Outpost Restaurant

Ph: (03) 5628 9669; 38 Loch Valley Rd, Noojee 3833 www.theoutpostretreat.com

Modern Australian, Italian, $$
Open Noon-3.30pm Sun Fri Sat 6-9pm Thur-Sat; Licensed; AE DC MC V
Chef John Snelling Score: 16/20 (01-07-08) Owner John & Barb Snelling (7-11-07)

Mietta's Review
Appropriately for a restaurant in an old timber town the Outpost's dining room is warmly lined with rough sawn lumber. It helps provide an authentic 'outpost' ambience.Chef, John Snelling, late of Di Stasio's, uses Italian and European flavours with his local produce. Good service and an adequate wine list help the experience and if you need to stay the night they have accommodation, too. Also on the property are the Toolshed Bar and a reasonably priced bistro.

Other published opinions

Herald Sun Stephen Downes, 1-07-08 Score: 16/20 "Herald Sun IT WAS a new paradox for me to eat fine Italian food in an Aussie bush ambience. But if both are genuine enough it doesn't seem to matter. They didn't clash, at any rate, at the Outpost Restaurant. Take the picturesque and winding roads east of the city for 90 minutes or so and you will find the Outpost Retreat food-and-cabins complex"

The Age Necia Wilden, 24-9-2007 Score: 15/20 "It's hard to think of a more apt location for the state's purest expression of regional gastronomy. Since opening The Outpost Retreat in 2003, chef John Snelling has been working at maximising his menu's reliance on ingredients from Gippsland. It's now about 90 per cent local; among the few, predictable, impostors are seafood and coffee (and the latter is roasted and blended locally). Perhaps no other restaurant in rural Victoria is making such a concerted effort to connect diners to the origins of their food; while in the city, only the new 100 Mile Cafe rivals Outpost in locavore credentials."

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 15/20, One Hat "Almost four years in the making, this once nondescript, remote bush eatery has been transformed into Gippsland's foremost gastronomic getaway by former Cafe Di Stasio head chef John Snelling and wife/business partner Barb"

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 14/20 "Successful 'treechangers' John and Barb Snelling cashed in John's head chef job at Melbourne's Cafe Di Stasio for a property bordered by old-growth forest and the La Trobe River. In their aptly named Outpost Retreat - complete with the Outpost Restaurant, cottages, and the casual Toolshed Bistro - the Snellings have assembled a strong and capable team."

The Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 14/20 "THE cattle yards, towering mountain ash and lumberjack bric-a-brac are a far cry from owner-chef John Snelling's former St Kilda stomping ground, where he was head chef at Cafe Di Stasio. Still, Snelling and wife Barb have managed to infuse their rustic retreat with contemporary flair"