Worth the Trip: The New Three Blue Ducks Welcomes Diners to a Revamped Heritage Farmhouse

This week, Three Blue Ducks completes its Southern Highlands project: a three-part venue set on the 600-acre working Burradoo Park Farm. Which means that in less than two hours’ drive south-west of Sydney, there’s a bakery, a casually skewed daytime eatery and a set-menu-only restaurant – from a well-oiled team – ready for you.

At the first two, you’ll find slow-fermented sourdough, on-site baked pastries, local produce, sandwiches and cafe plates in the classic-Aussie-brunch style the Ducks team is known for. And in the restaurant within the heritage 1823 farmhouse? Two set menus that give you a taste of the property and the surrounding region.

Take the delightful “cover-crop” salad, which co-founder Darren Robertson describes as a “lick-the-bowl-clean” dish. It’s powered by sprouted pulses and turnips grown just outside the dining room’s windows, and arrives with both the shorter five-course Field Menu and the seven-course Harvest Menu.

It’s all overseen by group executive chef Troy Crisante, who arrived at the Ducks direct from Peter Gilmore’s peerless fine diner Quay, and head chef Rhys Connell (ex-Sepia, Society, Cutler & Co).

Whichever menu you choose, you’ll start with a “warm welcome” broth and a few snacks, before mains and dessert, led by what farmers Nick Tallas and Lindsey Rogers produce from the land. “We are receiving all our animals from the farm in whole-beast form,” says Crisante. “[It’s] an incredible opportunity to show the amazing beef or lamb in a variety of ways on the plate – maybe a beautiful roasted lamb cutlet next to a smoked rump and braised neck.”

“There’s certainly a lot to play with,” Robertson said after the final pre-opening tastings. “Everything coming out of the ground is beautiful. It feels very wintry. We want it to grow into the space. It’s not going to be rigid. Some things might only be available for perhaps a couple of days – and that’s the sort of beauty of the restaurant itself, sharing things that have been picked a couple of hours ago.”

Burradoo Park Farm lamb is served with sheep’s yoghurt and leaves from the garden, and there’s a salad of puntarelle, red-spot prawns and chilli. And while as much as possible is grown on the plots, nearby producers are bringing the goods too – including Misty Valley mushrooms, Robertson potatoes and Moonacres rhubarb.

In 2010, Three Blue Ducks was the name of a little Macpherson Street cafe owned and run by a group of mates. Now it’s the banner for a group of restaurants along Australia’s east coast that has come to define farm-to-plate dining in NSW.

Three Blue Ducks Burradoo
Burradoo Park Farm, 6 Railway Road, Burradoo

The Bakehouse:
Daily 7am–3pm
The Farmhouse:
Daily 8am–5pm
The Restaurant:
Thu 5pm–9pm Fri to Sun 11.30am–3pm, 5pm–9pm

@threeblueducks
threeblueducks.com/venues/burradoo