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Awards
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2010 |
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SMH Good Food Guide 2010 - Best Regional Restaurant |
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2010 |
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SMH Good Food Guide 2010 - Two Chef's Hats |
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2009 |
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SMH Good Food Guide 2009 - Two Chef's Hats |
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2008 |
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SMH Good Food Guide 2008 - One Chef's Hat |
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Overview of Darleys
Steeped in history, Darley’s Restaurant is set in the heritage listed, original homestead of Frederick Darley, the sixth Chief Justice of NSW and is a tribute to a bygone era.
Modern Australian cuisine is served in a romantic space that features beautiful stained glassed windows, original ornate fire places, crystal chandeliers and offers guests a breathtaking view of the surrounding gardens and the Jamison Valley.
Adjoining the main dining room, there are two individually decorated private dining rooms which capture an intimate sense of privacy - perfect for a special event or celebration.
Darley’s is a multi award winning restaurant, most recently being awarded for 2010 the prestigious “two chef’s hats” and “Best Regional Restaurant” in the SMH good food guide awards and named ‘Best for Food’ in Australasia in Conde Nast Traveller’s Gold List 2009 (UK)
The extensive wine list offers vintage wine sourced locally from Mudgee and Orange as well as wines from other top Australian wineries and a selection of international wines.
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See Also
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Related Editorial Content
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User Reviews on Darleys
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 65 comments
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| Overall |
 
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Highly Recommended |
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Food 9 |
Ambience 10 |
Service 10 |
Value 4 |
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Last Friday night (August 20), we made our second visit to Darley's, after a gap of nearly twelve months. The first time, it was really very good, but this time, the food and service were outstanding. Our request for a table next to the fire was granted, and this, combined with the beautiful nineteenth-century room with large, well-spaced tables, comfortable chairs and muted lighting, gave the entire experience a brilliant ambience.
The service was impeccable: lots of friendly, knowledgeable staff on the floor, attending unobtrusively to the needs of about 25 diners on the night. The food was heaven. I started with the oxtail ravioli and seared scallops, an interesting and well-executed combination, and my husband had the smoked salmon and cream filling (can't remember its full details). We both chose a special dish not on the main menu: roasted pheasant with pheasant confit, brussels sprouts and baby onions with redcurrant jus.
Superb combination of flavours and textures, filling but not too much. Then I had the icecream with chocolate leaves, redcurrants and blackcurrant sorbet. This was the highlight of the night. Impossible to describe the "mouth-feel" (horrid word), flavours and texture, in combination, they made it truly memorable. He had the quince pannacotta which was sweet and tart in just the right proportions. Two little amuse-bouches were served between courses : minted pea puree and goat's cheese, then jellied blood orange and creme fraiche.
The only complaint about the Darley's experience is the appalling markup on the wine. I know it's fine dining, but from a comprehensive wine-list, to only offer about 6 wines under $100 is very poor. We had a Tassie pinot noir (Dalrymple) for $77. Nice, but not that brilliant for the price. I noticed that most diners were ordering similar priced bottles. Is Darley's capitalising on the overseas tourists who stay at Lilianfels? Overall, a superb night out, though. We will certainly be returning.
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pretamanger -
See my reviews 12 , 29 August 2010
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| Overall |
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Recommended |
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Food 7 |
Ambience 8 |
Service 8 |
Value 8 |
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Our first visit with the new chef Carl Middleton. This was our second stop on our Mountains restaurant crawl. The three things that we always love about darley's are:
The polished, knowledgeable service, the beautiful setting and the food. The service was as always, friendly, informed and professional. The dining room was comfortable and as beautiful and charming as always.
Overall the food doesn't hit the highs of Hugh's days here, but in saying that we thought it was at a very consistent level. In the past we would find that some dishes were amazing, but others fell short. But now all dishes seem to be at a wonderfully consistent level. Which as far as we could see is good, as you know what you're going to get.
The pressed Guinea fowl with foie gras was delightful. As was the suckling pig and the Lambs shoulder. The Vanilla ice cream with mango sorbet and meringue was a great finish to the night. My wife raved about the pear tarte tatin. The prices are at the higher end in the mountains, but it represents very good value.
Great to see Darley's still being a very strong force in the mountains. And you have to love their wine list!
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JW2010 -
See my reviews 4, 26 August 2010
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| Overall |
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Average |
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Food 4 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 8 |
Value 4 |
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Expected better for a hatted restaurant.
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manly -
See my reviews 34, 15 August 2010
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| Overall |
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Highly Recommended |
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Food 9 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 8 |
Value 6 |
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Wonderful dining experience. We celebrated our Tenth Wedding Anniversary at Darley's and will definitely be back well before our twentieth. Excellent rating in all categories. Reasonably expensive but you expect that.
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Bompy -
See my reviews 9, 04 August 2010
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
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| Overall |
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Average |
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Food 3 |
Ambience 8 |
Service 6 |
Value 2 |
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We’ve known and loved Darleys for around 20 years since it first opened in the glory days of Ralph Potter, accepted Fabrice Boon, and thoroughly enjoyed Hugh Whitehouse’s work there, so headed there last week after the SMH review full of great expectations of the new regime. But what a disappointment!
The staff were pleasant enough, if a little un-polished, and the room was its usual atmospheric self (they’ve even taken notice of Terry Durack and replaced the awful cane chairs on the veranda!) but the food was definitely sub-standard, especially for the high price.
My entrée of scallops and oxtail ravioli was pleasant enough, but things took a turn for the worse from there. I had pheasant done 2 ways for my main. The breast part was too rare, and quite bloody near the bone. The confit part on the other hand looked like a small terracotta tile, and was just about as dry and fibrous, pretty well inedible.
One of my friends had a similarly problematic “2 way” lamb dish, with one part over-done, and the other flavourless and overwhelmed by its accompanying eggplant caviar. My other friend had Monkfish which, apart from the langoustine accompaniment, was overcooked and dull.
The usual pleasant complimentary side salad is now no more, so on top of the extortionate prices, any side dish is now an extra $8. I think the worst part of the meal, however, was still to come, in the form of the Pear Tart Tatin, which was on a sort of pre-cooked oven-crisped pancake with crispy edges, the pears (are they even in season at the moment?) plonked on top of that, then the whole thing swimming in a sort of light caramel soup, nothing like a proper Tart Tatin.
The coffee was weak with no crema, and tasted of burnt rubber. The former lovely complimentary petit fours are now a thing of the past. All of this could be forgiven in a suburban bistro, but this is supposed to be a 2 Hat restaurant.
The bill was a whopping $560 for two 3 course meals and one 2 course meal, including drinks (though we chose wines etc from the lower end of the price list). Again, this wouldn’t have been outrageous had the food been decent, but it was a complete rip-off under the circumstances. Very sadly we will now be giving Darleys a wide berth until either they get their act together or else they get someone new in the kitchen. Meanwhile I’ll also be taking SMH reviews with a grain of salt!
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ausguy -
See my reviews 19, 01 August 2010
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| Overall |
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Recommended |
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Food 9 |
Ambience 6 |
Service 9 |
Value 7 |
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The night we went was very quiet there, so the atmosphere was a little lacking. However, the food was great, and our waiter made the experience more enjoyable. I think it's hard to say, based on 1 visit, whether a restaurant deserves 2 hats, and we'd probably sit in the 'unsure' category on that one. But it was a yummy meal, no doubt, and we left feeling like we were made to feel special.
I think a theme in the restaurant, and Lilianfels in general, is that their food is very light, which I like, too many top restaurants go on the basis that the richer the food the better it is, it's quite a skills to go against this and still get tasty and delicate meals. If you're looking for an alternative and haven't discovered Silks, you should.
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Daniel Barber -
See my reviews 21, 29 May 2010
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| Overall |
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Recommended |
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Food 8 |
Ambience 8 |
Service 7 |
Value 8 |
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There is a beautiful atmosphere at Darleys and they serve food to match. I took my partner here for his 40th Birthday, we were staying at Lilianfels, so it made sense! It was a lovely romantic night for us. The service was a little sloppy and quick but friendly. We had the 3 course degustation meal and I felt it was good value at $115 per person (not including sides or wine) by the end of the meal we were both happily full, my main of slow cooked shoulder of Gippsland lamb kept a smile on my face til morning, as did my hubby’s wild barramundi.
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lzapps -
See my reviews 45, 26 May 2010
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
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| Overall |
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Below Average |
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Food 1 |
Ambience 5 |
Service 8 |
Value 3 |
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Service was great. Ambience was relaxing but food was total disgrace. It's good that this place is in Blue mountains. Won't be visiting again. Same amount of money can be better spent in other restaurants and get real food.
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okman -
See my reviews 1, 20 May 2010
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| Overall |
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Highly Recommended |
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Food 9 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 8 |
Value 8 |
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Have been lucky enough to have stayed at Lilianfels a couple of times during the past few months. Both times we had dinner at Darleys which we thoroughly enjoyed.
One of our entrees was suckling pig which was tasty as were the accompanying apple mousse and apple salad but those who tried it, thought it could have been even better if it were less salad in nature and more roasted, sticky and caramalised, but the dish was very enjoyable and the menu describes it accurately. Our group had a whole host of other dishes, too many to review but lots of chatter throughout dinner on how good the food was.
The side of cream potato mash had everyones eyes rolling in the back of their heads - superb! Service was good and we were relieved that it was friendly as they accommodated our two young children with good humour and grace. There are some very varied wait staff personalities at Darleys from the super keen to the reserved more formal approach. Thought this made it even more interesting, but all are professional.
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sandnsea -
See my reviews 13, 17 May 2010
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| Overall |
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Average |
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Food 5 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 2 |
Value 2 |
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This restaurant must be Jekyll and Hyde, my wife and I had heard great things from a friend and considering our experiences at other two and one hat restaurants were looking forward to a pricey but worthy night out. After recounting the awful time we had, heard a similar story from another mate.
My wife and I decided to have a weekend at Lilianfels and were impressed by the intimate homestead and the lovely surrounds and we were already very happy with the fantastic experience that was staying at Lilianfels. We were seated quickly and our orders were taken and the wine was delivered promptly.
Then things turned south. The service was truly awful. Dismissive and disinterested through the process of ordering. The wine was taken away from the table to a wine bucket on a side table elsewhere in the restaurant, not to reappear for over twenty minutes after my wife and I had both finished our first glasses. Which was doubly surprising considering the amuse bouche arrived within moments of the glass being poured and the entrees within five minutes of that being finished.
The entree was very disappointing, the crisp pork belly was soggy and the tortellini was overcooked and mushy. Then we waited. 45 minutes for our mains. We asked for our wine glasses, that had been emptied prior to the service of the main meals, to be refilled and had finished our meals before that was done.
The confit of duck had a piece of bone in it, although no-one could be found to report it to, let alone to order coffee or dessert from and even though it was prominently displayed on the side of the plate there was no enquiry as to why it was there. We were then made to wait another half an hour to settle our bill, being told that there was a problem with the eftpos even though all we wanted to do was charge it to our room.
We had planned to try dessert and some port but had decided that in order to get back to our room before the weekend was over the safest bet was to skip this.
Thoroughly disappointed. Would never recommend this to anyone and judging from the other reviews it is an extremely hit or extremely miss restaurant.
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el tel -
See my reviews 6, 13 April 2010
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Darleys Details
Lilianfels Blue Moutains Resort & Spa Lilianfels Ave Katoomba NSW 2780
Book online instantly
Phone (02) 4780 1200
 Website
 Map
Cuisine
Modern Australian
Gluten Free,
Cater to Special Diets
Chef
Carl Middleton
Opening Hours
Dinner
Mon to Sat 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Serves
Dinner
Prices
2 Course Menu $85.00
3 Course Menu $105.00
Tasting Menu $130 + $65 with matching wines
Licensed
Seats 80
Special Features
Business Friendly
Fine Dining
Good For Groups
Log Fire
Private Room
Romantic & Intimate
Specialties
Salad of Chidlow wild yabbies, jamon, soubise puree, crispy croutons
Murray River cod, oven roasted artichoke, white bean casserole, salsa verde
Slow cooked Maclay Valley suckling pig, apple mousse, apple salad
Pave of vanilla ice cream, mango sorbet, tropical fruits, Italian meringue
Payment Types
Amex Diners Mastercard Visa EFTPos
Parking
Free Parking
Notes
Bookings essential
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