Best places to eat and drink in Melbourne and Victoria
Whether a bar snack sanga that’s the city’s best, a toastie with the mosty at a reimagined fine diner or worldly sips at Sandy’s new wine bar, here are Dan Stock’s top tips for where to eat and drink this weekend.
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Whether a bar snack sanga that’s the city’s best, a toastie with the mosty at a reimagined fine diner or worldly sips at Sandy’s new wine bar, here are Dan Stock’s top tips for where to eat and drink this weekend.
FOR SIPS AND SUPS IN SANDY
“There’s such a need for good-quality venues out in the suburbs,” says Frank Ciorcoari.
The restaurateur has been tipping the scales in the favour of suburbia for the best part of a decade, first with Sette Bello in Glen Waverley and more recently wine bar Riserva in Malvern East. Now, it’s Sandringham’s turn with the Riserva team opening Baia di Vino in what was Spanish restaurant Boca del Sol.
Co-owner Dino Moshin (Riserva, Rockpool Bar & Grill) is in the kitchen where he’s cooking a broadly Euro menu of wine-friendly fare – think burrata with wood-roasted capsicum; stuffed squid; brodo di pesce – while co-owner Vivian Man is on cellar duty and will pour a selection of complementary Euro-leaning drops.
Baia di Vino, 1 Melrose St, Sandringham. baiadivino.com.au
FOR A TOASTY WITH THE MOSTY
While unlikely to get St Kilda to battle peak-hour Punt Rd, but the wagyu toastie is reason alone for northsiders to revisit Scott Pickett’s newly re-imagined Estelle in Northcote.
Crunchy fried bread oozing delicious bolognese oil with touch of kimchi heat, finished with a blizzard of parmesan and you have a very, very good friend to a beer. Drop in to the bar for a drink – an Old Spice, perhaps, a terrific rum-based sour with a lick of smoke – and posh sardines on toast, the fish draped over a ruddy garlicky rouille, or a one-two chicken sucker-punch: a glazed, deboned wing topped with meaty shiitake, and liver parfait piped on to kelp crackers hidden under a cloud of grated macadamia.
Or take a table in the dining room that looks as sexy now as it did in its ESP fine dining days, where an a la carte menu include a spectacular flounder slathered in a funky XO sauce bolstered with mussels and fermented black beans. Not to be missed.
Other hits include exceptional seared Paroo kangaroo that’s tender and mild has a light pepper crust and comes sandwiched between blood plum puree underneath, thin slivers atop. Charred endive alongside adds smoky coolness and crunch.
Eel in sauce and mousse form adds delicate smokiness to counter the pungent oiliness of skin-charred blue mackerel, the mousse piped into a pretty-as-a-picture pickled cucumber canoe that swims in the sauce, while miso-roasted eggplant coated in puffed grains is the type of vegetarian dish that’ll convert even the most hardened carnivore.
It’s a boldly beautiful space that complements Pickett’s always bold, often beautiful food. Estelle mark 5 is well worth revisiting anew.
Estelle, 243-5 High St, Northcote, theestelle.com.au
FOR A BEAUT BELLARINE BREW
A true one-stop shop for the best of the Bellarine, the Queenscliff Brewhouse - where the Prickly Moses range of beers are brewed on site – houses not only a bar and bistro, there’s the upstairs whisky room where more than 350 bottles from around the world are offered to sip and savour, as well as The Tasting Room, a one-stop cellar door for the region with 200 craft beers, 100 wines by the bottle as well as preserves, cheese and oils from the region to make a picnic to go.
An ever-changing line up for the wine and beer flights give a sample of what’s on offer, while the core range of eight Prickly Moses beers are joined on tap by upwards of a dozen seasonal brews. A great selection of all styles of beers – predominantly Victorian – are in the fridge, along with an equally proud selection of wines from the region.
A “tastes of the region” menu is offered during the day while by night pub classics – all with suggested beer matches – are augmented by plates that include seafood linguine, Indonesian chicken curry and vegan burger.
Queenscliff Brewhouse, 2 Gellibrand St, Queenscliff. queenscliffbrewhouse.com.au
FOR MELBOURNE’S BEST SANGA SNACK
Between two slices of fluffy soft white bread, a fat crunchy-fried panko puck is filled with deliciously gelatinous pork set with a chicken jus jelly that liquefies and bursts upon first bite, like a soup dumpling.
Meet the pig’s head sanga – Melbourne’s best bar snack – served in one of the best-looking under-an-apartment-block restaurants the city’s yet seen.
In the heart of hip Collingwood, Congress nails both the drop-in-for-a-bite and settle-in-for-the-night brief for those living above and around, but it’s the skill and warmth of co-owner Katie McCormack who looks after the floor that elevates Congress into a must-visit for those who don’t call postcode 3066 home.
A menu that’s at once accessible and innovative keeps interest levels high.
Kangaroo pastrami served with cultured cream and crunchy shallots is a taste-texture triumph, but so, too, is a plate of roasted brussels sprouts on a swipe of deeply creamy tahini.
Bigger plates such as Hopkins River beef and roasted Milawa chook are elegantly homely, while a molasses spice cake is a surprisingly light sweet full stop.
Wines lean into the noninterventionist winds without being blown away, with McCormack quick to suggest a splash of something that you might not have tried before, but will want to again. On every level, Congress delivers style and substance in spades.
Congress, Cnr Peel & Wellington sts, Collingwood. congresswine.com.au
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