Review: Swings & Roundabouts is among the busiest winery restaurants in WA ... and it’s a place for the people

The culinary buzz in the Margaret River region has always been about celebrated wineries: Leeuwin Estate, Vasse Felix, Voyager Estate, Wills Domain and now the extraordinary Frui Momento, which just opened in the shadow of the risible “chick on a stick” (sculpture? Installation? eyesore?) which stands erect and arousing on Caves Road. For all their acclaim, none of the Margaret River region’s great wine houses captures the tradie classes quite like the region’s brewery pubs. Every weekend brew pub carparks are full of utes in varying levels of pimpedness, 30-something dads in Tommy Hilfiger and young mums in designer sunnies pushing strollers. Driving up Caves Road, one is struck by something of a hybrid, neither a brewery for the masses, nor a posh winery diner. It is a working man’s winery nosh house. Yep, you got it, a wine pub. Every day of the week its carpark is full. It attracts bigger crowds than there are idiots at an anti-vax rally. For years, every time we have driven past we’ve been saying, “must go there one day.” That day arrived this week. Swings & Roundabouts is a wine brand largely unnoticed by the wine cognoscenti and, yet, punters come in their drovers to chow down on wood-fired pizza, drink good wine and revel in the no bull, ordinariness of a venue for average Joes and Josephines. Pizza is its main game and they make an OK fist of it. They’re not stunning, the dough is just OK and the cooking temp is not hot enough, but the pizzas are filling and tasty and just right for hungry sparkies and their happy children. Our pizzas were served cold(ish) and as flabby as a hairdresser’s handshake. At $24, it’s hardly a bargain, given Swings’ fast-food, no service model. The short menu could be, and we suspect was, cooked by a talented kitchen hand or an apprentice chef. It’s an easy menu, designed to navigate around a once-in-a-generation shortage of hospitality staff, especially chefs, a species on the edge of extinction in WA. Most of the plating up is assembly rather than cookery — sliced meats on a board, cheese on a board, chopped tomato with herbs in a salad and pizza, all of which is demonstrably fine, given the ingredients, particularly in the salads, were superb. “Heirloom” tomato salad, $20, was fresh, crisp, full of flavour and definitely not heirloom. The tomatoes’ DNA was about as vintage as a Tesla, but they were good, as in nicely ripe and acidic. An olive dressing was a light blitz of black olives, seasoning and olive oil. Lovely. Plucked leaves of parsley, mint and dill perked up the whole package. Top job. Wood-fired pumpkin salad, $22, was a monster construction of big wedges of just-charred pumpkin in a salad of fresh leaves, spritzed with a perky, sesame (tahini) dressing. For $5 extra, we added chicken. Good move. The wine list is inexpensive, short and all Swings & Roundabouts. The beer list is minimal but sound. A converted VW Kombi — the original booze bus? — has been turned into an outdoor tap room with a selection of local brews served in the garden but only in pints. A smaller, midi-sized beer would be a punter-friendly move. There’s no service. You order at the bar and a large team of runners bring dishes to your table as they’re cooked. A young Italian guy, managing the restaurant on the day we dined, was an outstanding talent: quick, friendly, explanatory, helpful and totally in charge of every nook and cranny of this massive venue. The inside rooms — most people dine outside on a good day — are a fetching display of chaotic, but pleasingly cohesive interior design. You could be in Napa or an expensive city brew pub. You’re not going to Swings & Roundabouts for the food. Mind you, no one wants to go out to eat rubbish, and you won’t, but this rollicking, happy, good-looking wine pub is about catch-ups with the school mums, family outings, huddles of 20-something young women, long table celebrations and kids running around making like aeroplanes in flight until they fall exhausted onto warm grass to dream childhood dreams. Swings & Roundabouts 2807 Caves Road, Yallingup (Margaret River region) 08 9756 6640 swings.com.au Open: Dining, seven days, 11am-5pm. Cellar door, seven days, 10am-6pm. Prices: Pizza, $24-$28. Salads/snacks, $13-$22. Charcuterie and cheese boards, $30-$32. Kids menu, all $14. The buzz: Fun in the sun, family-friendly (and dog-friendly) mega wine pub. Food is mostly pizza with a few add ons. Cooking is OK. Service is fast. Massive grounds with ample shade, good seating and a garden bar. Score: 13/20

Review: Swings & Roundabouts is among the busiest winery restaurants in WA ... and it’s a place for the people

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