Simone's Restaurant

Ph: 5755 2266; 98 Gavan St cnr Ashwoord Ave, BRIGHT 3741 www.simonesrestaurant.com.au

Italian, $$ +, *** for Food
Open Tue-Sat 6.30-9.30pm (extended 10urs during 10ls; Licensed, BYO , Corkage $15 bottle; AE DC MC V EFT
Chef Patrizia & Anthony Simone (5-12-08) Owner Patrizia & George Simone (5-12-08)

Mietta's Review
Bright is a tourist must, particularly in the autumn and the spring. The blossom is overwhelming in the latter season, and earlier in the year the glow from the golden and russet-coloured leaves is absolutely gorgeous. Just at its centre are tastes straight out of Italy at Simone's where excellent Italian food is served in a heritage listed, freshly renovated premises. Using great local ingredients, chef Patrizia Simone has created award-winning dishes such as stuffed pigeon on lentils and Autumn Salad with artichokes and local chestnuts based on the flavours of her native Perugia. The prices are very fair for such quality. The wine list is also good and reasonably priced. This is a very popular place and bookings are essential.

Other published opinions

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 16/20 "Two decades ago Simones began life in Bright as a modest motel restaurant, described in this Guide as 'Mrs Patrizia Simones wholesome and generous Italian cooking .."

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "Patrizia and George Simone created an oasis of seasonal Italian food in Bright two decades ago, long before the north-east of Victoria was known for gastronomy. In a series of intimate candlelit rooms, walls lined with landscapes, awards and Italian crockery, diners settle in for an evening of the best local produce with an emphasis on the traditional - fig and prosciutto drizzled in Gorgonzola, stuffed zucchini flowers, tortellini, risotti, local venison, spatchcock, trout and goat"

Herald Sun Stephen Downes, 9-09-08 Score: 12/20 "Simone's serves OK, homely Latin tucker that's mostly one-dimensional and sometimes tired. It's also expensive. The wine list is very long but very dear. It's exemplary for local and Italian wines, and seven table whites and five reds are available by glass."

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 16/20, Two Hats "Over several decades Patrizia and George Simones cosy little restaurant - now happily ensconced in a warren of small rooms at a cottage in the centre of town - has become a place of pilgrimage for the sort of excellent, rustic Italian flavours that make the best of produce from this bounteous corner of Victoria"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "In a Victorian cottage in the Alpine township of Bright, you can bank on enjoying some of this country's finest Italian food"

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 16/20, 2 Hats "Simone's is the provincial Italian restaurant of your dreams: a homely yet stylish place of warm hospitality, with mamma and son in the kitchen, papa out front. And that's before you get to the food from Patrizia Simone, one of Victoria's best and least pretentious cooks"

Gourmet Traveller 2006 restaurant guide ** "Simone's merges two corners ofthe world to make a unique cuisine: Patrizia Simone uses fine Victorian seasonal produce to create dishes rooted in her Umbrian heritage. This restaurant exemplifies fine regional dining. There is the homely ambience ofthe small dining rooms distributed around the 19th-century garden villa."

The Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 16/20 Two Hats "The Simones are wrangling more tables in their renovated Victorian-era home but the food has never been better. Patrizia Simone's skills are legion: she buys well, she butchers, she bakes."

Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide * "If Stefano de Pieri is the culinary king on the Murray River, Patrizia Simone is the queen ofthe Ovens River. Her restaurant sparkles more brightly since it moved to spacious premises in an 1860s garden villa. The cluster of intimate rooms is a perfect setting for the established excellence of Simone's Italian-inspired, regionally focused, lovingly crafted cooking."

The Herald Sun Bob Hart 5/02/05 "IT HAS taken decades for Victorians to realise that Simone's, in Bright, is one of the finest restaurants in the state, and perhaps the nation."

Age Epicure Necia Wilden 25/5/04 SCORE: 17/20 "The new place, four stylish dining rooms in a gracious, converted Victorian-era home, could hardly be more different, but it still has the cosy feel of a well-run family restaurant. George is at the door, doing the meet and greet; his wife Patrizia in the kitchen, though on hearing of our friends' arrival she emerges for a chat. Also in the kitchen is son Anthony, recently returned from a cooking stint at former Fitzroy restaurant diningroom 211."

The Foodies' Guide 2004,Allan Campion & Michele Curtis,'Now you can experience casual lunches and indulgent dinners in her new restaurant.This is a great spot to taste her Italian dishes starring the best ingredients of the north-east.'

The Age Good Food Guide 2004, 1 hat, score 15/20, excellent wine list, accomodation available

The Age, A2, 28/2/04, Jane Faulkner,'In November the new Simone's restaurant opened in a spacious double-fronted dark-brick 19th century building.It's a delightful spot in the middle of town,with tables and chairs along the balcony,seperate dining areas and a large outdoor section...highlights the best regional,truly seasonal,produce.'

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 2 Red Stars, Excellent wine list,'outstanding restaurant...Chef puts her Umbrian heritage and French training to work on the seasonal harvests of the region, orchestrating some wonderfully concentrated flavours...an affable host who is happy to recommend appropriate Victorian wines.'

Herald Sun, citystyle, 3/2/04, Greg Clarke,'has a new home-am elegant 19th-century house...The food is the same, it's just a better place to dine'