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Dani Valent

Dani Valent

Food writer and restaurant reviewer

Dani Valent is a food writer and restaurant reviewer.

Restaurateur Melanie Zhang of fine diner Ishizuka inside her forthcoming Bourke Street restaurant, Oden

The next venue from this two-hatted Japanese restaurant will be totally different

The creator of trailblazing basement fine-diner Ishizuka is opening a casual restaurant specialising in one of Japan’s most beloved, yet little-known, soul food dishes.

  • Dani Valent
Listen out for the crackle of the filo tiropita (cheese pie).

This Toorak Road taverna is hitting its stride with cheese pie and crackling filo pastry

Astoria Bar Ke Grill opened quietly last spring, but is now coming into its own with a host of dips, stews and a hefty moussaka.

  • Dani Valent
Cosy gatherings in the dining room at Ras Dashen.

Settle in to the cosy dining room at this 14-year-old Ethiopian eatery

Order claypot lamb chops, firfir soup mixed with injera flatbread and more at Ras Dashen in Footscray.

  • Dani Valent
Bistecca al pepe - eye fillet steak topped with a pepper sauce-filled raviolo - at Gambino restaurant in Glen Waverley.
14.5/20

Bet you’ve never had steak and pepper sauce like this before, Melbourne

Gambino restaurant and rooftop bar brings tricksy Italian dishes and Big Night Out energy to the ’burbs.

  • Dani Valent
Toi Chan owners Sai Yoke “Sue” Wong and Kok Hem “Peter” Chee.

With no one to take over, Australia’s oldest Chinese restaurant is closing

Toi Shan has been serving the Bendigo community for more than 70 years. Its owners are now retiring and will take the final order for lemon chicken next week.

  • Dani Valent
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Inside Fitzroy’s Bar Liberty.

‘Melbourne wine bar’ has become its own genre, but this decade-old spot breaks the mould

Push past the orthodoxies at Fitzroy’s Bar Liberty, where spirit infuses everything from the playlists to the legacy of cheesy, peppery dishes.

  • Dani Valent
Crispy pata (deep-fried pork hock).
13/20

Head to a suburban shopping centre for this pork dish with ‘outrageous crispiness’

It can be difficult to decide which pork dish to order at Mrs Parks Kitchen. So don’t. Order the lot and take home the leftovers.

  • Dani Valent
Huu Huu Thanh within Footscray Market.

‘Chaotic in a good way’: The inner western suburb on the edge of a renaissance

Iconic pastries, deeply flavoured pho and ringside drinks. Dani Valent traverses Barkly Street in search of its best eats.

  • Dani Valent
The precision-built club sandwich.

Beachside pocket near Frankston has a wine bar (and club sandwich) worth travelling for

Ordain has jolted the small bayside suburb with barbecue bento boxes, fried cheese and a precision-built sanger.

  • Dani Valent
Chef Hugh Allen at the site of his new restaurant, Yiaga, in Fitzroy Gardens.

13 exciting restaurant openings we’re counting down to this year

Melbourne’s only Ukrainian restaurant, two very different charcoal chicken shops, and a bakery from a pastry master: there’s lots of good eating to look forward to.

  • Dani Valent

Original URL: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/goodfood/by/dani-valent-hven6