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Stefano's
Ph: 5023 0511; Mildura Grand Hotel, 7th St, MILDURA 3500 www.stefano.com.au
Italian, $$$, ** for Food & Ambience, Good Wine List
Open Dinner Mon-Sat 7pm-11pm, Closed Sun; Licensed; AE DC MC V EFT
Chef Stefano De Pieri & Peter Webley (7-11-07) Owner Stefano De Pieri (7-11-07)
Photo: Tony Knox
Mietta's Review
Down in the underbelly of the Mildura Grand Hotel, a set menu, an impressive wine list and casual Italian simplicity with flourishes of romance await you. Celebrity chef Stefano De Pieri is master of 'regional cuisine' with a total command of culinary traditions adjusted to local produce, including Murray cod, silver perch and yabbies. With a fixed price menu (currently $79 per person) the food choice is made for you, consisting of 5-6 courses, you can choose to see the carte, or prefer to be surprised, courses keep coming out until the diner protests in guilty resignation! Perhaps the meal will consist of a warm salad of scallops, stuffed zucchini flowers, a pasta, a meat dish and then chocolate tart. The small tables are arranged invitingly along a corridor that leads into a larger space decorated with an obviously personal collection of artwork. The service is attentive and appropriately down-to-earth and can expertly suggest wines to compliment your meal. Perhaps housed in the Mildura Grand but Stefano's style is not 'grand dining', it is delicious but not formal food. You will also be won over by an impressive wine list of Australia and Europe's best. Dining here is an absolute must, and definitely worth the trip.
Other published opinions
Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "Peter Webley What's on the menu (which you receive after you've eaten) depends on Stefano de Pieri's whim. De Pier is a passionate advocate of Riverina produce, but also sources further afield"
Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 16/20, Two Hats "Sometime during the five-course degustation that is dinner at Stefano's, don't be surprised if your waitress apologises for her inability to tell you what the next course will be"
Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * * "Stefano de Pier is Mildura's favourite son, his presence felt subtly throughout town and keenly in his eponymous restaurant"
The Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 17/20, 2 Hats "Stefano de Pieri's atmospheric flagship restaurant is tucked into the Grand's former cellar. As you descend the narrow stairs, excitement builds: there's thefrisson of a celebrity chef, and the anticipation of what today's produce-driven degustation menu might deliver 'subject to the whim of the chef'."
Gourmet Traveller 2006 restaurant guide *** "Dynamic celebrity chef, author and arts patron Stefano de Pieri has expanded his epicurean empire to embrace a grill room, riverboat diner, cafe-produce store and microbrewery, but it is to the cavernous cellar beneath Mildura's Grand Hotel that people flock from afar for a gastronomic experience like no other."
The Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 18/20 Three Hats "A TRIP to the underground chambers of Mildura's Grand Hotel has become one of Australia's great gastronomic pilgrimages. The magic at Stefano de Pieri's flagship restaurant doesn't spring from tricky cooking or grand flourishes - it comes from remarkable produce handled with confident reverence."
Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide *** "The subtly lit cellar ofthe Mildura Grand is an intimate setting for fine, ever-evolving, five-course northern Italian banquets."
The Foodies' Guide 2004,Allan Campion & Michele Curtis,'Service is smooth,the wine list exceptional and the whole experience a joy from start to finish.'
The Age Good Food Guide 2004 3 hats,score 18/20,excellent wine list, accomodation available
Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 3 Black Stars, Excellent wine list,'diners come from afar for his Italian-style, five-course, fixed-price banquets which, as the menu warns, are 'subject to the whim of the chef'. Fortunately his whims tend to be inspired by what's in season, and applied with Italian culinary virtues of simplicity and true-to-nature flavours.'
Herald Sun, citystyle, 30/12/03
The Age,A2, 19/12/03, Jane Faulkner
Age Good Food Guide 2003 Restaurant of the Year.The Weekend Age, Magazine, Oct 2002
The Herald Sun, Weekend, Eat, Bob Hart, 17/8/02.
The Age, Epicure, 21/8/01 Score 18/20
Herald Sun, 25/7/2000
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