How to Get a Reservation at Brae (2026)
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Dan Hunter cooked at Mugaritz under Andoni Luis Aduriz in Spain, returned to Australia, and in 2013 bought a farmhouse on Cape Otway Road in Birregurra to open Brae.
The lineage explains the restaurant. Hunter's years at Mugaritz, the Basque kitchen that treats the garden as the menu's author, taught him that the produce comes first and the plate follows. So Brae is not a restaurant with a farm attached. It is a thirty-acre organic farm with a dining room attached, and the menu is dictated by what was picked that morning. The crudo of snapper, the lamb with ash, the ice plant sorbet that closes the meal: each is a Mugaritz idea spoken in an Australian accent. Booking Brae means booking that philosophy at its source, two hours from Melbourne.
Where Brae Sits, and Why the Drive Is the Point
Brae is at 4285 Cape Otway Road in Birregurra, in the Otway hinterland, roughly two hours by car from central Melbourne. The address is the whole experience. This is not a city room you slot into an evening. It is a destination with guest suites on the property precisely because the restaurant assumes you are coming from somewhere and staying the night. Our reviewer scored it 9.6 for food, the highest food mark on our Melbourne list, and called it the country drive that earns its name. The distance is a feature, and the booking system is built around it.
The Exact Booking Method in 2026
Brae releases reservations two months in advance on a daily rolling basis, with new availability opening each day at 9am Melbourne time. You book through the restaurant's own reservations page. The critical detail that separates Brae from most rooms: full payment for the menu is required at the time of booking, and if you reserve a guest suite, a 50 percent accommodation deposit goes with it. The menu runs $370 per person, with matched alcoholic pairings at an extra $240 and non-alcoholic at $140. Sunday adds a 10 percent surcharge and public holidays 15 percent. You are prepaying a tasting menu, not holding a table, so treat the booking as a ticket purchase.
Because the window rolls daily at 9am, the tactic is precise. Decide your date, count back two months, and be on the reservations page at 9am that morning. Weekend dates and the warmer months clear fastest. A midweek autumn or winter seating is the softest target, and Brae actively markets longer winter stays when the room is quieter. If you want a specific Saturday, set a calendar alert for the morning it opens and book it inside the first hour.
If the Date You Want Is Gone
Brae's prepaid model is, counterintuitively, good news for the latecomer. Because diners have paid in full, the restaurant manages cancellations and date changes actively rather than leaving no-shows to rot. Tables do come back into the system when guests reschedule, so a daily check of the reservations page in the fortnight before your dates is worthwhile. There is no walk-in option two hours into the countryside, and no bar to chance. The honest routes are the 9am drop, the cancellation refresh, and flexibility on the day of the week.
What the Booking Buys You
A seat at Brae buys the full Mugaritz-trained, farm-first sequence: the snapper crudo, the lamb with ash, the ice plant sorbet, and a wine pairing drawn heavily from low-intervention Australian growers. If you can, take a suite and stay the night, which turns the long drive from a chore into the reason you came. For the wider picture of how Brae ranks against the city's hardest tables, our Melbourne coverage lays out the field.
Should You Stay the Night?
The guest suites are not an upsell so much as the way the restaurant was designed to be used. Brae sits on a thirty-acre organic farm, and the suites look out over the land the menu is grown on, which closes the loop on the farm-first idea Hunter brought back from Mugaritz. Booking a suite also removes the single biggest risk of a Brae dinner: the two-hour drive home after a long tasting menu with wine. If you take the pairing, you should not be driving back to Melbourne the same night, which makes the accommodation a safety decision as much as a comfort one.
The suites carry a 50 percent deposit at booking, separate from the prepaid menu, so factor both into the budget when you reserve. The reward is a morning on the farm before the drive back, which is the part regulars talk about as much as the dinner. For a proposal or a milestone, the overnight turns a meal into a weekend, and the booking system, with its daily 9am drop, treats the room and the suites as a single planning exercise: secure both in the same sitting rather than gambling that accommodation will still be there once the table is locked.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far in advance can you book Brae?
Two months. Brae releases tables on a daily rolling basis, with new availability opening each morning at 9am Melbourne time for the date exactly two months out. To land a specific Saturday or a warmer-month date, count back two months, set an alarm, and book inside the first hour the window opens. Midweek autumn and winter seatings are the softest targets and often hold availability for longer.
How do you make a reservation at Brae?
You book through Brae's own reservations page, and full payment for the menu is taken at the time of booking. If you add a guest suite, a 50 percent accommodation deposit is required as well. This is a prepaid model, so you are buying a ticket to a fixed tasting menu rather than holding a table you settle later. Free cancellation windows are limited, so confirm your date before you pay.
How much does Brae cost?
The tasting menu is $370 per person in 2026. Matched alcoholic pairings add $240 and non-alcoholic pairings add $140. A 10 percent surcharge applies on Sundays and 15 percent on public holidays. The full menu price is charged at booking, not at the table, so a couple taking the wine pairing should expect to prepay well over $1,200 before any accommodation. Guest suites are billed separately with a 50 percent deposit.
Is Brae worth the drive from Melbourne?
For the right occasion, yes. Brae is two hours from the city, which is the point: Dan Hunter built a three-hat restaurant on a thirty-acre organic farm in Birregurra, and the menu is dictated by what was picked that morning. Our reviewer gave it the highest food score on our Melbourne list. Stay in a guest suite and the drive becomes part of the experience rather than a tax on it. For a proposal or a milestone, it earns the journey.
What is the dress code at Brae?
Smart casual. There is no jacket requirement at Brae, in keeping with a farmhouse dining room in the Otway countryside rather than a city formal room. Aim for relaxed but considered: the setting is rural and the focus is the food and the landscape, not a dress ritual. Comfortable shoes are sensible given the farm setting, and layers help, as the countryside cools sharply in the evening even in the warmer months.