Blue Mountains Hide Away

For J’s 30th Birthday he very kindly received a gift of a weekend away in the Blue Mountains with a friend – “pick me …pick me” – from his brother and sister-in-law. I love when J gets presents that I can enjoy too. We haven’t been to the Blue Mountains in a long time because when we go away for the weekend we tend to head up or down the coast. But for this weekend we headed west to Collits’ Inn near Lithgow.

I had checked out the website before we headed off and I noticed that they had received a number of awards (most noticeable two hats in the 2006 SMH Good Food Guide) for the restaurant so I knew we were in for a good meal too.

The Inn was absolutely beautiful and was steeped in history. It was originally built in 1823 and served as a rest stop for people travelling along the road from Sydney to Bathurst. It was most recently renovated in 1999 and they have done a fabulous job of keeping the old look and feel of the place.

But enough about the Inn, lets move on to the meal. We were the last to arrive for dinner, as is always the case because J has never adapted to how the Australians like to have dinner at 7:00. He still works on the European standard dinner time of 9:00. As we were last to arrive we got a romantic table that was in its own little dining room off the main room. I did miss my usual people watching but we enjoyed the more intimate setting. We started with a Kir Royale



My meal consisted of

Yabbies with Steamed zucchini flowers stuffed with chicken

Roasted veal cutlet & poached marrow

Apple tarte fine with cinnamon ice cream
(made fresh, as they ask you to preorder it because it takes 30 minutes to prepare).

J's meal was

Sea trout and Pacific oyster tartare, served with poached quail eggs

Pan fried “Tallabung” Pork fillet with apple & celeriac gratin

Ginger croquant and Berry Millefeuille with Kiwi sorbet

Every single dish was excellent but my favourites were the Stuffed Zucchini flowers, the Pork and the Apple Tart. Two out of three of these dishes were my choice during the meal but J ordered the Pork and I didn’t want to have the same so I ordered the veal. The Veal was also delicious but I kept trying to exchange some of my veal for some of his pork.

I would highly recommend this place for a lazy weekend away. On the Sunday we enjoyed a light fruit breakfast before heading up Mount York which took us about 45 minutes to climb. We whiled away the uphill trek by recounting the books we are both reading at the moment. Mine involved a young girl who jet-sets about wearing fancy clothes and dating all sorts of hunky men. J’s was all about criminals meeting other criminals in India. We have very different literary tastes. My excuse for reading this chic lit is that I have read a few serious books recently and when a friend loaned me this one to read I couldn’t help myself. It was trashy and I loved every minute of it.

Collits' Inn
Hartley Vale Rd
Hartley Vale
(61 2) 6355 2072