Elchi Melbourne restaurant review: Great value Indian eatery that’s replaced Press Club

This mind-blowingly good samosa is just one reason you should make visiting Elchi — a mod-Indian eatery in the old Press Club site — a priority.

You’d expect the samosas at Elchi to be pretty straightforward.

Crisp pastry bundling slightly firm, spiced vegetables, alongside a lip-tingling hot sauce.

But when the puzzling creation lands at our table, it’s almost as if you can see executive chef Manpreet Sekhon rubbing her hands with glee.

This is surprisingly different.

A circular pastry cuff stands upright on the plate with a smattering of chaat masala-spiced potato cubes, splotches of green pea puree and racy red tomato chutney beneath.

The Indian-born chef isn’t afraid to colour outside the lines at her first restaurant in the big smoke.

Sekhon was born in East India before moving to the Ludhiana province of Punjab in the north.

Would you believe this is a samosa?

After graduating from cooking school, she worked at Maharaja Regency and five-star hotel Park Plaza before moving to Australia in 2006, spending most of her time in Geelong.

Eight years ago she opened her first restaurant, Eastern Spice, near the waterfront, focusing on traditional northern Indian cuisine.

In mid-2020, she set up veg-leaning Masti in Fitzroy and within a matter of months, she was signing the lease on George Calombaris’s old Press Club site for her new place.

Elchi, which translates to ambassador or talented, doesn’t take itself too seriously but there’s an air of sophistication to the place, largely from the walls in which it lives.

Those trademark Press Club clamshell banquettes (now a little tired), gold-trim fittings, peek-hole window into the kitchen and mirror-plastered walls still remain, as does the gold-framed back bar, which swaps ouzo for glass spice jars.

I was a little bummed to see the 60-seater had remained untouched since those Press Club (or even Elektra) days. But once you give way to Elchi’s charm, you realise the cuisine and space is like teaming a white tee with jeans – it just works.

Gunpowder gobhi.

Unlike Eastern Spice and Masti, Elchi is more refined – it’s elevated casual, fun yet finessed. Perhaps the wooden letter board hung in the dining room explains it best: “Bold yet feminine, sleek yet alluring, timeless.”

Sekhon steps up her kitchen game with the opportunity, adding more ingenuity, creative flair and, dare I say, spice, into her breadth.

Go with what you know or be baited by livelier expressions – a 24-carat chicken mussalam adorned with gold leaves, or crisp whole amritsari fish which plates a deep-fried fish head and tail and fills out the tummy with golden crumbed fish pakora.

Gunpowder gobhi coats crisp fried cauliflower and broccoli florets in a sticky, sweet and spicy lacquer which strikes a balance between offensively hot and get-in-my-mouth delicious. More please.

Two shelled king prawns splayed on a pool of lemongrass and chilli fall a little flat, perhaps outweighed by the intensity of flavours of the other dishes we had, particularly the lamb shank.

A meaty club is coated in an insanely good gravy, influced by ancient Indian and Persian cooking styles of the Mughal era.

She slow cooks the shank over dum (pastry sealed pot) for many hours until the meat is tender.

Elchi has fun with modern Indian cuisine.

The paratha malabar (a coiled roti-like pastry) is used for the mop-up.

And the best part? It’s value for money, with most mains $30 each.

Sekhon is a jack of all trades – she’s the sole owner, executive chef and even played a hand in the drinks selection, curated after boozy tasting nights with staff.

The cocktails are clever, some better than others, with the Sassy Lassy – of mango yoghurt and coconut rum – bizarrely marrying two things that were never going to work: alcohol and yoghurt.

However, I applaud the choice of giving small-scale wineries a run, namely Indian-owned Avani Wines and Tokar Estate on the Mornington Peninsula.

How best to describe Elchi?

Perhaps I’ll add my own phrase to that board: Great value, unexpectedly different delicious food, and a whole heap of fun.

Elchi has opened at the former Press Club site.

ELCHI

72 Flinders St, Melbourne

elchirestaurant.com.au

Open: Wed-Sun: 12pm-3pm, 5pm-10.30pm

Go to dish: Samosa

Try this if you like: Daughter in Law

COST: Snacks ($4.50-$20), Mains: ($22-$32) Dessert: ($6-$20)

RATING: 7/10