Sara Dining And Garden

After more than a decade at Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, acclaimed chef Alex Prichard has traded Bondi for Berry, opening his first solo venture on the NSW South Coast.

Set within Moraea Farm, part of the Linnaeus Collection, Sara Dining is a 60-seat, produce-driven restaurant created by Prichard and his wife Angie in partnership with locals Peter and Nadia Yannopoulos. The restaurant occupies the original farmhouse’s former garage and workshop, surrounded by orchards, gardens, bees and livestock.

Rather than transplanting the Icebergs experience down the coast, Prichard has created something smaller, more personal and closely connected to the land. Two kitchen gardens supply fruit, vegetables and herbs metres from the restaurant, with the long-term goal of growing up to 80 per cent of the produce used across the menu.

The opening menu moves from snacks and smaller plates to generous dishes designed for sharing. Shoalhaven seafood features heavily, including Sydney rock oysters with pink peppercorn mignonette, salt-and-pepper squid with Aleppo pepper and lime, and wood-fired butterflied flathead finished with café de Paris butter.

A retired dairy cow rib eye, carved beside the outdoor parrilla grill, anchors the larger plates, while nettle tortellini comes with sheep and goat’s curd, peas and koji. For dessert, pavlova is finished with passionfruit and marigold cream alongside fruit picked fresh from Linnaeus Farm.

Former The Waratah venue manager Evan Stroeve leads the floor and beverage program. The 500-bottle wine list includes 33 wines by the glass, with a strong opening focus on New South Wales producers, alongside small-production Australian labels and international bottles. Cocktails similarly draw on the property, from a house martini made with mountain marigold and citrus-leaf distillate to a mini frozen margarita with smoked pear and garden herbs.

Designed by Studio XOX, the richly toned dining room brings together Rosso Orbobico stone, plum-coloured walls, cerise tiling and dark walnut joinery. Guests can also stay across the Linnaeus Collection’s private Berry residences, extending any long lunches into a full farm escape.

Sara Dining is open for lunch and dinner from Thursday to Monday, with bookings available now.

Image credit: Sara Dining | Supplied