Brae Restaurant won the top-scoring review this year. Source: Supplied
WE’VE trawled Melbourne’s restaurant scene this year to find the city’s best dishes and dining experiences.
It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it - in our case it’s Herald Sun food writer Dan Stock. Here are his favourite eats of 2014.
Iced oysters with puffed beef tendonat Brae. Source: News Corp Australia
“AND this is the iced oyster,” the charming waiter announced. “What’s that?” I asked.
“Just eat it,” I was told. And I did. And it was the most incredible, eye-opening, delicious thing I ate this year in a year filled with much delicious eating.
Like an adult rendition of a happy childhood memory, on his spring menu at Brae, Dan Hunter folded oyster brine through a cultured milk ice cream that was then set in an oyster shell.
On top, creating a speckled silvery algae-green sheen, a mix of dehydrated sherry vinegar, seaweed and oysters; the combination creating an evocation of oyster at once sweet and sea.
It was a highlight in a meal of many that earned Brae 18.5/20, my highest-scored restaurant of this year.
Tofu with shiitake mushroom at Kappo in Flinders Lane. Picture: Janine Estgate Source: News Corp Australia
At 17/20, Simon Denton’s new Japanese restaurant, Kappo,also scaled the heights, as did the shiitake tofu dish chef Kentaro Usami served as part of the ever-changing tasting menu.
In a soupy bowl of sesame comfort, a silken cube of tofu, upon which a single juicy mushroom sat, sang of Japanese simplicity and was most exquisite example of bean curd I’ve ever known.
Less delicate, no less delicious, the crispy Korean pork hock at Lucy Liu – one of the year’s most fun new restaurants.
The gloriously crisp exterior of the hock, which, having been marinated in gochujang for 24 hours, then braised in masterstock for another 12 hours, then flash-fried and rested until the flesh inside is wonderfully gelatinous, is the perfect marriage of velvety crunch. Served with little steamed pancakes that you DIY to taste, it’s a hands-on, hands-down winner.
Jinda Thai’s boat noodles was another ugly duckling of a dish that’s one of the most beautiful of them all.
A dark, thick and deeply satisfying broth with hints of sweet spice playing with hits of sour is the base in which noodles swim and tender strips of beef lay upon.
It’s the stuff of dreams that I crave monthly.
Smoked eel with fried bread and beetroot at Mister Jennings. Source: News Corp Australia
Over on Richmond’s Bridge Rd, Ryan Flaherty is serving clever, inventive dishes at his first solo venture, Mister Jennings - none more so that his smoked eel.
A luxuriously light eel parfait covers a cube of fried bread, with both hidden under petal-sized slivers of pickled beetroot.
A few tiny sprigs of wood sorrel complete a vibrant picture that’s as pretty as it is creamy, crunchy, smoky and sharp.
Wagyu skewers at Northern Light. Picture: Jay Town. Source: News Corp Australia
Cooked on binchotan, a Japanese coal revered for its cleanliness, Adam Liston is serving up some seriously good skewers at Northern Light – the wagyu oyster blade duo comes dusted in spiced chilli powder alongside miso mayo – that are perfect with an icy Sapporo.
My (and Melbourne’s) long-time favourite dumpling spot, Hutong, was knocked of its perch by newcomer New Shanghai at Emporium; its version of xiao long bao, helped by a delicate pastry that holds the porky soupy payload, is even better than those at the original home of XLB.
Spaghetti carbonara at Artusi. Picture- Nicole Cleary Source: News Corp Australia
Fried chicken and waffles at Mr Big Stuff, Meyers Place. Source: News Corp Australia
It was a year in which comfort food played a starring role – from the excellent fried chicken and waffles being created by ex Grossi Florentino head chef Louis Naeples at Mr Big Stuff, to Leandro Panza’s almost perfect re-imagining of carbonara, with its thick slices of crisp pancetta and 63-degree egg, down at Southbank’s Artusi.
It wasn’t just good eating to be had in restaurants, with bars around town ramping up their offerings.
Pork, almond and cinammon cigars at Polepole. Picture: Eugene Hyland Source: Supplied
The best bar snack I ate this year? Hands down the pork, almond and cinnamon “cigars” served at Polepole in the CBD. Two stumpy pastries, tobacco brown and fried crisp, filled with a great pulled pork and almond mix lifted with a hit of cinnamon spice. Served in a white “ashtray”, the ends of both “stogies” are dipped in black lava salt, which adds both seasoning and theatrical style. Brilliant.
But so, too, are the Po Boys at Girl with the Gris Gris, the New Orleans restaurant that’s made itself at home at Ding Dong – especially the turkey version, where slices of breast meat injected with Cajun spices are generously piled between a crusty fluffy white roll and teamed with mustard and house pickles.
And if you need something the day after the night before, the bacon sandwich at the best Irish Pub around, The Last Jar, cures all. With lots of thick-cut house cured bacon, melted sharp Tassie cheddar and brown sauce, it rights wrongs and cures all.
Of course you can succumb to the charms of Johnny di Francesco’s world-beating margherita pizza at his little cicchetti bar next door to 400 Gradi, but do not miss out on the grilled mortadella, which he’s serving thick, branded by the grill and on a pistachio-spiked mascarpone. Simple, clever, tasty.
One of the more surprising finds of the year were the croquettes at Boca Del Sur in Sandringham. Thick chunks of jamon stuck in a generous molten mangchego filling in a tanned casing fried to a crunch. An excellent romesco sauce underneath means I’ll be heading back to Sandringham for these best-in-class gems.
Kimchi at Kensington’s Frying Colours Korean restaurant. Picture: Eugene Hyland Source: News Corp Australia
Likewise to Kensington, for Min Hui Lee’s excellent kimchi that he’s ageing at his restaurant, Frying Colours. And while I’m there it’d be rude not to take a plate of his equally good Korean fried chicken that’s life-affirming in the way only crunchy/succulent fried chicken can be.
With her monthly changing menu at Prix Fixe, Philippa Sibley’s creations don’t last long, but I hope her Green Eggs and Ham – a demitasse of minty pea soup served with pork scratchings and a “carbonara” ice cream – makes an encore appearance.
And over at her old stomping ground, Albert St Food and Wine, successor Jason Rodwell created one of the best vegetarian dishes of the year with his wild mushroom en papillote – mushrooms cooked in the bag with crème fraîche, Pernod and served with veg crisps. Meat? Who needs it.
Taste restaurant review: Chiara, Collins Street Melbourne. Picture: Alex Moffatt Source: News Corp Australia
Something sweet? I liked Shaun Quade’s whacky take on the end of the meal, whether his arroz con leche at Bar Nacional – puffed rice studded with candied citrus, milk rocks, and served with shards of milk crisp – or his deconstructed, modern version of tiramisu that features beetroot, no less, at Chiara.
Coconut sorbet at Ladyboy Dining, Richmond. Picture: Nathan Dyer Source: News Corp Australia
And the coconut sorbet at Ladyboy Dining, creamy, silken, thick with the tropics and served with slivers of fresh coconut, is the perfectly decadent end to a spicy Thai meal.
It’s been a big year for Melbourne’s restaurants. Bring on 2015.
And the best were ...
Brae (18.5)
Kappo (17)
Woodland House, Stokehouse City (16.5)
Lucy Liu, (15.5)
Terre, Supernormal, Estelle, Albert St Food and Wine (15)
Originally published as The 20 best things I ate this year
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