The setting here, at the Hunter’s foremost dining institution, can feel a bit Big Winery Restaurant, but there’s no chef in the region offering a more personal experience than Troy Rhoades-Brown. His freshly installed home garden provides hirosaki turnips for a dish of flaking steamed Murray cod brightened with wood sorrel and underscored with savoury dashi cream.

And he draws on it again for a signature dish of heritage pork (today it’s loin with bubbly crackling, tomorrow another cut, perhaps salt-baked or grilled over ironbark) with pumpkin and black garlic. He throws a Hail Mary with a main course of glazed Mother Fungus mushrooms and sticks it, while optional snacks – mulberry-glazed beef in togarashi among them – should be mandatory.

Meanwhile, a fierce dedication to upskilling local staff has made Muse the region’s leading talent pipeline. No surprise, then, that the floor, kitchen and drinks service is in such perfect harmony.

Good to know: Sommelier Melinda Beswick plays all the hits, but also runs a Young Guns of the Hunter pairing to spotlight talented emerging winemakers in the Valley

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