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?
Feeling foreign in your own city is a gift and, even more than footy or trams or Oslo Davis, it’s the profusion of languages, colours and cuisines that makes me happy to live in Melbourne. When the gift of difference is bestowed with such warmth and care as at Ras Dashen then my pleasurometer peaks.
Given the number of Melbourne cafes, and the incessant search for new angles, the only surprise is that it took this long for some hip hospo types to match charcuterie and specialty coffee. Cousins Jonathan Ioannou (a barista, ex-Merchant and Toby’s Estate) and Socrates Terrence Farrugia (a chef with a hotel background) have been chatting about doing their own thing for years. Recently, they got serious and turned drab Brunswick premises into a sunshiny cafe with a heated courtyard that showcases their twin passions for meat (especially pork) and coffee. It’s a weird marriage but I actually think there’s something in the charcuterie and coffee scenario: elegant drip coffees and rich porky preparations can do a pretty fancy dance, and Ioannou will be delighted to make pairing suggestions.
If only we’d stop throwing those shrimps on the barbie for a second, we’d realise that Americans have much to teach Australians about barbecue. That is, the slow, smoky barbecue that’s an obsession in the United States’ deep south, using cheap cuts like ribs (from pork, beef and lamb) and beef brisket (from the chest). You can tell Nieuw Amsterdam is a fan because there’s a good chance you’ll stumble into a fragrant smoky fug when you arrive.
I really like chocolate, walnut and blue cheese but I’ve never been tempted to cook them up together. Chocolate and walnuts, yes. Walnuts and blue cheese, absolutely. The tricky triumvurate? No thanks. Because I was so sceptical I had to try the (savoury) chocolate tagliatelle with walnuts and blue cheese at Caffe e Cucina, the 26-year-old restaurant which taught Chapel Street to say ‘ciao bella’ and which has hosted one in every 29 of Melbourne’s marriage proposals since it opened in 1988. My statistic is fabricated but I bet it’s not far wrong. The proposals occur regularly on the romantic Romeo e Giuletta balcony. Stand there and you’ll feel the charge of thousands of full hearts. And if you’re heading up there yourself pray your beloved says ‘yes’ because the minimum spend is $230.
A quiet shopping strip near the Eastern Freeway isn’t an obvious place to concoct an ode to France but Bar Sur Loup’s Greek-Australian owner Kathy Licciardi thinks Balwyn is as good a place as any to let Francophilia flourish. She lived in Le Bar-Sur-Loup, a hill town in Provence for four years, and its Melbourne namesake is a selective remembering of France’s most delightful creations, like flicking through a carefully edited photo album with all the wrong turns, snooty ‘merci mesdames’ and bad omelettes excised once and for all.
After working for seven years as a barista, Korean-born Mim Seo was keen to open her own place. The more she thought about it the more it made sense to serve the Korean food she knew, but to spin it for modern Melbourne. The More The Better, open almost a year, is the winning result, with a fun mix of classic dishes and fast food fusion. The fit-out is chic on a shoestring and service is friendly but can be too laggardly for a quick lunch.
Last year, Sarti floundered after the departure of chef Riccardo Momesso, now at Hawksburn’s thriving Valentino. But owner Joe Mammone knows a few things about reinvention and his laneway restaurant, open since 2005, is re-energised and pumping. It’s a good option for canoodling at the bar, buzzy nights with mates, and business meals (the $40 three-course lunch is a steal).
A good restaurant isn’t always the most innovative or edgy. It can simply be a place that gives you what you want, whether that’s a commuter coffee, great poached eggs, or a frisky glass of wine after a frazzling day. In essence, a good restaurant makes you feel good: it’s as straightforward and as complicated as that. Ripponlea Food and Wine has only been at it for two months but it’s making such a decent stab at being a welcoming local restaurant that I reckon it’s worth rolling in from other parts of town. The heritage corner site extends over four shopfronts and the cool fit-out finds a happy meeting place between rustic and industrial. Laptop-friendly window benches and a cosy gossip chamber near the open kitchen are big pluses.
No, this can’t be it. Surely not. This open-air car park with easy access to beauty salons, banks, podiatry practitioners and pet supplies looks a fine place to pull in for the daily necessaries but it doesn’t feel like somewhere I’d head for fine dining. That’s until you walk through an arcade and find Puerto, smack on the water, serving really good Spanish food in a large dining room that’s been decorated with offbeat opulence and an eye on the long game.
A mature and satisfying restaurant culture needs buzzy newies but it also needs restaurants like Matteo’s. For 20 years, Matteo’s has balanced consistency and innovation, striving for high standards ahead of saturation coverage. Proprietor Matteo Pignatelli grew up in the northern suburbs, making pizzas in his family’s takeaway shops; he’s a genial presence here and in Melbourne’s broader hospitality scene. He’s watched them come, he’s seen them go, and through it all, he’s welcomed diners into his glamorous restaurant, a sprawling and venerable villa that once housed the legendary Mietta’s.
