Petite Villaine, Denmark, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Two years ago, Alissa and I visited Rockcliffe Winery for lunch. Back then, their cellar door restaurant was Silas Masih's Pepper & Salt - arguably the best and most interesting restaurant in Denmark - and Masih's spice-driven fusion cuisine combined with the ambiance of Rockcliffe's idyllic vineyards and gardens made for a very satisfying, lazy afternoon in the South West. By the end of that year, Pepper & Salt had moved out of Rockcliffe to take up residence at Forest Hill. I understood the move - Forest Hill's grand dining room is one of the best you're likely to find at any of WA's best cellar door restaurants, but I felt a bit sorry for Rockcliffe in a way, and hoped that the restaurant space would once again house a restaurant worthy of its setting.

Truffle Hill Gourmet Cafe (Truffle & Wine Co), Manjimup, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

One of the great pleasures of wintertime in Western Australia is Truffle Season. Home to the largest producer of Black Truffles in the world, restaurants throughout Perth get in on the gift of the season with truffle-oriented dishes and even entire menus devoted to the Black Truffle - everyone ranging from fine dining stalwarts like 1907 right down to more casual eateries like Old Faithful. Such is the quality of Manjimup Truffles that they've been spruiked by chefs as influential as Heston Blumenthal and David Chang, and even the French are actually importing our Truffles for their off-season.

Swings Taphouse & Kitchen, Margaret River, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

I've said it before and I'll say it again - pizza is an easy dish to make at a mediocre level (hence its ubiquity), but one that is very difficult to truly master. The dough, the thickness of the base, the type of oven, the temperature, the amount of toppings on top - all these variables greatly influence the final result, and while exotic and clever pizza topping combinations are obvious ways to make a pizza appear better, if the fundamentals of a great base are not achieved first then half the battle is already lost. Its for this reason I seldom seek out pizza, but when our friends Cam and Nadia said the Swings Taphouse & Kitchen made the best pizza they'd eaten since they lived in Italy, I knew it was something worth trying. We initially thought of saving it for future Down South holiday, however after a car breakdown meant another three nights in Margaret River, Alissa and I decided to pop into Swings for a late lunch.

St Aidan Winery, Ferguson, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Before heading off for our Melbourne trip last year, I picked up a copy of the then-current issue of Gourmet Traveller Wine as reading material for the flight since it contained an article on their recent Cellar Door Awards. It was nice to see some of our favourite winery cellar doors represented - Vasse Felix won Best Cellar Door with Food in Margaret River - however what I was most interested in was discovering new places to try in the Best Cellar Door with Food category. Last year we tried Estate 807 which won the award for the Great Southern region (curiously over the better Pepper & Salt at Forest Hill), and with the Geographe region's Willow Bridge on our wine tasting itinerary, we decided to check out the region's winning restaurant - St Aidan.

Wills Domain, Yallingup, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

When it comes to restaurant reservations, I like to make them as far ahead of time as possible. In planning our January 2015 road trip through the South West, reservations at Laundry 43, Wills Domain and Cape Lodge were booked by August to avoid the mad scramble for a table over the high demand first weekend of the New Year. When double checking our bookings and collating our confirmation emails for our files, I discovered that I'd made a serious error - I'd booked Wills Domain for our first day instead of our second, meaning we'd have to drive past Busselton to Yallingup, double back to Busselton for our dinner at Laundry 43 and then double back even further the next day to cover the things we'd planned for Day 1 in Geographe. With Wills Domain once again announced as the West Australian Good Food Guide's Regional Restaurant of the Year in the interim, changing our booking was not going to be possible  - especially since we booked an extended sitting for the degustation - so we decided to drive the extra distance and enjoy our meal and the winery's stunning views a day ahead of schedule.

Arimia, Yallingup, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

One of the peculiarities of Western Australia's public holiday calendar is how sparse the long weekends become in the second half of the year. While the first half of the year averages 1 a month, after WA Day its over three months before the Queen's Birthday long weekend provides some respite from the relentless working week. The Queen's Birthday then is a holiday we all look forward to, independent of whatever feelings we have for the monarchy. This Queen's Birthday weekend was particularly important for Alissa, as it marked the end of her prac for her university studies and a weekend down south celebrating the birthday of our friend Annaliese Hutchison. After heading down with our friend Ben on the Friday night, Alissa and I had some free time on the Saturday morning to explore. After tasting (and purchasing) wine from the cellar door at Flying Fish Cove, Alissa and I decided to stop in for lunch at the cellar door restaurant at the nearby Arimia Estate.

Estate 807, Denmark, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Just as a coffee at Dome before an international flight is a tradition for my family, Alissa's family have always considered a magazine for the flight a prerequisite air travel parting gift. Its a tradition we have continued whenever I have travelled interstate, and before our recent flight to Melbourne we each chose a magazine for our in-flight perusal. Though I usually pick up a cooking magazine, the Gourmet Traveller Wine issue had a lot of feature articles of interest, including one on WA winemakers 'daring to be different'. Of most interest however was an article on the magazine's Cellar Door Awards - especially useful since we were driving down to Denmark immediately after our trip to Melbourne. Many of our favourite wineries in Margaret River, Great Southern and Geographe got a mention, with Vasse Felix taking out the 'Cellar Door with Best Food' category in Margaret River. We were surprised to find Forest Hill not get a mention in the same category for the Great Southern region considering their cellar door is home to the excellent Pepper & Salt. Listed instead was Estate 807, a newish winery Alissa and I had never heard of before. Intrigued by this new lead, we decided to add lunch at Estate 807 to our Denmark itinerary.

Pepper & Salt, Denmark, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

In January last year, Alissa and I had the pleasure of dining at Pepper & Salt - arguably not just the best restaurant in Denmark, but in the entire Great Southern region as a whole. Owned and operated by chef Silas Masih and his wife Angela, and at that time located at Rockcliffe Winery, the interesting spice-driven fusion food had Alissa and I raving to both our parents. When my parents went down to Denmark later in the year they were similarly impressed with Silas' creativity, and he had spoken to my parents about their plans for a potential expansion. We were thus elated to pick up a copy of the Good Food Guide and discover that Pepper & Salt had made the move to the massive upper deck of Forest Hill's cellar door. Having been the head chef at the cellar door before striking out on his own, it's a fitting homecoming, as well as a reactivation of what was an underutilised space. Heading down for the Anzac Day weekend, a return visit to Pepper & Salt was something I pretty much insisted on.

Vasse Felix, Margaret River, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Its been called one of the best cellar doors in Australia, and has remained consistently at the very top of the best regional restaurants rankings in the Good Food Guide with and equal-highest rating of two stars and 17/20. To say Vasse Felix's reputation precedes it is an understatement.

One of the great perks of living in Perth is that its so close to two amazing wine regions - the world renowned Margaret River region, and the criminally underrated Great Southern. Only back a few weeks from Alissa and Don Eat Asia, we had come down to Margaret River for a wedding and on our way back decided to replenish our depleted wine supplies and try chef Alan Carr's latest creations at the Vasse Felix restaurant.

Owing to being the first vineyard in Margaret River and their continued presence at the forefront of the region's 5-Star wineries, the cellar door-restaurant complex was one of the more expansive in the region.

We had arrived early and were the first to be seated for their lunch service. The high ceiling dining space on the upstairs floor lacked air conditioning, and on this hot Summer day the room was warm indeed even with fans feebly whirring in the background. Thankfully we were seated near the door, where the cooling winds did their best to relieve the less than optimum temperature.

The food menu was divided into sections - Entree, Main, Sides, Dessert and Cheese, and featured the kind of vague ingredients-only dish names that has become quite popular - 'Jamon, nectarine, granola, fennel, buttermilk' and 'Chicken, black eyed beans, corn, merquez, chipotle' for example. Some might find this pretentious, but sometimes its nice to have that element of surprise when the dish finally arrives. We chose to go with a shared entree, two mains and two desserts and since we had a long list of wineries to visit, we skipped the wine and opted for coffee instead.

While we waited for our first plate to arrive, we were given the obligatory serve of bread. This was good bread with a nice softness to the fluffy white interior, but it was not exactly memorable in the way the bread at Caprice and Otto e Mezzo was.

We were swayed away from individual entrees by the duck content in the Charcuterie plate. Duck parfait, duck ham and duck & pork rillette, along with some cured pork fennel sausage and a chicken, prune and pistachio terrine? Yes please! Being fans of this kind of very European-style tasting plate filled with an abundance of flavours and textures, this was a great way to start our meal - even if some of those other entrees sounded amazing.

I love a good plate of protein, but the main that caught my eye the most was the vegetarian option of Buckweat Gnocchi, Cauliflower, Raisin, Goats Cheese, Hazelnut. I used to be of the opinion that gnocchi was gross and rubbery - until I realised the off-the-shelf rubbish that passes for the stuff is nothing like the soft, creamy consistency of the real thing.

'My god!' I exclaimed as the crispy fried outer layer of the gnocchi gave way to the super-soft and smooth interior. This is how gnocchi should be. The cauliflower was served in three ways - fried florets, slivers that had been dehydrated and a foamy puree. All were delicious, and paired well with the goats cheese and a vegetable I'm not normally particular fond of - kale. Throw in the sweet raisin and hazelnut sauce at the bottom, and this was a really winning dish.

Pork was on the menu, so of course Alissa went with the Pork Shoulder, Onion, Endive, Mustard as her main. Plating was absolutely stunning - almost too pretty to eat. Tastewise, the pork shoulder was perfectly cooked as it was flavoursome and juicy, and the classic flavour combination reminded her of a very fancy version of the kind of Dutch-influence cooking she enjoyed as a child. If food has that kind of sensory flashback effect, I think it definitely a success.

Of course, you can't have a good European-style pork dish without the crackling and this salted, crispy crackling was a real treat.

I love cardamom in sweets, and it convinced me to order the Guava, Apple, Cardamom, Honeycomb dish for dessert. The plating of the multiple component dessert was again very beautiful. The combination of textures and flavours were sublime - the smoothness of the guava mousse combined with the crunch of the thinly slice apple and the honeycomb alongside the sweetness of the sauce, jelly and the cardamom brioche provided a delicious final course to the meal

Alissa's dessert was even better; a large part of which owes to the fact it had sorbet as a component. I love sorbet on a good day but during a heatwave I wanted it even more. The dish -Mango, Coconut, Yuzu, Forbidden Rice - drew from a wide range of Asian flavours. The Forbidden rice for one was basically just pulut hitam. It was not necessarily the best pulut hitam either of us have ever eaten (it was a bit too stiff for my liking) but when combined with all the coconut slivers, the meringue, sorbet, fruit and the rice cracker on top, it made for a refreshingly tropical dish that was perfect for the hot day.

The Verdict: Excellent+
Vasse Felix's reputation is well deserved - this was one of the best cellar door meals I've had, and was of a quality level that was not just 'good by Regional Australia standards', but of a standard that did not need such qualifications. Alan Carr is an inventive chef with a keen understanding of flavour and textures, as these wonderful dishes reflect. Certainly worth making a part of your itinerary next time you're in Margaret River.