This new restaurant is farm-style dining like you've never seen before

From the dining room where the ceiling to floor windows overlook the 800-tree truffle farm, to alfresco dining spaces tucked away in pockets on decks and in courtyards, to the interior fitout where the focus is on natural textures such as wood, stone, ceramic and leather, it almost feels like you're dining outside.

On the plate, executive chef John Leverink is showcasing Australian produce, from Pambula oysters with a fingerlime mignonette, to barramundi, to bay-smoked lamb rump with burnt apples and mustard seed.

The restaurant is the final piece in the puzzle for owners of Beltana Farm, Doug and Alice O'Mara, who've brought in the Armada Collective team to run the kitchen

Leverink and James Souter are the minds behind The Boat House, Armada Bar, Margot Bar and Canteen, and they're keen to flex different muscles in this very different location.

"I think this concept is new for Canberra," says Souter.

"Alongside the restaurant, there's beautiful boutique accommodation, the opportunity to join in truffle hunts in the winter, and then the restaurant with a real farm-style menu meant for sharing.

"It's something where you might need to travel to the south coast, or perhaps to the Southern Highlands, for such an experience but here we're literally minutes from the city."

Souter says good hospitality has a sense of escapism to it, whether it be a meal or a night away.

"That was quite a compelling attraction for us, it's not just another restaurant, it's part of this experience we are able to dial into, where you really can get away and escape."

Leverink doesn't "do things by halves", says Souter, but here the classic menu is pared back in a way. Much of it is food we're familiar with, potatoes, damper, beef, lamb, but presented in a modern way.

The potato and carrot galette with buttermilk and tarragon could have been a simple potato bake, but here the vegetables are cut into long thin sheets on a mandoline-like attached on a KitchenAid, before being hand-rolled into individual galettes, baked until golden and crispy on the edges.

"One thing we've tried to do with the menu is strike some type of nostalgia, our memories of growing up in Australia, and there are nods to that throughout the menu," Leverink says.

"And we've used a lot of native ingredients, macadamia, lilli pilli, native oregano, we're trying to invoke this sense of place."

Leverink is excited by the access he'll have to the truffles once the harvest kicks off.

There's already a truffle-infused shortbread schnapps on the drinks list that they worked on last year.

Try the truffle and cuttlefish salami, translucent and coloured like a Monarch butterfly's wing, served with house pickles.

Sommelier Tom Blakely has curated a purely Australian drinks list, with a champagne and one imported spirit he couldn't find locally.

While there's a handful of Canberra District wines - try the Sapling Yard Four Pinots - the list has a real national focus.

There's a whole section devoted to Wines by Farr, a family-run winery near Geelong. Nick Farr was the Gourmet Traveller winemaker of the year in 2020, and their philosophy is complementary to Beltana Farms.

Architects Terry Ring and Associates, alongside designer EMVY Design, are responsible for the impressive building. It's a modern take on a barn perhaps, built with timber and local stone as a reminder of that connection with the land.

Alice O'Mara comes in late to the interview. There's a sense of nervous anticipation about her, a relief to see it all come together.

She may have already picked out "her table", where she and her husband and their young family can pop over for dinner.

I mean who's going to kick her out once she's settled on the leather sofa in front of the fire?