Unwind at Yea’s House of Mi-rin, a 16-Seat Korean Restaurant and Nature Retreat

In 2017, self-described “society girls” Sherin Wong and Ming-Ne Tan upended their lives, moving from their home city of Kuala Lumpur to country Victoria.

The move was “in pursuit of a better lifestyle, happiness and peace,” Wong says. The friends, who previously ran a gifting company in Malaysia and had studied in Melbourne, initially wanted to settle in Yarra Valley. But they came across a 51-acre piece of land in Yea, just under two hours’ drive from the Melbourne CBD, and something clicked.

The land was barren and there was no power or water, but they put down a deposit as soon as they saw the property. They spent the next eight years building House of Mi-Rin – a farm, restaurant and boutique accommodation that welcomed its first guests in December.

Turn off the freeway, drive up the gravelly dirt path to be greeted by bows and smiling faces outside the striking modernist structure. A visit to House of Mi-Rin (a portmanteau of the founders’ names) usually requires an overnight stay, starting at $1588 per night for a couple, with dinner, breakfast and other house-made snacks and fermented Korean drinks. One Saturday a month, the restaurant opens to non-guests for a $250-per-person set menu lunch.

The five guest rooms are inspired by hanoks (traditional Korean houses) with natural materials and textures in sparse, ultra-clean lines. There are thoughtful touches, such as bags of freshly picked herbs from the on-site farm, which are placed next to the wooden bathtub to be used as a soak.

“House of Mi-Rin is like welcoming a guest to our home, to experience holistic lifestyle in this nature retreat. Guests can expect to disconnect from everything that they normally do, no matter how busy they are,” says Wong.

There is a yoga room, a pond, a sauna and a tearoom, where you can practice calligraphy or meditate. A lounge area, where hot sujeonggwa (cinnamon tea) is served upon arrival, opens to the 16-seat dining room with glass windows that stretch all the way to the ceiling.

Wong, a self-taught chef, puts together seasonal Korean-inspired set menus. “My meals are not fancy. I cook really simple home-cooked food, but everything you eat is homemade by me wherever possible.” Lunch or dinner usually comes in at 10 courses and may include hobak-juk (pumpkin porridge); ssamgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) with seasonal banchan; sourdough bread served with butter made from milk produced by House of Mi-Rin’s dairy cow Iza; and house-made ice-cream with injeolmi (sweet rice cakes) and gotgam (dried persimmons).

Wong makes all the condiments – from cheong (fruit syrups) to sikcho (vinegars), kimchi and jang (sauces) – herself.

Come breakfast, Wong switches gears and offers a glimpse into her Malaysian heritage with nasi lemak and kaya toast.

All the dishes are seasonal and the ingredients are predominantly sourced from the 51-acre farm. “We make it a point to take our guests to the garden where our vegetables grow, and to the farm to see Iza, the cow who gives us milk for house-made yoghurt, ice-cream and butter, chickens that lay the eggs we serve, bees that produce our honey.”

For Wong, there’s a single thread running through the entire venue. “We have put everything that we love into House of Mi-Rin.”

House of Mi-Rin
5393 Goulburn Valley Highway, Yea

houseofmirin.com.au
@house_of_mirin