Pretty Little in Balaclava throwing a dinner party every night

Communal table — the thought of one is enough to make most people want to stay home. But there’s one Melbourne restaurant where the food and wine is good enough to make you forget you’re sitting next to a stranger, writes Dan Stock.

The swordfish with purple broccoli is the must eat dish of Pretty Little. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Communal table.

Two little words that on their own are innocuous enough but put them together? They’ll either have you in cold dread with the horror of forced bonhomie and fatuous bores or rejoicing in the promise of distraction from a dinner that’s descended into silence long before dessert.

The idea of bringing people around a laden table, however, is a uniquely hospitable one; the appeal of the perfect dinner party universal.

Just four months old and Pretty Little is arguably throwing the best dinner party in town. Well, certainly Balaclava.

This diminutive diner offers cosy communal seating for just 16 along a large single oak table that runs the length of the room where, after a bottle of Heathcote shiraz you might just find your next door neighbours turning into your new best friends.

That’s due in no small part to co-owner Mike Byard who does a heroic number of laps of the room pouring worldly drops from the wall of wine and ferrying plates and making sure everyone’s having a damn good time.

The house pickles on sheep’s yoghurt. Picture: Nicki Connolly

And this Thursday night that’s exactly what this pan-generational mix of locals from St Kilda’s cooler cousin are having thanks to a soundtrack of jazz fusion tunes and modern plates from the open kitchen at the end of the long table.

Spaniard Joseph Espuga counts a bit of time spent at Michelin-starred Mugaritz in his homeland on his CV but was most recently head chef down at South Wharf’s Bohemian. Here, he’s turning out a daily changing menu of worldly, creative, wine and share-friendly fare.

Terrific housemade pickles are an obvious place to start, a plate of properly sharp veg that includes skin-on Jerusalem artichoke quarters, crunchy radish halves and onion petals on a cloud of sheep’s yoghurt that teams cream with bite. A sprinkling of fennel pollen finishes this $8 dish with cheffy flair.

More primal pleasures are found in whipped chicken mousse that comes studded with potato crisps and chicken skin to scoop, crunch and swoon. It’s a dip of decadence at its artery-clogging best ($18).

The chicken mousse and skin with crisps. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Like Mike, Joseph is also on plate-ferrying duties and up for a chat which lends a relaxed air to the evening — he’s certainly no harried host.

The mud crab, he explains, was flown in from Darwin that morning and he spent the afternoon picking its carapace and claws clean of its meat. He then boiled the shell with lemongrass and ginger to create a broth in which he cooked pearl barley soft.

Capturing the humid, heady South East Asian scents of the Territory’s Saturday morning Parap Markets, the sweet meat, the nutty barley and a confit yolk for added creaminess combine into a delightful dish ($19).

The sweet potato is simple and delicious. Picture: Nicki Connolly

But the plate that best showcases Joseph’s unique creativity in the kitchen is a one-two take on swordfish that hopefully he’ll have on the menu on repeat.

He takes belly of the fish cured in licorice, sugar, salt and pepper and then wraps the loin in it, painting the lot in a glaze of its honeyed bones. Subtly sweet and soft, the meaty fish comes with a carrot caramel made from peels boiled into sticky submission with star anise and vinegar, and pile of raw purple broccoli, its leaves and florets and curls of stems the perfectly crunchy accompaniment to the rich meat ($38).

It’s one of two larger plates, the other is a completely satisfying roasted lamb neck on a creamy celeriac puree. With so many delicious oven-gnarly bits the lamb is bettered only by the medley of broad beans in which all parts of the plant are used. A few bits of torn fresh mint completes a take on Sunday roast that’s 100 per cent 2019 ($34).

The long communal table at Pretty Little. Picture: Nicki Connolly

A plate of confit sweet potato topped with bottarga (cured mullet roe) offers simple sweet-salty pleasures ($17). The use of fennel fronds to garnish almost every dish this night is a minor criticism in the scheme of things, for this is otherwise terrifically inventive, unique cooking at a keen price.

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Mike opens a few bottles from that wall of wine each night to pour by the glass — tonight’s all Oz selection includes a terrific skin contact pinot gris from the Yarra Valley’s Airlie Bank ($14) and a juicy grenache from SC Panel in the McLaren Vale ($17) — though you’ll probably have more fun sharing a bottle.

So don’t let the thought of eating with strangers put you off (if you only have eyes for your companion the table is large enough to discretely ignore your neighbours) for Pretty Little is a pretty excellent dinner party that’s big on all the good things in life.

PRETTY LITTLE

296 Carlisle St, Balaclava

9525 8730

prettylittle.com.au

Open: Tues-Sat dinner (drinks from 3pm)

Must-eat dish: Cured swordfish

Score: 14.5/20