It takes confidence to pair delicately sweet spanner crab with buttery mashed potato. The sort of daring confidence that is in no short supply at Jackalope, the Mornington Peninsula vineyard hotel that is redefining luxury.

Doot Doot Doot is the boutique stay’s upscale flagship restaurant, where that crab comes with a velvet cuddle of mash, the lot seasoned with furikake and bottarga to create a dish so decadent, so deft, so defiantly delicious you all but forget the ridiculous name of the restaurant you’re eating it in.

A twinkling 10,000 globe chandelier by Melbourne-based designer Jan Flook creates the surreal sensation of fermenting wine bubbling above the tables, and sets the otherworldly tone for chef Guy Stanaway’s five-course menu that is at once approachable and luxurious, quietly clever and self-assured.

Comfort comes writ large in a plate of soft pumpkin dressed in a cloud of brown butter, the sweet flesh teamed with molasses-like black garlic, crunchy saltbush and macadamia. More simple pleasures abound, whether in a plundering of the vegetable patch served with goat’s curd and a whey vinaigrette with a waft of orange blossom, or the elegant pairing of King George whiting with a sheath of jamon serrano and a lightly dressed cos salad for crunch.

The wine list is equally considered, a selection made up exclusively of wines from small vineyards of 11 hectares or less – the size of the Willow Creek vineyard you’ll spy beyond the deck. Restrained in pricing, a celebration the region, but also savvy enough to know when to pick the best from afar, it’s an excellent collection, served with panache.

The Jackalope hotel offers an art-heavy experience where the surreal and ideal collide, and Doot Doot Doot is an extension of the hotel’s tastefully curated, perfectly executed theatrics.

Must eat dish: Spanner crab and potato
Instagram: @jackalopehotels