Breakfast is a relaxed affair in the restaurant, guests take a table along the windows and witness the morning unfold along the sweep of coast stretching as far as the eye can see. A two-step menu includes help-yourself artisan cereals, pastries, fresh fruit and cured meats while an a la carte menu features hot breakfast items from the kitchen: think free range eggs and local bacon, or blueberry pancakes.
After a morning filled with walks and wildlife, or simply spent relaxing, appetites are up for lunch. The produce-led menu is designed to be both light and satisfying, a perfectly planned ‘elegant sufficiency’. If the weather is fine, guests can enjoy an alfresco lunch on the terrace overlooking the ocean; in moodier weather, it’s more fun to watch from inside!
Dinner is served in the restaurant, as the light falls and the view turns inwards. A four course menu changes daily, combining the freshest island and regional ingredients with seasonal flavours. Dinner hits include beautifully sweet local marron and line-caught whiting plus sinful desserts such as white chocolate panna cotta with lemon myrtle macadamia crust.
In keeping with the Beckons Culinary Philosophy, a diverse selection of Kangaroo Island and South Australian wines and beers has been hand-selected to pair with each seasonally changing menu. Alternatively, guests can choose their own bottle from the convivial open bar or help themselves from the walk-in cellar.
Especially at sunset, guests gather around the Great Room’s open bar, which offers premium wines, craft beers and top shelf spirits, including Baillies 9 wild gin and the local honey liqueur. Staff are on-hand to assist with mixing a cocktail or making a suggestion, and sunset drinks are served each evening to allow guests to mingle and share the day’s discoveries.
The generous at-home feel at Southern Ocean Lodge means guests are free to peruse the selection of premium South Australian wines on offer in the walk-in cellar, and choose whichever they like to take to the table. The wines are hand-selected, with many only available at the state’s cellar doors. The experience is a virtual winery tour of South Australia, all in one glorious location.
Every suite has a complimentary in-suite bar, which includes daily-replenished local treats, as well as South Australian loose leaf tea and an espresso coffee machine. Guests can relax after a day’s adventures with cheese, nougat or chocolates, as well as soft drinks, juice, wine and beer sourced from Kangaroo Island and the greater expanse of South Australia.
Unmissable dinners include marron, line-caught whiting, pheasant and partridge; and there is a vast, help-yourself Southern Australian cellar, which stocks a very agreeable Poonawatta Eden Valley Grenache.Liam Freeman Tatler
Among the dishes of the day that might come out of the kitchen on any given night: the freshwater crayfish marron with miso bearnaise, finger lime and salmon roe and duck breast with kale, local sticky fig mostarda and beetroot.Laurie Werner Forbes
Food and drink is proudly parochial. What can’t be sourced locally comes from South Australia and only occasionally farther afield.Lee Tulloch AFAR
A year-round destination, Kangaroo Island has a climate as dynamic as its scenery – from season to season the island yields fresh perspectives.
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A personalised itinerary of guided adventures or 'signature experiences' is included in the tariff, allowing guests to encounter abundant wildlife in the island's ‘zoo without fences’.
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A stay with Baillie Lodges is about the connection with the landscape, its culture and wildlife, a celebration of superb regional cuisine and luxurious lodgings to sink into at the end of the day.
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