A Sun-Drenched Escape to The Clareville

The Clareville is a Modern Australian restaurant that has opened on the site of the former Clareville Kiosk on Sydney's Northern Beaches. At the helm is owner chef Cooper Dickson who has worked at some of Australia's most luxurious resorts. It's the perfect spot for a weekend drive (or Mother's Day coming up!) especially on a sunny day. Find out what the menu is like here and what is a must order.

The drive to The Clareville on the Northern Beaches takes us around 1.5 hours on this sunny Autumn Sunday. We were booked in for lunch the weekend before but torrential rain had forced us to cancel and I am glad that we did because the atmosphere on a sunny day reminds us of a tropical holiday with towering palm trees, frangipanes, white sand beach and a sun dappled setting rich in foliage. "This has Hawaii vibes," Mr NQN says, as if reading my mind.

The Clareville has an outdoor section as well as an indoor section in the house and on Sundays there is a well priced 3 course menu for $80. Avalon born chef and owner Cooper Dickson has worked for 20 years working as Executive Chef for Baillie Lodges’ award-winning properties Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island, Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island and in the outback at Longitude 131.

The weatherboard cottage was Clareville’s post office and general store in the 1960s and features Cooper's own artworks on the wall. He taught himself "Gyotaku" which is a traditional Japanese technique literally meaning "fish rubbing," where fishermen record their catches by applying ink to a fish and pressing paper onto it to create a print. There are also sculptures by his renowned ceramist father Lex Dickson and his organic style ceramic plates are used to serve dishes. “My happiest moment? It’s the best being able to come up with a dish to put on my dad’s plates,” says Cooper.

We start with cocktails, a Long Beach Martini with vodka, elderflower, Cointreau, lychee and verjus which is perfect for me while Mr NQN has a Guava Capirinha made with fresh seasonal guava, cachacha, lime and agave.

We are famished when we arrive so we order some house baked sourdough bread with a generous serve of perfect room temperature confit garlic butter with a showering of crispy shallots on top. I briefly consider a 1:1 ratio of butter to bread because it is that good.

The Sydney rock oysters are from Wogonga Inlet on the Sapphire Coast and they can come natural with lemon or with cucumber, apple, jalapeno and dill creme. We try the latter which are delicious, one small point is that the cucumber could be a bit smaller as the size of it distracts from the texture of the oysters.

We don't often order the specials because you Dear Reader may not have them available when you visit but when I heard "savoury churros" I was intrigued. These churros are served on a curried egg mayonnaise salad with saltbush powder and fennel pollen with salmon roe on top on a bed of hay on one of Cooper's father's plates. This dish is all about textures from the crisp edge churros to the egg salad and pops of salmon roe. And there is a generous amount of the salad and roe so we use the remainder of the bread to scoop up every dish.

One of my favourite dishes is the confit smoked ocean trout with finely diced cucumbebr, apple and roe on top and cream cheese on the side with saltbush. The ocean trout is so luscious and perfectly pairs with the cucumber, apple and roe on top. Cooper explains, "There's a lot of work behind the dish, curing, smoking, glazing, resting and then slow cooking. The day we smoke the trout makes the restaurant smell fantastic, especially on a cold day."

I always enjoy an escabeche (where cooked seafood is marinated in a vinegar and herb sauce). The mussels escabeche are served cold with lightly charred sourdough triangles and a hot mustard cream that lends the mussels a light bitterness. I actually prefer the mussels as they are without the mustard cream as I like the flavour of the vinegar.

I don't order steak that often because it’s easy to cook at home especially if it's just a steak by itself but this one has some delicious accompaniments. It starts with a m2+ wagyu grain fed Sirloin from Rangers Valley, Northern NSW. It is paired with caramelized leek puree, confit garlic, smoked bone marrow, roast mushrooms, pickled daikon cubes, micro herb salad and grated fresh horseradish. It is so rich and luscious from the grain fed steak to the marrow and cream leeks that I see this being a perfect main for cold autumn nights.

The Berkshire pork came recommended to us from our fantastic waiter. It is three different cuts of pork: fillet, jowl and ham: It's two slices of tender pork fillet and pork jowl with sticky pieces of barbecued pineapple and a crumbed kromesky or croquette filled with diced ham with florets of purple cauliflower and grilled shishito peppers. This too is rich and great for a cooler autumn day.

We ordered the chips to go with the meat and they're thick cut chips in a fluffy aioli sauce that are moreish. I would have loved some of that saltbush seasoning on these too.

We try two desserts and the first is my favourite and is an exercise is beautiful textures. The lemon myrtle curd is paired with tart sweet muntries and lilly pillys with yogurt sorbet and sweet buttery pistachio rubble. The lemon myrtle and lillypilly come from the restaurant's garden.

Mr NQN loves the other dessert that is slightly richer and it is a play on raspberry bullet lollies. It's licorice ice cream and slate black meringue, raspberry snow, tiny elderflowers and a light textured chocolate mousse. "We collect the flowers ourselves from various trees around the area so we have a bit of fun doing so," says Cooper. And after lunch, we go for a walk along the beach.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like taking a drive to go somewhere special for lunch or dinner?

The Clareville

27 Delecta Avenue Clareville NSW 2107

Lunch Friday - Sunday

Dinner Wednesday - Saturday