Hidden down a country road, among the mangroves and manna gums, is what looks like a weatherboard beach shack. Cptn Jack’s, a relatively new restaurant whose launch in 2019 was overwhelmed by the pandemic of 2020, is perched on the edge of Yaringa Harbour, snuggled into a corner of Western Port just north of Hastings.
While outside is a busy harbour of recreational fishing boats and pleasure craft cut into the coastline, inside is a cool and comfortable 50-seat dining room that blends New England chic with French antiques and classic nautical charm. Dark hardwood tables and bentwood chairs sit opposite sage green banquettes. The skeletal remains of an old wooden dinghy sit in the rafters, and polished brass rails sweep around the lenticular bar. Outside, white dry bars sit in the shade overlooking the water, joined by high French bistro stools lined with blue and white rattan.
Clientele is old school who appreciates the tumbled cutlery, fine glassware, and real French napery. Front of house is one of Victoria’s best sommeliers, French-born Quentin Launay. He has compiled a remarkably delicious list of wines designed to work beautifully with food. If you’re in the market for vintage wines and rare back collections of Peninsula wines, ask Quentin to see his leather-bound ‘Secret Wine List’.
In the kitchen is chef Dave Cafarella, a well-known name in the Yarra Valley, having run the kitchen at Chandon and Oakridge. Being a seaside restaurant, Dave has embraced the ocean and has an impressive collection of winning seafood dishes such as seared scallops sitting on a bed of rich and unctuous yellow curry and topped with punchy XO-like prawn sambal.
Dave has a pan-Asian focus, using Asian ingredients such as ginger, turmeric, star anise, soy, fermented rice koji, chilli and coconut and working them with Western techniques. He also has an impressive skills base and makes a beautiful dish of split and barbecued Spencer Gulf prawns just that little bit more intense by steaming local mussels, capturing their juice, and reducing it to make a rich sauce. Simple. Add some ultra-seasonal garlic scapes for that asparagus-like crunch and garlicky punch and you have a winner of a dish.
That said, the pork dish is a masterclass in umami that sees a pork ribeye slow-cooked sous vide with koji and black bean, grilled to order and served with a reduced pork bone master stock jus redolent of star anise and mandarin peel. It is incredibly delicious, slightly exotic, tender, juicy, and satisfying. It is only complete, however, when paired with a bowl of steamed and deep-fried Dutch cream potatoes served with the most enormous quenelle of butter enriched with garlic and nori.
There is so much to like about Cptn Jack’s. The service under Quentin Launay is superb. The menu is broad and flavourful, and the wine list is intelligent and thoughtful, with some excellent wines by the glass to consider. The room is refined yet understated, and the view blends utopic waterscapes with a functioning port. It is the location that defines the experience. It is out of the way and unexpected, at the end of Western Port Highway and a stone’s throw from the industry of Hastings down a series of winding roads and on the edge of the sea. The location has a stark beauty, like those fishing ports near Marseilles or Cadiz. And the best news is that Cptn Jack’s has yet to be discovered by the madding crowds.
RICHARD CORNISH
Richard Cornish is a freelance food writer filing regular food news stories for newspapers and magazines across Australia, including Eat.Drink Mornington Peninsula and each month in Mornington Peninsula Magazine.
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