By Franz Scheurer
Ex-convict Pierce Collits and his wife Mary built Collits’ Inn in 1823, shortly after a way was discovered to cross the Blue Mountains in 1813. It quickly became one of the most visited inns in the colony and three governors, Brisbane, Darling and Bourke stayed there, presumably in the eastern veranda room, now known as the ‘Governor’s Room’. The inn also served as the local post office in the early 1830s and was forced to close shortly after the opening of Victoria Pass, when traffic no longer passed its doors. It briefly reopened from 1877 to 1879 to service the miners in Hartley Vale. Today the building retains a lot of charm and a sense of history, with a sensitive renovation, and is thriving as a B&B with Cyrillia van der Merwe and Laurent Deslandes serving good food, with an intelligent selection of wines and offering good old fashioned country hospitality.
A ‘Prawn Boudin Blanc with corn purée & vegetable salsa’ demonstrates the skill in the kitchen and the ‘Pork head, Pig trotter & confit pork cheek’ confirm that the chef knows how to season. The ‘White bean soup with duck confit Tartine’ light and smooth and the ‘Crispy Gympie goats cheese galette with Broad bean & tomato salad and Beetroot oil’ a good combination of textures and earthy flavours.
For mains we tried the ‘Roasted vegetable pie with green leave salad’, a very pretty presentation, a dish of ‘Braised lamb shank en crépinette with Moroccan spices, semolina & steamed Zucchini flower’ succulent and subtly spicy, and the ‘Fish of the day with kiffler potato millefeuille. Grilled asparagus & tomato concassée’, a slice of blue eye (they called it blue eye cod!) perfectly seared and rested with the potato millefeuille the hero. The one dish that stood out was the ‘Roast Narrabri rabbit with Dijon mustard crust, sweet garlic sauce and green peas a la française’, beautifully moist and juicy and the ‘Roast veal loin with braised silver beet, marrow, échalotes confit and Olive jus’ although perfectly rare was ‘veal’ of questionable age.
The ‘Granny Smith apple sorbet with calvados’ was a terrific end to the meal with its clean, fresh flavours and good texture.
I don’t like inconsistencies in the use of upper and lower case on menus. I am even less enamoured of ‘Franglais’ or spelling mistakes. Although the food is good, the menu (as you can see from the above descriptions) needs work. When will chefs and restaurateurs learn that blue eye is not a cod!
Service is friendly and informed and the setting is charming. Value for money is pretty good (two course menu $55 and three course menu $65) and if you’re in the mountains for the weekend this might be a place worth visiting.
Score: 6.5/10
For more information or bookings:
Collits’ Inn
Hartley Vale Road
Hartley Vale NSW 2790
Tel.: 02 6355 2072