The kitchen & cellar

The Restaurant.One chef. A small team.

Seasonal Australian cooking, drawn from the Central Ranges and changed with the months. A 220-bottle cellar list with 140 from Orange and the surrounding region. Open daily for breakfast and dinner.

Breakfast

Mon – Fri · 6.30 – 10.30
Sat & Sun · 7.00 – 11.00

Continental buffet plus à la carte. Eggs from the farm at Borenore, sourdough from Orange Bakery.

Lunch

Sat & Sun only · 12.00 – 2.30
Mon – Fri closed

A short, weekend-only menu — three plates and a board, designed around what came in from market that morning.

Dinner

Mon – Sun · 6.00 – 10.00
Last orders 9.30 pm

À la carte plus a five-course set menu with optional sommelier-paired flights. Bookings recommended Fri – Sun.

The kitchen

Cooked here.Grown nearby.

The kitchen at the Demo Hotel is a small one — one chef, two on the line, a dishie on Fridays. The menu changes every six weeks with the season; the long table by the window is laid every morning whether anyone has booked or not.

Most of what arrives in the kitchen comes from inside a forty-kilometre radius. Eggs from Borenore. Lamb from Carcoar. Apples and stone fruit in season from the orchards along the Mitchell Highway. Sourdough from the bakery on Lords Place. A few things travel further — the olive oil from Mudgee, the salt from the South Australian Limestone Coast — but not many.

Vegetarian and gluten-free guests are always represented on the menu, not as a tucked-away option but as plates that earn their own line. If you have an allergy or a particular preference, tell us when you book and the chef will make it work.

The chef at the pass
The team

Run by peoplewho live here.

The kitchen is run by Frances Hale — a Hatted chef who came back to the region after twelve years between Sydney, Copenhagen and Hobart. She buys from the same farmers her parents did, and that shows up on every plate.

The cellar is the work of Tom Ledesma, our sommelier — born in Argentina, trained in the Hunter, now five years in Orange. If you want him to walk you through a flight at 6 pm, ask reception when you check in.

Head chef
Frances Hale
Sommelier
Tom Ledesma
Kitchen
Open · seasonally
Reserve a table

The long table is laidat six o'clock.

Lunch and dinner can both be reserved by phone, email, or through the booking engine on the home page. Walk-ins welcome, but the dining room often fills on Fri–Sun evenings.

Book a table +61 7 4763 0279 dine@demohotel.nuvho.com
The cellar letter

Letters from the cellar, twice a season.

What's pouring, what's on the chef's table, the long weekends worth booking ahead.