Innovative diner Sunda on Punch Lane mixes Australian ingredients and southeast Asian dishes

THIS trendy Melbourne eatery is taking fusion dining to the next level by combining native Aussie ingredients with southeast Asian dishes. Dan Stock puts Sunda’s Vegemite curry roti — and more — to the test.

YOU can tell a lot about a restaurant by how the kitchen communicates dishes are ready to be picked up by waiters.

In one corner, you have the bell-banger who’s oblivious to anything other his need to get plates off the pass, paying no heed to the conversation-jolting, nerve-jangling effect the air-piercing angry ring across the restaurant has on diners.

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In the other, you have a simple, single hand clap. It’s a small gesture that speaks volumes about where diners sit in the equation. Let’s just say only one has our interests at heart.

That there’s patently a diner-first focus at Sunda perhaps shouldn’t be such a surprise, given the Halim family, current custodians of The Windsor, are behind this venture, and a couple of spot-on hospo pros are running the show.

But Sunda is as far removed from the fusty, faded glamour of raised pinky afternoon teas as you can get.

The industrial chic surrounds of Sunda in Punch Lane.

A crispy pie tee at Sunda.

The restaurant was built off-site and eased into what was a tiny car park between Longrain and Punch Lane newcomer Bar Saracen. It’s a cube of concrete, steel and glass that takes industrial chic to almost absurd levels. Think building site, in restaurant form. So far, so “conceptual”.

And I was, ahem, wary upon hearing young chef Khanh Nguyen’s menu melded Indonesian, Malaysian and Vietnamese cuisine with indigenous Australian ingredients. Cue nightmares of saltbush pho with lemon myrtle kangaroo, or nasi goreng with sea succulents and foraged kill-me-now.

But after the first bite of the bonkers/brilliant curry roti served with the best native ingredient of all — Vegemite — I surrendered completely to chef’s vision, for there’s some 20/20 cooking going on in the serenely calm kitchen by the black T-shirted, grey-aproned team.

The roti, shredded so each shard is pan-toasted crunchy, has so much buttery goodness it’s almost like eating shortbread, while the dark, yeasty cultured butter alongside comes with a dimple filled with curry oil that tastes like a postcard from Jalan Alor — smoky and cardamom bright with a sweaty, humid heat.

Vegemite and curry with roti, say what? But don’t knock this knockout dish until you try it.

XO egg noodles with chicken crackling and pepperberry packs a punch.

Add salty depth from our national treasure and you have a knockout ($10). They tend to run out, so order early.

It’s not so much fusion but inclusion, the chef making the most of his time spent in impressive Sydney kitchens, including Mr Wong and Red Lantern, and picked up a thing or two about restraint during NOMA’s Sydney sojourn, as there’s nothing “native” here used without purpose.

Tasmanian pepper berry, for instance, brings fragrant, lingering heat to a bowl of egg noodles, wok-tossed through punchy XO, a giant’s handful of salty-crunchy chicken crackling adding clever decadence to the dish. ($17).

Or finger lime used to subtly season and cut through an interpretation of otak-otak, traditionally an Indonesian fish cake grilled in banana leaf. Here, instead, a chilled rectangle of spanner crab mousse heady with brown meat comes topped with flakes of sweet claw and the finest slivers of fresh chilli, along with those pretty citrus pearls.

An instant classic: beef rendang bun with fermented sambal, pickled radish

Excellent puffed white rice crackers are the plate-to-mouth vehicle for the mousse that was marred slightly by being served too wet/underset ($26).

Sometimes it’s just a classic dish rendered in snack form, such as Wagyu beef rendang served in a sweet bun, like a meat doughnut of the highest order. A swipe through the fermented chilli sambal before and a mouthful of pickled radish after, and you have an instant classic ($9 each).

Andaliman pepper — Sichuan’s kissing cousin — adds tingly personality to a half dozen fat scallops dressed and cured ever-so-slightly in calamansi, a sour lime-like citrus.

Wrap the shellfish and salted cucumber in blistered betel leaf for sharp, creamy delight ($21), where a $10 glass of crisp, bright Naked Run Clare riesling is the perfect accompaniment.

Brad Hammond (Hotel Windsor, Mister Jennings) has created a tight four-dozen-deep list of smaller producers that leans into the skin contact/noninterventionist wind without getting blown away. Mark-ups are fair.

The Bika ambon dessert is Indonesia via Queensland that’s at home in Melboure

In fact, the whole package delivers real bang-for-buck and, at $36, the lamb rump is a bullseye plate not to be missed.

Extraordinarily tender slices of meat come on a thick pond of cashew cream, a “native curry” sauce adding a summer bushwalk to the scattering of crunchy saltbush leaves atop. It’s as deftly clever and delicious a rendition of lamb as I can recall.

And to tie the meal up with a ribbon don’t miss the bika ambon, a yeasty coconut cake served here with banana custard, pandan ice cream and crushed macadamia ($16).

Indonesia via Queensland that’s perfectly at home here in Melbourne, just like the kitchen I too clap my hands. Sunda deserves a round of applause.

Sunda

Rating: 15/20

18 Punch Lane, Melbourne CBD

Ph: 9654 8190

Open: Tues-Sat dinner; Fri lunch

Go-to-dish: Vegemite curry roti

sunda.com.au