Laura is “one fancy lady,” says The Urban List. Diners are treated to a set menu that “tells the story of the Mornington Peninsula … think Flinders Island mussels with seaweed butter, dehydrated tomatoes and polenta made from local corn … or maybe a fillet of John Dory with pickled vine leaves, grapes, pine nuts and burnt butter.” Laura’s dining room comes with “epic views over the sculpture park, plus Western Port Bay in the distance” … the interiors are “all-class … a swish blend of leather-topped tables, bespoke tableware and all the flames and theatre of an open kitchen.” The food here it comes “ first as small offerings, morphing into family-style with meat and sides as the meal progresses,” explains John Lethlean in The Australian. “There are Asian flavours, as you’d expect, and some more European, and all of it superb, a masterclass in flavour and harmony that appears simple but in fact belies fastidious method and elegant, unpretentious presentation.”
“Kick-off sees local hand-milled flour turned wholemeal brioche,” reports Gemima Cody at Good Food. “It's nutty, egg-rich and barely sweet, like a savoury cake, served with a luminous olive oil from just beyond the gates.” She goes on to taste a “ lacy duck egg omelette, surrounded by daubs of bone marrow, a meaty veal stock, freckles of broccoli and crisp, fried potato petals,” and then a fish pie: “bronzed fillets of firm duckfish and a baby onion, pickled and grilled, luxuriating in a nori-speckled almond sabayon, contained by a crisp pastry lasso.” Laura's dishes “aim to express the cool climate, maritime cuisine of the Mornington Peninsula and focus on six categories: land, ocean, vineyards, livestock, dairy and orchard,” notes Marissa Ciampi at Concrete Playground. Oh, and the restaurant is named after the sculpture by famed Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, “which stands within the estate's impressive 50-piece sculpture park.”