restaurant. I had my doubts from the start when the charming waitress struggled to understand my questions and seemed unfamiliar with the menu items. The evening sun shone right into the restaurant making sitting in many of the tables very uncomfortable due to sun glare. The menu looked interesting and we put in our order. Twenty minutes later no food had appeared and the waitress came and told us that one of our main courses wasn't available making us suspect the order must have just reached the chef. Finally after 40 minutes our entrees appeared, the alleged salt cod fritters tasting only of fried batter and drowned in bottled sweet chilli sauce (very authentic!!) and the alleged "prawn" parcels containing what I think were in fact tiny shrimp. The main courses were OK-''jerk chicken' baked chicken pieces in a passable sauce, and fish fillet (basa) in quite an edible sauce. The cassava chips were great and the side salad was fresh. The desserts-bread pudding and sticky date pudding were very average. The service was very polite but the meal took far to long to appear making the experience a bit of an ordeal. The overwhelming impression was of a rather amateurish operation with a slow kitchen relying too much on commercial sauces and cheap and skimpy ingredients.

This tiny cafe is in a side street opposite a busy Coles supermarket. It serves various pre-prepared light lunch dishes as well as sweet treats, coffee and breakfast items. The decor is fairly basic and I found the service to be a bit on the casual side. It seemed child friendly on the occasion I was there. What I ordered (chicken stroganoff) tasted quite good, but the serve was on the small side. My husband ate here on another occasion really enjoyed his meal and found the service to be very friendly.

This cafe has been decorated with a generous budget and good taste with lots of wood and open spaces. The menu has a great range of choices for breakfast and a good range of light lunches. My roast vegetable salad was great with some less common root vegetables making an appearance and a tangy dressing. A very generous serve for the price. I also had dessert-one of several choices of sweet slices and it was also good and once again a very generous portion-definitely better to share!