On our first time in the Hunter Valley area, we asked for restaurant recommendations. Verandah was mentioned and it turns out it is a well-advertised restaurant in the local wine region magazines. From all that we heard and read, we had such high hopes for this place.
The location is a bit hard to find, but beautiful views with indoor as well as great patio seatings. The food here is the small plate "tapas" style and have a small and a large portion size, feeding 2 and 4 people, respectively. The staff informed us that they could do an in-between size to accomodate our small group of 3. We ended up ordering 6 different dishes of different protein options.
First few courses were definitely promising with good flavors. Duck liver parfait was silky and creamy. Trio of oysters had good flavors and the fried squash blossom was tasty, though the quinoa crust on it made it dry. Hazelnut gnocchi with confit duck was good but really rich. However, once we got to the panko crusted eggs with Iberico jamon, things went downhill. The crust of the eggs had no flavor and the beautiful slice of jamon was drowning under a large amount of truffle oil. The large quantities of truffle oil completely overwhelmed our palates and gave everything on the plate an almost chemical-like taste. Once we got to the harissa lamb, it was tender and delicious but the spiceness wasn't balanced well, the spice completely taking over the taste of the lamb.
Hoping to save the meal with a dessert, we ordered one and were left unimpressed.
Overall, the meal had several ups and downs. In addition, the service was average throughout the night. At no point, the staff asked if our meal was going ok or if everything tasted ok. Although we enjoyed some of the dishes, we got in our cars feeling underwhelmed and wondering if we had too high of a standard. read more