Loam

Superb dining in a beautiful setting. I have dined at Loam twice now and it is an extraordinary experience. My wife and I eat in a lot of Melbourne's better restaurants and were pleasantly surprised when friends of ours (Rich and Fleur) took us to Loam for our first visit last year. Set in the middle of nowhere (or so it seems) near the ocean, this charming restaurant offers diners a delight in local produce. The spacious layout offers generous room to admire the ambience and the service is impeccable. Expect to find it hard to book a table in the imminent future, which just adds to your justified anticipation. The chairs might not be traditional 'high end' fine dining chairs, but they are comfortable. They reflect the huble aspirations of the owners, who explained that when they set out to build the restaurant they didn't aim to be in the 'two hat' game, just to do what they do and do it well. Well? Bravo.

Beautiful setting, top of the range local produce with a good selection of wine, great friendly service with a very unusual but likable menu.

Loam is an experience that I would recommend for foodies looking for something different. The food was interesting, the service was exceptional and the ambiance was lovely. My only real criticism was the chairs. When you spend 4 hours dinning over 7 courses you expect that the chairs will be comfortable. Cafes and some restaurants use these chairs to turn over the customers as quickly as possible to sell more meals but in a marathon of multiple courses they left my rump a little tender.

I tried to make a booking for Loam Restaurant for a birthday celebration. Person from the restaurant promised to call me back to let me know whether I could get a booking but did not do so despite my calling again and someone else promising that Astrid will call me back to let me know whether there was a table,but again she did not do so. In my profession, if you tell someone that you will call them back you keep your word.