Bella Vedere

Ph: 5962 6161; Badger's Brook Vineyard, 874 Maroondah Hwy, Coldstream 3770 www.badgersbrook.com.au

Modern Australian, $$$
Open Wed-Sun 8.30am-5pm Fri-Sat 7.30-11pm; Licensed; AE MC V EFT
Chef Gary Cooper (5-12-08) Owner Gary Cooper & 11m Sawyer (5-12-08)

Mietta's Review
Gary Cooper (founding chef at Eleanore's) appears rusted onto the Yarra Valley. Here at Badger's Brook he's opened a rustic winery cafe that uses his skills and homegrown and local produce. Simple and snacky food during the day, more elaborate at night for his $65 degustaion menu.

Other published opinions

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 14/20 "With a palate-perking cocktail in hand, there are few better ways to stimulate an appetite than a sunset stroll through Bella Vedere's lush vegetable garden set among the vines"

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide "A trip to Bella Vedere is worth doing properly, which can mean some weeks' wait for dinner. That's not to say that the restaurant at the Badger's Brook winery fails to please in the daytime"

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 15/20, One Hat "By day, Bella Vedere is the unpretentious winedistrict bistro, bakery and provisions store you'd hope for at a cellar door. Real food, from the region, reflecting the simpler pleasures of life"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "Good, earthy, provincial food with an organic and local accent is the order of the day here at chef Gary Cooper's Yarra Valley restaurant"

The Age John Lethlean, 15-5-2007 Score: 15/20 "We take in the restaurant, its simple, pleasant country cottage interiors - timber floors and chunky furniture, oodles of natural light (with idyllic requisite vineyard views) and muted colours - largely unchanged since a visit several years ago for lunch. At night you get a GT stripe of linen down the table's centre. And then, around 8.15pm, we are called to attention by the maitre d' (owner) who announces the day's events rather theatrically before introducing Cooper's sous chef, who in turn introduces her team, and then the day's menu. If you were driving down the road and stumbled upon the restaurant at that moment, you may well have thought it a mild-mannered 40th birthday party."

The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 14/20 "Folk are flocking to try Gary Cooper's degustation dinners, served in a quaint country house with olive-green walls, timber floorboards, and views to Badger's Brook vineyards. The creative dishes all hang on what's in the kitchen gardens"

Gourmet Traveller 2006 restaurant guide "If the smell of baking bread doesn't alert you, then the kitchen counter stacked with cakes, tables piled with vegetables and chefs ducking out the back door to pull herbs from the garden will. Taking its cues from Alice Waters' iconic Californian restaurant Chez Panisse, Bella Vedere is fanatical about fresh seasonal and regional produce."

The Age Epicure score 14/20 John Lethlean 26/7/05 "But is Bella Vedere doing something there is a strong demand for, well? Yes. And would I return for a bite with my family at lunch, or dinner at night? Without a doubt. The place reeks of honesty and quality simple food, and it's a nice smell."

Herald Sun 2/4/05 Bob Hart "You enter. And there, before you, is an array of seasonal, regional food that takes your breath away, lifts your spirits and obliterates your hunger. ... Now it would be hard to imagine a more welcoming place than this with its displays of produce and warm wares from the bakery that fires through the night."

The Age Cheap Eats 2005 "IT'S early days at Bella Vedere. The olive-green walls are barely dry and vegie garden yet to sprout. But Gary Cooper's already comfy in the open kitchen, devising dishes dependant on season and stocks"

Age Five country getaways 26/12/04 "This new little pocket of culinary heaven at Badger's Brook winery includes a cafe where Gary Cooper cooks a simple, seasonal menu at breakfast and lunch"