Restaurant Reviews – Page 21 – Dani Valent

We’ve all got to eat so it might as well be good! I’ve been a restaurant critic for almost 20 years, and have been writing a weekly restaurant column in Melbourne’s Sunday Age since 2006.

My approach is to always take a restaurant on its own terms: there’s no point slamming a burger joint because it doesn’t have white tablecloths. I try to be constructive in my criticism and I’ve always got the diner in mind: there are many places you could choose to go. Why should it be here?

Bar Nonno

When Sam Marazita emigrated from Calabria in the 1940s he bought a building in Northcote and opened a fruit shop. The store closed after 15 years because Sam got pretty busy making wine. (Indeed, his grandson Sergio Carlei is now winemaker at well-regarded Carlei Estate.) Last January, a circle closed when Marazita’s great-grandson David Carlei opened a restaurant in the old fruit shop premises and named it in honour of his ‘nonno Sam’. That heart-warming continuity must account for a good chunk of the happy vibes here.

The Colonel’s Son

The Colonel’s Son isn’t large but this bayside cafe plays big, bold and beautiful. The menu spills with exuberant and innovative dishes like black rice and coconut pudding, superfood parfait with almond-milk-soaked chia seeds and beyond-boring egg brunches such as the amazing ‘Detox Board’. Like many dishes here, it’s served on a timber paddle and is an attractive wakey-wakey assembly of roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and asparagus, squeaky golden-fried haloumi, poached eggs, and quinoa and kale salad. Served with a carrot and ginger shot, it’s the ginormous antidote to a massive night.

Marquis of Lorne

I’ve long liked the Marquis of Lorne, a handsome corner pub, so I’ve been saddened by its recent history of neglect, licensing glitches and closed doors. But, yay, it’s been rejuvenated and is now a happy choice for drinking, eating and hanging out. The rejig is nudge-wink-retro but nicely done. There’s a handpainted Foster’s sign and a 16-buck steak night but you know you’re in Fitzroy 2015 because of the post-Movember moustaches, craft beer, spiced cauliflower and slow-cooked lamb ribs. I’ll take it with a pinch of chilli salt, but I’ll definitely take it.

Fat Duck Melbourne

It’s been the biggest story in Restaurant Land. Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant is three weeks in to a six-month season in Melbourne while the English original is being renovated. Bookings were allocated via a hysterically oversubscribed ballot. I didn’t score a table but was invited last-minute by a friend whose husband was unable to go. I do not wish sickness upon anyone but if it results in a Fat Duck meal for me then I’ll just have to send a get-well card and frock up.

Dekoboko

If you love Japanese food but have sushi ennui, go to Dekoboko. If you want a peaceful and pretty inner-city hangout for coffee and jazz, go to Dekoboko. If you want to see the new venture from Toshi Maeda (he owns sake-soaked izakaya Maedaya up the road), go to Dekoboko. Maeda’s new place is completely different but it’s similar in that it brings a new style of Japanese restaurant to Melbourne.

White Oaks Saloon Bar and Dining

Saloons originated in America’s old west where they were often the first structure built in a frontier settlement, even if their walls were canvas and a plank slung between barrels did for a bar. They acted as town hall, employment office, entertainment precinct and dating agency, and their barkeeps were known to cut good (or passable) liquor with cheaper ingredients such as gunpowder and turpentine to give them extra kick. Some saloons became grander, timbered, decked with the batwing doors that get a workout in Westerns, and supplied with diversions from pool tables to pianists.

Ruyi

Sometimes one word overwhelms all others when seeking a description. In the case of year-old Chinese restaurant Ruyi, that word is ‘gracious’ and it applies to the decor, food and service. The dining room is elegant and calm with a refined sensibility that leaves little doubt this is a Chinese restaurant while making it quite clear we’re not in a Chinatown dumpling factory. The food is delicate, taking traditional dishes from regional cuisines and rethinking them with premium produce and contemporary presentation. Service is solicitous, and if there was an over- eager emphasis on Ruyi’s uniqueness, I’m happy to put it down to the fervor that can spring from pride.

Jardin Tan

I was definitely living the dream. We’d shared Vietnamese finger food at outdoor tables sheltered from the evening breeze. The fish skewers were lemongrassy and sweet, the chicken bites were fried in an oaty crust, we wrapped crisp pork spring rolls in fresh lettuce, and smothered silken tofu in pickled chilli. Now, I sipped wine while my kids gambolled on the lawn over yonder. They were shoeless, cartwheeling, possibly mauling one another while I enjoyed a perfect post-prandial, pre-mosquito interlude. I toasted my great parenting: the kids were fed and exercised, and with my last sip, I swallowed the thought that upside-down play directly after dinner may be inadvisable.

Forest Green

Don’t you love it when breakfast is more than eggs and assemblage, when it’s crafted with thought, skill and quality produce that elevates the meal from first look to last bite? That’s the deal at Forest Green, a cafe with a restaurant ethic expressed in dishes like the duck eggs, fried to a perfect crisp-fringed circle, laid on toast as airily as a line-dried sheet over a wide expanse of mattress, topped with lightly roasted tomatoes, plump green olives, furls of prosciutto, and a heart-fluttery scattering of flowers and baby herbs. It’s pretty and vigorous with a good balance of salt and richness.

Squisito

It’s Friday lunch, holidays are on the horizon and the Canterbury ladies have one question: “May I have another prosecco?” Well, of course they can, because they’re at Squisito, where saying ‘yes’ is an automatic reflex, and one of many indications of the hospitable spirit that pervades this happy little restaurant. Service is chirpy and willing, the food tastes good and is presented with flair, and care is evident in everything from the frisky wine list to the well-swept seating area in the plaza out the front.

© Dani Valent 2024