I’m always one for a meal in an unusual location. So when I heard that the food at the Old Convent in Orange was good, it didn’t take much to convince me we had to go. Initially told that it was a weekend cafe, we found out the hard way (i.e. visiting it) that it is actually a Sunday only cafe. Open Sunday only? It’s an unusual strategy but we ring ahead to check whether they are open and they are indeed and we ask if we need to make a reservation which they recommend.

Nestled in the hills of Orange in the area of Borenore we take the short drive there and we park in the driveway. We are the only car there at this time so we walk through the sandstone buildings and peer into a doorway into what looks like a private dining room. Facing it there’s what looks more like to be the restaurant area. We’re greeted warmly and as we are the only guests thus far, we can choose where we’d like to sit either inside or outside, As it’s such a beautiful day choose the sun dappled side area outside which has a cool breeze running through it.

There’s no menu to read here. The waitress simply reads off what is available today which happens to be three dishes, a panzanella salad with rack of lamb, a salmon and potato pie and a pea soup. As we both love rack of lamb we choose this and I am partial to fish pie too (and if I could have fit it in we would have ordered the pea soup too!). As it was we had to cancel our lunch at another restaurant as we couldn’t fit in two courses (many places have a two course minimum).

Mr NQN takes a walk around the grounds to take some pictures while I flick through magazines. We start to hear the sizzle of food and some delicious aromas waft out. In the meanwhile a table for four arrives and sits outside. After about 25 minutes our food arrives. It’s impressive looking certainly and after the obligatory photo taking we dig in.

Rack of Lamb with panzanella salad $25

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The view during our drive to Orange

Our arrival to Orange was under the cover of darkness – not deliberately so but by the time we got ourselves together and made the 4 hour drive down to Orange (and there were the obligatory stops along the way), the sky was pitch black and out in the country away from the city lights, it gets very dark indeed. It was close to 10:30pm on the Friday night when we arrived in our borrowed Toyota Prado Kakadu 4WD thanks to the nice peeps at Toyota.

Our Toyota Prado Kakadu

I’m normally rather ambivalent about 4WD’s – you see I used to live in Mosman where I am sure that 99% of the 4WD’s there had never touched a speck of country dirt but for country driving, and particularly after this drive, I’d definitely rather go in one given the gravelly dirt roads. Apart from the suspension, from an amenity standpoint, it has a cool box to keep drinks and food chilled and the sound system in it is excellent (apparently the result of their sound engineer in Japan being somewhat of a sound aficionado) and if you happen to have children, it keeps them amused with DVD screens and headphones. And then there’s the lack of rattling and rocks hitting the car when driving on country dirt roads (it was so quiet and smooth I fell asleep several times).

The Black Sheep Inn: a converted shearing shed

We arrived at the Black Sheep Inn, an award winning Inn just a few minutes outside of the city of Orange. As planned, our key was waiting for us in the door and the other guests were close to retiring. So we did the same and awoke the next morning to a lush breakfast prepared by Helen, the owner of Black Sheep Inn.

Rhubarb and strawberry compote with Greek yogurt and pine nuts

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