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Sydney Morning Herald
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Hunter Valley's newly two-hatted restaurant is the most exciting in the region
This is serious cooking, in a temple-like room concealed from the street by sheer curtains, but EXP. doesn't take itself so seriously that the joy's sucked out. Whether you're sat at the kitchen counter or at a table, newly promoted manager and sommelier Isabella Stibbard-Ribeiro keeps the tone light. She'll pour aged Mount Pleasant semillon with the same level of enthusiasm as she will serve beguiling, beautiful Majama inzolia, fermented locally in Indian clay amphorae. Sit ringside, and Fawkner is equally attuned to the dudes fresh from the cellar door at Tyrrell's, plotting how to break 90 at The Vintage golf course, as he is to the clued-in couple toasting their anniversary in the next seats. On his advice, they might add a coffee stop at Meltdown in Huntlee and a dry-aged burger from Hungerford Meats Co to an itinerary that already takes in sundowners at Harkham Wines. EXP. sits comfortably among these more new-school operators, but it doesn't discard the old. It makes a point of repping local – Red Gate Farm duck, Binnie Beef wagyu, Mother Fungus mushrooms – but feels expansive, right through to a final box of bonbons, choux and jellies. And just as the Hunter seems on the cusp of a tilt towards something new, by sharpening its focus, EXP. has put itself at the centre of what comes next. In doing so, it's transformed from a restaurant to work into a long weekend in the Valley, into the very reason to plan one.
The Age
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
The Hunter Valley's newly two-hatted restaurant is the most exciting in the region
This is serious cooking, in a temple-like room concealed from the street by sheer curtains, but EXP. doesn't take itself so seriously that the joy's sucked out. Whether you're sat at the kitchen counter or at a table, newly promoted manager and sommelier Isabella Stibbard-Ribeiro keeps the tone light. She'll pour aged Mount Pleasant semillon with the same level of enthusiasm as she will serve beguiling, beautiful Majama inzolia, fermented locally in Indian clay amphorae. Sit ringside, and Fawkner is equally attuned to the dudes fresh from the cellar door at Tyrrell's, plotting how to break 90 at The Vintage golf course, as he is to the clued-in couple toasting their anniversary in the next seats. On his advice, they might add a coffee stop at Meltdown in Huntlee and a dry-aged burger from Hungerford Meats Co to an itinerary that already takes in sundowners at Harkham Wines. EXP. sits comfortably among these more new-school operators, but it doesn't discard the old. It makes a point of repping local – Red Gate Farm duck, Binnie Beef wagyu, Mother Fungus mushrooms – but feels expansive, right through to a final box of bonbons, choux and jellies. And just as the Hunter seems on the cusp of a tilt towards something new, by sharpening its focus, EXP. has put itself at the centre of what comes next. In doing so, it's transformed from a restaurant to work into a long weekend in the Valley, into the very reason to plan one.
