Continuing my little culinary tour of Western Australia’s south west region (with more than a homage to wine see here and here), I’m sharing another delightful spot that we discovered many years ago. Hidden way down at the end of a long straight driveway flanked on both sides by rows of vines, you happen upon the charming Woody Nook. The rustic style buildings nestling in the bush consist of a farmhouse style restaurant and a cosy wine tasting area. Family run, warm and welcoming, it hasn’t changed much over the years. The gardens and veranda have been tastefully updated and a children’s play area added but otherwise it is pretty much the same as when we first chanced upon it back in the early 1990s.
Our 2 girls used to love playing around the old farm machinery at the front of the property – you can still see these implements from a bygone era near the entrance. Now a generation along, we have already taken our granddaughter, La Petite 1, there as a baby and hope we can take her and her little sister, La Petite 2, back before too long.
Old farm machinery dotted about the front of the property
The award winning restaurant, The Nookery Cafe, serves up hearty plates of food whatever the season, though we especially love coming here on a cold crisp winter’s day. On this occasion at the end of last winter, Monsieur tucked into a large plate of sausages and mash whilst I enjoyed the fish of the day with vegetable accompaniments. Desserts were pavlova roulade and a delicious fruit strudel. Suffice to say we didn’t eat much for dinner that night!
Of course no visit would have been complete without a chance to stock up on the wine cellar. Yours truly was the “skipper” so watched on whilst Monsieur sampled potential purchases. We have always loved their cheekily named “Nooky Delight” a ruby red smooth port. The Velvet Rose with its pretty label that changes colour at room temperature (they use temperature sensitive ink) is another favourite of mine. The owner was delightful and the German waitress humoured me whilst I “practised” my German on her. She was about to return home after 8 years in Australia – nothing to do with my linguistic “skills” I hope! We ended up with a mixed dozen crate (we do a lot of entertaining!) and our hosts kindly agreed to pose for a photo (I did tell them about the blog and they were quite happy for a photo to be published and yes we did pay for the wine and our meals in full!). If anyone is interested you can find details of where to purchase Woody Nook wines here (they ship round the world and have importers in countries including the UK and the USA).
Having had a relatively mild summer so far we are just embarking on a week long heatwave (mid 30s to 40 degrees until late next week). It has therefore been rather nice to reminisce about a late winter’s day only a few months back! Prost!
Copyright © 2016 Rosemary Thomas Le Chic En Rose. All rights reserved
Le Chic En Rose 
Looks lovely. Your post always make me to go for a long trip in Australia…one of the these days we will do it…(Suzanne)
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Thanks Suzanne! Hope you will make it Down Under one day – it’s a very varied country as you can see not all outback!
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Yes I know it is a big country with lots of different landscapes. I have been to Sydney & Melbourne on business but that was years ago with not much time for sightseeing…It takes a long time to get there so we want to have more time so we can see as much of the country as possible so it will have to wait a bit before we can take extended period of time to travel…
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You will love it when you have a bit more time to travel Suzanne. Always very different when you travel to a place on business. We’ve lived here for years and there are many parts of Australia we have yet to see though have covered all the major cities apart from Darwin (though Monsieur LC went there once for work). Hope you have a lovely weekend 🙂
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Oh I love the presentation of the plates at The Nookery Cafe !
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They are lovely aren’t they Gin – it’s a cosy place yet in fact with the veranda area they can seat 120. It feels like being in a warm country farmhouse – we love it!
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120 seats is quite impressive ! Is it very common to fin these kind of establishments over there ?
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Yes wineries etc are very popular! Eating out is always fun 😀
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Oh, that food looks delicious. Another one on my list… 🙂
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Definitely Jude – always happy to give you some more suggestions for your future trips! 🙂
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Son and family have moved to South Perth, about a block from the park and not far from the zoo. I can’t wait to visit. Oh and grandchild number 7 arrives in May (not that I need an excuse to visit).
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South Perth is a lovely area Jude – they sound to be in a great location close to the zoo (have done a few posts on this area and the zoo too). Congratulations on the forthcoming grandchild too 🙂 It’s 42 here today – far too hot for me but most of the time Perth is lovely!!
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Eeks! That is hot. Do you have a swimming pool?
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Yes mercifully we do have a pool Jude – really makes a difference as you feel so refreshed afterwards! At least the heat is dry and the overnight minimum wasn’t as high as they were predicting – it even dropped below 20 at one point! Cooler conditions on Friday afternoon – it may only be 31 by then!!
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Ha, I love the Aussie idea of ‘cool’ 😀
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Trust me – 20 is cool after 42 degrees!!
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I can imagine! It’s a tad cooler here today after mildish temps of 11-12. Today was around 7 degrees.
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It’s so interesting how one adapts to the surrounding temperature – this is why it always feels so cold to me when I arrive in the UK!! Having said that our overnight minimums may even drop to mid teens this weekend – may need a blanket back on the bed!
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Woody Nook – what a great name, just hearing that instantly makes me want to go Rosemary and I love the Nooky Delight name for the wine – cheeky and so funny!! How lovely that you can bring your little granddaughters back to a place you enjoyed with your own children too. Good luck with the heatwave, hope it’s not too unbearable, I can’t imagine it in our dreary weather, forgotten what sun even looks like!!
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Yes Woody Nook is a gorgeous name for a charming place Joy! The heatwave is horrible – I know I shouldn’t be complaining when you’re sitting in the UK winter but honestly the heat is too much at present. It’s the prolonged nature of it – several days of 40 plus or high 30s and overnight minimums of mid 20s. Maybe some relief at the end of the week – 31 will feel lovely! We do have air con upstairs and normally that’s sufficient to cool through the downstairs too but not today though of course it’s better than being outside. We also have a pool (you need it here it’s quite normal!) so I will be going in there later when it cools down a bit. The pets are wilting – have so much water out for them (they are both indoors of course!). If we have 4 days of 40 plus maximums, it will break the record for Perth set in 1933. Unfortunately there are bushfires starting up in some bushland areas. I saw that Storm Imogen is arriving soon so hope that isn’t too destructive. At least hopefully the heat will cool off a bit by the end of the week -it’s not too long to go just feels like it now! Have a great week! 🙂
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Several days of heat like that sounds horrific Rosemary – I’m not good at all in extreme heat so don’t know how I would manager. I would be like your pets – wilting!! Imogen is on her way – is it because they’ve started to name the storms but I’ve never been so aware of so many in such quick succession!! I hope she passes through quickly, we’re off to Ireland to visit my dad tomorrow for half term and although it’s a short ride I would much prefer it not to be bumpy!! Hope it cools off for you soon…
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Thanks Joy – certainly extreme weather seems to be the order of the day! Even with the air con this heat gets to you – you have to drink so much water to stay hydrated. The one plus is that it is a dry heat and also the overnight minimum was lower than expected – it actually dropped down to 19 briefly ( not the predicted mid 20s) so at least that helped us to get some sleep as we don’t like leaving the air con on all night. I can’t remember them naming the storms before – I do remember Michael Fish, the BBC weatherman, stating that there wasn’t going to be a hurricane and then there was but don’t think that one had a name ( think I’m showing my age here)! Nevertheless the storms seem to be relentless at present – really hope the sea crossing isn’t too rough for you and that you have a great time with your dad 😀
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Hi Rosemary,
Thanks for this – I very much enjoyed it because Cathy & Gibo took me there in October! Below is the proof!
Love
Peter
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Am so glad this post brought back happy memories Peter! It’s such a lovely spot isn’t it – we’ve been there many times over the years! Love Rosemary xx
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