Farm-fresh food at Glenarty Road is a brilliant addition to the Margaret River region’s eating scene

When we arrive at Glenarty Road, it’s a bit of a shock. We think we’re driving to a typical Margaret River winery restaurant, stylish and grand. Instead, we find a working farm, with cattle and sheep sniffing about for food on dry paddocks. There are grain silos, heavy farm machinery and stockyards. It’s so, well, real. And so incredibly refreshing.

Having parked beside corn plants that will later make their way into lunch, we follow a path towards a cluster of trees throwing shade over bench seating.

Vines act as fencing and a native forest forms the backdrop, filtering the region’s maritime breeze.

There are beanbags and giant Jenga puzzles on the lawn, with hammocks and a child-sized homemade tractor just beyond.

Paul Simon grooves through the garden speakers — all ages are happy.

We order at the table through friendly staff dressed casually with a hint of hippie, and squeeze in a wine tasting before the food arrives. The rustic cellar door buzzes with pouring crew who know their stuff and are enthusiastic about sharing it. The property’s wines are young and simple, clean and fresh. Try the amphora white ($11 a glass) for something interesting.

Back outside, chunky cannelloni bean dip with crisp garlic chips, rosemary and fragile white flowers arrives ($16). It’s brilliant, and the supermarket ciabatta loaf with it works just fine.

Charry octopus arms, quartered for sharing, sit pretty atop rugged romesco sauce ($24). Wild fennel fronds, capers and baby lettuce leaves combine to give the springy yet dense seafood a tangy mineralogy that pairs well with the wine.

Flaky pastry sausage rolls ($25) are the typical party pleaser, and these are made with lamb from the farm. A few of their relatives drink from the trough beside the dining area. A bowl of tzatziki ensures we never fall into dry-mouth territory. It’s good, but too expensive.

Billowing smoke lures me to where a young chef is working the barbecue. All protein is cooked on this outdoor grill, she tells me, and its coals are made onsite.

We taste her technique through a slab of perfectly medium-rare Leeuwin beef ($45), the carved eye fillet a tender yet chewable delight. Teaming it with rough-cut salsa verde and white anchovy salad is a masterstroke — the fish’s vinegary, briny tang adds all the seasoning and balance we need.

The cleaved half chook’s skin is chargrilled and spice-dusted, scattered with corn kernels harvested that day and a corn puree that’s seductively subtle ($34).

Pork collar ($32) has had much of the fat cooked out, but precisely enough is left to flavour it — the sweet meat is superb. It’s a pity the massive carrot rounds are undercooked. Never mind; the snap-fresh, reviving cauliflower Waldorf salad ($18) makes up for it.

Yum is the word that pops up most often in our long, lazy afternoon of Glenarty gluttony.

Glenarty Road

Address: 70 Glenarty Road, Karridale

Phone: 0420 836 634

Web: glenartyroad.com.au

Bookings: yes

Licenced: yes

Score: 15/20