Executive chefs Gabriel Rodrigues and James Orlowski have created a restaurant inspired by the rustic charm and elegance of estancias in the south of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

Newcastle-based Orlowski worked with Rodrigues in Sydney on several dining consultancies. They have been cooking for small groups over basic barbecues while getting the restaurant on the premises of the Briar Ridge cellar door up to the standard they expect, and experimenting along the way.

"We both have very unique backgrounds," Orlowski said. "Gabriel is both Brazilian and French trained. I'm from New Zealand. I spent 10 years in Peru. My style is more modern Australian. Latin American. So the combination of live fire cooking and the French techniques will work really well together.

"We come from a background where we keep it realistic," Orlowski says. "Small, simple, sharp menus, well executed."

Estancia Osteria will offer diners a culinary voyage through the heart of Italy, the Mediterranean Sea and South America.

After weeks of experimentation and getting the restaurant itself in order, the menu has only been finalised this week.

In classic Italian style, an osteria is similiar to a wine bar that serves simple meals.

Starters include a petit bread selection with lemon-whipped butter ($5pp), stuffed zucchini flowers with semi-dried tomato pesto and lemon ricotta ($17); Jersey cow grilled haloumi with charred fruits, Briar Ridge honeycomb and oregano ($19); snapper fish ceviche, tiger's milk roasted corn, Peruvian yellow chilli and glazed sweet potato ($26); charred octopus with smoked chilli butter, guava, pickled eschalots, capers, and confit tomato ($29).

The seven mains include three pasta dishes, and beef, lamb, fish and vegetarian offerings.

The pasta mains are ricotta gnocchi with, mushroom ragu, Kombu and white miso butter and parmesan ($29); linguine with spanner crab, nduja, fermented cherry tomato sauce and olive oil ($35), pappardelle with red wine beef ragu, herbs and parmesan ($32).

The other mains are a 300g striploin (MBS 4+) with port wine jus, cognac dijon and burnt onion ($59 ), 350g ironbark-smoked lamb shoulder with fermented capsicum puree and pine nuts ($54); 250g blue-eyed cod with smoked tomatoes, pickled eschallots, and lemon and capers burned butter ($49), and a cannellini bean puree with white miso, burnt Japanese pumpkin, barbecue onions and pepitas ($35).

Sides include baby chat potatoes with truffle butter and chives ($13), cos lettuce heart with creme fraiche dressing and chilli lemon pangrattato ($12), fresh tomato salad with eschalots and basil oil ($12).

Desserts include hazelnut chocolate mousse with campari forest berry compote, vanilla ricotta and hazelnut ($18); apple tart tatin with salted caramel ice cream ($19) and charred fruit, merengue, passionfruit curd, lemon balm and pistachio crumb ($17).