Morgan’s Beach Shack

1/3 Esplanade, Sorrento

Click PLAY below to hear Scorcher’s review on 3AW Breakfast

Fleeing the city for a weekend away is an excellent way to re-energise the soul. Doctors in 19th-century Britain would prescribe trips to the beach to cure melancholy and other maladies. I think they were onto something.

Victoria has a plethora of incredible destinations right on Melbourne’s doorstep, many doable in a weekend. Or even a day trip, for that matter.

And so it was this week that I found myself in Sorrento on a hot autumn day hungry for an afternoon feed.

It’s impossible not to notice Morgan’s Beach Shack when you roll into town, which sits bold and proud on the water’s edge, in a prime position to suck in those bay views.

If it’s a nice day, grab a table on the Esplanade to maximise some of that seaside serenity.

Morgan’s Beach Shack is a spacious and airy, beach-side diner where seafood forms most of the menus greatest hits.

I slurped down a gorgeous bowl of seafood linguini loaded with mussels, prawns and scallops that delivered just a prickle of heat from the chilli. This was a winning dish, my favourite of the afternoon.

Then the seafood platter arrived, groaning under the weight of the ocean bounty. We picked and prodded our way through lobster, king prawns, mussels, oysters and other crustaceans, sipping on a chardonnay from nearby Merricks North as we did so, hands alternating between glass and shellfish cracker.

If you’d prefer your meal without the presence of claws and shells, chef Dave Stewart’s menu also has a list of crowd pleasers such as beer-battered fish and chips, southern fried chicken burger with sriracha aoli, pan-fried chicken Milanese schnitzel and roast cauliflower and pumpkin salad (superload it up with lamb skewers).

And don’t gloss over the long list of starters as there are nuggets of gold in there. Things like soft shell crab tacos with gribiche and local mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce.

Tina Arena once sang that it all came true by the sweet Sorrento moon. I learnt of lot of things during my trip to the Mornington Peninsula, chief among them that I need to get out and eat in regional Victoria more often on the weekend.

Morgan’s Beach Shack, 1/3 Esplanade, Sorrento; morganssorrento.com.au; small plates $4-$32; mains $20-$38

(Note from Scorcher’s slot with Ross and John – Thank you Morgan Freeman’s good friend Ben Price: benpricecomedy.com)