coombe the melba estate

Attractive gardens and small museum.Very good shop and huge restaurant.Makes a great day out.Close to vineyards and Tarrawarra gallery.

We were so lookinig forward to our lunch at Coombes after seeing it featured on Postcards. Upon arrival we were wowed by the beautiful setting, provendore store and the look of the restaurant - we couldn't wait. Entree was ordered (zucchini flowers filled with crab) and arrived quite quickly and was delicious!.....then an hour wait (at least) for our main meal!! Main meal so dissappointing - I ordered the pork cutlet and was so dissappointed when it arrived. Normally a pork cutlet is quite large, I would call this a 'chop'!!.. The seafood risotto was overpowered with lemon and overcooked (rubbery prawns). We had to send our side of our triple cooked sebago potatoes with rosemary and garlic back as they were floury and black and bruised inside - terrible!!! Hopefully they can lift their game as it is a perfect setting for a fine restaurant. We should have stuck with our origial plan and visited Oakridge.

This was our third visit to Coombe, this time for the garden tour and Devonshire Tea. We'd come with an elderly Aunt and Uncle, their daughter and her husband. The garden tour was interesting and very informative. Nice to hear more about Dame Nellie Melba's interests and private lifestyle as various aspects of the garden were explained. The seating opportunities at some of the "chatting points" were welcome respites for my Aunt. At the completion of the tour we were shown to the appointed area for our afternoon tea. Once seated we were all (about 20 in the group) we were offered water. After quite a wait the much anticipated scones, jam and cream(or gluten free option) appeared and we were poured a cup of tea or coffee. Unfortunately this was the end of the table service. No offer of a second tea or coffee was forthcoming. It seemed as if the staff felt we'd had what we'd paid for so there was no need for them to re-appear. Not the type of service I'd expected from this style of restaurant! Robotic rather than personal. I was tempted to ask for another cup, but as some of the group had begun to leave opted for more water. Have since heard had I asked for a second cup would have been expected to pay for it! Not a major issue, but just seems a little petty when you've paid $25 for the tour and tea, the offer of an additional cup would have just topped off the afternoon nicely. Sadly not as great a visit as our previous trips.

Living in the Dandenong's I have passed the Melba Estate in Coldstream many times and always wondered what was behind the huge hedges. Well today I found out.I booked lunch for my wife and I at Coombe's restaurant in the Melba Estate grounds and we were delighted at the surroundings and layout of the restaurant.Service was excellent and the food from the menu offered a wide choice for the diner of gourmet food and wines. I chose an Duck Liver Pate` with poached Figs followed by a superbly cooked Porterhouse Steak .My wife had Zucchini Flowers and Mushroom and Kale wrapped in Brik pastry, Herb Quinoa & Frekkah salad. coffees to finish an excellent meal.We will return soon to try some of the tasty morsels on the menu and to take a tour of the fantastic garden.Treat yourself to an excellent meal in great surroundings

We were very much looking forward to visiting the estate after seeing it lauded on a recent travel program after which we invited my senior cit. mother-in-law. Then almost regretted it after seeing some negative comments on this page. It just goes to show that you make your own experience. After a seeing the negative comments we rang to confirm suitability for our Mum. The garden tour is 45 minutes long, not suitable if you are not able to walk for long periods. I was assured that in good weather wheel chairs and walking frames could get around. The down side being that the garden tour at $25 including morning/afternoon tea was booked up until May. The gallery was very pleasant with lovely art works. The providor though small, had beautiful artisan bread, lovely jams and we can heartily recommend the eggplant Kasundi. We will be dropping in just to pick up more of that. The wine tasting was lovely with no tasting fee for the general products. We enjoyed a delightful morning tea with polite and attentive service in the restaurant. The price does reflect the quality of the establishment.

A big thank you to everyone involved in this event. We attended Friday evening. The attention to detail by all staff was appreciated. Such a warm welcome. The evening was a great success for all. Food was delicious and the assortment of wines were amazing.

Cellar Door prices are always welcome, especially for such high quality wines. Reds robust, full flavoured, and a good variety to suit most palates. Good range of White's also, particularly good Chardonnays. Difficult fighting the urge to load up the car! Beautiful lush surrounds, ideal for a picnic or use the available BBQ.

Join the garden tour which was really fun and interesting even for a non greenie like me. History of the estate and Dame Melba was most interesting. The afternoon tea of scones and jam plus cream is to die for. A must do if you are in that part of the world. The new space is warm and inviting modern yet fits in SO well to the 100 yo estate. Gorgeous! We will return in late spring for the blooming of the roses and garden for a second visit.

We had driven past here twice last year on the way home from the Healesville Hotel and, after the restaurant featured on "Getaway", we decided on the spur of the moment to pay a visit. We made an online booking on the Monday for lunch on the Tuesday and arrived at 12.30. Probably a mistake as there was a queue to be seated and it appeared that a lot of others had arrived only a little earlier. Maybe a noon or 1pm reservation would be better. The room was already busy but new customers kept coming. It must have been bedlam in the kitchen for a while.Anyway, after a few minutes wait, we were led to a lovely table on the window overlooking the courtyard (for which we were grateful seeing how busy the greeter was) and handed our menus. Water was promptly delivered and our drink order taken. The "cocktail of the day" was Kir Royale so we both had one and they were very good. A big tick for this as so many restaurants still just take you to your table and then abandon you. If you have a menu and a drink, a bit of a wait before ordering isn't a problem.The menu offered a wide array of choices and, given that we eat out every second day, it was a very refreshing change to look at a menu and find so many items that we wanted to try. Being unable to settle on entrée choices, we decided to share the corn fritters, the sugar-cured salmon with beetroot and the zucchini flowers stuffed with crab. All were wonderful light starters and we would both cheerfully have completed the meal with a repeat serving of exactly the same. Bread arrived during our entrees and was very good (made on the estate as was the accompanying butter and ricotta).There had been a bit of confusion with our wine order but it eventually arrived. We could see the bottle sitting on the counter at the front of the restaurant but it just took a while for it to get to us. There were plenty of waitstaff but many seemed to be fairly new and still settling in to their roles. At least six came to our table at some point during the lunch so I would imagine that some confusion and lack of continuity would result. We noticed that there seemed to be the odd mix-up at other tables. Nevertheless, our main waitress, Claire, was a delight and we felt that we had been looked after somewhat better than a few others.For main course, I opted for the lamb loin with cauliflower dumplings and a mushroom cigar and she chose the papardelle with beef cheek. We both proclaimed that we had chosen better than the other but mine was really the best. The lamb was very tender but the serving was enormous and I required some assistance to finish it. The cauliflower dumplings were incredibly good. Our bottle of the David Miller cab sav was excellent and we ordered two more glasses after the bottle was empty. The wine list is limited to Coombe label offerings so there's not much choice but I'd happily have their cab sav anytime. Two cups of excellent coffee each rounded out the meal.The restaurant is in a very large open space with attractive black metal-framed windows overlooking either the courtyard or the garden and pool area. There is plenty of room between the tables and the chairs are comfortably padded. There were quite a lot of groups and it was a predominantly over-50's crowd. At around 2pm, a garden tour started but, unless you're really keen on hedges, lawn, a large veggie area and dry paddocks off in the distance, I wouldn't bother. However, the garden tourists were still wandering about with their guide when we left the restaurant at about 3.15 so there must have been something to look at. Entry to the car park is off Maroondah Highway just past the Melba Highway junction and there's plenty of room to park.A few delays on a busy day are to be expected and I'm sure that it will be a much tighter ship once things settle down a bit more. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and will highly recommend Coombe to our friends. The bill came to $260 including $129 for drinks.

Beautiful place staff just not got it together as a team yet. Would still be waiting for our wine left on the wine bar opened if we hadn't of asked nearly an hour later. We were a table of 14 and I don't know what was going on with the service but it was all over the place everyone getting wrong food and coffee no one (staff) seemed to know who ordered what. It was very nice after we sorted it all out and were left alone but you pay for the experience and view not the choice of food. Will go again when the menu changes. We went on a Sunday no garden tours on Sunday's. Bathrooms are very cute piped Melba music playing....lol

What a delightful place to share a fantastic meal. Great food, excellent coffee and sensational cocktails. Detail of restaurant from the glasses to the toilets are top notch.

My wife and I visited Nellie Melba's home Coombe at Lilydale yesterday. The estate was opened last October and features a shop, display museum of Melba artifacts, wine bar, restaurant and garden tour. We have wanted to visit here for over 50 years so were excited at the prospect, and we weren't disappointed. A number of new buildings have been added to the former coach house, which is now a restaurant, and the whole is very pleasing and attractive to the eye on entering the grounds. We had a fine lunch to begin; the menu offered full service dinner down to more modest brunch menu, and it was fully licensed, but included some unusual non-alcoholic beverages too. The garden tour followed and this was outstanding. Our guide had extensive knowledge of the trees and plants and also knew much about Melba herself and her family. The garden was a very large formal, English style garden and the property is bordered by an immense cyprus hedge. Much remains to be done in the garden to bring it to its full glory, but enough was there to admire and enjoy. The borders were very attractive and the pool garden had stunning views of the hills beyond. The Coombe estate includes a winery and we purchased a bargain price cab-merlot to enjoy later. The property will repay further visits over time as further developments occur, or for different functions and concerts that may appeal. Note that the gardens can only be visited as a tour, which included afternoon tea.

We were part of a group, dining separately.Good service, good food with beautiful wines.The raviolli and lamb were beautiful with the choc, hazelnut, caramel tart decadent.We had a private tour of the grounds and our guide was so informative.Nothing was too much trouble, everything was great, felt like home.A must new place to go in the yarra valley.

We celebrated my husbands birthday here. Twenty four family & friends. The restaurant is just lovely, bright & airy. Beautiful table settings. The menu had lots of choices even for children. The wine list wasn't extensive but adequate. The service was a bit slow, but that could have been us talking too much instead of concentrating on ordering. Everyone was very happy with their choice. Next time I would also book a tour of the gardens.

I booked a table a week ahead for afternoon tea for my birthday, excited at hearing this historic estate and it's stunning gardens had opened to the public.From start to finish this was a truely disappointing experience. Upon arrival we were greeted (i use that term loosely) by an abrupt head staff member who told us to wait for a table (despite our booking) in a tone that suggested our presence inconvenienced her. When finally shown our table we waited 15 minutes (despite an almost empty mid-weak cafe) before having to call out to a staff member to ask to order.The cakes/desserts were tasty but priced from $14-19 which chaffed given the lack of basic service. However we consoled ourselves that we were really paying for the privilege of seeing the gardens afterwards (not visible from the cafe/restaurant itself).Afterwards we wandered out to admire the much anticipated gardens only to be confronted by a staff member telling us to leave immediately. Apparently access to the gardens requires a booking, ahead of time, for a $25 tour.This was apparently non-negotiable and we were told we could not even pay to enter on the day.Having just spent over $200 on afternoon tea for 5 people we were peeved to put it mildly to hear we could not see the gardens that had been our entire reason for visiting. In all a massive disappointment and a terrible day where we felt unwelcome from the time we arrived.Will not be returning and will be warning all my friends not to waste their time and money.