Sunday lunch: Annie Smithers' Bistrot, Kyneton

OUR booking at Annie Smithers' Bistrot is a good thing because others without reservations are being turned away from the intimate 35-seat restaurant.

Smugly, we hunker down at our linen-clad table in this high-ceilinged room for some serious business. There's an a la carte menu with French classic entrees such as chicken livers and steak tartare followed by main courses of trout almondine, chive-crusted snapper fillet, free-range duck confit, eye-fillet steak and more. Then there's a daily-changing plat du jour with half a dozen suggestions such as brawn-pressed pork terrine, pan-fried Spanish-style black pudding sausage with an apple salad and battered snapper tails with hand-cut fries.

We choose from both. Crisp baby radishes arrive straight from Smithers' garden — served with unsalted butter and salt flakes as we order a bottle of Mount Gisborne pinot noir ($50) from a good list of regional as well as French wines.

Carrot and ginger soup ($14.50) is a winner topped with hazelnut dukkah. Classic rabbit rillettes ($19.50) are served with house-made bread, mustard and a frisee salad with broadbeans and radish — again from the garden.

Slow-cooked lamb shoulder ($30) with garlic and herbs is perfection and falls apart at a touch — with fluffy potato gnocchi to mop up the juices tossed through with home-grown peas. My husband's grilled eye-fillet steak ($34) gets the thumbs up for its tender, tasty pink middle accompanied by bearnaise sauce, garden salad and pommes frites. It's everything and more we've come to expect of this low-key talented chef.

Serving an apprenticeship with Stephanie Alexander, Smithers was virtually assured of a successful culinary career.

Five years ago when she hung up her shingle in Kyneton, little did she realise she was starting a trend with a raft of chefs and restaurateurs following her. Piper Street is now one of the most popular eating precincts in the state.

Reviewed by Tricia Welsh

Annie Smithers' Bistrot, 72 Piper Street, Kyneton, 5422 2039. Open Wednesday-Sunday noon-5pm, Thursday-Saturday 6pm-late. See anniesmithers.com.au.

To stay: nearby options include Rochford Lodge (rochfordlodge.com), 61A (macedonrangesinteriors.com.au), St Agnes Homestead (saintagnes.com.au).