The hottest dining trends of 2018 in Victorian restaurants
From kangaroo hopping onto every menu to booze-free drinks lists, the comeback of shortbread and lemon tart, and a paddock of veg turning up on the plate, here are Victoria’s hottest dining trends of 2018.
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On Sunday, the third annual delicious.100 will be released — Victoria’s only ranked guide to the 100 most delicious restaurants in the state.
To compile this list we travelled thousands of kilometres across Victoria, eating hundreds of dishes and have whittled down the worthy and good to bring you the best.
Over six months, our three-person reviewing team visited more than 150 restaurants and whether a midweek bistro bite or destination dinner, we visited each unannounced and paid every bill.
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How do we rank? We judge each restaurant on its food offering (skilful and creative?), drinks (innovative and appropriate?) and service (knowledgeable and talented?) while also taking into consideration value (over-delivery at any price point) and its x-factor, which can be the buzz and the bling but mostly it’s about that feeling of happy contentedness that true hospitality brings.
It’s this matrix we’ve used to rank Victoria’s most delicious venues, old and new.
During this process, we’ve eaten a boatload of kingfish and a paddock’s worth of Jerusalem artichokes.
We’ve seen off piles of pasta and eaten oodles of noodles and fallen for the charms of local truffles in winter. We’ve sipped natural wines and locally distilled gins and celebrated the return to simple pleasures at the end of a meal.
Here are the trends we’ve seen that are defining Victorian dining in 2018.
THE NEW BEEF
It’s good for us and the planet. Eating kangaroo delivers health benefits to us and our land, so it’s great to see it being embraced by chefs around the state.
Whether in stunning pastrami form at Collingwood’s Congress, in ruby-red rare form served with shiitake and celeriac at the Yarra Valley’s TarraWarra, or in tartare form seasoned with mustard and gherkins and topped with grated yolk at Polperro in Red Hill, roo has jumped onto menus all across Victoria.
If chefs and diners both continue to embrace this versatile, lean, nutritious and affordable protein there’s every chance kangaroo could be the new beef — and we most certainly do not have a beef with that.
RAW AND ORDER
Once the sole preserve of the neighbourhood French bistro, tartare has become the must-have dish it seems every restaurant can’t live without offering on the menu.
And it’s not just beef — though a brilliant steak tartare is hard to beat and it’s hard to beat the version Steve Rogers is serving at Kyneton’s Midnight Starling.
There’s seemingly no limit to the proteins that are now given the tartare treatment.
Chef Julian Hills serves up a terrific Murray cod tartare at his sleek and stylish western suburbs fine diner, Navi.
At George Calombaris’ Press Club, thin zucchini crisps are used to scoop a wonderful wallaby tartare that’s teamed with gloriously smoky eggplant chunks, while over at Bistro Guillaume along with the traditional version, a summery take on tartare of the finest dice of seabream served with lightly smoked oyster cream and tiny bursts of finger lime, is nothing short of spectacular.
GONE FISHING
As they say in the classics, there’s plenty more fish in the sea and that’s never been truer than when dining out today.
Salmon’s been dethroned by kingfish as the go-to fish for restaurants, but Murray cod is now starting to make its mark.
At Muse at Mitchelton Winery in Nagambie, chef Dan Hawkins is serving crisp-skinned fillets with a beurre blanc sauce, while Victor Liong’s serving it crisp-fried whole under a blanket of Goolwa pipis in a spicy chilli bean sauce at the CBD’s Lee Ho Fook.
Mackerel is making friends all over town, whether in sandwich form down on the Mornington Peninsula at Montalto, in salt-sugar cured form at Saxe in the city, or whether flown in from Japan before being wrapped in clear kelp and transformed into sublime sushi by the master Koichi Minamishima at his eponymous temple to the Japanese craft in Richmond.
Matt Stone smokes the Yarra Valley trout and Jo Barrett makes the caraway pastry for a one-two tag team signature plate at Oakridge, while at Shannon Bennett’s seafood-only Iki Jime in the city it’s a nose-to-fin affair of lesser-loved fish.
Oh, and then there are the fried mussel sandwiches at Pt Leo Estate that show off Flinders’ finest to unbeatable effect.
DRINK TO THAT
When dining out these days, it’s no longer just about the wine. Cocktails have made the jump from bar to restaurant, with the drinks list filled with choice that doesn’t only come from the vine.
Sure a negroni, martini or boulevardier had a pre-dinner Mad Men resurgence, but the cocktail menu at our best restaurants increasingly closely follows the direction — and pantry — of the kitchen.
Booze-free options continue to stretch the muscles of the best bartenders, and while Orlando Marzo at Lume delivers a masterclass in point-oh-oh drinking, designated drivers are also especially well looked after at Brae at Birregurra.
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TAKE TWO
It was many years in the making, but when Lesa opened in September above the city’s much-loved Embla, it heralded a quieter, refined and focused restaurant addition to the bustling wine bar charms below.
This twin offering in the one space has proved an increasingly popular way for venues to broaden their audience without increasing their footprint.
When Dunkeld’s Royal Mail Hotel moved their flagship restaurant into a room finally deserving of the drive, it also gained space for a proper bistro, with fine diner Wickens and the bistro styles of the Parker Street Project now a compelling double act.
You can do five courses of whimsical peninsula produce at Jackalope’s Doot Doot Doot, or head to Rare Hare for super-sized snack plates at the busy cellar door.
While Longrain continues to deliver a rollicking night out — you’d never believe it’s 10 years old — you can now head upstairs to Longsong for fire-powered fare and a fabulous glass of wine.
And at the $50-million wine-dine art park playground that is Pt Leo Estate, you can choose to enjoy chef Phil Wood’s peninsula produce in either the quietly refined 45-seat restaurant Laura across four-to-six courses, or in the bustling bistro where it’s served in snack-and-share plate form. Something for everyone.
BACK TO BASICS
The trend for putting a few crumbs on the plate and calling it a cheesecake is going the way of the after dinner mint — and not before time.
We’re seeing a return to the simple charms of a custard tart — see Collins Quarter in the CBD — and the cool creamy smokiness of vanilla ice cream with an apple tarte tatin at Matilda.
The almost custardy Jersey cream version served with a homely quince and apple pie at Hogget is worth the drive, as is the caramelised quince served on shortbread at TarraWarra.
And, of course, the sublime chocolate souffle at Vue de monde remains (almost) reason alone to take the lift to the 55th floor of the Rialto.
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VEG PLEDGE
While veganism is the hottest food movement of the moment, its less prescriptive cousin vegetarianism shines brightest.
Chefs are getting creative in the kitchen and having fun putting veg to the fore in a patch-to-plate procession.
ADDING PLANT-BASED PROTEINS INTO YOUR DIET
Ugly veg is getting a look in — knobbly Jerusalem artichokes were everywhere this winter, whether teamed with cauliflower for a gratis soup to begin a Source Dining meal, as crunchy scales for in-the-shell marron at Vue de monde, or in a stunningly buttery lobster tart at Brae.
And celeriac puree is the new mash. Just as buttery but with added earthy depth, it’s the new best friend to slow-cooked meats with a rich sauce.
But we still love our potatoes, only now the humble spud comes with provenance — as does its orange-hued partner in the roasting tray, the pumpkin.
… AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS
• The little local has never been more loved, with such faves as South Melbourne’s Bellota never better.
• Paying for bread is increasingly pervasive — though when it’s as good as
it is at Embla, no one’s begrudging a few dollars.
• Regional dining has never been hotter, with world-class chefs opening restaurants well outside Melbourne — see Ballarat’s Underbar, Sardine in Paynesville — while suburban superstars such as Warrandyte’s Altair, Hurstbridge’s Greasy Zoes and Beaconsfield’s O.My are putting their respective postcodes on the map.
• Enough already with saltbush. While we’ll forever have a place in our hearts — and stomachs — for Igni’s brilliant (and now oft imitated) salt-and-vinegar saltbush, chefs scattering it all over everything from soup to dessert has got to stop. Ditto truffles in winter. You can have too much of a good thing, after all.
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