Prince Dining Room review 2023: Kara Monssen visits St Kilda icon
This iconic St Kilda restaurant has worn many hats— but none as glamorous as its new dining era.
Food
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The disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Michael Schumacher’s health and why that part of St Kilda’s Fitzroy St gives us the ick remain as some of life’s greatest mysteries.
Another is why the Prince Dining Room is always … well … quiet.
Not the wine bar or heaving street-level bistro, I’m talking about the upstairs Art Deco glamourpuss and former home of award-winning Circa restaurant.
For a space groovin’ with Grecian white walls, curved banquettes and purring softly with early 2000s house, it’s surprisingly desolate.
A sheer coincidence, surely.
I have eaten here several times: Saturday lunches, dinners, after-work drinks and it’s always the same.
A trend noticed higher up the ranks, too, which explains why owners Gerry and Andy Ryan are reverting the restaurant (almost) back to its superchef Circa era.
Dan Cooper is stepping up in the executive chef role after two and a bit years.
He worked closely with outgoing exec Dan Hawkins in the same kitchen pre-pandemic.
While the Circa years were before my time as a critic, I can say the food and wine has accelerated in the years I have been eating at The Prince. There’s more choice, X-factor and … tarts.
Playing to the fruits of the season, Cooper has a crack at three.
The first is a buttersnap crisp tartlet pebbled with fresh green peas, goat’s curd, and on this visit, raw tuna ($12), making a neat snack – even if it needs more horseradish heat.
We made an early strategic call to skip the daily dessert tart ($16, tonight it’s a classic lemon curd) to try Cooper’s pine nut whip creation earlier in the piece.
A seasonal switch-up replaces the kaleidoscopic heirlooms we dined out on with pine mushrooms on a luscious filling ($28). There’s a lot of it, and it overwhelmed our toms, but is delicious.
By contrast, Cooper’s sea bream tartare ($31) beams flavour.
The fish, raw and firm, lazes in a green herb oil pool with dried chilli flakes giving it an almighty punch, along with cooling apple cucumber and nori mayo. It’s wonderful, made even better with our waiter’s suggestion of a Clare Valley riesling — all lime without the squint. But, really, you could blindly point at anything on the list, built by veteran sommelier Laurent Rospars, and feel confident in your wine choice.
Another smart investment is the sunny pumpkin bread ($5): two shiny buns – all fluffy, warm and smoke kissed – worth slathering in butter or for soaking up the delicious juices of those roasted beetroot ($32).
Smouldering from its time over coals, there’s depth and sweetness and a wicked hazelnut crunch that’ll have you singing praises to the veg gods above.
I preferred this to the lamb ($50), while juicy and fatty, I prefer what Cooper’s doing with veg and seafood.
Prince Dining Room has worn many hats, though I’m vibing its post-lockdown look; understated, stylish and well-built.
They say ‘be the change you like to see in the world’, and here’s hoping this new era is a sign of things to come for the strip.
Quiet? Not for long.
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