Prince Dining Room is another great reason to visit St Kilda in 2019
A raft of new openings has given renewed energy to St Kilda, and a revamped Prince Dining Room is yet another reason to visit the area, writes Dan Stock.
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Just like the rivalry with our friends up the Hume that overseas visitors find so bewildering, we’ll never tire of the which-side-of-the-river tribe divide.
But rarely has the Punt Road battle for Melbourne’s dining hearts and minds played out so competitively.
In the left corner, Carlton. A late 2018 surge of new openings heralded red-hot-right-now status with the King & Godfree multistorey wine-dine playground joining new-wave old-school pizza joints Leonardo’s and Capitano; there’s high-end Japanese in Kazuki’s and the strength-to-strength Carlton Wine Room that remains reason alone to visit the area.
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In the right, St Kilda. While Fitzroy St still sports a sad number of For Lease signs, new venues are restoring vim to the seaside dame, with the more-than-just-a-view charms of a revamped Captain Baxter adding to the triumphantly reborn Espy and, now, a reimagined Prince.
Stepping out from its fine-dining shadow – this is the space, as Circa, that cemented some of Melbourne’s most celebrated chefs – the new Prince Dining Room is a casual and comfortable offering that forms stage two of the hotel’s redevelopment under owners Gerry Ryan and son Andrew (a gastropub in the old public bar and cantina space is still to come).
The space – reimagined under the coolly classy eye of Iva Foschia – has doubled in size, with a large feature bar greeting upon arrival, the old private dining room opened up to now put the kitchen on show at the back, with banquette seating snaking through the centre of the gleamingly bright Art Deco-boned main room.
A couple of Rennie Ellis photographs nod to nostalgia, while the tables inset with stone swirling with striated colour are simply stunning. The branding across the venue is quirky, adding an element of fun to the still luxe surrounds of the hotel.
And while the two Dans in the kitchen (exec chef Dan Hawkins and day-to-day head Dan Cooper) talk all the trends – sustainable, low-waste, seasonal, traceable happy produce – they back it up with a well-priced menu that is properly sharable strongly weighted to the plant kingdom.
You could easily make a meal without touching the flatbread covered in whispers of fiocco (a prosciutto-like salumi), or skewers of calamari kissed by coals, or, indeed, the generous tagine of lamb shoulder - but we didn’t.
The flatbread is seriously good, chewy and charry with an airy, bubbly crust, the salty-sweet salumi joined by dots of fresh mozzarella and purple and green basil for a great opening act or, as one of three versions offered, providing reason alone to lunch ($18).
Whole calamari comes threaded on skewers, and while black garlic lends a disconcerting visceral darkness to the garlic-dense “pil pil” sauce, the flavours are good, the calamari terrifically tender ($18).
Earlier, a fava bean hummus that needed salt comes topped with fried chickpeas and is a quick-to-hit start ($6) that you’ll want the fluffy, nigella seed-topped pita to use to scoop and smear ($6), while excellent burrata from Thomastown’s That’s Amore is served with preserved tomatoes and fine slivers of pickled lime that are powerfully bright ($14). Call for more pita from staff that get the casual/sharp service brief, and probably another glass of Preece rose from the Ryans’ Nagambie winery while you’re at it.
Vertical integration of the value-driven Preece wines joins Circa’s cellar to create a tight list that covers both the $10 glass (Preece rose) and $1500 bottle (91 Hill of Grace), with a Victorian focus augmented by Euro interest – a Slovenian pinot gris, for instance, or a Portuguese vinho verde.
That lamb tagine, generous of meat and sticky with plump prunes, is served with smoked yoghurt and a minty, grain-driven tabouli. This makes a full meal for at least two ($70) so you won’t need to add any veg to the side – though you’ll want to.
A fabulously sunny plate of nectarines grilled to bring out their sweetness are served with peppery mustard leaf, juicy sharp radish and manchego, the slightly nutty Spanish cheese, for a plate of summer loving ($12).
Equally vibrant, a rainbow of roasted beetroots is teamed with segments of pink-tinged cara cara orange with aniseed adding a cool breeze ($14), while a powerful prawn butter is the alluring if divisive seasoning to a charred red cabbage quarter that is served under a handful of spiced nuts ($12).
Leave at least some space for sweets, as desserts are a surprise hit. An individual baked cheesecake topped with roasted peaches and ginger snap crumb is a deft delight ($15); mango many ways – charred, fresh, ice cream – with sugared pistachio and bursts of finger lime is a multi-textured seasonal stunner ($12).
While we’ll never agree on which side of the river is best, both now have a reason to pay the ferryman. And the new Prince provides a very good reason to cross the divide.
PRINCE DINING ROOM
2 Acland St, St Kilda
ON LINE: theprince.com.au
Ph: 95361122
HOURS: Daily from 7am
GO-TO DISH: Fiocco flatbread
SCORE: 14/20
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