The dressed-up couple at the table next to ours has just handed their phone to a waiter with a request for a selfie, inclusive of chocolate mousse. To our right, another couple is scanning an indulgent raw-bar menu, presented as a card affixed to a little gold stand. It’s 6pm on a Sunday at Melbourne’s gleaming new Maison Bâtard but it feels more like a Saturday night in full flight. Waiters are everywhere, white-jacketed bar staff are pouring back-to-back martinis and the ground-floor dining room is humming with the sort of energy only a restaurant that’s the hottest ticket in town can deliver.

After an eight-year build-up, Chris and Sarah Lucas’ $45 million, four-storey “dining house” – taking in a luxe brasserie, a first-floor salon, a chic rooftop terrace and a subterranean supper club – has landed at the East End of Bourke Street, just in time for Christmas.