Review: Grounds of Arcadia at Hellenic Museum offers great Greek lunching

The Hellenic Museum is one of Melbourne’s hidden gems offering art and respite and now great Greek food for mere mortals in the grounds of the gods.

She looks into the River Styx, her golden wings arching into the darkness that is this world, while seeking solace in the inky depths of the underworld underneath.

Melbourne artist Sam Jink’s lifelike sculpture of Iris, goddess of the rainbow who could commune between gods and mortals in Greek mythology, is an arresting meditation on myth and memory and is a gem in the collection of the Hellenic Museum. But the jewel in the crown is undoubtedly the Bill Henson commission, ONEIROI.

In a darkened room Henson’s images of a model wearing treasures from the Benaki Museum in Athens — earrings from the 250BCE; a gold myrtle wreath from the 4th century BCE among the many — shot in his shadowy, ethereal manner are shown in tandem with landscapes equally otherworldly.

The cube dining room in the grounds of the Hellenic Museum. Pictures: Rebecca Michael.

Grandly housed in the former Royal Mint, the museum is one of the city’s hidden gems — the Henson room offering a moment’s refined respite from the bustle of this bewigged end of town.

But, worthy though the art certainly is, there’s an even better reason to visit the museum now that Grounds of Arcadia has opened.

Housed in the verdant, hedged courtyard out the back, the steel-and-glass cube of a restaurant is, too, a hidden gem that out-of-robes judges lunching on spanakopita and slow-roasted lamb and another bottle of agiorgitiko have largely to themselves.

When Melbourne turns on spring, I can picture the sunny lawn filled with afternoon $8 Mythos beers, the cube’s walls opened up to the breeze, but inside is a perfectly pleasant, if a little austere, space to be on this cool, cloudy day. Black bentwood chairs surround marble-topped tables set sparsely with functional cutlery, waterglasses and flimsy paper napkins but also terrific olives that are firm, meaty, delicious.

Meze with the most: spanakopita

The menu pays suitable homage to all the hits you’d expect to find at a museum dedicated to the art and artefacts of Hellenic history — dips and halloumi to start, lamb and feta chips to follow, galaktoboureko with mud-thick Greek coffee to finish — though plated with a modern eye.

Oil-brushed, grill warm pita flecked with oregano and sprinkled with salt is on scoop-and-scoff duties for taramasalata that’s pretty shy on living up to its proper cod roe-fishy nature. With a few salmon pearls and sea succulents atop that nod to today, it’s good, though not George Calombaris great ($10).

Four tiles of pan-tanned haloumi are teamed with a colourful medley of tiny tomatoes that, while nothing on summer’s stunners, still add welcome bursts of acid to the very tender, very tasty, cheese.

A fig and raisin molasses is on hand to drizzle dried fruit sweetness across the lot ($15), but the spanakopita here is the meze with the most.

Perfect for a spring lunch in the sun: seafood-laden kritharaki

Individually baked in a cast iron pan, spinach and beet leaves layered with loads of feta create a wet, salty filling that’s topped with a couple of sheets of filo baked golden and crunchy ($15). It’s memorable and delicious alongside a juicy white made from grapes (moshofilero, malagousia) that highlight Greek wine is so much more than retsina. This $10 glass of White Dot from Peloponnese winery Strofila is one of two whites and three reds offered by the $10-$14 glass, with the short, all-Greek list offering a couple more by bottle. A few equally on-theme cocktails made from Greek spirits rounds out the concise but considered list.

Tarama with pita is good, but not George Calombaris great.

There’s a wood oven turning out proteins including terrific lamb loin cooked on the bone, its oregano/rosemary sprinkled crust giving way to juicy pink meat crowned with a line of creamy fat ($24/$46). With a little Greek salad on the side, it’s definitely the pick over the roast chicken ($22/$38).

Slow roasted lamb loin is given both the wood oven and Greek treatment

Krithiaki is a Greek pasta dish made with orzo (the Italians call it risoni) and is another surprising hit of this lunch.

The long, rice-shaped pasta is cooked with tomatoes, loads of garlic and a whack of chilli that delivers bitey heat to the small mussels and fat prawns tossed through. It’s a generous dish made for spring lunching in the sun ($24).

Quietly proud service is engagingly friendly and it wouldn’t take much to elevate it from cafe level to dining experience.

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Galaktoboureko — custard-filled filo — comes with a choc-candied orange wheel and peel and provides an elegantly sweet, if ever-so-slightly eggy, finale ($12).

So come for lunch, stay for the art. It might not be Utopia, but for a couple of hours’ city respite, these hidden Grounds of Arcadia are a real haven.

GROUNDS OF ARCADIA

280 William Street, Melbourne

groundsofarcadia.com.au

Ph: 9642 1889

Open: Tues.-Fri., 11:30am till 4pm