Sorrento Sunset 7:27 PM Case 02 is open · Play

Spring Insider · October 2026 Spring 2026

Peninsula Insider

A local point of view.
A Peninsula worth knowing.

Search
Play
The Insider Note
Peninsula Insider
Eat & Drink Restaurant Merricks

Rare Hare at Willow Creek

Jackalope's relaxed lunch room, wood fire, vineyard views, and plates built for sharing over most of an afternoon.

Known for Jackalope's Relaxed Lunch RoomWood-Fired Grill MenuWillow Creek Estate WinesPinot Row Terrace

Reserve a table +61 3 5931 2500
  1. Plates of roast duck, charred meat, a beetroot salad and a leafy dish with a glass of rose on a timber table
    Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
  2. A diner smiles with a glass of rose over shared plates in a dining room with windows onto vineyard hills
    Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
  3. Two diners share plates and wine at a window table at Rare Hare, looking out over vineyard rows and bushland
    Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
  4. The red-brick Rare Hare building with its arched sign set against an ivy-covered wall and a paved forecourt
    Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
  5. Two visitors walk past the ivy wall and arched Rare Hare sign towards the red-brick entrance in sunshine
    Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
  6. A staff member in a Rare Hare jumper carries three plates, including roast duck and a beetroot salad
    Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
  7. Logs burn inside a domed wood-fired oven as a hand reaches in with tongs, seen from the front of the oven
    Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
  8. A chef garnishes plates of roast meat and salad in front of a glowing wood-fired oven in a light-filled kitchen
    Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
  9. Overhead view of diners sharing roast duck, grilled meat, a beetroot salad and rose at a timber table
    Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria

19

1 / 9

Plates of roast duck, charred meat, a beetroot salad and a leafy dish with a glass of rose on a timber table
Plates of roast duck, charred meat, a beetroot salad and a leafy dish with a glass of rose on a timber tableRare Hare at Willow Creek, Merricks, Mornington Peninsula.Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria
Why we’d go

All the produce and wine of Jackalope, none of the occasion pressure, Rare Hare is the better fit on days when the brief is lunch rather than event.

Rare Hare is the second restaurant at Jackalope and, for many people, the better of the two for a relaxed afternoon on the Peninsula. Where Doot Doot Doot leans into fine-dining drama, Rare Hare takes the vineyard lunch brief and runs with it: wood-fired grill, long shared plates, a list of Willow Creek estate wines by the glass, and a room that opens directly onto the pinot rows.

Photo · Courtesy of Visit Victoria

The menu is organised around pizza, wood-fire mains, and a short list of raw starters that have become regulars, the cured kingfish, the burrata with stone fruit in season, whatever is running through the grill that afternoon. The bar is a genuinely good solo lunch spot. The sound system knows what it is doing.

Book a table on the terrace if the weather allows, order one more bottle than planned, and let the afternoon stretch. This is the format that daylight dining on the Peninsula was designed for.

Part of Jackalope

Doot Doot DootRestaurantA multi-course dining experience at Jackalope Hotel, with a dramatic room and a seasonal menu.Jackalope HotelHotelAn art-led vineyard hotel in Merricks North, with Doot Doot Doot dining and room choices from Terrace to Lair.Spa by JackalopeSpaThe Peninsula's most design-led boutique spa, small, precise, and the natural pairing with a Jackalope stay or a Doot Doot Doot dinner.

Worth knowing

Best for
Long lunches · Scenic views · Cellar door visits · Couples

If you only do one thing

Book the terrace table, order the cured kingfish to start and whatever is off the wood-fired grill, and treat the Willow Creek by-the-glass list as an ongoing conversation with the floor team.

Works well with

Scorpo Wines · Spa by Jackalope

Filed under Long LunchCellar DoorViewGardenSpringSummerAutumnCouplesGroupFamiliesFirst Timers

Not sure how to build a day around Rare Hare at Willow Creek?

Search Peninsula Insider

In the journal

Stories that mention Rare Hare at Willow Creek

These pieces give you the context a listing page never does - the when, the why, and the who-it’s-for.

Journal →

Part of an escape

Weekend plans that already include Rare Hare at Willow Creek

Skip the planning - these itineraries sequence this venue into a proper Peninsula weekend.

All plans →

Alba Thermal Springs & Spa, Fingal, Mornington Peninsula. Photo: Courtesy of Visit Victoria

Plan

A Peninsula Wellness Weekend

Thermal pools, a coastal walk and vineyard meals, with two nights to slow down at the same Red Hill stay.

Two-night escape · Best for couple · Peninsula

View Plan →

Nearby picks

More from Merricks

Back to Eat & Drink →
Winery Merricks

Baillieu Vineyard

51 Stanleys Rd, Merricks VIC 3916

A thoughtfully managed Merricks estate making elegant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that rewards the drive to find it.

cellar doorslow
Read notes Book
Winery Merricks

Elgee Park

89 Junction Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926

The Baillieu family's 1972 vineyard, the planting that started the modern Peninsula wine region, still in family hands, still making restrained Chardonnay and Viognier.

cellar doorslow
Read notes Book
Winery Merricks

Kerri Greens

235 Stanleys Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937

Tom McCarthy and Lucas Blanck's new-school Peninsula label, lighter-style Pinot, approachable Chardonnay, and a cellar door that feels like a bar.

cellar doorslow
Read notes Book

Build a day around this

Planning guides that include Rare Hare at Willow Creek

Peninsula Insider guides that put this stop into the context of a full day or weekend.

Peninsula weekend itinerary → The long lunch guide → Winery tour route → Rainy-day Peninsula →
Keep this for later
← Part of Merricks - view the destination guide

Is this your business? Manage this listing

Something wrong on this page, or is this your business? Tell us what to fix and you get a case reference back. corrections@peninsulainsider.com.au reaches the same desk.

The Insider Note

The Peninsula worth knowing. An occasional email. What's on, where we'd go and what's worth knowing next.

Independent editorial. Sent when there is something worth knowing.

Unsubscribe any time Privacy
Join