Summit Ridge

First off, make sure you have proper tread on your shoes. We ended up slipping, sliding and at one point crawling up the last stretch to this restaurant at the top of Falls Creek. Summit offers what we’d call country fine dining. Dinner starts with an amuse bouche, bubbles and pretending-you-can-play-chess by the log fire. It's followed by rustic boards of pork and duck terrine and chutney, or the salmon tartare – a tangy assembly of diced raw fish mellowed out with a gently poached egg for scooping up in blinis (fancy talk for pikelets) like little fish tacos. Follow it up with the likes of an aged steak, or rabbit, served as a rolled up, bacon-wrapped ballantine stuffed with black pudding. The booze list is good too, and fiercely loyal to locals. You’ll find plenty of Victorian wine heroes on the list as well as the Sweet Water Alpine ale – a beer brewed just down the road by Pete who works at the resort gate. This is the owners' first leap into hospitality, so the service is genuine and enthusiastic, if not always speedy. Make the slippery trek to the top if only for the chocolate fondant.