Review: East at Mt Martha is a stylish celebration of dining trends
WITHIN a perfectly pretty peninsula dining room you’ll find a celebration of every recent dining trend, writes Dan Stock
Melbourne
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THERE’S artfully weathered basket light pendants, and exposed bulbs dangling from extended cords.
There’s a forest of blonde wood upon brushed concrete, all flooded with floor-to-ceiling windowed light, through which an expanse of sky and a hint of the equally blue bay beyond the coastal scrub can be spied.
So far, so beachy so chic.
Perfectly peninsula; it’s comfortably reassuring, filled with benign good taste.
But then, a snack that hits the culinary trend quaddie — there’s freezing (liquid nitrogen), native ingredients (saltbush) and posh pig (guanciale) transforming a low-rent ingredient (popcorn) into something anything but.
This is chef Michael Demagistris’s year-old beachside restaurant, and at East he’s serving up food that’s rather more exciting and city-centric than the soundly sandy surrounds might at first give away.
That popcorn is as fun as it’s demolishable ($10).
Cold, crunchy caramel-covered nuggets with sweetness tempered by a good whack of chilli; those shards of guanciale (cured jowl) and saltbush leaves add salt with personality.
It’s a snack both fun and delicious and, with a hyper-local lager from Mornington Brewery poured into an icy glass fresh from the fridge, there are few better places to be than East’s veranda taking in the sun.
And that’s what many are doing this Saturday lunch, where we’re offered a truncated carte of snacks and plates mid and large.
Come nightfall, along with the full complement of dishes there’s a seven-course tasting menu, and seems clear dinner is where Michael’s real efforts lie, for how else to explain cheap paper napkins during the day that transform into linen at night?
It’s just one of the NQR niggles that mar an experience that could be, with a few tweaks, great.
I mean, full props for baking his own bread — but putting it on the menu for $10? No thanks.
Much better to order the wagyu bresaola ($25), for it comes with that bread and is one of the more elegant executions of the cured meat and curd tag-team I’ve seen for some time.
The slivers of deep ruby meat flecked with white ribbons are cut through with slices of sweet bullhorn peppers, daubs of sharp goat’s curd and dots of horseradish cream. Served on a stone alongside, two fennel-flavoured rolls and a quenelle of smoked butter make for a DIY lunch that’s a surprising delight.
Another good snack — also served on stone — are three arancini, a roasted pumpkin mix amped with sharp blue cheese bite with a slice of preserved lemon atop adding subtle citrus in a quietly refined touch ($10).
In fact, almost all of what we tried was in equal parts elegant and generous, showing the type of smarts that propelled Michael to one of the last four standing in the MasterChef Professionals a few years back.
The barramundi, for instance, with its crisp-skinned crown and still-firm flesh, highlights a steady hand on the pans, while the sharp tom yum sauce it’s served with is a model of equal poise.
A few sea succulents and a squiggle of lemon gel (more on-trend nods) complete a plate that’s creative and classy ($36).
Even better, a piece of pork belly ($36) that had good crunch and just enough creamy fat to keep the sharp heat in the kimchi atop earning its keep.
Slices of apple and a rice cracker finish another lovely dish.
A half head of cauliflower ($18), roasted in the oven, then topped with a middle eastern mash up of pomegranate, slivered almonds, and preserved lemons, is another admirably unique take on this year’s hottest veg — though too big for a side and too unidimensional for a stand-alone dish, it’s an idea that needs refinement.
So too a medley of tomatoes (heirloom, of course) that, while the buffalo mozzarella served with was good, the mound of whey snow atop rendered the dish too cold to be enjoyable ($16).
The short, accessibly priced Aus wine list features a few familiar peninsula producers (but could do with a keener focus), and though glasses aren’t poured at the table, it’s one of the lesser crimes against service this lunch, where plates went uncleared, glasses unfilled, and an empty water jug stood sentry for much of the meal.
Offering us dessert was less important than setting tables for dinner (better swap those napkins), but I’m glad we preserved, as both the glossy sheened orb of orange cake, with buttermilk ice cream and walnut crumble and a rather brilliant take on lemon meringue, all sticky torched meringue and a sorrel-lemon granita spooned tableside, are hands down winners (both $14).
It’s cooking clever and accomplished but, with Michael spending his time in the kitchen, needs a strong guiding hand out the front to fully realise his vision of fine beachside dining.
With a bit of direction, East could be great.
EAST
RATING: 14/20
ADDRESS: 464 Esplanade, Mt Martha
PH: 5974 4443
eastdining.com.au
OPEN: Wed-Sat noon-late; Sun noon-3pm.
GO-TO DISH: nitro popcorn
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