Visiting Berkelouw Book Barn and having a meal at Bendooley Estate has been on my wife’s dining bucket list for some time. The moment we walked in the door I can honestly say I was blown away by how charming and beautiful the Book Barn and restaurant is.

Menu (as of August 2019);

Pork belly pizza ($26.00)

Spicy BBQ Sauce**, tomatoes and sage

We decided that we should split a pizza for the table, and whilst all sounded good - we opted to try the ‘Pork Belly’. The one thing we were told by the server was that the BBQ sauce was “fairly spicy / are you ok with spice?”. We nodded and thought, of course, we love some heat/chilli. The pizza was quite tasty - except that the BBQ sauce was too hot for comfort. All 4 of us, 3 Koreans and a fairly alright chilli eating Aussie managed to find it unbearable. I would say it was a 8 or 9 out of 10 in heat.

Fish of the Day - Barramundi ($37.00)

with Saffron Risotto

The fish of the day sounded so good when the waitstaff explained it that my wife instantly said “sounds great, I’ll have that!”. The fish was cooked perfectly, and the risotto was a creamy contrast to the meat.

Linguine with picked blue swimmer crab ($29.00)

Chilli, garlic, lemon and gremolata.

A seafood pasta with crab and chilli - a great combo that was enjoyed before anyone else could grab a sample.

Slow-braised Goat shoulder ($36.00)

with buckwheat polenta, cavolo nero and Sicilian green olives

I opted for the Goat because I’ve often been quite happy with goat dishes at restaurants. This was very tender, well done, and likely was a very tasty dish. The problem is, the pizza had overwhelmed my mouth/lips and the polenta mostly served to reduce the heat - rather than allow me to enjoy my main.

The Bendooley Moroccan Lamb burger ($26.00)

Harissa aioli, pickled cucumber, sumac onions, tomato chutney, parsley and fat chips.

The lamb burger sounded fairly good on the menu, and to be honest it was a decent enough burger. The major problem was nothing to really do with the restaurant - but rather that I had already planned to cook my own Moroccan lamb cutlets for dinner that night - and in my totally humble opinion, mine were better than what this dish was. The fat chips were mostly neglected for the side shoestring fries.

Shoestring Fries ($10.00)

with rosemary and smoked paprika salt.

A massive bowl of fries was gratefully picked at by all. I personally appreciated having something to accompany the pizza. The ‘rosemary and paprika” salt was so sparsely coated on the fries that it was barely there at all.

PROS:

• Beautiful location, tempting to just go check out all the fantastic books.

• Dishes were immaculately presented.

• Wines from cellar door available by the glass (see last photo of menu, above).

CONS:

• Popular and bookings seem important. We were lucky to get one of the few tables set aside for walk ins.

• The spiciness of the BBQ sauce in the pizza could be reduced by 40% and still be enjoyable. More effort on the waitstaffs part to stress the heat of this is warranted.

• My main was rendered mostly unremarkable due to the heat from the chilli on the pizza.

OVERALL:

A stunning place to visit, worth checking out. This was on my wife's dining bucket list and I'd gladly come back again.

Details:

Address: 3020 Old Hume Hwy, Berrima NSW 2577

Phone: 02 4877 2235

Site: https://bendooleyestate.com.au/dining/

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