Sorrento 16°C Sunset 5:48 pm Bay glassy, tide low Winter Insider · June 2026
Eat & Drink Restaurant Red Hill $$

Red Gum BBQ

Airy warehouse, picnic tables, and low-and-slow American barbecue, pulled pork, brisket, smoked chicken, the family-friendly antidote to the winery-restaurant circuit.

Known for Low-and-Slow American BBQRed Gum Wood SmokerCounter-and-Tray OrderingPeninsula Brewery Taps

Photo · Peninsula Insider

Why we’d go

Red Gum is the Peninsula's essential non-wine-restaurant lunch, the one that makes the ridge work for people who do not drink Pinot Noir.

Red Gum is the Peninsula's essential non-wine-restaurant lunch. Martin Blunos and the team smoke low and slow over red gum in a big airy warehouse on the ridge, and for a decade now they have been pulling beef brisket, pork shoulder, and whole chickens out of the smokers at exactly the moment the tables are ready for them. The ordering system is counter-and-tray, the seating is picnic tables, and the vibe is the polar opposite of the hatted dining room across the road.

What makes it work beyond the smoker is the discipline. The sides are actually good, slaw with enough bite, pit beans cooked proper, corn bread that has not been sitting. The kids' menu exists. The beer taps rotate through Peninsula breweries. A dark and stormy arrives in a jar big enough to settle an afternoon.

Book for a crowd; go casual; come hungry. This is the antidote the Peninsula needs to its own more serious instincts.

Worth knowing

Best for
Long lunches · Family outings · Big groups · Food lovers

If you only do one thing

Book for a crowd, go casual, and come hungry, the brisket is what the smoker was built for.

Works well with

Red Hill Estate · Red Hill Cheese

Filed under Long LunchBig GroupFamilyAll YearFamiliesGroupFirst Timers

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