delicious.100: The 10 best Sunday lunch restaurants in Victoria
IS THERE anything more perfect than an indulgent long lunch? Take time for some good old-fashioned hospitality with 10 of Victoria’s very best Sunday lunch eateries.
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IS THERE anything more perfect than an indulgent Sunday lunch? Whether your taste is for yum cha, Argentinian empanadas or European comfort and good old-fashioned hospitality, Victoria delivers a masterclass in great food.
We’ve selected the best eateries for Sunday lunch from the delicious.100, the only food guide to rank Victoria’s top 100 restaurants.
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The Independent
79 Main St, Gembrook
03 5968 1110
The Dandenong Ranges are a long, long way from Argentina. But, thanks to Mauro Callegari, the tiny hamlet of Gembrook – where Puffing Billy runs out of steam from Belgrave – has an Argentinian restaurant and bar capable of transporting us to the land of his heritage, ‘Las Pampas’.
It’s called The Independent, it occupies a cunningly converted garage in the middle of town and heady aromas tantalise as soon as you settle into the lofty, high beamed, barn-like dining room.
Two wide-ranging menus – one plant based, offer fixed-price options with matching beverages (the drinks list runs from cocktails to local and Argentine wine, plus beer and ciders on tap and by the bottle).
But it can be just as fun creating your own meal, especially if it opens with an exemplary beef empanada, a pleasingly sour heart of palm ceviche with green chilli, or moreish smoky eggplant puree with cooling cucumber.
Allow an hour and Callegari’s crew will deliver some of the best roasted suckling pig this side of Western Plains (where they source their free-range piggies). No time to wait? No problem, The Independent’s slow-roasted Gippsland lamb shoulder can be yours in no time at all. Knifing through its blistered skin and excavating the warm, shredding meat inside is exciting.
Then, just before you roll out for siesta, out comes house-made dulce de leche ice cream and cookie crumb for dessert.
We doubt they have it this good even in Argentina.
Must eat: Slow-roasted Gippsland lamb shoulder with carrots, chilli, coriander and peanuts
Cuisine: Argentinian
Chef: Mauro Callegari
Price $$
Bookings: yes
Open Lunch and dinner: Wed-Sun
Instagram: @theindependentgembrook
Altair
152 Yarra Street Warrandyte
03 9844 5548
Bellbirds tinkle out in Warrandyte but the siren call of seriously good cooking is rarely heard in these parts.
Altair – now in its third year, is breaking that silence. Kelvin and Michelle Shaw’s enchanting restaurant is setting a new standard for the riverside township by finding inspiration in its gum tree’d surrounds.
On a visit in late spring, lemon myrtle and river mint were used to infuse a cured kingfish entree, wild dill ornamenting salt-baked celeriac, and wattleseed perked up an XO-poached pink ling.
But Shaw’s accomplished cooking goes well beyond namechecking indigenous ingredients.
Look at how he orchestrates chestnuts, cherries and currants over a slurry of sweet potato – one of the loveliest vegetarian dishes I’ve encountered, or de-bones roasted spatchcock so it’s ready for dunking in a limpid tarragon sauce.
As for Altair’s twice-cooked lamb neck with sheep’s milk ... sublime.
Out front, Michelle is the perfect host and sure to find the right wine for you from a tightly curated list.
No one leaves Altair without trying the rose and strawberry gum donuts, and having tasted them, few people can resist coming back.
Must-eat dish: Roasted spatchcock
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Kelvin Shaw
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch and dinner Wed-Sun, Sat-Sun from 8am
Instagram: @altair_restaurant
Bar Liberty
234 Johnston St, Fitzroy
No phone.
“We have a bit of a thing for wine,’’ say the folks at Bar Liberty.
Do they ever. This hip watering hole on the outer edge of Fitzroy has a truly eclectic wine list: Old World and New World; sparkling in every form, from pet nat to cremant and Champagne; wines described as ‘strong’, ‘energetic’, ‘macerated’ and ‘without sugar’; and we haven’t even got to the ‘fermented beverages’ list that includes sour beer “that wants to be wine’’, nor sake, cider and ‘fortified things’.
Despite this impressive offering, Bar Liberty’s charms are far greater than the sum of its alcohol-soaked parts.
Eighteen months into their ownership of this one-time taqueria, sommelier Banjo Harris Plane (ex-Attica) and Rockwell & Sons chef Casey Wall have got the food-booze mix down pat. Meaning you can team that fizzy wine from the Jura with lime-cured scallops, that obscure rosato from Sicily with cured beef, and Wall’s moreish warm sourdough flatbread with any and all of the above!
Order the great-value $60 set menu and you might land a peppery bucatini alla cacio e pepe cooked the right side of al dente, or gloriously tender chicken draped with Japanese greens.
Wall’s flavours are always bold. That includes his marvellous medley of tangelo, sour meringue and yoghurt sorbet, best taken with a Pennyweight muscat from Rutherglen.
Liberty, quality, fraternity. It’s all here.
Must eat dish: Roasted chicken leg, senposai, seaweed butter.
Cuisine: European
Chef: Casey Wall
Price: $
Bookings: Yes
Open Mon-Thurs 5pm-10pm, Fri-Sat 5pm-midnight, Sun noon-10pm
Instagram: @bar.liberty
Ricky & Pinky
211 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
A year on, and the mod-Canto styles of Andrew McConnell’s Chinese restaurant in a pub have settled into a comfortable groove.
The dining room – as to be expected of a McConnell venue – is as sleek, colourful and stylish an interpretation of a Chinese restaurant, as head chef Perry Schagen’s cooking is elegant.
The standout dish is mapo tofu with all its tingling heat and numbing nuance, just one highlight among many on a menu that is a refined ode to the classic Chinese restaurant.
Fried wontons sing when swiped through a sweet and sour dipping sauce. Rice cakes topped with lap cheong and best-in-class spiced quail segue into bigger plates of whole flounder and cumin lamb that lead into DIY bao. It’s familiar stuff, but done with the modern McConnell flair Melbourne has come to expect.
The extensive wine list is filled with fare-friendly drops, while changing taps keep the beer interesting and the pub spirit alive. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, spin the lazy Susan with the whole family for yum cha.
No need to watch your elbows, it’s trolley-free zone, where ample staff are on hand to ferry baskets filled with plump sui mai and steamed pork buns, along with honeycomb tripe for the brave. If that wasn’t enough, there are retro-tastic prawn toasts and an XL fortune cookie for dessert.
Must eat dish: Mapo tofu
Cuisine: Asian
Chefs: Perry Schagen, Andrew McConnell
Price $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Dinner daily, Yum cha from noon Fri-Sun
Instagram: @rickyandpinky
Epocha
49 Rathdowne St, Carlton
03 9036 4949
For more than five years Angie Giannakodakis and Guy Holder have been quietly delivering a masterclass in good old-fashioned hospitality in a stately Victorian terrace opposite the Exhibition Building.
It’s here that, along with the customer, that sit down and sink in European comfort is king.
Where a dark rye loaf hot from the oven is served in a linen bag, ready to spread with properly salted butter. Where a trolley of ripe imported cheeses welcomes guests to a dining room complete with a marble fireplace and vintage crockery.
Pickles and house-made baguette are all that’s needed to accompany a sublime duck liver parfait, while burnt butter jus drizzled on a cast iron pan of roast chicken, served with a side of earthy, sweet carrots is as equally and deliciously simple.
A dory cassoulet artfully subs out the sausage for perfect flaky fish, the beans teamed with Jerusalem artichoke puree for inspired nutty creaminess.
To finish, I eye off that cheese trolley, but opt for the dessert trolley instead. It rewards with a textbook brulee that comes housed under with a thick caramel roof (with excellent ‘crack’), and a super-sharp lemon tart.
The waiter offers a splash of Madeira from the esoteric (if expensive) Euro wine list to go with, and my arm is bent.
With food and a service like this, the belle epoch of Epocha continues.
Must-eat dish: Roast chicken
Cuisine: European
Chef: Jarrod Smith
Price $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch & dinner Tues-Sat; Sunday roast lunch from noon
Instagram: @epochacarlton
Ezard at Levantine Hill
882 Maroondah Hwy, Coldstream
03 5962 1333
“Ours is a bloody-minded obsession to achieve perfection.’’
So says Paul Bridgeman, winemaker at Levantine Hill Estate in the Yarra Valley. And anyone lucky enough to sip his 2015 Katherine’s Paddock Chardonnay or 2014 pinot noir will know he’s at the top of his game.
Chef Teage Ezard manages the Signature Restaurant at this high-hitting winery just beyond Coldstream, and while not yet reaching the heights of Bridgeman’s handcrafted wines, Ezard at Levantine Hill is making its mark in the valley with thoughtful, well executed dishes conveying a real sense of place.
In early Spring, Eildon trout was conjured from under a glass dome swirling with smoke; jamon Iberico, purple congo potatoes and garden herbs (grown on the estate) sprouted from an ovoid ceramic; and dessert, a melange of chocolate, plum, hazelnut and purslane, dazzled on an iceberg white plinth.
Ezard’s theatrical presentation is bound to divide opinion. So is the estate’s stark arching steel and glass restaurant building, which could do with softening landscape work.
We have no reservations about Signature Restaurant service which is fluid, relaxed and informed, and that Ezard will continue to rise to the challenge of matching those critically acclaimed wines
.
Must eat dish: Smoked Eildon trout, apple, cucumber
Cuisine: Modern Australian /Chefs Teage Ezard and Aaron Duffy
Price: $$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Mon, Wed-Sun noon-5pm, dinner Sat
Instagram: @levantinehill
Masons of Bendigo
25 Queen St, Bendigo
03 5443 3877
McIvor Farm Berkshire pork and Huntly pheasant, Inglewood beef and Yupunya chicken – in the heart of historic Bendigo, you’ll find a roll call of the Goldfields’ best producers shown off to excellent effect at Mason’s.
Within a stylish, cleverly demarcated dining room Nick and Sonia Anthony serve an extensive share-style menu on which every plate is a multi-faceted celebration of produce and region.
Holy Goat’s excellent fromage frais is the creamy foil to kataifi-pastry wrapped Camboer goat cigars; wild rabbit – seared loin, leg fritters – comes as a sculpture park of potato wafers and pancetta; while Moreton bay bugs get an elegant tempura treatment.
Wildly generous at every turn, a plate of that McIvor Farm pork features fillet, crisp belly, breaded shoulder, morcilla and crackling, while an equally abundant rendition of lamb many ways that’s finished with beetroot crackers is a virtuosic display that never forgets to be completely delicious.
Simpler dishes, such as roasted pumpkin with melted cheddar and roasted hazelnuts, or broccoli with miso butter, shine equally bright.
Drinks, too, are a clever celebration of local heroes. Sweet and welcoming service could do with a keener eye (empty glasses left on the table throughout the meal – a site no one wants to see!), though no faulting the dessert platter of 10 tastes that continues the theme of abundance. With Mason’s, Bendigo has struck gold, yet again.
Must-eat dish: Roast Wanbi Plains lamb
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chefs: Nick and Sonia Anthony
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch & dinner Tues-Sat
Instagram: @masons_of_bendigo
Oakridge
864 Maroondah Hwy, Coldstream
03 9738 9900
With its glorious vista across the vines that create multi-award-winning wines, you could come to Oakridge simply for the view and leave happy. With its deep toasty, caramelised crust and the mound of thick, golden butter alongside, you could also come to Oakridge, eat the bread and also leave beaming.
But these are just two reasons to visit this sleek winery dining room, with Matt Stone’s zero-waste kitchen drawing on Yarra Valley produce to provide a menu full of equally compelling propositions.
Such as an onion tarte Tatin, sticky, golden and bittersweet, with soured cream with the unmistakable bush walk of eucalyptus finishing a brilliant opening act.
Hot-smoked eel and cool egg custard combine in a delicate, pretty broth showing a less-is-more approach is equally effective; while rainbow trout served with a sticky sauce of its bones is matched in the lick-the-plate stakes by a side of XO shaved Brussels sprouts that will convert any and every sprout naysayer.
Kangaroo served with Davidson plum is such a note-perfect celebration of national pride it should stand for the anthem, while co-head chef Jo Barrett’s desserts – always a highlight – are now better than ever.
Oranges from Four Pillars down the road combine into a textural triumph of citrus – lemon curd, orange parfait, mandarin granita – while poached pears and parsnip are joined by pretzel dough for one of the most inventive, and delicious, veg-driven desserts.
Service is switched on and refreshingly friendly; wines are poured with stories of land. With that view (and bread) it all combines to create one of the best value meals not only in the Valley, but in the state.
Must eat dish: Gin orange
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chefs: Matt Stone, Jo Barrett
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Thurs-Mon
Instagram: @oakridgewines
EMBLA
122 Russell St, Melbourne
03 9654 5923.
Wine bar meets restaurant in the most brilliant way at Embla, The Town Mouse’s uncomplicated little sister by chef/restaurateur Dave Verheul. Entering this dark, woody saloon is to experience something truly Melbourne, where the balance of food and wine is so skilfully struck.
Pull up at the back bar for a view of the chefs deftly working the woodfired oven for on-point snacks and share plates. Soured cucumber pieces dusted with dill powder are made for swiping through a fat pat of silky creamed feta.
A similar interplay of textures and tastes can be found in the stracciatella (a stretched buffalo curd cheese similar to burrata) piled with earthy walnuts and pleasantly bitter red dandelion.
Larger dishes extend to squid, supple and scored curls dancing in a fresh bed of fennel and peas, or just-pink swordfish slices resting on navy beans and fennel hinted with bergamot.
The hefty house-made seeded sourdough is worth the $4. You’ll drink interestingly and well from a list bound by neither grape nor geography.
Natural wines are championed, too. The Austrian red recommended was so damn nice we had to go back for more.
This place might be of casual lunches and fun late-night tipples, but the menu and service operate on precision and ambition. In early 2018, Embla will expand upstairs to expand the dining room, while downstairs will be for wine-bar antics. To think this CBD gem will get better, is exciting.
Must eat dish: Sour cucumbers, dill, feta
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Dave Verheul
Price: $
Bookings: Lunch only
Open: Mon-Fri noon-late; Sat 3pm-late; Sun 1pm-10pm
Instagram: @embla_melbourne
Lake House
King St, Daylesford
03 5348 3329
If Mother Nature had a pantry, it would be the Lake House.
For 33 years, this Daylesford restaurant and getaway – under the expert guiding hand of founder and ‘culinary director’ Alla Wolf-Tasker – has been nurturing specialist provedores in central Victoria and showcasing their bounty on menus that seem almost hardwired to the seasons.
A visit to Lake House in early Spring saw head chef David Green sending out a charred onion broth heady with truffle comte; dry-aged duck nesting with beetroot, smoked potato and preserved elderberry; and peak condition vegetables – chestnuts, pumpkin, kale, artichokes – tucked into butter pastry with goat curd fondue.
Green has a special affinity for fish, netting Murray cod, trout, smoked eel and freshwater crustaceans for a delicate entrée, and elevating pearl-white black kingfish (cobia) with an Asian-scented veal broth and a latticed cod cracker. Stunning.
Then there’s ‘The Apple’ for dessert, a little marvel where a sphere of eggshell fine white chocolate on Granny Smith granita hides jellied treats inside.
The service is seamless, while the cellar is one of rare depth and complexity.
Some visitors favour Lake House to savour the view, but this dining room twinkles after sundown, toasty light bouncing off gleaming surfaces and jazz tinkling in the background like water.
Must eat dish: Black kingfish, celeriac, cod cracker
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chefs: Alla Wolf-Tasker and David Green
Price: $$$ Bookings yes
Open: Lunch & dinner daily
Instagram: @lakehousedaylesford
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