Flashback to Tasmania: pine trees, endless 100km/hr roads and roaming wallabies. Let’s skip ahead to Day 5. We started with a vegan breakfast in Launceston then D2D drove us the long and winding 2 hrs 15 minutes to the infamous Cradle Mountain.
Cradle Mountain is located in the north west center of Tasmania and is infamous for the very popular week long hike from Cradle Mt to Lake St Claire. Needless to say, we didn’t have that long in Tasmania, so we opted for a shorter walk doing the Dove Lake Circuit.
After that walk, we settled into our accommodation at the Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge. Here, we pre-booked the night feeding tour at Devils@Cradle as well as dinner at the Highland Restaurant:
Highland Restaurant:
- Website: http://www.cradlemountainlodge.com.au/food-wine/highland-restaurant/
- Address: inside Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge at 4038 Cradle Mountain Rd, Cradle Mountain TAS 7306.
- Open: daily for breakfast buffet and dinner courses
- Bookings: recommended upon reception or in advance on 03 6492 2147.
First up, the service is impeccable. We arrive like half an hour earlier than planned (since Devils@Cradle is so close), but the staff are very welcoming and seat us immediately next to the roaring fireplace – yes! Nice and warm…
Our waiter introduces himself to us by name as well as his colleague. We are then offered the menus to choose from, which offers two or three courses ($60 pp or $70 pp) with about five choices for each course. We decide to be indulgent and get the three course.
The menu is interesting and contains a page which actually outlines the chef, their philosophy and where all their produce comes from. Essentially everything here is sourced as locally as possible within Tasmania.
First up, they serve us some free lodge baked bread which I gobble up with butter.

This is D2D’s entree. Sadly I can’t remember the exact details, but as you can it was seared Tasmanian fish with cucumber wrapped fish roe.

I get a chorizo, bean and tomato soup, which comes with olive bread. Lots of bread so far!
Notably, on their old menu (the one on the website), you could actually order wallaby on your entree. But we’d just seen Tasmanian devils ripping apart some wallaby meat, so it wasn’t too appetizing…

For once, I get a big meaty main. This is the Longford beef fillet, some nice green broccolini and piped mash potato topped with mushrooms.
It’s very tender, cooked at medium rare. Luckily there’s not mash overkill, as I’ve already eaten a lot of bread.

D2D gets the Tasmanian lamb cutlets. It doesn’t look like much, but was very tender as well and gave us enough room to fit in dessert.

The good thing about this menu is that it’s not just 3 courses, with no choice (and both of us eating the same thing). With about five choices for each course, we got to choose different things and share half half.
This was their lemon/lime tart dessert, if my memory serves me right. The tart comes in little square blocks, with strawberries, crumb “soil” and a big scoop of sorbet/gelato on top. Nice presentation.

Again my memory totally fails. But I remember being satisfied at the end and nic e and warm next to the fireplace – that’s all that really matters right?
That brings us to the end of Day 5 of Tasmania! How quickly it goes – because we’re soon on a flight back to Sydney…
Day 5 Itinerary:
- Breakfast at Fresh on Charles (a vegan cafe)
- 2 hour 15 minutes drive to Cradle Mountain, passing through Railton (topiary town) and Sheffield. Arrive midday.
- Walked the Dove Lake Circuit (2 hour circuit), snapping shots of Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake.
- Checked into Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge (contemporary spa cabin).
- Devils@Cradle Night Feeding Tour at 5.30pm – book ahead and arrive early as you’ll be able to wander the exhibits before sundown
- Dinner at Highland Restaurant in Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge