Great food, great service, nice rooms, comfy bed but too far from Melbourneread more

I'm not really sure why it took this long to get around to reviewing this pub, and how it landed up…read moredown near the bottom off all my pending reviews since it actually isn't all that bad. Mind you, it is a bit of a hike to get to since it is about 50 km from the centre of Melbourne, but fortunately there is a railway station across the road (though getting off the train simply to have a drink at this pub is probably not the best of ideas). I remember seeing this pub as a kid since my Grandparents used to live out here, but it was years before I managed to get around to actually having a beer here. It has a really nice country feel about it, and the sports bar is pretty much separated from the bistro and dining area. There is a huge garden, but you can also sit out on the veranda and watch the cars all go past. Certainly a place to check out if you are able to get up here.

Decent pub with good beers and food ok the outskirts of town. Came in for some fish n chips n beers…read morewhile passing through and loved it.

I remember first hearing about Lake House when I was 14. My love of food and cookery was evolving…read moreat the time and I heard of a magical place, near a lake, serving up some of the best cuisine in the country. I didn't get to visit for 20 years but finally, this past May, I was able to tick it off my list of must-do Victorian experiences. My favourite +1 and I have birthday's one day apart so we took each other here for a two day getaway, complete with dining experiences and massages. Just hours from Melbourne, it was the perfect way to relax and celebrate together. What I loved about the experience was that you really didn't need to leave if you didn't want to. The rooms have simple mini bar supplies, but you can always order room service if you want something more substantial. The bathrooms are positively divine and we spent hours soaking in the tub over the weekend in between reading sessions in the living space, strolls around the lake and eating excursions in the main restaurant. Breakfast is served for a number of hours and is so incredibly generous that you can skip lunch altogether then hold out to dinner time which will no doubt be over-indulgent if you've booked yourself in for dinner. A visit here will mean you probably eat, and drink, more than you thought humanly possible but hey that's what weekend getaways are all about, right? This isn't a bargain experience, but you pay for indulgence and the opportunity to truly relax and get away from it all. Forget gifts, this is the kind of birthday present I want every year

Where on Earth do I start...?…read more The Lake House would have the be the best restaurant I've been to in Melbourne (my view - better than Vue de Monde, better than Attica) and only second in my journey so far to Daniel in New York. Food was simply stunning. Between us we had delicious things like tempura quail; 12 hour roast suckling; rabbit cassoulet; a berry-themed share plate dessert with black forest cake, deconstructed strawberry shortcake, raspberry sorbet and raspberry and champagne jelly; lemon and lime panna cotta; and an out-of-this-world antipasto plate with duck and rabbit pates and terrines and heavenly salumi. Petit fours consisted of toffee popcorn, strawberry fudge, shortbread and jellies. Cocktails and organic teas were also amazing. In summer, try to have a drink on the deck before being seated. Atmosphere was upmarket but relaxed. We had a fantastic table in front of the bread and petit four station, which overlooked the lake and hillside. Staff were attentive, friendly and very professional. Cutlery, plates and other trimmings were very special. I fell in love with the multicoloured glass salt, pepper and sugar bowls (which, coincidentally, were also for sale at the Lake House store). It's expensive, but not as expensive as the city hatted restaurants. In my opinion, you don't need an excuse to go to the Lake House; just do it for yourself because you certainly won't regret it (but leave any kids at home)...

The Grange is a series of motel/conference centres so I wasn't really sure what to expect,…read moreregardless of the fact that it's at a winery. The a la carte dinner (a rather large veal rib eye) was much better than the breakfast (standard buffet with nowhere-near-crispy-enough bacon). At any rate it was a fair few cuts above standard conference centre food. If you happen to go there, do yourself a favor and ask them if you can stay in the homestead instead of the standard accommodation. It's a beautiful old building that has been fully restored to it's original glory with fantastic feature timber work and some rather quaint stained glass windows of delicious animals. The restaurant is in the old carriage house building, which has high ceilings, large exposed timber beams, and a lovely deck out the back where you can sit and look across the farmland while you drink your coffee in the morning. The veal was perhaps a little tougher than veal should be, but had a good strong flavour as rib eye should. I was impressed by the pannacotta for dessert, which had a subtle orange flavour in the background. The wine was fairly good too, it's recommended as a cold climate wine region so we had the Pinot Noir.

Very responsive, as we had a few questions upon arrival. Our unit was delayed being done cleaning…read moreand they offered a bottle of wine to compensate which was a nice thought.

I found a property I liked on Stayz called 'Hisha' (Dalesford). The Stayz website advertised the…read moreseasonal weekend rate as follows: from 18 Jun 2016 thru 28 Feb 2017 price is $970 for Fri/Sat nights. When I went to book it on Stayz, Sandra from Dayget.com.au answered my request by informing that Dayget.com.au would be finalising the booking and the price was now several hundred dollars more. I told her that was false advertising and very misleading but she didn't seen to care or offer a reasonable explanation for the difference in cost. This experience has put me off booking anything in Dalesford especially properties advertised on this dodgy site. AVOID Dayget.com.au at all cost!!!! They advertise one price on Stayz (to draw you in) and then refuse to honour that price when you make the booking. They tell you Stayz prices are indicative only and the booking itself must go through Dayget.com.au which in turn ups the price by at least several hundred (some properties end up almost double the price)... What sort of crappy booking agent is this? I am now looking for properties in nearby towns just so I don't have to go through Dayget.com.au.

Boutique accomadation. A lovely place to stay. A great location. The room was decorated…read morebeautifully, the bedding was of an excellent quality. A very large bathroom with a great shower. Well worth the stay

This is one of those pubs that appears to have been here for ages, though with the growth of the…read moreouter suburbs, has had a complete revamp and extension. Okay, I can't say that there is anything all that fantastic about this place - it pretty much has everything that you would expect from a suburban pub, such as a gaming lounge, a rather large sports bar, and at least two restaurants (though they are probably the same restaurant, it's just that they are in two, or even three, rooms). I've only been to this place a couple of times, and that was because I was on the bus and wanted to get off to, well, check it out. It certainly is pretty popular with the locals, but that probably has something to do with it being the only pub for miles around.

Went there for lunch. Bistro was closed but lounge bar was open so ordered meals for 4 and drinks…read more A stuff up with the ordering system meant we waited over an hour for the meals. They gave us a free round of drinks by way of apology for that. When the meals finally arrived both snitzels were good without being great but the steak sandwiches were poor. Served in ciabatta bread on a wooden board they were overworked, barely warm, difficult to eat and the steak resembled leather. It should be difficult to utterly stuff up a pub classic but they managed it. I've eaten there before and it was far better so 3 stars is being generous assuming today was an off day.

Had the wood oven pear pizza and a capricciosa. Absolutely delicious. Great environment as well!!!!read more

I have been visiting The Daylesford Hotel for meals and drinks on and off when visiting family in…read morethe area for the past 20 years even with the number of changes to its management. This last trip in June would be my last. The quality of the food and service have dropped significantly while its prices have gone up. My husband and I had the Sunday roast and we were sorely disappointed. The kitchen thought it was being clever by popping a huge half cut cos lettuce with a dollop of ranch on it to cover up the fact that we had a small portion of pork roast and vegetables. The dishes also arrived lukewarm- when we raised it with a staff member she didn't even bother to suggest taking it back to the kitchen to heat it up or some other form of service recovery. Another member of our family ordered the beef cheeks with mash and at $43 we expected it to live up to the price tag. It didn't- tasteless! We won't be returning on our next trip to Daylesford. Massively disappointing!