Dog friendly
Very important to us as we’re travelling with our adventurous Westie Benjamin!
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Smythesdale Gardens
We came to Smythesdale Gardens because we needed to be in the area while Isaac was working locally. What we expected to be a practical stopover ended up being far lovelier than we’d imagined. One of Our Unexpected Favourites Smythesdale… Continue reading
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Rustic Edge Café & Takeaway
After the warmest greeting, we also sat down with the owner, Katie, to hear how it all began 👉 Here’s Katie’s story Fresh, Friendly, and Always Open I’ll be honest — we weren’t overly excited about dining here at first.… Continue reading
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Courthouse Hotel
A Pub Rescue on a Scorching Day The Courthouse Hotel Smythesdale was our escape from a scorching 42°C summer day. We’d had a few failed attempts trying to run our air conditioner off our generator (ugh, that’s a whole story… Continue reading
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Thru the Gate Café
Scones, Charm, and a Breakfast to Remember When we first arrived, a few things drew us to Thru the Gate Café Smythesdale instantly: Sadly, we arrived just moments before closing, but the owner still let me grab a hot chocolate.… Continue reading
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Snake Valley Pub
Our Second Favourite Local Pub We were lucky enough to be invited out for a meal at the Snake Valley Pub with a local known as “Grub” — and despite the nickname, it couldn’t be further from who he actually… Continue reading
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Venti8 Pizzeria
Better than Forge Yep. We said it. After countless local recommendations, we finally tried The Forge Pizzeria for ourselves. It was good and we can understand the hype, but still walked away thinking Venti8 Pizzeria delivered the better woodfired pizza… Continue reading
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Lantern by Wildseed (now Wildseed Cafe)
Editor’s Note (June 2026) Since writing this review, we have learned that Lantern by Wildseed has temporarily closed its dinner service but is still currently operating as Wildseed Café for daytime lunch service only. While we were exceptionally disappointed to… Continue reading
