The Daylesford Edition- The Farmers Arms Hotel

Whilst away on a recent girls trip to Daylesford, I decided to follow in my cousins footsteps and have dinner at the Farmers Arms Hotel, considering her blog post had been so complimentary of the food there. We braved the rain and were lucky enough to snag the very last spot on the long large communal table in the middle of the room, settled quite comfortably in the middle of the large table.

Aesthetically, the Farmers Arms is everything a country pub should be. A beautiful old brick building furnished with beautiful wooden furniture, wood fires, brick walls and the traditional blackboard menu. The food at the Farmers Arms leans a little more towards fine dining than your traditional country pub though, which was fine with me.

It was soooo hard to decide what to eat- I tossed up between several different dishes. The service was friendly but very slow- our food took over an hour after ordering and several tables who had arrived and ordered after us had finished eating by the time we got our meals, and it wasn't like any of us had a steak or anything that takes a while to cook! All in all though, the majority of the meals were really beautiful and we enjoyed our night there.

We started with the polenta chips- you may remember from previous posts that whilst I like polenta I am still making my mind up about whether I love it or not... these chips may have changed my mind! They were crispy on the outside, beautiful and soft and eggy on the inside. Loved them.

Two of the girls had the Moroccan Lamb Shank Tagine- this meal smelled incredible and was definitely one of the ones I had thought about getting. However, the girls were not overly impressed. It was very 'soupy' and didn't have any vegetables with it, the couscous was on the side when it would havebeen lovely served on a bed of couscous and the shanks were unusually fatty. The flavors seemed there but the execution didn't quite pull off.

The 'nude' ravioli was an interesting concept- spinach and cheese dumplings in a napoli sauce without the carbs. Genius! These looked very yummy and my friend really enjoyed them. I plan to try and replicate this at home sometime!

The stuffed chicken with vegetables and walnuts also looked very impressive and my friend described this as exactly 'her type of food'. It was very rustic and homely looking!

I went for my favourite meal- atlantic salmon fillet. This was served with pan fried potatoes, olives, tomatoes and capers and the taste was very Italian. The salmon was perfectly cooked and the portion size perfect. I managed to talk my friend into trying atlantic salmon for the very first time, and banked money on the fact that she would not be disappinted... she wasn't... lucky for me!

All in all, a really lovely dinner at a gorgeous little country pub. Be prepared to wait for your meals if you are in a big group, but for the most part, the food was worth the wait.