Just a short drive from Brisbane, Sirromet Restaurant Lurleen’s at Mount Cotton is a wine and dine destination with an outstanding degustation menu.

In just a little over 30 minutes driving from Brisbane’s CBD, you can be strolling amongst grapevines, relaxing on the Tuscan Terrace or gazing on the sandhills of Stradbroke Island at Mount Cotton in Redland City, southwest of Brisbane,.

What comes as a reall surprise is the fine food at Restaurant Lurleen’s where I sat down to enjoy a memorable degustation.

Executive Chef Mathew Fulford has extensive experience in hospitality with dining luminaries Lakehouse (Daylesford), qualia (Hamilton Island) and Stokehouse (Melbourne) some of his former haunts, and it shows.

Fulford has developed dishes to complement specially selected Sirromet’s wines using seasonal, local and organic produce. I’m talking about their top level, award winning wines here. Expect touches like yeast lees from the Cabernet in his hand-made sourdough.

The eight-course paired tasting menu is Fulford’s ultimate showcase. Most importantly, you will also find many of these dishes on the lunch and dinner menus so if you  are not up for a big, long degustation, you can still enjoy the pleasure of this food.

What we ate

The tasting menu at Sirromet Restaurant Lurleen’s was a delicious experience but also beautifully presented.  Meticulously placed ingredients on each dish created such a sense of anticipation it was almost too hard to eat.  But eat we did, and there was nothing left on the plate afterwards.

While it is difficult to pick favourites on a menu of this quality, the snapper ceviche with lemonade fruit, cape gooseberries, sea herbs and rainbow trout roe was so light and full flavoured it was a delight to eat.  I also enjoyed the slow-cooked suckling pig, with celeriac, cuttlefish, apple and black pudding and the tender duck breast with parsnip, rapini and cumquat.

Chef didn’t quite convert me to loving brussel sprouts with his dish including salsify, broccoli, fennel, chestnuts and sea parley, but it was close.

Top of my list was the local calamari with beetroot squid ink agnolotti.

For dessert, we enjoyed textures of chocolate with young fermented shiraz.

Dining at Sirromet Restaurant Lurleen’s

The five-course tasting  menu costs $125, or $85 with matching wines. The eight-course tasting menu costs $160 or $240 with matching wines.

Sirromet Winery

Sirromet is a family owned and run winery located at Mount Cotton, just a short drive from Brisbane and the Gold Coast.  It opened in 2000. Their food philosophy is focused on sourcing the best local, seasonal produce and providing a range of dining experiences.

Wine tasting is available at the Mount Cotton Cellar Door. It was recently awarded Star Cellar Door in Gourmet Traveller WINE Australia’s Best Cellar Door awards 2018.

The Mount Cotton headquarters house Sirromet’s production, bottling, packaging facilities, and barrel rooms, a worm farm and waste recycling plant. Along with the Tuscan Terrace and Restaurant Lurleen’s, there are now on-site glamping options.

Where to find Sirromet Restaurant Lurleen’s

The restaurant, vineyard and production centre is located at 850 Mount Cotton Road, Mount Cotton, just out of Brisbane.

Want to see more of Moreton Bay? Take a whale watching cruise and you’ll see the giants of the sea too.

 

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If you like destination dining, try the beautiful drive to Hampton on the Great Dividing Range north of Toowoomba and enjoy a meal at Emeraude.

Disclaimer: Ed+bK was a guest of Sirromet for lunch.