Chisholms
Caves House
Jenolan Caves
Jenolan Caves is an amazing place and one of our favourites for so many reasons. Apart from the wonderful natural beauty of the countryside they also have magnificent caves. However, from a culinary
perspective there's also the charming experience of their fine dining restaurant - Chisholms - nestled on the first floor of the deliciously old world Jenolan Caves House.
Chisholms is an interesting place. Firstly, its huge. Built for a bygone era it has served as the main eating place in Caves House for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a very long time. On a cold night its size makes the room quite cold - but a fireside table can easily solve this predicament.
There are a small number of bar meals available in the bar area just outside Chisholms. Meals there range from around $15.00 to $20.00 or snacks there are an even lighter option with potato fries with aioli for $7.00, wedges with sweet chilli and sour cream for $10.00, garden salad with balsamic dressing for $7.00, salt and pepper squid on potato fries with aioli for $13.50 or a decadent cheese platter for $18.00.
Main one was the suckling pork loin roasted with maple syrup and spices and served with a black currant sauce local new season apples and roast pumpkin. It was well prepared and presented with nice flavours - one little thing was that it could have been a bit warmer. This main was $32.00.
The fish of the day was another great dish as well - pan fried Cowra trout fillet served with prawn bisque and hot scallop mousse - but again wasn't as warm as we would have liked. The scallop mousse was amazing though.This main was also $32.00.
The steamed vegetables were excellent. piping hot and very fresh and tasty. For $10.00 they were reasonable value.
The cheese platter came in a serving for one for $18.00 or for two fro $28.00 - we went for the serving for one. It came with three cheeses - stilton, maffra red wax cheddar and Tarago Valley brie, served with toasted sourdough and apple slices. The cheeses also came with plenty of water crackers - it was a decent sized serving and the quality was good too.
We had a bottle of Bantry Grove Merlot from Orange. It was a pleasant merlot and was $35.00.
Chisholms has an amazing old world charm. The food is good, the service is excellent and the surroundings are extremely quaint. The food is not cheap but its quite good quality. There are some things though that they could do here to make this restaurant really take off!
